Night and Fog - Criterion Collection

"Night and Fog"

A Vivid and Horrible Description of Horror

Amos Lassen

Filmed in 1955, "Night and Fog" ("Nuit et Brouillard") is the strongest film I have ever seen and it is only 31 minutes long. It shows the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps in Poland through footage that was shot by the Allies as it tells the story not only of the camps but of the horror of man's inhumanity. It is like watching a travelogue of Hell and nothing can prepare you for what you see here. So why watch it? It is important and it has to be see if for no other reason than to show what can happen when an "inhuman world view is fused to state-of-the art technology.
What the Holocaust was it seems was no more (would we need any more?) simple mass-murder. It was a business decision which was calculated to rid the world of innocent people while making a profit off of them both in life and death.
We see piles of human hair, emaciated skeletons being pushed around by bulldozers, lampshades made of human skin and what looks like living corpses walking around. These are visions you can never forget and they will never leave you. The shock value is compounded by opera and classical background music.
Francois Truffaut, the outstanding French director, has called "Night and Fog" the greatest film of all time. It is Alain Renais, the director of the film, who shows us the Holocaust is all of its horror. It is devastating to watch so it is best to warn viewers to approach it with caution. It is an intense and beautiful film and it makes the stomach do flips--the footage is that brutal. The narrator, Michel Bouquet, speaks as the voice of history as he narrates the unspeakable acts which the camera has brilliantly captured.
The film is not just for viewing but for reflection. Renais uses color to show how the camps looked in 1955 when the film was made and switches to black and white for the earlier periods. He juxtaposes the same camps during the 40's at the height of the War with the desolate places he found in 1955 when he filmed this documentary. Keep in mind that 1955 is not yet ten years after the war and this gives a surreal look to what we see. We watch in stunned disbelief even though we know that what we see really did happen. It is hard to imagine when these people went through. It is hard to make sense of what we see on the screen but we MUST see it. It brings out emotions that some are not aware that they have and evening its brevity it produces a wallop unlike any other film about the period has been able to do,
Included on the Criterion DVD is a radio interview with Renais which has a lot to say about the French during the Holocaust.
I have seen many films about the Holocaust which were excellent movies but they did not do in two hours what this movie manages to do in 31 minutes. It will positively shake the viewer and the emotional experience is wrenching. We need to face truth and Renais had the courage to do so. His film is ruthless and inescapable but also one of the most important films ever made. The world is still accountable for what happened to the millions who lost their lives because a maniacal person came to power. We should be able to call evil by its name after watching "Night and Fog" and me should learn together to bar evil from the world.

Anyone who has not seen actual footage of Auschwitz and victims of the Holocaust should see this film.

Even for someone like myself who has been exposed extensively to the images and facts of the Holocaust this is a chilling, moving and enlightening film. There is no attempt to put a polish on history or get the viewer to "chin up" and feel good that he will do his part to make sure "never again". It is an unvarnished, emotional emptying. I would be surprised to hear that anyone finishes this 30 minutes of film with much emotional energy left. It is simply mandatory to see this film.

I've noted that a number of reviewers mention seeing Night and Fog in a high school class. I think one would have to be very careful about using this film in high school. This is not simply because it is very graphic. If it is the ONLY film about the Holocaust that students see, particularly in the context of a survey course in European history, where there's very little time for an in-depth look at anything, it could accomplish little. Watching the film, students see the horrors perpetrated by the SS, but they do not get any sense of how anti-Semitism pervaded every aspect of society, not only in Germany and Poland, but in other countries as well. Night and Fog gives students bad men to hate, but it does not ask then to consider who supported Hitler and made his rise to power possible. For this purpose, the film Au Revoir Les Enfants is very good, since it reveals the anti-Semitism that existed at all level of French society, from the cook's helper to the protagonist's mother. It can begin a great discussion about prejudice in its different manifestations. Films like Night and Fog shouldn't be employed for their shock value alone; one must reserve plenty of discussion time for the complex issues they raise. If the film is part of a comprehensive examination of the Holocaust, then it has a purpose to serve, but if it is not taught wisely and carefully, then for students it becomes a film about an evil that occurred a long time ago---and has nothing to do with them.

This is without a doubt a grave subject and the documentary is very skillfully done as it weaves in the narrative with the images in a most touching and heartbreaking way. Even though it is only half an hour in length, it is so well done that it encompasses the subject and conveys the crucial knowledge of the holocaust profoundly and powerfully.