Night and fog by alain resnais alain resnais, michel bouquet. Muriel, or the time of return muriel ou le temps dun retour. Written by jean cayrol, a holocaust survivor, and poetically narrated by michel bouquet, its gruesome images seem like a surreal nightmare. Resnais third feature, and second film working with screenwriter jean cayrol, having previously collaborated on the 1955 short film night and fog. Released about ten years after the end of wwii, night and fog is as straightforward as historical nonfiction filmmaking gets.
Japanese authorities, for example, banned it because its many horrific images of victims supposedly contravened article 21 of the japanese constitution. Jean cayrol, the lazarean and the everyday in postwar film, literature, music and the visual arts. In making night and fog director alain resnais and his writer cayrol confronted a problem that is simultaneously aesthetic and moral. To get a concise overview of the contents of this video, go to our academic edition. If your school or library already subscribes, access these videos on its gleeditions. Fontana regional library will be closed for coronavirus prevention starting tues, march 17 through april 30. Night and fog is a powerful, personal statement about the banality of evil in our time. Silvie lindepergs book offers a microstudy of alain resnaiss night and fog. For resnais, the film was meant to showcase a warning that the horrors of nazism may be repeated during the algerian war where torture and internment were already under way. Only half an hour long, this is the greatest film ever made about the concentration camps 1956. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.
Its archival footage, and above all its voiceover narration written by poet and former deportee jean cayrol, only obliquely addressed the mass murder of european jews. Jean cayrols commentary refers to a quiet country scene, and resnais holds the shot as flutes play a whimsical motif on hans eislers. Francois truffaut had high praise for night and fog, describing it as not a documentary, or an indictment, or a poem, but a meditation on the most important phenomenon of the twentieth century. Nuit et brouillard is a french documentary short film. Trivia jean cayrol found the project immensely distressing to work on, given the fact that he had been a concentration camp inmate.
Jul 28, 2011 many of us will have seen film footage of concentration camps before, but night and fog uses voiceover and music to prevent its audience from becoming indifferent to seeing more familiar images. Jean cayrol, french poet, novelist, and essayist, who stood at the frontiers of the new novel nouveau roman, the avantgarde french novel that emerged in the 1950s. Opening venices giornate degli autori sidebar, cambodian filmmaker rithy panhs graves without a name documents his search for the remains of his family who died during the khmer rouges. One of the first cinematic reflections on the horrors of the holocaust and contrasts the stillness of the abandoned camps quiet, empty buildings with haunting wartime footage. Resnais and cayrol found the film very difficult to make due to its graphic. Films of peace and war edited by roger hughes new york. Night and fog jean cayrol writer, alain resnais director argos, 1956 32.
After training as a film editor in the mid1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included night and fog 1956, an influential documentary about the nazi concentration camps. Many of us will have seen film footage of concentration camps before, but night and fog uses voiceover and music to prevent its audience from becoming indifferent to seeing more familiar images. How he got round it was not to provide text, segment by segment, to alain resnais who would normally have edited the images around it. He was a major contributor to the subversive, philosophical french publication tel quel. In its depiction of a summertime pastoral idyll, with rolling green fields set beneath a wide blue sky, the opening shot of night and fog is the absolute antithesis of what one might expect from a controversial holocaust documentary. I had heard the phrase night and fog, but had missed the true meaning of it until i saw this movie sitting on a shelf in a local video store. Night and fog refers to the arrival of prisoners in auschwitz under the cover of darkness and also the ultimate failure of the nazis at nuremberg to take responsibility for it. Mar 15, 2014 so when poet and holocaust survivor jean cayrol agreed to collaborate, production officially began on the most essential and powerful documentary short ever made. Her most important is the wideranging, impressively detailed study of alain resnais brilliant documentary, nuit et brouillard night and fog, which she published in french in 2007. Largely forgotten over the years, the seminal work of french poet, novelist and camp survivor jean cayrol has experienced a revival in the frenchspeaking world since his death in 2005. Night and fog helped crystalize the public impression of the nazi death industry, which had been left unclear amidst the postwar debris and.
Francois truffaut once called night and fog the greatest film ever made. Night and fog when the great french director alain resnais accepted producer anatole daumans invitation to make a documentary about the holocaust, he turned to a close friend, the noted poet and publisher jean cayrol, to write the narration that would accompany the films profoundly troubling images. Directed by alain resnais from a script by camp survivor jean cayrol who subsequently scripted. Framed as a documentary, the film is an unsettling view of life inside the nazi concentration camps of world war ii. I dont possess a vocabulary to convey the impact the images had upon me. Ten years after the liberation of the nazi concentration camps, this piece documents the abandoned grounds of auschwitz and majdanek.
Research archive for the theory and practice of the cine. Directed by alain resnais, it was made ten years after the liberation of german concentration camps. Nuit et brouillard is a 1956 french documentary short film. Brutally graphic, resnais artistic depiction of life and death in a nazi extermination camp combines ghostly scenes of the abandoned camp in the 1950s with nazi and allied stock footage and stills. In 1954, the french publishing group hachette released a book about. A film in history university of minnesota press, sorbonne history professor sylvie lindeperg explores the potential of film and all the arts by extension to make visible things that had been unseen. Night and fog had the daunting responsibility of making an informative film from the appalling footage. She has published a major study of night and fog, the documentary on auschwitz by alain resnais and jean cayrol. Cayrol, who collaborated with alain rensais on night and fog 1955 and muriel 1963, invites van wert to tape a conversation in paris because of an expressed difficulty in easily articulating his ideas in writing. It opens on a tranquil green fielda place of great. French poet and camp survivor jean cayrol to bring his lyricism to the project. Night and fog the current the criterion collection.
In 1954, hachette published a book of eyewitness accounts of the deportation of the jews. Different cinematic techniques were used to delve into the many layers of this memory. Night and fog was passed by the french board of censors, although one or two shots of corpses had to be cut. Jean cayrol, french poet, novelist, and essayist, who stood at the frontiers of the. Jun 23, 2003 its a tribute to the clarity and cogency of night and fog that resnais masterpiece has not been diminished by time, or displaced by longer and more ambitious films on the holocaust, such as shoah and schindlers list. Resnais and writer cayrol had to fashion a film that ordinary citizens could watch, absorb, and then take away something constructive. Nuit et brouillard project gutenberg selfpublishing ebooks. Selected by olga wormser and henri michel, these texts described daily life in. Cayrol would go on to write the screenplay for resnaiss muriel 1963, which was also concerned efforts to fashion and hold on to memories about a disturbing past, in this case the algerian war. Night and fog is just as powerful as shoah in 118 the time. Night and fog 1955 when the great french director alain resnais accepted producer anatole daumans invitation to make a documentary about the holocaust, he turned to a close friend, the noted poet and publisher jean cayrol, to write the narration that would accompany the. Representatives of west germany successfully challenged its inclusion at cannes even though it was made a full decade after the wars end. Its archival footage, and above all its voiceover narration written by poet and former deportee jean cayrol, only. Representatives of west germany successfully challenged its inclusion at cannes even though it.
Instead, cayrol wrote an initial text based on his recollections of resnais first cut. Barely 30 minutes in length, the short film comprises a current for 1955 tour of the various concentration camps intercut with archival video from them. Alain resnais waited until he was promised creative control, which included enlisting a survivor of the camps jean cayrol to write the narration. Night and fog 1955 when the great french director alain resnais accepted producer anatole daumans invitation to make a documentary about the holocaust, he turned to a close friend, the noted poet and publisher jean cayrol, to write the narration that would accompany the films profoundly troubling images. Jean cayrol was a french poet, publisher, and member of the academie goncourt born in bordeaux. Jean cayrol imprisoned at oranienburg purpose for night and fog not memorial to the dead a warning signal. If you have any questions or concerns regarding covid19, call the nc coronavirus helpline. In world war ii cayrol was deported to a concentration camp after participating in the french resistance, and that experience is at. Night and fog by alain resnais alain resnais, michel. Night and fog was one of the first films made about the holocaust and remains one of the most important commentaries about this topic. He is perhaps best known for writing the narration in alain resnaiss 1955 documentary film, night and fog.
So when poet and holocaust survivor jean cayrol agreed to collaborate, production officially began on the most essential and powerful documentary short ever made. When it comes to holocaust documentaries, there is simply no further word than alain resnaiss night and fog. Cayrol, helped by another mutual friend chris marker, wrote a commentary spoken in a deliberately matteroffact manner by michel bouquet, and hanns eisler came to paris to compose the music. Night andfog nuit et brouillard directed by alain resnais, in libraryjournal new york, vol. Its a tribute to the clarity and cogency of night and fog that resnais masterpiece has not been diminished by time, or displaced by longer and more ambitious films on the holocaust, such as shoah and schindlers list. Night and fog when the great french director alain resnais accepted producer anatole daumans invitation to make a documentary about the holocaust, he turned to a close friend, the noted poet and publisher jean cayrol, to write the narration that would accompany the. Jean cayrols commentary refers to a quiet country scene, and resnais holds the shot as flutes play a.
You can now call 211 in nc to get connected to resources in your community or text covidnc to 898211 to get alerts on nc covid19 updates. His concept of a concentrationary artthe need for an urgent and constant aesthetic resistance to the. Il sagit dorianenbourg, auschwitz, dachau, ravensbruck, belsen, neuengamme, struthof. How does one make a film about the concentration camps. Jean cayrol is the author of adevarurile catherinei 2. Night and fog represents the peak of director alain resnais activities as a shortsubject filmmaker. Directed by alain resnais and narrated by michel bouquet from a script by jean cayrol, the film alternates meditative presentday incolor shots with horrific wartime blackandwhite footage. The voiceover was written by jean cayrol, an author and french resistance fighter who survived the gusen concentration camp in austria. As he would in his later features hiroshima mon amour, last. There have been numerous books about the making of a film. The film shows how womens hair was made into rolls of. Now available in english, it is a most welcomeindeed, a pathbreakingaddition to the literature about the cinematic representation of the shoah.
Her book provides a much more comprehensive understanding of how this major. Essays on childhood, the family, and antisemitism in occupation france, which stems from a conference she organized at columbia university about material culture and daily life during. A chronological narrative is built, from the bustling beginnings of the nazi war machine in 1933 to the nightmarish final solution to the liberation of the camps by the allies in 1945. Phillip lopate, night and fog, the criterion collection, 23 june 2003. James leahy, nuit et brouillard, senses of cinema, may 2003. Jean cayrols commentary refers to a quiet country scene, and resnais holds the shot as flutes play a whimsical motif on hans eislers orchestral soundtrack. There were three main types of techniques used in resnais night and fog. Night and fog was made in collaboration with scriptwriter jean cayrol. Jean cayrol responds with a twoleaf typed letter signed.