Customer Reviews

Night and Fog

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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.

Several reviewers have already spoken of the powerful impact of this film as a document of the terrible atrocities of the Holocaust. What is perhaps most remarkable about this film (and that most reviews here have not remarked upon) is that it does not aim to reconstruct a past that is impossible to imagine, but to document the traces this past has left behind for the present, and to suggest that this unimaginable past is nevertheless not so far off. However difficult it may be to imagine being involved in such events (whether as victim or perpetrator) it is nevertheless true that those who were involved are not so very different than ourselves.

In other words, this is not just a straightforward documentary depicting the horrors of the Holocaust. It does that and does so in a way that is very powerful. But what makes the film distinctive is the way in which it raises questions, most insistently the question whether such horrors might be repeated. The film's major contention is that it is very easy to think that events like the Holocaust could never happen again -- that they are singular events and that the people who perpetrated them are monsters, unlike "us" -- but that this perception is a mistake. Many of the individuals involved in the horrible atrocities of the Holocaust were quite ordinary folk who loved their families. The point is that even your next door neighbor or anyone, under the right pressures, in situations where those they harmed had been dehumanized, could potentially also do such things.

The events at Abu Ghraib (and other contemporary atrocities) should remind that people we would otherwise think of as decent, upstanding, citizens are capable of horrible and repulsive actions. That the events in Abu Ghraib did not reach the scale of the events documented in this film seems to be a matter of degree and organization, but not a difference in kind. The film is perhaps more relevant and powerful today than ever. (This remark is not intended, of course, to minimize the scale and horror of the Holocaust; or to suggest that the systematic and planned massive scale genocide that took place in Auschwitz and other sites is on par with the contemporary practices of torture that appear much less systematic; still: that American citizen soldiers who by all accounts from friends and relations seemed like decent folk could find themselves able to participate willingly or even under some coercion or pressure in such horrible and degrading practices as were engaged in at Abu Ghraib and likely Guantanamo and other camps as well, is an indication that the cautionary remarks that end this film are still important).

This was a great documentary. I will never forget the images that were shown in this documentary. The style the director used with the archive was great; I felt a huge amount of sadness for the lives lost while watching the present day archive. The technique and style of how he put everything together kept my eyes glued to the television the entire time. The reality of what happened at those camps was so gruesome that it made me want to cry.

I was in a Holocaust literature class in college this past semester, and this film was shown. It was so powerful and moving. I will never forget the piles of hair or the bodies being shoveled into large pits by bulldozers.

Let me start by saying that this documentary will have an effect on the viewer. I would not recommend it to young children or those that are hyper-sensitive to photos of the results of atrocities. There are a number of photos that are a bit shocking to see. For someone who is not familiar with the Holocaust, this film will be an eye opener.

However, it's not the documentary that my father remembers. I am wondering if there is a different version of the documentary out there? From conversations with my father, this film - in comparison to the one he viewed - almost sugar coats the camps and what happened in them, using film shot by the S.S. guards that almost seems innocuous in comparison to reality. The version my father remembers contains more S.S. film clips, including one of a train coming into the station, and continuing through the entire sorting process, up to and into the gas chambers. I am interested in locating this film in order to further my own studies of this horrible period in our history.

My father saw a version that was in German, not French. Perhaps someone out there can help me locate the other version, if it exists?

Resnais' Night and Fog is an example of the pure power of image. There is no comfort zone of actors and special effects between the viewer and the movie, it is all real. Life as it truly happened, in all its horrific reality. Although uncomfortable to watch, it is essential. The power of the documentary has been neglected over the past few years by the mainstream. The public wishes to suspend reality when viewing movies, not be confronted by it. Hopefully more directors will take a cue from Resnais and provide us with cinematic mirrors by which to judge ourselves.

Night and Fog is a short documentary that depicts Nazi concentration camps in a brutal manner that will not leave anyone untouched. However, this is Resnais' intention as he shows the contrasts between inhumane treatment of prisoners in the death camps during the World War II and the peaceful ruins of former death camps after the war. Night and Fog leaves the audience with a cinematic experience that depicts the horror from within concentration camps that should never be forgotten in order prevent reoccurrences of similar events in the future. This cinematic experience is brilliant (if one could use such a word with such a tragedy) as a historic account for what happened in the many death camps around Europe during World War II.

I watched Night and Fog this morning.
It's about the Holocaust and was filmed only ten years after liberations of the camps.
It mixes black and white film recorded during the war with color film showing the empty camps.
The one shot that stays with me is the room full of hair.
For a film that is only 31 minutes it's very powerful.
This is not a film for the squimish.... It shows the truth of the Nazi horror.

One of my professors showed us this film as part of his history lecture today, and all the images and realities. The images are so haunting, you hear about the events of the holocaust, and you learn somewhat about it in high school, but when you see this film and the pictures of wait happened, you just cant believe it. this is the first time ive been truely speechless after viewing a movie, and for one that is only 1/2 hour long, that truely is an accomplishment.

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.