Le petit soldat

Before his convention-shattering debut, Breathless, had even premiered, Jean-Luc Godard leapt into the making of his second feature, a thriller that would tackle the most controversial subject in France: the use of torture in the Algerian War. Despite his lack of political convictions, photojournalist Bruno Forestier (Michel Subor) is roped into a paramilitary group waging a shadow war in Geneva against the Algerian independence movement. Anna Karina (in her first collaboration with Godard, whose camera is visibly besotted with her) is beguiling as the mysterious woman with whom Forestier becomes infatuated. Banned for two and a half years by French censors for its depiction of brutal tactics on the part of the French government and the Algerian fighters alike, Le petit soldat finds the young Godard already retooling cinema as a vehicle for existential inquiry, political argument, and ephemeral portraiture—in other words, as a medium for delivering “truth twenty-four times per second.”

France
1963
88 minutes
Black & White
1.33:1
French
Spine #1010

Special Features

High-definition digital restoration, approved by cinematographer Raoul Coutard, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Interview with director Jean-Luc Godard from 1965
Interview with actor Michel Subor from 1963
Audio interview with Godard from 1961
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by critic Nicholas Elliott

New cover by F. Ron Miller

Blu‑ray 1 Disc $31.96 SRP: $39.95

DVD 1 Disc $23.96 SRP: $29.95

Special Features

High-definition digital restoration, approved by cinematographer Raoul Coutard, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Interview with director Jean-Luc Godard from 1965
Interview with actor Michel Subor from 1963
Audio interview with Godard from 1961
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by critic Nicholas Elliott

New cover by F. Ron Miller

Cast & Credits

Cast

Michel Subor: Bruno Forestier
Anna Karina: Veronica Dreyer
Henri-Jacques Huet: Jacques
Paul Beauvais: Paul
Georges de Beauregard: Activist leader
László Szabó: Laszlo
Jean-Luc Godard: Man at the railway station

Credits

Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Producer: Georges de Beauregard
Screenplay: Jean-Luc Godard
Director of photography: Raoul Coutard
Editor: Agnès Guillemot
Editor: Lila Herman
Editor: Nadine Marquand
Editor: Nadine Trintignant
Music: Maurice Leroux

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A scene from Le petit soldat

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Jean-Luc Godard

Writer, Director

A pioneer of the French new wave, Jean-Luc Godard has had an incalculable effect on modern cinema that refuses to wane. Before directing, Godard was an ethnology student and a critic for Cahiers du cinéma, and his approach to filmmaking reflects his interest in how cinematic form intertwines with social reality. His groundbreaking debut feature, Breathless—his first and last mainstream success—is, of course, essential Godard: its strategy of merging high (Mozart) and low (American crime thrillers) culture has been mimicked by generations of filmmakers. As the sixties progressed, Godard’s output became increasingly radical, both aesthetically (A Woman Is a Woman, Contempt, Band of Outsiders) and politically (Masculin féminin, Pierrot le fou), until by 1968 he had forsworn commercial cinema altogether, forming a leftist filmmaking collective (the Dziga Vertov Group) and making such films as Tout va bien. Today Godard remains our greatest lyricist on historical trauma, religion, and the legacy of cinema.