Le petit soldat

Jean-Luc Godard

1958, during the war of Algeria, Bruno deserts the army and becomes a refugee in Switzerland. Here he falls in love with Veronica, but an extreme-right-wing party orders him to kill a reporter of the national radio. The mission fails. He gets tortured by the FLN, but escapes.

"A lean and witty piece of politically engaged filmmaking that combines all the drive of a thriller with Godard's own, singular, New Wave aesthetic."
Channel 4

"One seminal aspect of LE PETIT SOLDAT is that it marks the first collaboration between Godard and Karina, whom he would marry shortly after the film completed its principal shoot. Karina, who would rapidly become the New Wave's most iconographic actress, is lovingly photographed throughout by Raoul Coutard, Godard's favoured cinematographer. Echoing the lengthy hotel bedroom sequence between Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in A BOUT DE SOUFFLE, Godard stages the couple's courtship in a high-rise apartment as a series of cerebral-yet-playful dialogues, shot throughout with a freewheeling hand-held camera. Obviously lit by Coutard with far more attention than any of the other actors, Karina is posed repeatedly in close-ups, frequently grooming herself; and, in one climactic scene, she even dances flamboyantly to a blaring Mozart record. In this, Karina's first role for Godard, we do not yet encounter the depth of female subjectivity in VIVRE SA VIE – but it is, nonetheless, abundantly clear that this role was designed as Karina's star-making screen appearance.
Elsewhere, however, LE PETIT SOLDAT is a much more pensive, even lugubrious, film than its predecessor. For after a very cursory opening travelogue introduction to Geneva, the city is soon depicted as a disorienting, even claustrophobic setting for Bruno's mission. Unlike the fast-paced, energetic environment of Paris in A BOUT DE SOUFFLE – which derived in part from Godard's famous use of jump cuts – the cityscape in LE PETIT SOLDAT is jarringly edited together via a series of whip-pans, with the restless camerawork often forcibly yanking our attention from Bruno to the watching figures of the agents in the streets around him. More intrusive still, perhaps, is the role of the soundtrack: whereas Godard's first film featured a light-hearted, up-tempo jazz score, his second is set to Maurice Laroux's deliberately oppressive atonal piano music.
Tim Palmer, Senses of Cinema

Jean-Luc Godard

Born in 1930 in Paris, France. Spent his childhood in Switzerland. Studied Ethnology in Paris. Critic for “Cahiers du Cinéma”. One of the founding members of “Nouvelle Vague”.

2010 FILM SOCIALISME
2004 NOTRE MUSIQUE
2000 ELOGE DE L'AMOUR
1999 THE OLD PLACE
1988-98 HISTOIRE(S) DU CINEMA
1996 FOR EVER MOZART
1995 2 x 50 ANS DE CINEMA FRANÇAIS
1994 JLG/JLG
1993 HELAS POUR MOI
1993 LES ENFANTS JOUENT A LA RUSSIE
1991 ALLEMAGNE NEUF ZERO
1990 NOUVELLE VAGUE
1987 KING LEAR
1987 SOIGNE TA DROITE
1986 DETECTIVE
1985 JE VOUS SALUE MARIE
1983 PRENOM CARMEN
1982 PASSION
1981 LETTRE A FREDDY BUACHE
1980 SAUVE QUI PEUT (LA VIE)
1978 FRANC-TOUR-DETOUR-DEUX ENFANTS
1976 SIX FOIS DEUX
1975 NUMERO DEUX
1975 ICI ET AILLEURS
1971 TOUT VA BIEN
1969 LE VENT D'EST
1967 WEEK-END
1967 ONE PLUS ONE / SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL
1966 MASCULIN - FEMININ (D)
1966 DEUX OU TROIS CHOSES QUE JE SAIS D'ELLE (Livre)
1966 MADE IN USA
1965 ALPHAVILLE
1965 PIERROT LE FOU
1964 BANDE A PART
1964 UNE FEMME MARIEE
1963 LE PETIT SOLDAT
1963 LES CARABINIERS
1963 LE MEPRIS (DIE VERACHTUNG)
1962 VIVRE SA VIE
1961 UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME
1959 HISTOIRE D'EAU
1960 CHARLOTTE ET SON JULES
1959 TOUS LES GARÇONS S'APPELLENT PATRICK
1959 A BOUT DE SOUFFLE (AUSSER ATEM)

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Keywords: godard-cinéma-techniques
khadhraoui 2008-02-03

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Le petit soldat