Nuit et brouillard (1955)

User Rating:

8.6/10   

Director:

Alain Resnais

Writer:

Jean Cayrol (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

21 October 1960 (Finland)

Genre:

Documentary | Short | History | War

Plot:

The history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.

Plot Keywords:

Concentration Camp | Nazi | Death Camp | Poland | Violence

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Michel Bouquet	...	Récitant / Narrator (uncredited)
Reinhard Heydrich	...	Himself (behind Hitler) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Heinrich Himmler	...	Himself (with Hitler) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (views parade) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Julius Streicher	...	Himself (makes speech) (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
Alain Resnais

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jean Cayrol		writer
Chris Marker		uncredited

Produced by
Anatole Dauman	....	producer
Samy Halfon	....	producer
Philippe Lifchitz	....	producer

Original Music by
Hanns Eisler

Cinematography by
Ghislain Cloquet
Sacha Vierny

Film Editing by
Alain Resnais		(uncredited)

Production Management
Édouard Muszka	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
André Heinreich	....	assistant director
Jean-Charles Lauthe	....	assistant director
Chris Marker	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Jacqueline Chasney	....	sound recordist
Henri Colpi	....	sound recordist

Special Effects by
Henry Ferrand	....	special effects

Editorial Department
Anne Sarraute	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Georges Delerue	....	orchestrator

Other crew
Henri Michel	....	historical consultant
Olga Wormser	....	historical consultant
Alexander Alan	....	text: English version (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Argos Films

Distributors

• Aurora (2006) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Ripley's Home Video (2007) (Italy) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2007) (Australia) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Night and Fog

Runtime:

32 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Brazil:18 | Iceland:16 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Australia:M | Italy:T | Finland:K-16 | UK:15

Company:

Argos Films

Trivia:

Jean Cayrol found the project immensely distressing to work on, given the fact that he had been a concentration camp inmate. How he got round it was not to provide text, segment by segment, to Resnais who would normally have edited the images around it. Instead, Cayrol wrote an initial text based on his recollections of Resnais' first cut. Resnais' assistant Chris Marker then reordered the script to match the sequence of shots and returned the restructured script to Cayrol who then rewrote the script.

Quotes:

Récitant/Narrator: Those of us who pretend to believe that all this happened at a certain time and in a certain place, and those who refuse to see, who do not hear the cry to the end of time.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Grey Zone (2001)

A masterpiece as only the French could make

This movie is the greatest Holocaust film ever, and few will ever deny this fact. Beautiful and intense, its makes the stomach turn when one sees the footage and pictures obtained in this film. I've never seen footage this brutal in my entire life, not even in a movie. The voice-overs seem odd at place, but it is really the voice of history, speaking of unspeakable horrors which are captured almost perfectly in this film. A dark tribute to those who lost their lives in the concentration camps. This should be used as a teaching tool for tolerance and the atrocities of World War II.