Fresh and Exciting

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I think we all have a conception of the Holocaust. This conception has been created during our history classes, when we've been watching movies that have touched the subject, when we've been reading books and when our ancestors have been telling us stories about the Holocaust. Maybe have some of the movies we've been watching about the Holocaust given us a very glorified picture of what actually happened during the years of mass exterminations of Jews.But don't worry - if you haven't got a truthful picture of the Holocaust yet, Night and Fog definitely will give it. What I can see, this is the first war inspired documentary Alain Resnais has been directed. The atmospheric music - that all the time is interacting with the narrator - have been made by the musician Hanns Eisler, and fits perfectly in the film. But most impressive of all, is still the film art itself.You can't hide away from it. The camera moves slowly by extermination camps, high fences with barbed wire, rusty bunk beds in - otherwise empty - dorms and also by humans. The camera moves so slowly, so slowly, and even if you wan't to see it, you can't avoid to watch it. It's all in front of you, and the reality - that's so horrible that words even can't describe that - and that made this 32 minutes long documentary to the most truthful documentary that I ever have watched in this category.But, not to forget: this isn't only the most truthful and awful documentary about the Holocaust that I ever have watched - this is also the documentary with the most artistic beautiful scenes I ever have watched. And to sum up, these elements make the movie to a historical masterpiece worth watching.

Monsieur Alain Resnais' holocaust documentary "Night and Fog" is about different concentration camps in Europe where more than 9 million people lost their lives. What is most shocking is the attitude of those who were directly responsible for these deaths. There is not a single person who accepts the guilt. Everybody says that I am not responsible as the orders to kill came from the top. This film is able to make strong impact on viewers due to Jean Cayrol's powerful voice. As a concentration camp survivor, he wrote the text of this film. "Nuit et Brouillard" takes into account three different time periods. It all started in 1933 when a call was made regarding "Il Faut Une Nation Sans Fausses Notes" (One needs a nation without false notes).This was the period when concentration camps were getting constructed with each camp having a surprise element. For example : a symphony orchestra and a zoo. In 1942, military commander Heinrich Himmler gives the slogan "Il Faut Anéantir Mais Progressivement" (One must destroy but progressively).As per his instructions, models and plans of concentration camps are studied, deportation of Jewish people from all parts of Europe takes place and cyanide based pesticide Zyklon is used as killing by hand takes time. By 1945 Nazi brutality is at its peak as by this time concentration camps are huge cities with roughly 100,000 inhabitants. A lot of German companies namely Steyer, Krupp, Heinckel and Siemens benefit enormously from cheap labor provided by concentration camps. There is immense horror after the war when allied forces open the doors of concentration camps. It is at that moment deportees watch with horror without understanding anything. By directing "Night and Fog", Monsieur Alain Resnais has attempted to find an answer to human cruelty. The only question which all human beings can ask is this : "How can a human being inflict so much cruelty and suffering on another human being" ? His film features excellent cinematography and music by Ghislain Cloquet, Sacha Vierney and Hanns Eisler. Lastly anybody watching this film must bear in mind "Même Un Paysage Tranquille Peut Tout Simplement Conduire A Un Camp De Concentration" (Even a quiet landscape can simply lead to a concentration camp) !!!!!

Night and Fog is a horror documentary. The horror is the truth. This is an extraordinary account of the concentration camps during World War II, and even nearly 60 years on, it told me about them more in its mere 30 minutes than hours of school history lessons. It utilizes a very verite style as it blends gruesome archive footage with their own footage of their cameras gliding deep within the heart of the camps. It's very aware of the actual filmmaking process as it uses "we" a lot in the narration, giving the exploration a feeling of involvement with the viewer, even though the footage itself is embracing enough.It presents the events chronologically, delivering only the essential detail required for information and emotional impact, studying the camps as if an involuntarily culture within a manufactured city. It's impersonal, but remains hugely dramatic, partially due to the electrifying score. It's especially impressive for how it matches the devastating statistics with actual photographs and footage then relates it back to the present day, asking the question why did this have to happen as no one man will take responsibility and how do we stop history repeating itself, a common theme in Resnais' work. It's absolutely one of the most powerful and deeply affecting films ever made.9/10

Night and Fog documents the tragedy from the perspective of a Holocaust survivor, it pulls you straight into the mood with its poetic narrative, its curiosity arousing opening shot of an abandoned concentration camp and its depressing score.The infamous Holocaust was known to almost everyone through obscured history teachings and heroic war films that didn't leave me with the impact "Night and Fog" did. We are constantly reminded in films and books that 6 million Jews were massacred and other atrocities the Nazis committed but what impact did it really had? To me, little to non, maybe with just a passing thought "Hitler is a real psycho".After watching Night and Fog, then i did finally realized the cruelty that had happened, blockbuster films doesn't show you that, history books couldn't paint the picture. The raw stock images and footages used were gruesome, Stretched to my 16:9 monitor, I was stared by a real corpse, witness bodies being bulldozed.... They didn't made me scared but empty, it was weird, indescribable.We people living in this age are enjoying and entertained by WW2 exploits, Nazis and Hitler being destroyed over and over again in countless films, and us enjoying it, yes "justice" must be served and of cause we are also entertained to have them back as always to be our central villainous figure. This is awfully similar to how the Nazis influence their citizens into believing the Nazi's cause, I'm not saying that modern films of WW2 exploits are all propagandas because most of them are to milk money, yet they delivers the same kind of messages: " Our cause is honorable ", " We serve justice " " We are good and they evil "..... People may argue that the fact is they really are on the good side and films are portraying the fact but that's not the point, the point is what humans are capable of when exposed to all these ideologies, quote from the last stanza of Night and Fog "Are their faces really different from our own?". I couldn't cry nor am i enraged when this documentary completes its final stanza, just empty.