Night and Fog - Criterion Collection
by Alain Resnais
List Price:
Our Price: $12.99
You Save: $1.96 (13%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $9.18 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Julius Streicher, Michel Bouquet, Reinhard HeydrichDirector: Alain Resnais
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 31 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-06-24
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Night and Fog - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: A Vivid and Horrible Description of Horror
Summary: 5 Stars
"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.
Summary of Night and Fog - Criterion Collection
Though only a short subject, this groundbreaking documentary remains one of the most influential and powerful explorations of the Holocaust ever made. Director Alain Resnais bluntly presents an indictment not only of the Nazis but of the world community, and the film is all the more remarkable for its harsh judgment considering the time in which it was made, less than a decade after the end of the war, when questions of responsibility were not yet being addressed. Juxtaposing archival clips from the concentration camps across Germany and Poland with the present-day denials of the camps' existence, the film seeks to once and for all expose the horrifying truth of the Final Solution, as well as to address the continuing anti-Semitism and bigotry that existed long after the war's end. An invaluable resource and testament to history, this film was a profound influence on all films to address issues of the Holocaust, from Judgment at Nuremberg and Shoah to Schindler's List. Night and Fog remains an essential and indispensable document of the 20th century. --Robert LaneTen years after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, filmmaker Alain Resnais documented the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz. One of the first cinematic reflections on the horrors of the Holocaust, Night and Fog (Nuit et Brouillard) contrasts the stillness of the abandoned camps' quiet, empty buildings with haunting wartime footage. With Night and Fog, Resnais investigates the cyclical nature of man's violence toward man and presents the unsettling suggestion that such horrors could come again.
Art House & International DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in Absolute Must-see Movies
Night and Fog - Criterion CollectionRelease date: 2003-06-24; DVD
Best price: $9.84
Price in other shops:
The Big Lebowski (Widescreen Collector's Edition)Release date: 2005-10-18; DVD
Best price: $29.98
Citizen Kane (Two-Disc Special Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2001-09-25; DVD
Best price: $12.98
Price in other shops:
Seven Samurai - 3 Disc Remastered Edition (Criterion Collection Spine # 2)Release date: 2006-09-05; DVD
Best price: $29.90
Price in other shops:
Kill Bill - Volume TwoTHURMAN/HANNAH/CARRADINE; Release date: 2004-08-10; DVD
Best price: $5.43
Price in other shops:
Kill Bill - Volume OneTHURMAN,UMA; Release date: 2004-04-13; DVD
Best price: $4.89
Price in other shops:
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Extraordinarily Deluxe Three-Disc Edition)Sony; Release date: 2006-10-03; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Battleship Potemkin (The Ultimate Edition) (2pc) (Full B&W)Release date: 2007-10-23; DVD
Best price: $16.23
Price in other shops:
Plan 9 from Outer SpaceRelease date: 2000-05-16; DVD
Best price: $4.96
Price in other shops:
Monty Python's Life of Brian (Criterion Collection Spine #61)Release date: 1999-11-16; DVD
Best price: $23.46
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
The Conformist (Extended Edition)PARAMOUNT PICTURES; Release date: 2006-12-05; DVD
Best price: $7.94
Price in other shops:
ShoahRelease date: 2003-10-07; DVD
Best price: $105.99
Price in other shops:
BreathlessRelease date: 2001-11-20; DVD
Best price: $12.15
Price in other shops:
Holocaust: The Liberation of AuschwitzRelease date: 2005-09-13; DVD
Best price: $9.15
Price in other shops:
Army of Shadows - Criterion CollectionRelease date: 2007-05-15; DVD
Best price: $23.18
Price in other shops:
The Nazis - A Warning from HistoryWarner Brothers; Release date: 2005-07-19; DVD
Best price: $25.18
Price in other shops:
Auschwitz - Inside the Nazi StateRelease date: 2005-03-29; DVD
Best price: $25.78
Price in other shops:
Hiroshima Mon Amour - Criterion CollectionRelease date: 2003-06-24; DVD
Best price: $23.68
Price in other shops:
Triumph of the WillRyko Distribution; Release date: 2006-03-28; DVD
Best price: $20.44
Price in other shops:
The Sorrow and the PityRelease date: 2001-04-24; DVD
Best price: $33.71
Price in other shops: