A review of The Criterion Collection Blu-ray of NIGHT AND FOG (1955) by the spring 2018 Editorial Board of the magazine FILM MATTERS.

1. Night and Fog (1955)
A Criterion Collection Blu-ray (Spine #197) Review in Thirteen Frames

2. From the green fields rises an evil presence
as we tilt down from a scenic vista
to a cathedral of the terrors.
~Noah Campagna

3. Night and Fog (1955) - Felix Carlson
In my chosen frame from
Night and Fog (1955), a
model of the concentration
camp is shown. The clean,
administrative model belies
the moral atrocities that were
committed in its full-size,
tyrannical counterpart.

4. In this frame from Night and Fog (1955), the massive pile of glasses
shows just how incalculable the death toll really was during the
Holocaust and shows just how organized and methodic the Nazis
were in slaughtering the Jewish people. –Joe Day

5. This landscape shot (7:49) from Night
and Fog (1955) visualizes the eerie
sense of calm of the film. The weeds
and grass that are starting to cover the
train track make the entrance to the
concentration camp feel like a ghost
town, while also exposing how the area
could have been confused with a nice
location in the country. The deserted
landscape juxtaposed to the narrator’s
commentary of what would have
happened when Jews traveled to the
camps creates an unsettling feeling
that is amplified by the fact that the
film was released only ten years after
the end of World War II.
~Alexis Dickerson
Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955)

6. The aloofness lingering in Alain Resnais's short-length documentary, Night and Fog (1955), is
stressed by the manifestation of night, fog, and the moon amid the Auschwitz-Birkenau
Concentration Camp. Nature and genocide: two juxtapositional vitalities. Juxtaposing the elements
of nature, the intentions of the camp was, by design, constructed for man-made demise and the true
horror is in that it breaks nature’s conventions. The depth in this establishing shot is
compounded by its absence, devoid of inhabitants because of the amoral nature inflicted upon by
the camp, yet it subsists as if it is in anticipation of people reappearing.
The Uncanny Valley of Alain Resnais’s Night and Fog
by Lily Frame

7. Night and Fog (Argos Films, 1955)
Night and Fog (1955)
This frame from the documentary Night
and Fog (Resnais, 1955) shows the literal
reality of the Third Reich's “nacht und
nebel” (German for “night and fog”)
directive: the sudden disappearance of
millions of Jews, “gypsies,” homosexuals,
and political dissidents under the cover of
darkness. The frame, pulled by Resnais
from actual Nazi footage, captures the
clandestine nature of the Nazis’ Holocaust
operations, as the train carries victims
through literal night and fog to one of the
greatest atrocities ever committed by
human hands. The soldiers looking on at
the train remind us that this was an act
committed not by monsters or demons,
but by men; and if we are not diligent in
remembering our history, one that could
be committed by men again.
Sean Froeb, Film Matters spring 2018

8. To Each His Own
This frame depicts the
gates of Buchenwald
concentration camp upon
which the bent metal
shapes the words “dedem
das seine”: to each his
own or to each what he
deserves. The frame is at
once profoundly terrifying
and disturbing in that the
Nazis truly felt that the
unfortunate souls who
passed through those
gates were in fact getting
what they deserved; little
did they know that in the
end, many of them would
go to trial for their horrific
war crimes and in turn, get
what they rightfully
deserved.
~Paige Marsicano
Copyright: Argos Films, Night and Fog
(1955)

10. Alain Resnais’s inclusion of
these scenes in his film Night
and Fog (1955) gives the
audience another perspective
on the horrors of the
concentration camps. These
small trinkets show that the
prisoners were still able to
find hope and joy despite the
harsh world they lived in. The
filmmaker provides a more
complete picture by showing
multiple facets of their lives,
and the capacity of the
human spirit to persevere
even in the worst of
conditions.
Ashley R. Pickett is a full-time student majoring in film at the University of North Carolina
Wilmington.

11. Night and Fog (1955)
Dir. Alain Resnais
By Jose Ramirez
● The frame from filmmaker Alain Resnais’s
documentary Night and Fog (1955)
showcases various emotions such as: pain,
loss, fear, neglect, hopelessness, weakness,
depravity, sadism, and remorse. We watch
this frail man clinging onto life as Resnais
immerses us in a dreadful world whilst
allowing us to explore our humanity,
questioning history and what it was built
on, and who we are today in terms of
human compassion and understanding.

12. This shot from Night and Fog is
incredibly powerful because it creates a
parallel between the visual of the man
in the train helping to close the freight
car door and the idea of sealing one’s
own fate. The low quality of the film
stock only makes it more jarring and
impactful.
Night and Fog (1955)
Ashley R. Spillane

13. Night and Fog is littered with
disturbing images of the Holocaust
that provide a glimpse of the
despair felt by its victims; this image
in particular shows the disbelief and
fear that is seen in the eyes of many
of these victims throughout the film
and the claustrophobic framing of
the closing train doors adds a sense
of hopelessness or desperation.
– William P. Sullivan
Night and Fog (1955)

14. In this frame from Night and Fog
(1955), the use of hard lighting
and low angles presents this Nazi
as an antagonizing figure without
saying it outright.
Ryan Wentz

15. Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection
• Special Features
• New 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Excerpt from a 1994 audio interview with director Alain Resnais
• New interview with filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer
• Face aux fantômes, a ninety-nine-minute 2009 documentary featuring historian Sylvie
Lindeperg that explores the French memory of the Holocaust and the controversy
surrounding the film’s release
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar Colin MacCabe
• New cover by Sarah Habibi
• For more information about this product, please visit:
• https://www.criterion.com/films/238-night-and-fog