Le Petit Soldat is a 1963 movie directed by Jean-Luc Godard.
WHAT HAPPENS?
During the Algerian War, a member of a right-wing terrorist group falls in love with a member of a left-wing terrorist group.
ONE LINE REVIEW
Le Petit Soldat sees Godard challenge the existential ideals of love and alliance.
THE ACTORS
Michel Subor plays Bruno Forestier, the oft-reluctant Frenchman under the thumb of a right-wing terrorist group. Subor is given an interesting, if not fairly limited role. He’s a suspected double agent unwilling to carry out an assassination. Subor skillfully and briefly shows the nerves of a young man pressed into such a situation – yet the remainder of his character is nondescript, much in the manner of most spies. He is given ample time to expound his political and social views during the movie’s final half hour.
Likewise, this is probably Anna Karina’s most subdued Godard role. The vibrancy of her past characters is replaced with an air of mystery. We’re never sure where her motivations lie – she feels like more of an object than person. Early in the movie, she is photographed by Forestier while asked a series of questions. The scene could represent her own interrogation – either politically or as Forestier’s love interest. Yet even in this sense, her Veronica exists almost as an allusion; Forestier seeks to compare her eyes – a “Vasquez or Renoir grey.”
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