Nuit Et Brouillard (Night and Fog) (1955)

"Anyone interested in civics must see Night and Fog and Salo."

- Jean-Claude Biette

Upon hearing this bold statement made by the French director on a documentary about the making of Salo I decided, without any concern of civics, see what this other movie was all about. The simple fact it was being mentioned with something like Salo had to account for something (we are talking about the most controversial film ever) and this was either a feather in its hat or a nail in its coffin, in my book at least.

Needless to say, I have seen the film, and clocking in at only 31 minutes long, it is both bold and controversial in its own right (Bulldozers plowing piles of bodies into holes in preperation for burial and such atrocities). Having seen many things on the Holocaust, from either side of the equation - the oppressor or the oppressed - this happens to be the only one that blends the two into something that rests on a different kind of pedestal. It does not damn the Nazi party for what they did or even offer an outright reason to feel and sympathy for the victims (although one will already do these things reguardless of any overtly given reason to), what it does is show the impact that such a monsterous thing has left, like an unfading scar on the face of society.

This is what seperates this from most documentaries about the Holocaust, in that it is showing it to you as if you were to go there today and see the fences, walk through the gates, and stand in a place where thousands never returned from. While doing this it does cut to actual footage of the camps in several different occurances, from the loading of the trains and the fear in these peoples eyes as they are unloaded like cattle to their untimely death at the hands of the Nazis (some of which I have never seen before, like the men drinking soup).

None of this is overdone to the point of making the realization of responsiblity for done actions anymore obvious than it already is, as I've said, this is a study of both sides of the spectrum, an overall showing of what happened all those years ago and what it left for all of us that weren't behind the barbed wire.

Truly a masterpiece of a documentary about events that will then, now, and forever be remembered.