Review of Shoah (1985) by Rob R — 02 Mar 2011

A 9 hour documentary about the holocaust, more specifically for the majority of its running time, about the extermination camps and the details of their running. It's pretty needless to say that this is fascinating, moving stuff - as a film it has a certain unique style that it maintains throughout, giving the viewer time to take it all in and the filmmaker space to iron out every tiny little detail he feels necessary. I'd give it six stars but probably knock one off cause there were some issues.

Visuals: we obviously have a conscious decision to only show footage contemporaneous to when the film was made - in the 70s. This is all well and good but Lanzmann appeared to run out of stuff to show us while we listen to the interviews - I feel like I've seen every inch of what remains of Treblinka and Auschwitz, many times over. And the sightseeing sequence of New York and Washington 7 hours in... I think I could have beared to see the faces of the interviewees rather than yet another shot of a grassed-over mass grave.

That's the main problem I can think of for now. I'm sure there was something else nagging at me, but I forget. But whatever it was was minor, like the visuals thing. The subtitles were pretty dodgy on my copy (in terms of spelling/grammar, the meaning was there) but I believe a more recent release has sorted that out.

Ps if you fancy a 9hr drinking session accompanied by a holocaust documentary, a good drinking game would be to have a shot each time you see the documentary maker or his interpretor having a cigarette. Bear in mind they're French and it's the 70s. You'll be on the floor after 90 mins.