When I initially heard you state the name of the director who did "Night and Fog" I KNEW that I recognized it. Upon asking you to restate the name you said something I no longer recognized.
Needless to say upon returning back to my dorm I was inspired to find out more about the creator. As it turned out he directed a film "Last Year In Marienbad" I had recently watched. I knew that I recognized the man's voice narrating or at least the style of narration in the film (though apparent in a lot French New-wave). "Last Year In Marienbad" is a film I would ABSOLUTELY recommend. The style of shooting and narrative of the film are incredibly well done, and if you view it you'll know what I'm talking about (think a French, older, David Lynch).
Getting back to the topic. .
"Night and Fog", and "Triumph of the Will" are both two powerful films. While Triumph is a documentary, it's easy to see why the film is labeled as propaganda. Of course it's going to get slumped in, the documentary is chronicling the life of a political power and the rise of what appeared as something that would bring prosperity to Germany (Deütschland!). If Reifenstahl wanted to make an accurate documentary she would have had to complete it and tell the whole story, especially if she wanted to appear unbiased. Knowing that it was completed during the Nazi period means she perhaps had to have the film OK'd beforehand, leading me to believe that no matter what she may have created, it would have had a nazi tilt to it. Due to these things we see the film as propaganda to one of the worst political movements in all of history.
Accordingly, "Night and Fog" seconds that notion. The film is a collage of battered victims and landscapes that stand where horrible events once occurred. Accompanied by music and narration the film's images are offset to the viewer, allowing them to objectively view the brutality of the Nazis and numb the images displayed. I see very many re-occurrences in the cinematography of "Night and Fog" and "Last Year In Marienbad" and both adhere to a new age in film making brought upon by the French.
Other things that I've enjoyed recently:
Last Year In Marienbad:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054632/
Pierrot Le Fou:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059592/
Interesting article involving Lil' Wayne and teaching in New Orleans:
http://www.oxfordamericanmag.com/content.cfm?ArticleID=390
This music video:
http://www.escycle.com/videos/Lau_Nau_Painovoimaavaloa.mp4
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1 comment:
Would this film have given the viewer a different feeling if the artist had made different choices?
What's the social function of an event or ritual?
What was similar/different about this event than the event that happened yesterday in Grant Park?
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