I’ve been waiting for Glazer’s return to cinemas since Under the Skin.
This premiered at Cannes at about the same time Martin Amis died.
Saw this tonight in a very full theater.
Amazing. Brutal. Jonathan Glazer is a genius.
There is a moment near the end when Hoss feels ill and dry heaves and looks down the deserted hallway to see the modern day maintenance staff cleaning the exhibits of the concentration camp he ran, and then cutting back to him remembering where he is and moving on.
The banality of evil is the perfect way to describe this film. It’s a must watch. Sandra Huller is amazing, as was Christian Freidel.
Terrific behind-the-scenes stuff here:
This movie is really horrible, I never ever want to see it again. The whole family is disgusting in a way that it makes you feel dirty. Family, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. It could have been shot with a mobile phone camera. There is nothing, nothing enjoyable in it (except some night scenes). It is disgusting from start to finish.
I hope that many, many people go and watch this film. Never forget, where we are all coming from. And we all have (all the time) the duty to be decent human beings, always.
This might have been a work of absolute genius. I loathed it.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the film. It’s experimental, the banality of evil, I totally get it. But I don’t think some of the “plot” elements, if you can call them that, are really well thought out or examined, they’re just thrown at you with little or no context–kind of like everything else.
Let’s take the Johnny Appleseed-like girl/daughter. Like… exactly why she’s doing what she’s doing is completely unknown, and the parents don’t seem to care much. The FLIR shots could have been amazing–at one point I thought maybe she was in a mass burial trench, which would have been REALLY interesting, but it kind of passes on and you’re left with… what. I dunno. The last shot of her putting them in a circle, I think?
The intro and music stuff is all plain annoying as well. Almost like the entire film. It’s like… the banality of evil as meta for the banality of evil. Even everything about the film as a film is a banality of evil. The only redeeming part is the aforementioned scene in the staircase that cuts to the cleaning staff at Auschwitz, which I thought was frankly… amazing. It almost redeemed everything beforehand.
Almost.
Again, I get it. But it sucked.
— Alan
Well, we loved this one. I think it’s my favorite Glazer, since it’s so bare.
I felt gripped by it throughout, and I really enjoyed the obliqueness of it all. It makes you work for it unabashedly.
The approach reminded me of a theater play I saw earlier this week, where an actress (talking about her experience performing classics) was talking about the tendency to make classics “approachable”. Her answer was: masterpieces do not need to be made approachable so you connect to them, it’s on you (the viewer) to make the work to get there.
Should I have to work so hard to appreciate a Holocaust film?
— Alan
The specific problem for me was that I felt the experience had been spoiled beforehand. I think for Zone of Interest to really work, there needs to be a realization what’s on the other side of the wall, at whatever point it occurs to you, even if it’s early. Instead, it’s given away as the premise of the movie before you’re even sitting down to watch it. I’m not sure how the average audience member could manage such a thing, but I came close! : (
I also had spoiled that Glazer shot part of it in the Holocaust Museum, so even that astonishing cut at the end of the movie was kind of telegraphed in a way. I didn’t know it was going to happen like that, of course, but I did know at some point there would be filming from inside the premises.
I really loathed the movie, and especially the way it was shot like reality TV, but I accept even that is integral to what Glazer wanted to accomplish. This was a powerful way to portray enormity, it was a fascinating observation about “evil” and the Holocaust, and I hope lots and lots of people see it, regardless of how they feel about it.
Nobody has to love or hate the same things as everything else.
I loved how it was shot in such naturalistic way, with cameras catching the acting in real time. I think it is uncharitable to refer to it is “reality TV”, It is closer to a capture of a live performance, much like if someone were to walk around filming a performance of ‘Sleep no More’.
As for the cut to the Auschwitz Museum, that totally knocked me on my ass, just an incredible moment.
I was trying to remember what the staircase scene reminded me of as it struck me as something in the theater, and I finally remembered that it kinda reminds me of 2001’s in-monolith bedroom/living room… this color-drained neoclassical style, except it in this case, it’s kinda repititive into darkness (oblivion).
I do agree, the camera placement is quite interesting, especially in the house. Almost dollhouse like, with these fixed angles always in use. You got used to what the architecture was on the first floor quite a bit.
The other thing that struck me about the film, again back to the banality, is that many of the people that come into and out of their lives (the mother, the incoming commadant that you never actually see and is the closest thing to a plot the film gets) are of course affected by what the camp is and can’t stand it. So the family lives on this weird banal island surrounded by the real world around them to which they’re also weirdly indifferent.
— Alan
I loved how you can see the mother get more and more distressed by the living situation as time goes on, to the point where she just leaves in the night because she can’t stand it.
And then we see Hedwig read the note/letter her mother left but we don’t find out what she wrote… we just see her put that too into a fire.
A few weeks ago I assigned an “offscreen conflict” script exercise prompt for my students. I had managed to successfully avoid reading or seeing any info about The Zone of Interest so I had no idea what it was until I finally watched it a few days ago. But holy shit. As I said to my class last evening, it’s basically Offscreen Conflict: The Motion Picture.
The line that killed the most for me was from the wife. “They call me the queen of Auschwitz”, delivered with so much humble pride and girlish vulnerability.
My fucking hell. I cannot blame anybody for hating this movie, but thank god for the oscar nomination which is getting so many people to see it.
I feel the same way, it is a hard watch, and it is purposely shot on a very slow pace without any real “action” outside of the truly terrifying FLIR shots of the local girl hiding fruits for the laborers and passing along notes.
The hallway shot at the end hit me very hard though, the idea of living in history is so important for people to remember. I can’t stop thinking about it. The decisions you make now, or the people you vote for now matter, how will they be looked upon in 80 years time? What you are doing now matters, we think of history as something we won’t ever repeat, but will our grandchildren feel the same way about what we did?
I thought that moment was just incredible.
Goddammit, stop reminding me about the brilliant bits or I might start getting the idea that I actually liked the movie!
I didn’t even know that’s what she was doing.
— Alan
I only knew that because I remember reading recently about that happening. Took until the second one where she picked up the note/composition for it to click.
I have to imagine she probably had friends and neighbors trapped inside, and that little bit of resistance was all she could do.
So you’re all saying this movie is no JoJo Rabbit?