Blu-ray, DVD Release: Le Petit Soldat

By
Laurence
– February 5, 2020Find Others: Blu-ray, DVD, Movie, New Release, NewsGet More: , ,

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Jan. 21, 2019
Price: DVD $22.99, Blu-ray $27.99
Studio: Criterion

Before his convention-shattering debut, Breathless, had even premiered, Jean-Luc Godard leapt into the making of his second feature, the 1963 thriller Le Petit Soldad, which tackled France’s 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.

Criterion’s new editions of the French film include the following:

* 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
* An essay by critic Nicholas Elliott

Buy or Rent Le Petit Soldat

Related titles:

  1. New Release: Diabolique Blu-ray and DVD
  2. New Release: Tokyo Drifter DVD and Blu-ray
  3. Blu-ray, DVD Release: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
  4. Blu-ray, DVD Release: The Vanishing (1988)
  5. Blu-ray, DVD Release: Elevator to the Gallows

About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.