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Nuit et Brouillard (Night and Fog) DVD (15) |
Dir: Alain Resnais, 1955, France, 30 mins, Subtitles
Narrator: Michel Bouquet
Alan Resnais' profoundly influential and powerful documentary was hailed by Francois Truffaut as "the greatest film ever made." It takes its title from Hitler's decree that anyone who endangered Germany's security was to "vanish without trace (in the) night and fog" of the Third Reich. Commissioned by the French Committee for the History of the Second World War, Night And Fog was made in 1955 and illustrates with brutal detail exactly what went on inside the 'death factories' of Struthuf, Oranienburg, Auschwitz, Belsen, Ravenbruck and Dachau. Footage was shot with the Nazi's own cameras, and those of the liberating Allied Forces. These black and white images are carefully juxtaposed with colour footage of a tour of the ruins of Auschwitz in the 50s, and newsreel pictures of high-ranking Nazi's such as Julius Streicher, Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler.
César Award winning actor Michel Bouquet narrates Jean Cayrol's script, accompanied by an emotive yet unobtrusive score from Hanns Eisler. No holocaust documentary could ever make for easy viewing, but Night And Fog is about as graphic as it gets, showing buckets of detached heads lining the corridors, medical 'experiments' in progress, and huge mounds of half burnt bodies being bulldozed into mass graves. It also investigates the design, building and day-to-day running of the camps, as well as highlighting bizarre attempts to create 'mini-villages' in the larger camps, by installing zoos, brothels and, ironically, prisons.
At 30 mins, without any additional features, the DVD would have benefited from further inclusions. Nevertheless, this short meditation on suffering, responsibility and, ultimately, the human capacity for survival, engages the mind for far longer than any amount of extras usually can. The release date coincides with the UK's National Holocaust Memorial Day, on Thursday 27th January. Night And Fog, watched alongside the BBC released Conspiracy: The Meeting at Wannsee (2001) is essential viewing for anyone intending to commemorate this day. |
