In previous episodes, we’ve dealt with political stories. Most of them involved spies of some kind, or they involved fictional characters overlaid on real-life scenarios.
This time around we have two stories based on real-life events, though there’s a “but” in there. We’ll get to that in a minute. In this episode we’re looking at a pair of political thrillers. We start with The Battle of Algiers, which is from 1966 (though it had several release dates). Now, you hear a title like that and you say, “Oh, war movie.” But the war in this case is taking place in the streets of Algiers, and it involves the events of 1954 through 1957. During that time the French government was fighting off guerilla insurgency. Things are largely stalemated–with incremental escalation the entire time–until the French army moves in. You’ll find yourself unable to figure out who you’re supposed to root for.
From there we move to 1969 and the film Z (or Zed, if you prefer), directed by Costa-Gavras. This is a thinly-fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of democratic Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963. We get to see both sides of the dispute in this case, and again it’s tough to tell who the good guys and the bad guys are. It’s a gripping film whose ending is about as cynical as they come. Too bad it’s pretty much what happened.
COMING ATTRACTIONS:
Episode 81 will be the first of three episodes where we look at films which are made in a very specific style. Perhaps it’s homage to a director, perhaps it’s unconscious imitation. Find out with us as we review 1981’s Diva, directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix. From there we move to 2006 and Tell No One, directed by Guillaume Canet, both of which appear to be shot in the style of Alfred Hitchcock. Join us, won’t you?
