Algeria, the Jeanson Trial and 'Le Petit Soldat'
CRUICKSHANK, JOHN
Letter from Paris ALGERIA, THE JEANSON TRIAL AND ‘LE PETIT SOLDAT’ By John Cruickshank PARIS THE EARLY PART of September in France is dominated by la rentree —the return to work of the...
...Furthermore, it is surely not “realistic” to suppose that the FLN —numerically and materially the underdog, and without any “lines” behind which it might retire—would risk weakening its hold on the country in order to begin talks whose outcome must be quite uncertain...
...The Algerian war also made its September rentree in the form of the so-called “Jeanson network” trial...
...One might add that events in the Congo during September have not impressed the French with the efficacy of the UN...
...The defense tied the experts in knots, however, and then produced a university teacher who claimed he had written the letter and that it referred not to an FLN agent but to one of his most promising students...
...For one thing, cease-fire negotiations, by definition, begin before the firing ceases...
...Teitgen...
...To these charges Godard and his producer have replied: 1) The torture scenes last for only three-and-a-half minutes in a film one-and-a-half hours long...
...3) A protagonist of the film describes the French action in Algeria as lacking any ideal, whereas the rebel cause is praised and defended...
...He descended from the mountain top and uncovered the tablets of the law at an eagerly awaited press conference...
...However this may be, the film remains part of the September rentree which is inseparable from the Algerian tragedy...
...As to de Gaulle’s other ideas, it is perhaps enough to say that the whole history of Europe refutes the view that treaties between sovereign states are sufficient to produce unity, or even harmony, while any weakening of the UN can only be at the expense of a rise in temperature of the cold war...
...The rentree of the Algerian problem, as de Gaulle propounded it, did little to encourage either the liberal left or the illiberal right...
...Three reasons were officially given for banning the film: 1) The scenes of torture are of a length and nature which make it impossible for them to be shown publicly, even though the torture in question is carried out by the FLN...
...Another witness, Mme...
...With a gift of phrasing which one must admire, but also with a much less admirable mixture of common sense and mystique, he made forthright comments on Algeria, the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization...
...Paris, in particular, regains her poise after a period during...
...His slighting reference to “the so-called United Nations” is inseparable from his contention that Algeria is an internal problem only, though no doubt his criticism was sharpened in tone by the news of a possible union between Tunisia and rebel Algeria (which would make it much more difficult to prevent internationalization of France’s quarrel with the FLN...
...After a week of procedural quarrels and highly undignified incidents, the prosecution called only two witnesses out of its original four...
...Barrat, said: “As a Catholic I know Peguy’s theory about just and unjust wars...
...Among these principles, which do honor to France, are respect for the human person, the right of peoples to determine their own future and even, I think, a certain revolutionary dynamic which belongs particularly to our country...
...This is the trial now before a military court in Paris of six Algerian Moslems and 17 men and women from metropolitan France...
...As Pierre Mendes-France pointed out a day or two later, de Gaulle’s demand that the FLN should first lay down its arms and then negotiate produces a vicious circle...
...which she was inhabited mainly by foreigners while the Parisians themselves took the opportunity to visit relatives in the country or get brown with sunshine and ambre solaire on the Mediterranean coast...
...2) The film analyzes the behavior of an Army deserter at a time when many young Frenchmen are being called upon to serve their country in Algeria...
...Marguerite Duras, Roger Blin, Tanguy-Prigent and Mme...
...Before this question could be settled, however, peaceful negotiations would have to take place—and de Gaulle, referring to the terrorism of the National Liberation Front (FLN), made it clear that “it is impossible to talk politics as long as the knife is still given a voice...
...Hence his reservations concerning NATO...
...On September 13, after a committee had condemned the film by 10 votes to 6, the Minister of Information, Louis Terrenoire, decided to ban its exhibition both in France and abroad...
...Finally, de Gaulle was very forthright in his “realistic...
...plea for a Europe of independent but cooperating governments rather than a Europe integrated, in effect, under American military domination...
...On September 5 President Charles de Gaulle also made his rentree...
...they are no worse than scenes allowed in many spy films, science-fiction films, etc...
...The trial has not been adequately reported by most of the daily press, and two of the weekly papers, L’Express and France-Observateur, were seized by the Government on September 15—the former because it contained a letter from a young soldier about the ethics of desertion, the latter because it carried an interview with Ferhat Abbas and announced a future article which seems likely to be about desertion also...
...Pouteau went on to explain that help for the FLN seemed to her the only positive moral course she could take, particularly since French soldiers were torturing Moslem rebels—according to both a Red Cross report and statements by Minister for Cultural Affairs Andre Malraux...
...These were two handwriting experts who claimed that a possibly incriminating letter found on one of the accused, Helene Cuenat, had been written by another, Jeanine Cahen...
...Then began a series of testimonies, both written and oral, in favor of the defendents, by a long and impressive list of witnesses including some of the best-known names in the literary world, the theater and political life, including Sartre, Roger Vercors, Marcel Ayme, Simone de Beauvoir...
...The final outcome of this affair is still uncertain...
...He therefore insists that the French Government cannot prevent him from showing it abroad...
...Mlle...
...and I am proud to be French...
...The right of Algeria to be Algerian was reaffirmed, but the question to be decided was whether Algeria would be JOHN CRUICKSHANK is Senior Lecturer in French literature at the University of Southampton in England, and the author of the recent study, Albert Camus and the Literature of Revolt...
...The prosecution alleged that all the accused conspired against the security of the state and were active in the FLN “underground” in France by carrying letters, handling funds or harboring FLN agents...
...3) The criticism of France is made by a girl working with the FLN...
...Mlle...
...Letter from Paris ALGERIA, THE JEANSON TRIAL AND ‘LE PETIT SOLDAT’ By John Cruickshank PARIS THE EARLY PART of September in France is dominated by la rentree —the return to work of the holiday-makers, the return to school of the children, the return to their different countries of the majority of tourists, the return to normal of the theaters...
...The problem of the moral issues behind the Algerian war and of the individual’s attitude to military service (a problem which will face the thousands of French students due to be drafted next November) is also the kernel of the film, Le Petit Soldat, recently made by Jean-Luc Codard...
...De Gaulle’s strictures on the UN and NATO were consistent with his attitude to the Algerian problem and his insistence on the sovereignty and “mission” of France...
...to her statement that “France will lose the war through lack of any ideal,” the “petit soldat” replies: “I do not think so...
...As far as one can make out, the film is about a French soldier who deserts to Switzerland, becomes involved with a right-wing counter-terrorist organization of the Red Hand type, is captured and tortured by the FLN and falls in love with a girl working for the Algerian rebels...
...He declared himself willing to submit to a handwriting test, but the prosecution declined this offer and withdrew its witnesses...
...Perhaps the most striking feature of the trial was provided by the statements of some of the accused themselves...
...The French Government, naturally enough, has not encouraged widespread discussion of the moral problems arising from the war—the rights and wrongs of aiding the rebellion, for example, or of desertion from the French Army (one of the defense witnesses, a university professor, said that he would rather his two sons became deserters than that they should turn into torturers...
...But these are no longer the principles that France displays to the people of Algeria...
...Godard claims that Le Petit Soldat was not only made in Switzerland with film bought there, but that he had to obtain a Swiss export licence to take it into France...
...The Algerian war is so contrary to the traditions of France it is not surprising that it should give rise to an examination of conscience by the nation at large...
...Algerian against France or in association and “amicable union” with it...
...Despite the emphasis on common sense, and despite a superficial appearance of logic, de Gaulle’s press conference left one surprised, above all, by its underlying contradictions...
...2) The problem of desertion is not discussed...
...Pouteau, a teacher of English at the Lycee de Neuilly, said: “As a teacher I must not only provide my young pupils with a technique but impress upon them a system of morals and certain principles...
Vol. 43 • October 1960 • No. 39
