This is a very important film!

However,If you do not understand rapid speaking French you better be a SUPER speed reader of extremly poor quality(English)subtitles which GREATLY distracts from the importance of this film.

Ideally, this extremly important and visual film told in less than an hour should have been dubbed in all languages,it is that important of a film.

J. Levin

As an assistant professor of military history at the Air Force Academy, our department made this film part of the mandatory curriculum for the cadets in the late 60's and early 70's. I had never seen it, but after viewing it several times with my classes, it was forever etched in my mind. Some of the cadets way back then did not believe it had actually happened. Some of my fellow instructors heard the same disbelief.

The entire tragedy was based on many kinds of prejudice, including religious, physical and mental disabilities, ethnicity, and pure greed. The world, including the United States, has no shortage of such prejudices now, and they are escalating in the culture wars now raging across the world.

It should be taught in high school and college history today--consistently. As Rudyard Kipling said, "...Lest we forget, lest we forget." We must not let it happen again!

The half hour run time was rather disappointing. They should however have an English voice over. It's kinda hard to watch piles of emaciated dead bodies being pushed into a mass grave while reading the subtitles. The music was really too upbeat in my opinion for what you're watching. The director seemed more like he was wanting to shock people instead of giving information on the Holocaust.

"Night and Fog"

A Vivid and Horrible Description of Horror

Amos Lassen

Filmed in 1955, "Night and Fog" ("Nuit et Brouillard") is the strongest film I have ever seen and it is only 31 minutes long. It shows the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps in Poland through footage that was shot by the Allies as it tells the story not only of the camps but of the horror of man's inhumanity. It is like watching a travelogue of Hell and nothing can prepare you for what you see here. So why watch it? It is important and it has to be see if for no other reason than to show what can happen when an "inhuman world view is fused to state-of-the art technology.
What the Holocaust was it seems was no more (would we need any more?) simple mass-murder. It was a business decision which was calculated to rid the world of innocent people while making a profit off of them both in life and death.
We see piles of human hair, emaciated skeletons being pushed around by bulldozers, lampshades made of human skin and what looks like living corpses walking around. These are visions you can never forget and they will never leave you. The shock value is compounded by opera and classical background music.
Francois Truffaut, the outstanding French director, has called "Night and Fog" the greatest film of all time. It is Alain Renais, the director of the film, who shows us the Holocaust is all of its horror. It is devastating to watch so it is best to warn viewers to approach it with caution. It is an intense and beautiful film and it makes the stomach do flips--the footage is that brutal. The narrator, Michel Bouquet, speaks as the voice of history as he narrates the unspeakable acts which the camera has brilliantly captured.
The film is not just for viewing but for reflection. Renais uses color to show how the camps looked in 1955 when the film was made and switches to black and white for the earlier periods. He juxtaposes the same camps during the 40's at the height of the War with the desolate places he found in 1955 when he filmed this documentary. Keep in mind that 1955 is not yet ten years after the war and this gives a surreal look to what we see. We watch in stunned disbelief even though we know that what we see really did happen. It is hard to imagine when these people went through. It is hard to make sense of what we see on the screen but we MUST see it. It brings out emotions that some are not aware that they have and evening its brevity it produces a wallop unlike any other film about the period has been able to do,
Included on the Criterion DVD is a radio interview with Renais which has a lot to say about the French during the Holocaust.
I have seen many films about the Holocaust which were excellent movies but they did not do in two hours what this movie manages to do in 31 minutes. It will positively shake the viewer and the emotional experience is wrenching. We need to face truth and Renais had the courage to do so. His film is ruthless and inescapable but also one of the most important films ever made. The world is still accountable for what happened to the millions who lost their lives because a maniacal person came to power. We should be able to call evil by its name after watching "Night and Fog" and me should learn together to bar evil from the world.

Anyone who has not seen actual footage of Auschwitz and victims of the Holocaust should see this film.