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DVD Description
Ten years following the Holocaust, Alain Resnais documents the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz while reflecting on the rise of Nazi ideology and the harrowing lives of the camp prisoners using haunting wartime footage. Night and Fog was one of the first films made about the Holocaust and remains one of the most important commentaries about this topic. François Truffaut had high praise for Night and Fog, describing it as “Not a documentary, or an indictment, or a poem, but a meditation on the most important phenomenon of the Twentieth Century.”
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
51 of 51 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Night and fog is somewhat like a brief beginners guide to 'real' holocaust documentaries that avoid the usual pathos of films and instead simply lay bare the facts and leave you to your own feelings on what you've seen rather than bludgeon you with sentiment.
First off dont let the short running time put you off, Resnais achieves more in 30 minutes than hollywoods finest can achieve in 2.5 hours. very brief interview clips and original footage are rapidly spliced together to form a whole picture that lingers in the mind long after the final credits. Resnais illustrates how less is so much more as he uses every second he has to show the sheer horror of the camps.I return to watch again and again and still keep finding details I missed.
Having been made so close to the end of the war this has a resonance of a world still shocked by what it saw.
watch this, think about it and after taking a deep breath move on to 'the sorrow and the pity' dvd and then ' shoah'.
just remember that documentaries, even the most open minded, show you what they want you to see and those interviewed tell you only what they want you to hear. so watch as wide a variety as you can before making your own mind up.
First off dont let the short running time put you off, Resnais achieves more in 30 minutes than hollywoods finest can achieve in 2.5 hours. very brief interview clips and original footage are rapidly spliced together to form a whole picture that lingers in the mind long after the final credits. Resnais illustrates how less is so much more as he uses every second he has to show the sheer horror of the camps.I return to watch again and again and still keep finding details I missed.
Having been made so close to the end of the war this has a resonance of a world still shocked by what it saw.
watch this, think about it and after taking a deep breath move on to 'the sorrow and the pity' dvd and then ' shoah'.
just remember that documentaries, even the most open minded, show you what they want you to see and those interviewed tell you only what they want you to hear. so watch as wide a variety as you can before making your own mind up.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
Even though this is a very short film it is extremely powerful. it shows the horrors of the camps that are not often mentioned by Auschwitz survivors in their books.
The film shows how women's hair was made into rolls of material, human skin into paper and bones boiled down for glue.
The film shows how women's hair was made into rolls of material, human skin into paper and bones boiled down for glue.
It also shows the nail marks on the ceiling of the gas chambers where people had tried to claw there way out. The film is not a ghoulish look at the horrors of concentration camps, rather a very important documentary that all should see. On the back of the box it notes that after a spate of anti-semitism all French television channels cut their listings on the same evening and showed this film instead.
The commentary is in French but the sub titles are in English and as I was unable to tear my eyes away from the screen anyway I didn't find this a problem at all.
40 of 43 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
'Night and Fog' is an astounding documentary on the hideous events of the Holocaust. Although only thirty minutes long, it nevertheless provides an excellent and moving account of Auschwitz.
Its 'beauty' lies in its simplicity - there is no drama or sensationalism. It depicts the Holocaust simply as it was, using original footage as a testimony to the unprecedented horror. The commentary is equally excellent in its simplicity and clarity, and compliments perfectly the moving and heart-wrenching images. What makes the documentary great is its power to shock, to make the viewer utterly unable to understand how such industrialised inhumanity could ever occur in a civilised and cultured nation. It also illustrates the immense scale of the genocide, and the total dehumanisation of the victims, whose skinny, lifeless corpses are used as an economic resource for Nazi Germany - to make cloth, to make soap, even to make 'art'. 'Night and Fog' is superb in its depiction of the modern, bureaucratised, and production-line nature of Nazi genocide.
Made in 1955, 'Night and Fog' shows the Holocaust as it was before much scholarly debate had begun. It shows us simply what happened, leaving us with utter incomprehension as to why it happened. Seeing original footage, it makes us wonder what was going through the minds of the perpetrators. Did they really believe that what was being done was in the name of progress? Did they feel any pity? Did they enjoy what they were doing? 'Night and Fog' captures the inability to comprehend how such unspeakable horrors occurred, and does not pretend to have any answers for why the Holocaust could have happened.
At a time when the Holocaust is fading from public memory, I think this documentary should be watched by all. I do not understand why moving and explicit documentaries like this are not broadcast on Holocaust Memorial Day. Perhaps by showing the Nazis' totally repugnant disregard for human life, we can achieve man's new categorical imperative - to never again allow Auschwitz to happen.
Its 'beauty' lies in its simplicity - there is no drama or sensationalism. It depicts the Holocaust simply as it was, using original footage as a testimony to the unprecedented horror. The commentary is equally excellent in its simplicity and clarity, and compliments perfectly the moving and heart-wrenching images. What makes the documentary great is its power to shock, to make the viewer utterly unable to understand how such industrialised inhumanity could ever occur in a civilised and cultured nation. It also illustrates the immense scale of the genocide, and the total dehumanisation of the victims, whose skinny, lifeless corpses are used as an economic resource for Nazi Germany - to make cloth, to make soap, even to make 'art'. 'Night and Fog' is superb in its depiction of the modern, bureaucratised, and production-line nature of Nazi genocide.
Made in 1955, 'Night and Fog' shows the Holocaust as it was before much scholarly debate had begun. It shows us simply what happened, leaving us with utter incomprehension as to why it happened. Seeing original footage, it makes us wonder what was going through the minds of the perpetrators. Did they really believe that what was being done was in the name of progress? Did they feel any pity? Did they enjoy what they were doing? 'Night and Fog' captures the inability to comprehend how such unspeakable horrors occurred, and does not pretend to have any answers for why the Holocaust could have happened.
At a time when the Holocaust is fading from public memory, I think this documentary should be watched by all. I do not understand why moving and explicit documentaries like this are not broadcast on Holocaust Memorial Day. Perhaps by showing the Nazis' totally repugnant disregard for human life, we can achieve man's new categorical imperative - to never again allow Auschwitz to happen.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Disturbing, educational and powerful
Whilst this is a 'short' film, running at only 30 minutes, it packs an incredible and potent image of the abuse of power; the abuse of ideas which were perpetuated at the beginning... Read more
Published 12 months ago by TGillespie
Lest we forget ...
This is a powerful and painful to watch testament of man's inhumanity to man. As the camera follows a path through a derelict and empty Auschwitz you are reminded of what took... Read more
Published 15 months ago by jmj
Review of "Night & Fog" DVD
Film OK - but no news in it for me - I'm very deep in working with understanding the human behaviour.
Published 17 months ago by B. V. Hansen
review
More horrific stories of the holocaust and the concentration camps. Of itself a reasonably accurate account but little different from many others produced. Read more
Published 18 months ago by D. F. Woodruffe
Powerful and emotive
A 30 minute documentary by Alain Resnais which outlines the extent of the Holocaust. Within this short space of time, using documentary footage, you are simply left with no words... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Sierra Ernesto Xavier
A matter-of-fact description of the Holocaust
I watched this video as a follow-up to The Sorrow and the Pity. Resnais film is disturbing because it presents the building of the camps as a series of practical steps, fixing on... Read more
Published on 13 Jun 2009 by William Cohen
Consider very carefully before viewing this film
Night And Fog [1955]
The '15' rating on this film is grossly misleading. It contains largely original footage from Auschwitz death camp, with the most harrowing, obscene and... Read more
The '15' rating on this film is grossly misleading. It contains largely original footage from Auschwitz death camp, with the most harrowing, obscene and... Read more
Published on 6 Jan 2009 by Lorna Reay
Classic account of Hitler's concentration camp system
This is the classic account of Hitler's concentration camps and the appalling conditions in them. Filmed shortly after the war ended and interviewing camp inmates, etc. Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2001
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