Intimate Enemies (2007)

INTIMATE ENEMIES 2007 This French film from 2007 is one of the better films I've seen about the The French-Algerian War. This conflict started in 1954 and continued till 1962.The French had just lost a war over a colony with the fight for Indo-China. They were determined not to lose another. The Algerian FLN fought a largely guerrilla war from the countryside. The French responded in kind with small unit teams combing the country. The war was known to be quite brutal with torture etc being used by both sides. The conflict was as much of a Civil War as it was an attempt to hold a colony. Many Algerians sided with the French and fought in French Army units.This film starts out in the summer of 1959 in the inland mountains. A French platoon is based at an outpost charged with keeping the peace in the surrounding villages. They go out every day on patrol hunting groups of FLN guerrillas. Every so often they ambush the enemy and every so often they are ambushed. The war seems to be one long battle of attrition.After the platoon Lieutenant is killed in a botched operation, the unit receives a fresh officer right out of France. The new man, Benoît Magimel, is soon in conflict with the unit's veteran Sergeant, Albert Dupontel. Dupontel, who had been in Vietnam fighting the Viet Cong, knows one has to be as hard as the enemy is. The Lieutenant learns quickly when the platoon gets in a battle with a FLN group smuggling weapons. The FLN had all been dressed as women and had nearly gotten by the patrol till the veteran, Dupontel, spotted the deception.The following weeks sees the platoon engaged in several firefights with various FLN groups. During one of these fights, the French come close to being wiped out. They need to call in air support which hit the FLN with some large napalm bombs. Afterwards the patrol captures a man for questioning. The local intelligence officer is soon at work with batteries and electric cables. This of course does not go well with the new officer, Magimel. The method though proves effective and valuable information is collected.Every night the men at the outpost get stinking drunk and count the days till they get back to France. When one of the patrols finds a friendly village massacred, they respond in kind on another village. The war is boiling down to one bloody event leading into another. Needless to say there is not going to be a happy ending here.This film is well worth looking up in my opinion. The cinematography is excellent and the battle scenes well handled. The air support action is top-flight with De Havilland Vampire aircraft dropping the napalm.

This film is nothing short of "brilliant." "L'ennemi Intime" is set in French-occupied Algeria in 1959 at the height of the insurgency. A French platoon is sent deep into enemy territory to find and liquidate the head of the insurgents called Slimane. Lieutenant Terrien, a novice and a humanist, is given charge of the platoon after its commander is accidentally killed by friendly fire. "L'ennemi Intime" is a little bit like "The Battle of Algiers" but set in the mountains of Kabylie (Berber territory in Algeria). I first saw it at the Dubai Film Festival in December 07 and was completely blown away by it. It is so gripping and visceral. The film is an incredible commentary on the inhumanity of war; how not matter how innocent and good one goes to war he is almost certain to become a beast and a murderer in the end. I highly recommend this film. Every soldier who is about to be deployed to a war zone should watch Ennemi Intime. Its simplest message is that war corrupts the human soul and there are no winners once the shooting stops.

I have just seen this film and was very impressed indeed.Many have been very critical of this film stating the characters were hollow and the film itself was little more than another ain't war hell story. However there is a lot more to it than that.The film, like 'Land and Freedom' gives a much needed insight into a very dirty war that has largely been forgotten.From an accuracy perspective the equipment and weapons etc were spot on for the period. Contrast this to 'Tea with Mussolini' and 'Atonement' to name but a few. The film also shows many scenes of endlessly trudging through the mountains looking for an elusive enemy with no apparent end in sight. If you read Legionnaire by Simon Murray or Wayward Legionnaire by James William Worden you will quickly discover that that was exactly what the war in Algeria was like. Finally the film shows the FLN to be every bit as brutal as the French (which they were). This is a nice change from the usual blame it all on the white man theme.Aside from material accuracy this film also brilliantly presents two very real dilemmas. The first was the French fighting against their former allies. (Many FLN members had fought with the French against the Germans in WW II. See 'Days of Glory'). The second is the highly relevant subject of torture. On the one hand its use is highly immoral and barbaric, but it is producing effective results.Overall an outstanding film about a subject that needs to be told. Now how about an accurate film on the Korean War and the French war in Indo China.

Be prepared... Here comes what might be the most important french movie of the last few years. France has always been hiding its little political secrets and taboos, and although Americans have been multiplying projects about the Vietnam wars and the Watergate, France rarely make movies about politics. France hides itself behind the human rights. L'ENNEMI INTIME carries a heavy burden : to be the first major popular movie about the Algeria wars since THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS by Gillo Pontecorvo (1966). The objective is the same : the war still hides a huge taboo, and Siri (alongside Rotman, his writer) has tried to talk about it in a large way, avoiding caricatures and ideologies (upon which things wars usually define themselves). Lots of people in France are already accusing the movie of being spectacular. But all stories, important stories, once they've become an art form, have to drain mythology and great figures. In the way of Leone and Cimino, Siri draws archetypal soldiers torn apart between their nation, the facts, the day to day casualties of war and their own growing madness. L'ENNEMI INTIME is a true war movie, in the American tradition, as HELL IS FOR HEROES, MEN IN WAR or ATTACK. One mission turns nightmare. People redefine their own persona through this mission. The action, like in any war movie, is a political ritual that put human beings on trial with themselves. Siri uses the visual force of APOCALYPSE NOW and the brutality of PREDATOR (the scene with the falling trees) to build a mean, nervous, cruel vision, as dry as the movie is short and frontal (96 minutes). Spectacular means impact, shock, nervous attack. To wake up the minds and make them realize the importance of this war, the movie had to be spectacular. The FLN (arab liberation party) is cruel. French soldiers are cruel. Arabs torture Arabs tortured by french torturing themselves. This is war. A new brilliant motion picture by Florent Siri, making better movies each time.