Torture in Word and Image: Inhuman Acts in Resnais and Pontecorvo

Abstract

This article examines the interplay of word and image in two depictions of torture during the Algerian War: Muriel (Alain Resnais, 1963) and The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966). While Resnais offers the spectator a desynchronized sound-image sequence wherein torture is narrated verbally, Pontecorvo’s depiction shuns words, instead offering soft focus close-ups accompanied by soaring classical overtures. Drawing primarily on Jacques Rancière’s work on history, cinema, and the idea of the unrepresentable, this article argues that the director’s choice to privilege either the verbal or the visual illuminates deeper concerns around gender, discursive violence, and the cinematic representation of the inhuman.