Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7512 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-01-24
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, PAL
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 30 minutes

Synopsis
Documentary which attempts to address the unanswerable questions relating to the Holocaust. Features new film footage of the abandoned site of Auschwitz alongside archived footage filmed by both the Allied Forces and the Nazis.

Customer Reviews

A first step
Night and fog is somewhat like a brief beginners guide to 'real' holocaust documentaries that avoid the usual pathos of films and instead simply lay bare the facts and leave you to your own feelings on what you've seen rather than bludgeon you with sentiment.
First off dont let the short running time put you off, Resnais achieves more in 30 minutes than hollywoods finest can achieve in 2.5 hours. very brief interview clips and original footage are rapidly spliced together to form a whole picture that lingers in the mind long after the final credits. Resnais illustrates how less is so much more as he uses every second he has to show the sheer horror of the camps.I return to watch again and again and still keep finding details I missed.
Having been made so close to the end of the war this has a resonance of a world still shocked by what it saw.
watch this, think about it and after taking a deep breath move on to 'the sorrow and the pity' dvd and then ' shoah'.
just remember that documentaries, even the most open minded, show you what they want you to see and those interviewed tell you only what they want you to hear. so watch as wide a variety as you can before making your own mind up.

Should be compulsory viewing
'Night and Fog' is an astounding documentary on the hideous events of the Holocaust. Although only thirty minutes long, it nevertheless provides an excellent and moving account of Auschwitz.

Its 'beauty' lies in its simplicity - there is no drama or sensationalism. It depicts the Holocaust simply as it was, using original footage as a testimony to the unprecedented horror. The commentary is equally excellent in its simplicity and clarity, and compliments perfectly the moving and heart-wrenching images. What makes the documentary great is its power to shock, to make the viewer utterly unable to understand how such industrialised inhumanity could ever occur in a civilised and cultured nation. It also illustrates the immense scale of the genocide, and the total dehumanisation of the victims, whose skinny, lifeless corpses are used as an economic resource for Nazi Germany - to make cloth, to make soap, even to make 'art'. 'Night and Fog' is superb in its depiction of the modern, bureaucratised, and production-line nature of Nazi genocide.

Made in 1955, 'Night and Fog' shows the Holocaust as it was before much scholarly debate had begun. It shows us simply what happened, leaving us with utter incomprehension as to why it happened. Seeing original footage, it makes us wonder what was going through the minds of the perpetrators. Did they really believe that what was being done was in the name of progress? Did they feel any pity? Did they enjoy what they were doing? 'Night and Fog' captures the inability to comprehend how such unspeakable horrors occurred, and does not pretend to have any answers for why the Holocaust could have happened.

At a time when the Holocaust is fading from public memory, I think this documentary should be watched by all. I do not understand why moving and explicit documentaries like this are not broadcast on Holocaust Memorial Day. Perhaps by showing the Nazis' totally repugnant disregard for human life, we can achieve man's new categorical imperative - to never again allow Auschwitz to happen.

Nothing like this has ever been made before. Let us hope that nothing like this need never be made again.
One needs to ignore the idiotic ranting of Lorna Reay (below). There is no `proof' that watching violence desensitises the viewer. And the suggestion shows the level of contempt for humans that informed the Nazi philosophy.

For me the viewing of Night and Fog is unsettling; not because of the images but because of the overpowering humanistic approach to the subject by Resnais: a subject that arose as a result of the most anti-humanistic period of 20th century history.

This documentary is unique; nothing like it had been made before and it is hard to imagine that anything like it will be made again.

Michel Bouquet's narration is unemotional giving the feel of objectivity on a subject that in which there can be no moral dilemma; there can be no argument that this was a one of the blackest period in human history. Yet the detachment only serves to reinforce the horror and the soundtrack by the great German composer Hans Eisler seems out of place until you realise that there were some people who saw the extermination that took place in the concentration camps, as a triumph.

Night and Fog is incomparable to anything committed to celluloid. It is a work of art but it is also a document of inhumanity. It stands alone and cannot be compared with Hollywood or even outstanding documentaries such as
The Sorrow and the Pity [DVD] [1969] orThe World At War - Complete TV Series (11 Disc Box Set) [DVD].

This DVD is a testement to the humility of Resnais and those around him, who brought Night and Fog to the world.