Gillo Pontecorvo

 Gillo Pontecorvo



Kapo (1960)

The Battle of Algiers (1966)




RANKED:


2. Kapo (1960)


Not only was Gillo Pontecorvo's 1960 film "Kapo" one of the first films to show some of the more explicit depictions of concentration camps in narrative fiction, it is far more morally complex than the average Holocaust film. The film centers on a 14-year-old Jewish girl who must conceal her identity over years in a German concentration camp during the Second World War. While a typical Holocaust film would have its heroine be a blistering victim of her scenario, "Kapo'"s young heroine's willingness to adapt in order to survive raises moral uncertainties in a situation that would normally be more black-and-white. Of course, the horrific incidents of the film demand our empathy. However, "Kapo" embraces the complexity of its situation of our it's heroine's vacillating moral decisions. 




1. The Battle of Algiers (1966)


By 1966, the Nouvelle Vague movement had surpassed the Neo-Realist movement in artistic relevance. Of course, the political and social pertinence that Neo-Realism typically carries was a bit more subversive through Nouvelle Vague, not absent. Still, with certain topics, a certain starkness is required. With his 1966 film "The Battle of Algiers," Gillo Pontecorvo reminded the cinematic landscape how vital the neo-realist continues to be. The film centers on a group of Algerian revolutionaries, the FLN, and their attempts to push out the French occupation between 1954 and 1957. Using guerrilla tactics, the FLN was met with equally guerrilla and illegal methods to combat them. Despite the casualties and the capture/execution of its revolutionary leaders, Algeria succeeded in gaining its independence from France. It's use of neo-realism, of course, grants itself a certain authenticity to its accounts. This is undoubtedly important due to the very real circumstances that it depicts. These circumstances are not solely isolated to the French occupation of Algeria, but to countless instances since these events. The film is a timeless piece of art that gets into the nitty-gritty truths about revolution and its endless consequences and ramifications.

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