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Analysis of the Film Night and Fog
Night and Fog is a short film documentary directed by Alain Resnais and was released in 1956. The film was created ten years after the liberation of the German liberation camps, and the title of the film is taken from a program that led to disappearance and abductions set by the Nazis. The film uses black and white images, and short footages shit at the concentration camps. The film shows the abandoned grounds of the Nazi concentration camps of Majdanek and Auschwitz. The narrator of the documentary describes in detail the devastating historical events as the images of the camps are depicted. The film begins by showing the remnants of the concentration camps, where there are abandoned buildings, growing grass, and the barbed wires. The normality in the place hides the brutality and gruesomeness of the events that occurred in the past. The scene in the film changes from the then present to the past through archival footage and images and the pictures shot by the film after the desertion of the concentration camps. The present is regularly interspersed with the past representation in recalling the past events. The narration in the film reinforces the transition, as the footages become increasingly gruesome such as graphic scenes of emaciated dead bodies, the narrative moves from the historical exposition to philosophical concerns such as who is responsible? The questions are not only used as past indictments but also used for the present and the future. The film combines backward, present, and future gazes entailing both history and future in a similar gesture.
The film was among the first films to show the horrors of the camps and required keen documentation to maintain the power of shock in the images yet avoid incapacitated grief and entire disbelief. The combination of structured narration and juxtaposition facilitates the expression and reflection of the shocking crimes in the human history. The narrator uses tenses that create a unique platform for the viewers to contemplate and participate in the film. The archival footage is a voice in the present tense while the present-day tacking shots of the camps in the most of the film are narrated using the past tense. The structure of the film interconnects the past and the present times, poking the viewers to concurrently witness the horrors of the Holocaust and contemplate on them. There is a vital transition in the engagement of the audience during the film, where they are considered impartial observers of the footage. A relationship between the viewers and the narrator is created through the use of comments such as “and here we are…looking at the ruins today,” progressing to the use of the pronoun “we” from the pronoun “I.” The audience is drawn closer to the events by being addressed explicitly.
Resnais’ cinematography of using original footages and images of the captives shows the horrors of the Holocaust and what remained in the Nazi concentration camps after World War II. The present-day pictures in the film are shown in colors, whereas the camps’ reminders during the Holocaust are shown in black and white. There is the contemplative camera glides fluidly in the vacant field that seems ordinary. The alternating past and present pictures in the film presents the audience with two perspectives of a similar event. As the camera glides, there are images of the barbed wire, rusted railroads, and the ruined barracks that signals the audience to witness the remains of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The present pictures of the fields are effective in the beginning to show how the place is seemingly distanced from the past horrors. The viewers are then thrust into the past showing suffering victims, vast piles of human hair, dead bodies, and medical experiments, which are some of the few examples of the brutalities in the archival footage. The cinematic technique to alternate the time sequences enables the director to emerge the viewers into the event. Using the present images, the audience is given time to process the grueling images of the camps. The narration creates additional meaning to the shots, such as describing the massive difference between the archival footage viewership and the subjective view of the narrator about the aftermath of the massacre. The individual view shows witnessing the visual representations such as the ceilings, ovens, bunks, and buildings developing a distinct mental world for the audience. The viewer is engaged in a personal way by including the present images of the world that was familiar to the audience. The juxtaposition is enhanced through the introduction of the disturbing strangeness in the materials presented and the serene vacant landscapes that remained. The film shows how difficult it could be to accept that such atrocities would occur in a place that appeared recognizable. The camera is mobile and glides smoothly across the grass, into the inside of the abandoned structures of the concentration camps, and the gas chambers for the first time in the history of cinema. The narrator reveals the limitation of what the camera could capture and leaves to the imagination of the audience. The only sign in the camps were the fingernails dug into the ceiling that showed the death struggles of the victims. The visual synecdoche of the film evokes significant history traces from the remains of the event. The film investigates the capacity of violence, which is eluded in the present ordinary environment presenting a suggestion that could occur anywhere and anytime.
The film Night and Fog counterpoints images with sound using dialect. The narrator of the film remains in the dark and not seen throughout the film representing the perspective of the film not only to show the gruesome images in the camps but to explain the meaning of what was being viewed. The narrator is created through a voice-over in a horrifically crafted manner to ensure that the viewers process the images in the film. The voice-over is designed in a harsh, dry, filled with subtle shadings and in an astringent tone. Vocal commentary in the film assumes the power to speak the truth of the filmic text, and the audience s held captive to viewing through the verbal caption. The elements in the film are created together to show the redolent and raw representation of the brutalities in the camps. The somber narration that accompanies the images of the film compliments them and creates a clear perspective on them. Taking an example of the shot where there are naked and gaunt prisoners waiting in line, the narrator states that “nudity strips the inmates of all pride in one stroke,” which shows the authoritative position of the narrator. The narration speaks of the issues as they were yet conveying deep sadness and seriousness empathetically. The film uses contradictory music to create a contradiction of the feelings of the audience as they view the images. The music used is associated with encouraging the viewers to contemplate what they are seeing. The pure orchestra used I the film combines with the present times of that era, ten years after the war, in various ways such as peacefully and softly, or modern and harshly. The modern, atonal elements, tinkering pizzicato, were signaling the running machine and the idea of the cold Nazi murder bureaucracy.