InNight and Fog: A Film in History (University of Minnesota Press), Sorbonne historyprofessor Sylvie Lindeperg explores the potential of film (and all the arts by extension)to make visible things that had been unseen. Night and Fog helped crystalizethe public impression of the Nazi death industry, which had been left unclearamidst the postwar debris and the necessity of getting on with life.
Lindepergunderstands the film as a collaboration of minds and sensibilities intandem—Resnais’ editing of the footage; composer Hanns Eisler’s tone-settingmusic; the sparse narration by poet Jean Cayrol; and most of all, the researchby historian Olga Wormser-Migot. Perhaps the brilliance of Night and Fog arosein part from the conflicting visions of its authors, a creative tension thatsomehow allowed each key contributor to have his way without excluding thevisions of the others.
Someof the most fascinating material gathered by Lindeperg concerns Night and Fog’safterlife, including the political controversy it generated in France for itsvisual allusions to collaboration with the Nazis, its screening at AdolfEichmann’s trial in Jerusalem and the appropriation of the film’s archival imagesfor other projects.
