Language:
English
Year of publication:
2012
Titel der Quelle:
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
26,2 (2012) 261-275
Keywords:
Hilberg, Raul,
;
Lanzmann, Claude.
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
Abstract:
Lanzmann's documentary "Shoah" is the acknowledged masterpiece of its time, which altered the way we view Holocaust movies and the way we encounter the historical Holocaust. It is a pioneering work, a documentary of unusual length, without archival footage, and containing extended appearances of the filmmaker himself. During the first quarter-century after the film's release, however, our understanding of and reaction to it have changed. Trying to make the audience experience the film fully in the present, Lanzmann focused on witness testimony. He had to insert theatrical elements into the interviews and even resorted to Stanislavsky's method, which led to blaming the director for insensitivity and even cruelty toward the victims. Lanzmann also followed uncritically Raul Hilberg's "triad": dividing the dramatis personae of the Holocaust into perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. In doing so, Lanzmann ignored numerous Polish rescuers of Jews and created a biased picture of the Holocaust. Nevertheless, the documentary "Shoah" reached its goal: it created empathy, it stimulated production of other films dealing with the genocide, and "successor films" will use Lanzmann's method.
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