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Summary: A film that needs to be seen
Review: Alain Resnais Night and Fog is a film that needs to be seen by as many people as possible. This documentary short is more an essay on the nature of man than an exploration of the Holocaust.Shot in simple black and white and vivid color the film blends a past and present view of the horror of Nazi Germany like no other film I've ever seen. A simple voiceover guides us on a tour of the concentration camps a mere ten years after their liberation. The images are haunting and graphic. The most startling commentary comes at the end of the narration. We are warned that the spector of war is always present, always lurking and that if we are not careful and do not remember the past the horror could return at any moment. This is a Criterion DVD with relatively few extras. However the viewer does not need extras to feel the mind numbing impact of this film. Provided are a short excerpt from a Renais audio interview in 1994 and crew biographies compiled by Peter Cowie. There is also a music only soundtrack.
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Summary: Not just about the Holocaust
Review: Alain Resnais's short, lasting a mere 31 minutes, is justifably famous as the first film to explore the Holocaust after the Second World War (it was released in 1955). More than just a depiction of the events, the film primarily concerned with the filmmaker's inability to convey the historical reality of the event. The colorful scenes Resnais shot of the abandoned camps are contrasted with horrific black-and-white images of Nazi brutality - decapitated skulls gathered in a bucket, a mountain of womens' hair, the living skeletons of the newly-liberated camps - and Resnais asks himself (and us): how can we possibly comprehend, in the safety of being a spectator, the immeasurable inhumanity and suffering of this event? What would it profit us or history as a whole even if we could? Would it really prevent human atrocities from recurring? The film is best seen as a philosophical exploration rather than a history lesson - indeed, if you don't know at least the key events of the Nazi Regime, you'll find Resnais' elisions confusing. It is still a potent and unsettling film and, within its mere 31 minutes, opened up questions about artistic responsibility and representation that persist today about the Holocaust and other filmed depictions of human atrocities.
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Summary: Lest We Forget ...
Review: An emotionally excruciating, almost overwhelmingly powerful documentary short that illuminates the inconceivable horrors of the Holocaust through a disarmingly simple - but incredibly effective - construct. To wit: ten years after the 1945 liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, director Alain Resnais revisited the sites of Aushwitz and Majdanek and filmed a tour of the abandoned grounds. He then intercut this seemingly benign color footage with black and white clips and photographs taken during the War that show in shocking detail the planning and building of the camps; the mass deportation of inmates bound for these unspeakable hells; and evidence of the insane inhumanity that took place behind the electrified and barbed fences. Woven through the visuals is eloquent narration by Jean Cayrol, a prisoner who survived his own lengthy internment in one of the camps. Cayrol's calm voice describes what transpired in the camps, and then goes on to pose larger philosophical questions about the Holocaust in terms of humankind's past and future history. The cumulative effect of the mixture of these words and images is quietly potent, and offers a new and unique opportunity for the viewer to grasp the magnitude of this event from an up-close perspective not offered by any other fictional or documentary film on the subject.
The Criterion DVD offers a newly restored print of the film, complete with a freshly translated set of subtitles in English; excerpts from a radio interview with director Resnais about the production of the film; crew biographies (check out the amazing lifespans and accomplishments of the filmmakers); an isolated music track, and a set of perceptive insert notes. This 31 minute masterpiece is admittedly not suitable for emotionally immature viewers, but it is unquestionably a work that should be seen by everyone psychologically capable of processing the material ... lest we forget.
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Summary: The most deeply affecting movie I ever saw.
Review: Doubters of the Holocaust should be made to see this film. It is one of the most horrific and poetic dark visions of the past that I have ever seen. I saw it in 1955, and its images have stayed with me for all the intervening decades. Brilliant and unpleasant!
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Summary: Still One of The Best
Review: Even after all these years Night and Fog remains one of, if not the best documentaries or films made on the Holocaust. It is not melodramatic as many Holocaust movies tend to be. It is the simple and horrible truth. I've seen this film many times and many others like, but it still moves me to tears everytime I watch it. If you're looking for a very non-Hollywood view of these terrible events, this is the place to start. But be warned, Schindler's List and the like have not prepared you for this, it is just that heartbreaking.
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Summary: One of the most disturbing holocaust documentaries ever.
Review: First, this film is NOT for children. It is a very graphic film about the holocaust. 10 years after the holocaust a film crew went to the then abandoned Auschwitz Konzentrationslager site. Intercut with footage taken after the liberation of Auschwitz, it is a real life experience if the aftermath of the most horrific autrocity in modern history.
This film should be shown to the masses so we never forget what happened and to prevent history from repeating itself. I believe it necessary for the film to be as graphic as it is, so people remember the truth about what happened there and for them to know how bad things actually were. 6,000,000 Jews senselessly murdered along with 5,000,000 Poles, Gyspies, Russians, handicapped, Jehovah's witnesses, homosexuals, mentally retarded, war prisoners, and political prisoners. In closing I would like to say that people who deny that the Holocaust happened should be forced to watch this film.
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Summary: A Seventh-Grader Stunned
Review: For a seventh-grader in Indiana in German language class in 1977, this film was required viewing. We were required to get permission from our parents via a form Fraulein Szegedi sent home with us. Even then, some kids had to leave the classroom during the film. Unfortunately the only copy available to us was housed in a public library building and destroyed in a fire in 1978. I am glad to be able to share the experience of this most brilliant film with friends. Now if we only had a similar World Trade Center version, we would have a more concrete way to recall that massacre and hopefully maintain human outrage at such practices. Documentaries of this type aren't any fun but they are very necessary.
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Summary: A Must See
Review: For any film buff who is especially interested in the documentary genre. Excellent use of imagary, sound and narrative provide an in-depth and somewhat frightening look into the world of Nazi concentration camps. Like others have said, this is definitely not a film for those with weak stomachs!
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Summary: Powerful
Review: I believe this film should be mandatory viewing for college level modern history courses. I actually first saw this movie in college in a French cinema class and I was very moved by the images shown in this movie. Resnais allowed the images to speak for themselves and the dialogue is minimal and it isn't very long, but that only makes this movie more powerful. This film had a stronger impact on me than any other movie I've seen on the holocaust, "Schindler's List" included.
I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to learn more about the holocaust. I would not recommend this movie for young children, but for very mature adolescents it would probably be okay. Its vital that as many people see this movie as possible, so we can remember the reality of the horrors and try to never let them happen again.
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Summary: Mindshattering, somber, disturbing
Review: I can't quite explain the intensity and the power this film contains. We talk about the Holocaust, we hear 6 million jews died, 12 million total, we may even see a film like Life is Beautiful, which scratches the surface to what went on inside the camps. But nothing can prepare you for the sheer mindshattering power of this film. It is a brief, stark film, shot in black and white and goes on for only a halfhour. But instead of adding dramatic flourishes, or light intonations, it simply shows images of the horror that was the Holocaust. A musical score flows throughout the background as you are hit with an assault of image after image of what went on behind the camp gates. You can watch the goriest film with practices 100x as bizarre, but they wont disturb you nearly as much as seeing an entire storeroom filled with hair cut off from the victims of this atrocity or pictures of human beings that stand there as mere skeletons. The narrator shows incredible constraint in his tone and his line of comments. He simply provides a framework for the images and probes the viewer, "Why did this happen? How could we allow this to go on?" Not for young children. It stays with you. If it doesn't disturb you, if it doesn't deeply affect you, you may have to question the depth of your humanity.
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