blog




  • Essay / Comparative analysis of “Schindler's List” and “Night and Fog”

    Steven Spielberg's “Schindler's List” and Alain Resnais' “Night and Fog” are both a source of light on the horrible event of the Holocaust, but what differentiates one from the other is the fact that they are both depicted through different filmmaking styles, have different contexts, and serve different purposes. Spielberg's 1993 film is designed to resemble a documentary which, although containing some of the actual footage of the Holocaust and depicting the true story behind the event, is in its true form, fiction. The whole context of the film is that of Oskar Schindler, the excessive glorification of this German, who suddenly realizes that instead of selling the poor Jews as workers in his factory, he should save them from the wrath of the Nazis. even though he himself was part of the Nazi party). The romanticization of the entire plot is so beautifully done that the seriousness and sensitivity of the plot engulfs the audience in a sea of ​​emotions on screen. Rhetorically, Resnais's 1956 documentary "Night and Fog" simply depicts the Holocaust in its actual form. It features the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek while describing the rise of Nazi ideology and the lives of prisoners in the camps. The film constantly alternates between the past and the present, with the subtle use of monochrome and color. As Michel Bouquet recounts throughout the film, comparing the life of the Schutzstaffel to that of starving prisoners in ghettos and concentration camps. Bouquet addresses the sadism inflicted on condemned inmates, including torture, scientific and medical "experiments", executions and rape, while the next part of the film depicts images of gas chambers and piles of bodies, illustrating how the Jews here were inhumanely hacked to death, and finally the last part of the film, which shows how the German country finds its liberation, the revelation of the "horror of the camps" and the search for those responsible. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Spielberg tries his hand at the 35mm black-and-white film, shot in Krakow, Poland, on a budget of $22 million, where some of the scenes took place in the remains of the Krakow ghetto . The use of Oskar Schindler's original factory and the reconstruction of the Plaszow labor camp outside the city as well as the Auschwitz camp are so perfectly done that there is no flaw in its technical production. Spielberg's decision to keep the entire film in monochrome, except for the beginning, the end, and the little girl in the red dress (the moment Oskar really understands, after seeing the horror caused by the liquidation of the Jews . He is then brought to realize the terror of it all). Spielberg, through the character of the little girl, expects us to see this event as a "moral turning point" in Schindler's character. The red color of the little girl's overcoat managed to draw Oskar's attention to the humanity of people who were treated no better than animals. Spielberg uses the power of color very well to “individualize horror”. His desire to shoot the film like a documentary, while leaving aside the stylized ornamentation of cinematic trends of the current era and capturing the drama in such a way that it unfolds before the viewer's eyes, is at its best , authentic, creating emotion. connecting to the past in a way that color films couldn't. This helps Spielberg emphasize the fundamental point of this film, which is that everythingis shown in the film actually happened. Resnais' film, lasting around thirty minutes, which did not feature any popular star, "is generally recognized as one of the great classics of cinema, and its restoration now allows us to fully appreciate this remarkable encounter between cinema and history."The idea behind creating a film about the Holocaust concentration camps was originally in sync with the museum's exhibits - "Resistance, Liberation, Deportation", marking the 10th anniversary of the discovery of the camps, the result of years of government-sponsored efforts. historical research. The exhibition organizers continued to be deeply involved in the production of this documentary, as well as the drastic changes that occurred in the future with Anatole Dauman becoming producer of the film. Even more important was the fact that Resnais ignored many additional documents and facts that historians wanted to include in the film. His use of only two types of images: the colorful exposure of the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Majdanek and the surrounding countryside in the magnificent hues of autumn 1955, and in contrast, the gruesome black and white images of camps during the war. Therefore, a very simple structure was added to the film, where on the one hand, the reality of the present is represented through "bright Eastman colors", with scenes of Auschwitz in its questionable "decaying ruins". , captured without a composite start or end. , deliberately tracking each shot at a constant pace. On the other hand, the camps were in black and white, throughout the footage filmed during the Holocaust, where hundreds of people were crowded together beyond limits, with people suffering and dying at the hands of the Nazis. The major motif of Night and Fog that takes the audience between the two worlds of normal society and the “hell” of the concentration camps is Resnais’s meticulous use of monochrome. After further research and study, it is found that each colored shot, which lasted on the screen for about twenty seconds each, almost five monochromatic shots of four and a half seconds each are displayed in the same amount of time, putting implements the notion of how the staccato of horrifying images deprives us of a chance to easily think about the issue, because it leaves behind only the haunting question of what connects the two worlds. “The Holocaust is about six million people who are killed, Schindler's List was about six hundred people who don't. Stanley Kubrick reportedly told screenwriter Frédéric Raphael in the late 1990s. The most striking fact of Kubrick's statement is that the event of the Holocaust is presented in a film from a perspective that takes up only one fact and elaborates it, rather than focusing on the event as a whole, at a time much later than that of the Holocaust. the initial period. The film's economy of narrative and aesthetic pleasure systematically undermines its attempts to represent traumatic events. No doubt, Schindler's List is still very distressing, it makes people feel bad and makes people cry, but at least it doesn't show the horrible reality that people saw before. On the other hand, Alain Resnais “Night and Fog”, focuses on the event as a whole while unfolding the story. The tracking of Resnais's low-angle trolley through the shady train tracks that take the audience to the Auschwitz crematorium is practically simplified and augmented, although Resnais's use of Eastman's colors is entirely lucid. But the important point to make here is that these two films are not exactly the same in..