A Textual Analysis of Algerian-french Documentaries on The Liberation War

Study Problem:

In order to determine the connotation and implications of the image used in dealing with the events of the liberation war, we will raise the following main problem: What are the connotations and implicit dimensions held by the image used In the Algerian and French documentaries that dealt with the cause of the Algerian liberation war? Through the construction of the problem of research, it is possible to identify questions that contribute to dismantling the problem of the research, which is as follows:

1. What are the meanings and bets of the events of liberation war representations through the Image in these films?
2. What is the position or the role of the Image in the struggle of memory between the two countries?
3. How the scenes of war and genocides have been filmed across the Film archives employed in these films?
4. What is the ideological discourse that employed image carries in these films?
5. How was the Media treatment with the events of the revolution and what were the subjects that got the most part in the treatment?

Methodology:

The study approach is of great importance in social research and in all scientific research because it seeks through its tools to select all the elements of the phenomenon studied and to deal with it in a manner that leads to the extraction of the relations and links between them. The cinematic studies and studies related to the audiovisual language such as Television, as well as research, specialized in film criticism, a large number of approaches and methods, including 'Semiological approach' and content analysis methodology, and other methods that seek to interpret, analyze and decode the messages produced by the media, which is interested in producing means within a specific format carrying implicit meanings of latent and different messages overlooked by the recipient. Which is in fact linked to some internal codes in the formation of the environment in which the recipient originated.

In order to answer the problem, this study will rely on the methodology of the research to use the approach of the 'Semiological Analysis', which will allow us to stand at the hidden and implicit connotations of the film messages, which seeks to reveal the 'importance of the “image function' as a media tool with special dimensions of semantic. Restructuring meanings and employing them in a better way to understand media messages of any kind. It is based on the study of the internal relations of the elements of the discourse based on the 'qualitative analysis', implicit, of the information system of the search for any real indications of the content of the messages, and according to the French critic “Ronald Barthes”: 'The Semiological analysis is a form of thorough research in the deep levels of the media messages, In which the researcher is committed to neutrality towards the message, and to identify the psychological, social and cultural aspects that will help to support the analysis' and continued to say that 'The Semiological analysis is immersed in the contents of the message and media speeches and seeks to achieve a clear analysis, it is a qualitative inductive analysis of the message with an inner and a latent content.

At the beginning of the 1960s, 'Roland Barthes” the French Literary theorist, philosopher, linguist, critic, and semiotician, pointed out that the literary texts were composed of several codes. Later on came Barthes’ follower “Christie Metz” the French film theorist, best known for pioneering film semiotics, who tried to apply his literature analysis to the analysis of the 'film textuality” and thus art and literary works, including films, said that 'they are texts or textual systems' where, in the past, and for a long time the study of cinema has remained exclusive of normative, experimental and descriptive studies. Since It has not been studied from the 'De Saussure' semiology perspective only with the “Christie Metz”, who published his first study in this field, under the title 'Is cinema a tongue or a language?' in 1964, which was published in the Parisian communication magazine- which Summarizes in considering the cinema as a rhetorical act, a speech act. It is a language and as a code for the successive structures, ideas and sequences, it is considered a language.

In Christie Metz's conception, cinematic language is a hybrid language because it consists of the coupling of five different expressions of function. A composite language. Therefore, the approach of textual analysis is the most appropriate approach to the nature of the study, and both the film theorist and writer “Jaques Aumont” and “Michel Marie” the essayist and cinema historian mentioned in their book on ”Film Analysis': 'Textual analysis is primarily based on the film as a text, which determines the basis of the film in its analysis.

The concept of textual analysis served as a limit to the dangers of analytic analysis due to a large number of tools used in the analysis. “Aumont” emphasizes that the importance of textual analysis is the following points :

• The Text analysis and especially the meaning of the text questions the unity of the work and its analysis.
• The textual film is the comprehensive discourse of the film, where we find within it the various cultural, social, artistic, and firm ideological conventions that can be organized in the form of textual systems. And the text as a phenomenon and unity of social contained existence, and the textual analysis study of the entire text of the film.

An analysis that includes all the sequences of a single film and doesn't study only one sequence. In this case, it is called the configuration or the sequential analysis.

To deconstruct the directories and symbols of the selected films, we will use this method of textual analysis to find out the various indications and implicit meanings associated with the image of the Algerian liberation revolution.

Film analysis:

Film analysis is defined as segmentation of its structure into its basic components and then reconstructing it for purposes of analysis. Therefore, the textual film must be the start point to identify the film's distinctive elements. The film analysis uses three major models of tools:

• Descriptive tools
• Observation tools
• Documentary tools

Conclusion

In conclusion, this study delves into the connotations and implications of the images used in Algerian and French documentaries concerning the Algerian liberation war. Through a comprehensive methodology rooted in semiological analysis, it aims to uncover the deeper meanings embedded in these visual representations. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Roland Barthes, Christie Metz, and others, the study employs textual analysis to dissect the cinematic language and decode the messages conveyed through the images. By utilizing descriptive, observation, and documentary tools, the research seeks to unravel the ideological discourse present in these films and shed light on the role of images in shaping collective memory and historical narratives. Through this analytical lens, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex socio-cultural dynamics surrounding representations of conflict and liberation in visual media.