[ad_1]
Claude Lanzmann, whose 1985 documentary Shoah deeply affected the way many saw the destruction of the European Jewish community, died last week at the age of eighty -twelve. Henry Gonshak revisits his work:
Shoah is almost unique among Holocaust documentaries to the extent that Lanzmann did not use any documentary footage, usually taken from Nazi archives , or fictitious scenes. Instead, the film is exclusively composed of interviews with those who got entangled, for one reason or another, in the Holocaust: survivors, witnesses and executioners. Lanzmann justified this approach by insisting that it was the only way to authentically represent the Holocaust.
After Shoah was released, Lanzmann became a constant critic of the Holocaust film series. historical recording. He attacked Steven Spielberg's blockbuster in 1993 Schindler's List accusing him of "commodification" of the Holocaust, because Spielberg used professional actors and invented several scenes from any room. Perhaps Lanzmann has imposed excessively strict limits on the limits of the representation of the Holocaust. I do not believe that the Holocaust alone should be represented without any degree of artistic latitude – a requirement that is not made of the portrayal of any other genocide. However, without a doubt, Lanzmann's close approach worked brilliantly in Shoah . . .
Lanzmann's directorial style avoided the "fly on the wall" technique used by many other documentarians, where the director serves purely as a witness, taking no active part in the ongoing action. Instead, Lanzmann is a constant presence in his film, both on camera and off camera, posing sharp questions that sometimes make it a point of honor to harass his often fragile subjects. . .
Not only did Lanzmann interview survivors and witnesses, but he also spoke with the perpetrators – another management decision that provoked controversy. For example, Lanzmann spoke to Franz Suchomel, who had been an SS official in Treblinka and after the war was convicted of war crimes and spent six years in a West German prison. . . . Initially reluctant, Suchomel became more talkative as the interview progressed, until he rebalanced the director with a camp song composed by the SS. Lanzmann's interview with Suchomel shows that many authors have felt no remorse for their participation in the genocide.
[ad_2]
Source link
