How to Evaluate a Film’s Historical Reception

Reviews of The Battle of Algiers “Neither objectivity, nor historical honesty, nor the courage to take on political passions that are still burning constitute cinematographic qualities. These are conditions without which it would have been impossible to make the film... These are ‘negative’ qualities, but cinema needs artists and creators.” (Telerama, 25 September 1966) Nothing... looks acted or reconstituted. It not only takes the form of a document but has a document’s impalpable materiality’ (Figaro, 1 June 1970); ‘The naturalness of the characters captured on the spot’ (Canard Enchaıˆne ́, 3 June 1970); ‘Everything rings true’ (La Croix, 2 June 1970). “How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range. Women plant bombs in cafes. Soon the entire Arab population builds to a mad fervor. Sound familiar? The French have a plan. It succeeds tactically, but fails strategically. To understand why, come to a rare showing of this film.'’ (Pentagon flyer, 2003) Liberation: ‘painful resonance of the film at a time of radicalization of a type of Islam’, but the ‘best film ever made about the Algerian war. Because it was the most credible and the fairest’ (4 November 2004). ‘sumptuous black and white [photography] and quasi-documentary realism’ (Telerama, 26 May 2004).

Stuart Hall’s Encoding-Decoding Model: 1. Social context is important 2. Audience response can be on the spectrum from passive to active 3. Encoding as extended by Odin: ‘process of discursive structuring’ – according to Caillé, failed in the case of The Battle of Algiers

Example of decoding: Reception of The Iron Lady (2012) in Russia

Reception varies depending on historical context: The Battle of Algiers (dir. Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966) A history of FLN armed resistance in Algiers and French military’s terrorism in response black-and-white, reenactment of events balanced but anticolonial (director was member of the Communist party) Italian-Algerian production 1966 Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival but panned by French critics 1971 Released in France, lauded by French critics as anticolonial 2004 Shown at Cannes Film Festival, panned again as being open to misappropriation by the Pentagon

Remakes as Reception: Yojimbo (1961) and A Fistful of Dollars (1964) Yojimbo is based on US crime stories by Dashiell Hammett, which formed the basis of the film noir genre (The Maltese Falcon, 1941) And US westerns like John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939) It is set in Japan, but reproduces a common ideal of a lone moral man who restores moral order through violence Remade in Italy by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars (1964), a spaghetti western Created an archetypal character for Clint Eastwood, who went on to direct Unforgiven (1992), a western with a more complex view of American history Back to the Future 3 reimagines Eastwood’s archetype in a sci-fi genre

Cinema verité: Jean Rouch, Chronicle of a Summer (1961) Informal style of documentary filmmaking invented in 1950s and 1960s Influenced by Dziga Vertov and Robert Flaherty Uses live sound recording No voice over Also called direct cinema or observational cinema Can use either fly on the wall method or stylized setups Filmmaker can be unobtrusive or the presence of the filmmaker and camera can be made obvious

Animated Documentary: Waltz with Bashir Uses animation to depict lost/found memory of real events Uses a method akin to rotoscopy where animated people are recognizable Uses titles to introduce “talking heads” But also emphasizes dream, fantasy, and memory sequences Critically acclaimed but also controversial because left out Palestinians