Nuit et Brouillard
My system of eating while watching a movie didn’t quite work out this time. I should have known beforehand, but ultimately the desire of throwing up was just too large. Now I have finished the film, but not my meal!
The title refers to something a Jewish cabaretist is supposed to have said, and I laughed when I heard that. Of course, only a Jew would be allowed to make a joke like that.
What should I say, “Nuit et Brouillard” deserves its recognition. It is far different from your typical “Nazi documentation” and the emotion it evokes are indescribable for me. The atmosphere is slowly built up throughout the film and reaches its pinnacle of density and creepiness shortly before the end, and while I have seen these images many times in my life, I was very moved. The way this hypocritical and wrong peacefulness is shown left quite a long lasting impression on me. I still want to throw up, although my pasta sauce turned out extremely delicious.
I think “Nuit et Brouillard” cannot quite stand for itself, it’s more that it calls for you to find more about it (although, who of us hasn’t learnt about it a million times?) and to find answers to the questions raised in the film, making it the perfect film to study in school I guess. I am not sure if I would have appreciated it back then when I was in school though, hmmm! I might not have seen that this is great cinema.
Finally, I must admit that I’m not sure what to think about “Nuit et Brouillard”. In the past, I attempted watching this film 3 or 4 times but never went over the first 3 minutes. The prospect of watching a film where you actually know the whole content, plus it’s a documentary, is not a very intriguing one for me. But in the end, I think it was totally worth it.