Ladri di biciclette [The Bicycle Thief], directed by Vittorio de Sica, Italy 1948 — Shot soon after the Second World War, this film deals with the material and moral dilemmas that a man faces in a city racked by unemployment. Beautiful and heartbreaking. You might relate this film to the development of the welfare state.

I'm all right Jack, directed by John Boulting (Great Britain 1959) — A period comedy with Peter Sellers that pokes fun at trade unions and industrialists in Britain. This film also relates to the welfare state.

Le petit soldat [The Little Soldier], directed by Jean-Luc Godard (France 1960) — French New Wave film about the Algerian War, but it takes place in Europe, mainly Switzerland. Portrays a mix of alienation, espionage, counter-espionage, terrorism, and torture.

La Battaglia di Algeri [The Battle of Algiers], directed by Gillo Pontecorvo (Italy 1966) — French and Arabic with English subtitles. Dramatization of the first year of the Algerian War. It includes urban guerilla warfare, women combatants, civilian casualties, and torture.

Masculin, feminin, directed by Jean-Luc Godard (France 1966) — Difficult New Wave film that examines gender relations in Paris in the age of radical Marxist politics, the Vietnam War, Coca Cola, and birth control.

Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum [The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum], directed by Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta (West Germany 1975) — Police and a rumour-mongering press drive a woman to desperation during the wave of terrorism by the Red Army Faction in 1970s West Germany. Based on a novel by Heinrich Böll, The Lost Honor of Katherina Blum: Or How Violence Develops and Where It Can Lead.

Czlowiek z zelaza [Man of Iron], directed by Andrej Wajda (Poland 1981) — Deals with the Solidarity trade union movement in Communist Poland, on the one hand, and the moral compromises one made if one worked in the exclusively state-run media industry.

[originally published on History Survey on 10/1/2007]

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