Edward Said: The Last Interview, and: Selves and Others: A Portrait of Edward Said, and: The Battle of Algiers (review)

A veritable industry of tributes and honors emerged in the wake of Edward Said's death in September 2003. Aside from the hundreds of memorial articles written about him, numerous academic journals published memorial issues dedicated to Said, as well as conferences that were convened from Toronto to Seoul that celebrated his life and work. The flow of works seems not to have ended. Two collections of essays have recently been published—one of his political writings and the other on humanism and the possibility of democracy in criticism—in addition to a forthcoming book on what he calls "late style." Emerging from this are two recently released documentaries that capture Said in the final stages of his life, Edward Said: The Last Interview and Selves and Others: A Portrait of Edward Said. In addition to these films, a hard-to-find documentary hosted by Said is now available as part of a three-disc set re-release of Gillo Pontecorvo's epic The Battle of Algiers.

Criterion's re-release of The Battle of Algiers has made it possible for the film to be introduced to a new generation of filmgoers and revolutionaries. With the original negative increasingly suffering from the effects of time (and video releases of the film replicate this problem), the film has been beautifully digitally restored by Criterion. Not only has the film become more amenable to viewing, the score has been digitally cleansed, allowing one of the film's most haunting elements to be felt more intimately. Along with the restored version of the film, the Criterion set features a fascinating documentary that follows Pontecorvo as he returns to Algeria in the early 1990s to witness the struggle of postcolonial state building. Amassing a veritable army of commentaries on the film and its context, Criterion has also included a hard-to-find documentary hosted by Said titled Gillo Pontecorvo: The Dictatorship of the Truth. Being interested in the film for obvious reasons, Said has written elsewhere on it, specifically in an essay titled "The Quest for Gillo Pontecorvo" collected in his Reflections on Exile. Filmed in 1992, the documentary recounts Pontecorvo's life and films. Said laments Pontecorvo's inability to produce more films, especially considering the important issues that Pontecorvo's films raise for audiences around the world. Said argues (sitting in an empty movie theater, no less) that Pontecorvo's "films leave us with a lot of questions. Questions like, can empires be defeated, or, is there a possibility for relationships between Western societies and non-Western that are not based on oppression and discrimination?" Although the film itself focuses on Pontecorvo, its thoughtfulness, critical approach, and the pertinent questions it raises are distinctly Saidan.

Selves and Others is largely standard fare as Said documentaries go. Examining various key elements of his work and life with a cursory glance, the film replicates other documentaries that have been made about Said. Directed by Emmanuel Hamon, the film begins with Said driving around New York, talking about his illness and his life in America. Shifting between his New York apartment and his office at Columbia, Said discusses the central themes of his life and his career. Despite the intimate subject matter, be it his work, his love of music, his exilic condition, or his politics, he speaks about these intimate topics with almost complete detachment. Following Said to a lecture where he shares the stage with his Israeli friend and collaborator Daniel Barenboin, Said fields questions on identity, politics, and the role of music in forging cross-cultural communication. Except for a brief moment where he plays the piano, Said seems more apathetic than interested in the questions that the interviewer (offscreen) poses. The film...