Night and Fog (1956)

The history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.

Director:

Alain Resnais

Writer:

Jean Cayrol (commentary)

Stars:

Michel Bouquet, Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Uncredited cast:
Michel Bouquet	...	Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Reinhard Heydrich	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Heinrich Himmler	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Julius Streicher	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Storyline

One of the most vivid depictions of the horrors of Nazi Concentration Camps. Filmed in 1955 at several concentration camps in Poland, the film combines new color and black and white footage with black and white newsreels, footage shot by the victorious allies, and stills, to tell the story not only of the camps, but to portray the horror of man's brutal inhumanity.

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Plot Keywords:

nazi | concentration camp | jew | europe | death camp | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Short | History | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

January 1956 (France)

Also Known As:

Night and Fog

Filming Locations:

Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Oswiecim, Malopolskie, Poland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Argos Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

32 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the DVD re-release, there is a subtle but controversial difference in one of the still photographs of a Nazi concentration camp in southern France. In this version the distinctive profile of a French gendarmes can be seen at one of the camps, implying that the French Vichy government of the time was aware of and perhaps involved in the management of the camps. This same photograph appears in the original version but the gendarme's profile was obscured at the insistence of the French government (who commissioned the film) when the film was in post-production.

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Goofs

A few shots of the concentration camps are combinations of different concentration camps and sometimes do not show the locations suggested.

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Quotes

Récitant/Narrator: Who among us keeps watch over this strange watchtower to warn the arrival of our new executioners? Are their faces really different from our own?

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Connections

Featured in What Is Cinema? (2013)

User Reviews

Insanity

Alain Resnais, a distinguished cinema director, working with Jean Cayrol, produced a document for all humanity to see and reflect. The director visited some of the concentration camps in Europe, where he filmed the abandoned sites in which millions lost their lives in one of the most shameful times in the history of mankind. European Jews paid a great price for no reason at all. Hitler and his followers decided to eliminate them because they saw in them a threat and their money and their labor would fuel the war machinery they needed to win the war.

The director uses color photography to show how the camps looked in 1955, then switches to the black and white of the material from an earlier time. Mr. Resnais juxtaposes the same camps during the 1940s at the height of the WWII conflict and how the lonely and forgotten places of what the director found in 1955. Even looking at these places ten years after the end of the war, these silent witnesses of the horrors the victims experienced, acquire a surreal look.

It's impossible to fathom what went on. We look in disbelief as bulldozers dump the inert bodies of the dead into common burial places. It's hard to imagine the ordeal these innocent victims went through, even for a moment. They didn't deserve the indignity of dying the way they did at the hands of people that should have known better. No excuses will ever justify what Hitler, and his fanatics, did to eliminate a race that didn't merit their hatred.

"Night and Fog" has powerful images and it packs such power, it's hard to make sense of what one sees in this important documentary that should be seen by everyone.