SECRET CINEMA - THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1966 - Cert 15)

It's that time again. My addiction to the Secret Cinema means I can't stop myself from booking tickets for the next one. It really is FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out. Despite the last selection (The Red Shoes) not being the best film in the world and feeling like an odd choice, there was no doubting that the show and spectacle that was created, 1940's Covent Garden, was worth the admission alone. It's become huge, this offering spanning 3 weeks with two 'performances' on weekend days. I couldn't get a ticket for an evening performance, the tickets had gone like hot cakes, so I had to make do with a Saturday afternoon matinee.

So, slightly self conscious dressed in late 1950's, early 1960's European attire, I made my way to Waterloo to meet under the arches. Then I was transported to French-occupied Algeria in the 1960's, souks are there, native cuisine is served, French soldiers with guns roam the streets, there's a European quarter, an area inhabited by Arabs. It's an incredible spectacle and although not as grand as The Red Shoes, or as atmospheric and fitting as One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, it was still quite something.



All of this effort was for a film that I had heard a lot about, but had never seen. The Battle Of Algiers, the Gillo Pontecorvo film from 1966, looks at the battle for Independence from Algerian terrorists as they try to fight back against the French colonists.

I don't think the organisers could have chosen a better film to show at this time. The echoes of the current War on Terror are obvious, especially with the recent death of Osama Bin Laden. This is a film that could be made now about now. It may feel slightly dated in black and white with it's at times odd pacing but those are small gripes as it still feels hugely of the present day. The themes of occupancy, revenge, torture and retribution are still being argued about today it's because of this that the film still packs the punch that it does. The images of the death and violence caused by the terrorism are haunting, they are similar to those that we see on the news every day. Disasters are played out on news channels all the time but it doesn't detract from the haunting images seen on screen in this film. There is nothing dated about this aspect of the film, as affecting and disturbing as anything that can be seen today. There is a superb and distressing montage showing 'interrogation' techniques that include torture devices that we still see in shows like 24. The terrorists used improvised devices left to kill innocent civilians. I'll say it again, this could be a film about current times. It's incredible to see it.

What makes the film even more interesting is that it follows the terrorists, Brahim Hadjadj's Ali La Pointe in particular, rather than the authorities. We sympathise with them, rather than them being presented as evil faceless boogie men. The baddies is instead the French army, personified by Colonel Mathieu played by Jean Martin. Although he is clearly not the hero of the piece, the film still elicits sympathy towards him, greying the moral compass of the film, leaving it up to the viewer to an extent.

Both of those central performances are very good, particularly when you consider that Hadjadj wasn't even an actor. He is moody, introverted and driven, determined in his beliefs. Martin's achievement is that we still feel a degree of connection to his Colonel despite him being the villain of the piece.

The film is constantly driven along by a score (by Ennio Morricone) that is at times classically old-fashioned but at others modern and industrial and builds to an unexpected and uplifting climax that will linger long in the memory. It's not often that you can say that something is timeless, but this truly is, and it will continue to be so as long as the world remains in the state it is in today.

Well done Secret Cinema once again for taking me on a journey into a film and opening my eyes to something that may have passed me by.....

Next time perhaps a warning that it's a subtitled film so that certain people can take their glasses and read the subtitles....