Le Petit Soldat

Le Petit Soldat (The Little Soldier), writer/director Jean-Luc Godard’s second feature film, was made in 1960 but immediately banned in France due to its sensitive political content and did not premiere until 1963. Michel Subor (Beau Travail) stars as Bruno Forestier, an army deserter caught in the middle of a covert war between the French government and the Algerian Liberation Front in Geneva. With both sides resorting to any means to achieve their clandestine ends, Bruno must decide what he is willing to do to escape with Veronica (Anna Karina, star of Band of Outsiders and A Woman Is A Woman, in her enchanting debut) and lead a free life. Arguably an espionage riff on the filmmaker’s own debut feature, Breathless, this is the film where Godard penned his signature statement: “Cinema is truth 24 frames a second.” (Rialto Pictures)