![]() They claim that they were not responsible for the madness because they followed orders. But is this possible? Can one even begin to imagine what was going through the minds of the people that were sent to the gas chambers?Īt the end of the film there are bits of footage showing a few of the men that worked in the camps. One is actually left alone to process the horrific visuals and then make some sense of them. ![]() There are a few questions that Cayrol asks throughout the film, but they are not the type of questions that seek to engage or get a specific reaction. Did they forget that they were also human beings? Did they lose their minds? It is hard to imagine that there were people working in the camps that knew what was happening but kept following Himmler's orders. The footage and stills from the last ten or so minutes look almost surreal. Right next to them were the giant ovens where the piles of bodies were supposed to be burned. There is footage that shows how the gas chambers were made to look like ordinary shower rooms. Cayrol explains that it was then that the people that ran the camps started building the crematoriums. But more and more people started arriving and it became impossible to 'process' all of them on time. There was a very specific and very efficient system in place. Then the trains slowly begin moving.Ĭayrol explains where people were shipped and how they were distributed in the camps. Soldiers are also seen giving directions, waving, making sure that time isn't wasted. Some of them are seen rushing to get on the trains some are seen helping others that are too old and too weak to move as fast as they can. The footage that shows people being rounded up and loaded on the trains that will take them to the gas chambers is incredibly disturbing. It is easy to see that he had an ambitious plan and that they were all working closely to deliver results. Heinrich Himmler, the most powerful amongst them, is seen multiple times visiting the camps and getting reports from other men in uniforms. There are simple but chilling descriptions of horrific events and details about men that organized and controlled them. The film is narrated by Jean Cayrol, a survivor from the camps, whose calm words seem almost out of sync with the visuals. Everything is carefully edited to give one a sense of what took place in various concentration camps across Europe. There are also bits of original footage in color that are used for sporadic before-and-after comparisons. It is essentially a collection of black-and-white trims of archival footage and stills that were discovered after the end of WWII. Region-A "locked".Īlain Resnais' monumental documentary is only about a half hour long. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. The supplemental features on the disc include an excerpt from an archival audio interview with director Alain Resnais exclusive new video interview with director Joshua Oppenheimer and the documentary film "Face aux Fantomes" (2009), featuring discussions and interviews with historian Sylvie Lindeperg. "Nuit et brouillard" (1956) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. Winner of Prix Jean Vigo, Alain Resnais' "Night and Fog" a.k.a.
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