38, 136-139 / BD 100-104 Shoah and 4 Films After Shoah

[peerpee]

Davebert, that doesn't happen consistently throughout. There are a few English speakers, etc.

[ZizouJuve]

I just finished watching this a few hours ago and I'm blown away. A wonderful release and my first MoC purchase. I'll definately be buying more releases, the choice of films keep getting better and better, especially the new Melville title.

[Anonymous]

Better late than never but I don't want to miss the opportunity to thank MoC for their fantastic DVD release of Shoah. Not only is the image and sound quality excellent, but the subtitles very accurate and the overall package absolutely impressive. Great job!

[colinr0380]

The latest Moviemail podcast is dedicated to Shoah.

[T99]

I'd like to buy the MOC version of Shoah, but just can't afford it. So, I'm thinking of getting the much cheaper South Korean release instead. Does anyone know about its quality? Apparently it's not a bootleg and should have removable English subtitles.

[Tim]

Save up and buy the MoC. It's a brilliant edition of an essential film. At least, that's what I think. I gather that the Beaver review should be up shortly, however, so you will be able to check the caps there and reach your own conclusions.

[lazier than a toad]

Also one of the best aspects of an MoC release is its booklets, or book in the case of Shoah. And I doubt the Korean version will have anything to compare.

[Matt]

As much as I admire Shoah, it's probably not something you'd want to watch more than once every several years. Why not just borrow it from your local library? If they don't have it, ask them to get it for you through interlibrary loan.

[davebert]

There you go again, pushing those damn libraries!

[Ashirg]

DVD Outsider review

[T99]

Okay, thanks. I'll probably save up then for the MOC disc instead. The booklet sounds too good to live without.

[peerpee]

The MoC edition features the most up-to-date Lanzmann-approved English subtitle translation available anywhere (better than existing 35mm prints). There are hundreds of improvements (and a special SDH track for the deaf and hard of hearing).

[Tribe]

Just got my MOC Shoah today from Xploited Cinema...my hack worked, and this is a splendid way to start region free. Beautiful package, fantastic looking transfer.

Region free at last, region free at last, thank God almighty, I'm region free at last.

Tribe

[Steven H]

Just got my MOC Shoah today from Xploited Cinema...my hack worked, and this is a splendid way to start region free. Beautiful package, fantastic looking transfer.

Region free at last, region free at last, thank God almighty, I'm region free at last.

Hear, hear. But now life turns into a game of watching the dollar sink against the GBP and the euro, even letting relatively cheap Second Run releases slip through the cracks, nevertheless massive MoC box sets. On the other hand, chicks dig guys who're region free.

[domino harvey]

I can confirm that last point

[yukiyuki]

It's in Vulgar Modernism (which is OOP but still easy to find at a reasonable price). It may have started out as a Voice essay (I don't have my copy at hand), but in any event, it was published well before they started putting their content online.

is the essay similar with the one in Village Voice Film Guide?

[Don Lope de Aguirre]

"It showed nothing at all." - Jean-Luc Godard


For those seriously interested in Shoah I would highly, highly recommend reading Godard's comments on this work in Libby Saxton's essay titled 'Anamnesis and Bearing Witness: Godard/Lanzmann' in the book Forever Godard. I am a little surprised it wasn't included in the booklet (not even a mention of the dispute that I saw) but it is absolutely essential and nourishing reading.

[colinr0380]

DVD Beaver review

[accatone]

"It showed nothing at all." - Jean-Luc Godard

For those seriously interested in Shoah I would highly, highly recommend reading Godard's comments on this work in Libby Saxton's essay titled 'Anamnesis and Bearing Witness: Godard/Lanzmann' in the book Forever Godard. I am a little surprised it wasn't included in the booklet (not even a mention of the dispute that I saw) but it is absolutely essential and nourishing reading.

This is indeed a very good text/essay and you made me re-read it this afternoon. Just to give a little more info about it, its not just comments from Godard but an essay that brings together two different opinons of how cinema is able or not able to deal with the Holocaust. In the first chapters Saxton portrays the different positions (don't hate me for shortening the text). Godard on the one hand beliefs in the image as a form of resurrection often quoted with St Pauls bible thesis "the image will come at the time of resurrection"(this thesis and the quote can be found in many recent Godard films and is also discussed in the also highly recommanden interview book with Ishaghpour). On this particular subject that is the Holocaust, Saxton brings us to the "pellicule maudite" (the accursed reel) that is the missing image of the extermination inside the gas chambers. Godard is cited with "because if it were shown, something would change". (I re-cite this quote to illustrate his belief in the image as a form of resurrection - redemtion). For Lanzmann its almost the opposite - "For Lanzmann, figuration becomes falsification; (…)".

Of course this essays goes much deeper and i am doing no justice here, however i just wanted to point out these two different positions which are in my opinion very interesting and important in general cinema terms and as a die hard Godardian so important for the reception of (his) films.

[the dancing kid]

Another interesting article that involves Shoah is Miriam Hansen's essay "Schindler's List Is Not Shoah: The Second Commandment, Popular Modernism, and Public Memory." It has more to do with the reception of Spielberg's film than Lanzmann's, but I still think it's worth a read for fans of this film.

[Gregor Samsa]

I watched this compulsively over the last couple of days (after having wanted to see it for about a decade) and it was truly quite the experience. So many emotionally crushing tales, and all so acutely presented. The juxtaposition between the stories themselves and the minimalistic 'current' footage is almost hypnotic. As someone who really dislikes the tendency of modern documentaries to rely upon soundbites and badly acted 're-enactments', the style of Shoah felt like a much better approach, although granted not every doco has nine hours to tell its story. What also struck me about its approach was how democratic it felt while placing memory at the forefront. If a narrator feels the need to speak for 5 or 20 minutes, Lanzmann lets them, and so there isn't really the feeling that people are being cut off as they tell their own history. Its the narrators being placed at the forefront rather than the narrative, and that's quite rare in historical documentary.

The use of select archival material is also very skillful and heightens this effect---the letter that ends 'The First Era' is particularly chilling in how it highlights the dehumanisation that so many narrators graphically discuss. While very depressing its also one of the cautionary themes of the film, that to dehumanise people is to rob them of life and allow the mind to commit mass murder, so that remembering our common humanity is possibly one of the only protections against a genocidal mindset.

I haven't read that much of the literature surrounding the film so I'm not sure if its been heavily discussed already, but I thought one of the most unique and effective elements was its use of a non-chronological narrative. Presenting this traumatic past for what it is rather than a series of events culminating in Liberation really puts a different angle on it. Rather than a narrative leading to freedom (with its many connotations) its one great procession of horror, and subtextually conveys the feeling that there was no escape. In other words, it cuts out the historical perspective where we can take even minimal relief in saying for instance 'August 1942, that was just under 3 years before all this ended'. Instead we get placed in the middle of events, so to speak, where beyond a guttural level of these narrators having survived to tell their tales, the future isn't so certain, as they experienced it. Its an unusual perspective to take, but perhaps a more truthful one. And for all the sadness that has been expressed throughout its nine hours, that last poetic image of the man waiting alone in the Warsaw ghetto really brings it home.

[MichaelB]

What also struck me about its approach was how democratic it felt while placing memory at the forefront. If a narrator feels the need to speak for 5 or 20 minutes, Lanzmann lets them, and so there isn't really the feeling that people are being cut off as they tell their own history.

One of the things that most impressed me about the DVD edition of Christopher Nupen's We Want The Light (a documentary that I suspect fans of Shoah would get a great deal out of - my review should make it obvious why) is that he uses the medium to take advantage of all the extra space at his disposal.

Whereas the original film was, by necessity, restricted to a commissioned length of 60 minutes, the DVD includes some three and a half hours of additional interview material, including lengthy reminiscences by three Holocaust survivors (the third is 30 minutes, and is presented with no additional visual material). Nupen permits himself a few dissolve-cuts to tighten things up a bit, but for the most part his interviewees have the luxury of as much time as they need to express themselves.

[Antares]

I didn't know where to put this on the forum, so I decided to put it here...

Auschwitz ‘Work Sets You Free’ sign stolen

[-X

[doc mccoy]

I'm glad this thread has been pulled up again - I recently caught this and I was totally mesmerized by it. It's quite shocking and astounding how most introductory materials concerning the Holocaust tend to gloss over its more horrific aspects - the beatings and deceptions used to lure the Jews into the gas chambers, the lack of remorse and even glee of some citizens; films such as Schindler's List and Holocaust, and basic school history books tend to present a more sanitized version of how events occurred, lessening the gravity of the crime. This film should be compulsory viewing in schools. Brilliant choice and brilliant effort with the booklet, MoC.

Have you considered releasing any other Lanzmann documentaries?

[tenia]

hi-res double-sided pdf of the actual file that was used to print the flyers

I've just seen this, and unfortunately, the link is dead.
Could someone put it back somewhere ? I would like to print it and put it inside my box.

Thanks !