Historian Reviews The Zone of Interest (2023)
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- čas přidán 6. 02. 2024
- University of London Historian, Emmett Sullivan, reviews Johnathan Glazer's historical drama, Zone of Interest.
Staring Christian Friedel and Sandra Huller
@A24
#jonathanglazer #zoneofinterest #germany #worldwar2 #concentrationcamps #filmresearch
Did you really not mention that all the sound? Or did I miss it? The sound. I saw the movie and the thing that was most powerful about it was the background noise of Auschwitz. The constant rumble. The vague sounds of shootings and screams and locomotives and machinery and moaning and crying. Even though you are never seeing the death camp, you’re constantly hearing it - nonstop. It’s an incredibly oppressive sound. When I walked out of the theater, my body felt relief from not having to hear it anymore. It felt relieving to be free of it. It deserves to win the Oscar for best sound. And I think that’s the only one that has a chance of winning, except best international film.
@larrydirtybird How right you are. Devastating sound designer
One perceptive review I saw said that there are 2 movies here: the visual one and the aural one. And the very "vague sounds" reinforce the idea that the camp noises could (mostly) become background noise.
Even crazier when you think about the fact that those sounds were all added in post. I can not imagine as an actor who played a role in this movie acting out these scenes in peaceful silence and then seeing their actions played out in the final product to the sounds of such a atrocity.
There are three films. The one you watch, the one you hear and the third one playing in your mind which combines the above and your own knowledge.
I couldn't handle the sounds, & I've only watched reviews so far! Don't think I can sit through much longer than that with this soundtrack! The importance it's given here reminds me a bit of "Chernobyl" - where the sound almost became a character, or at least made the reactor seem like one.
The movie stuck with me for days. The part where she is talking about how this is her home and did not want to leave really hit me. Great analysis.
An evil man of considerable power and even he had a nagging wife . I don't mean that in a flippant way, I mean it in the normality if a family unit and the mother knowing best
Detroit was also intensely disturbing. I saw The Zone of Interest this evening and this movie is meticulously crafted and deserves all the acclaim. If it doesn't at least win best sound at the Oscars the Oscars are dead to me.
Oh please. The same factors and type of people that brought the riots in Detroit are the same factors driving black on black crime today. You didn't see Jews go out and destroy their communities after being freed from the Nazis. Instead, they created Israel.
It’s haunting af
I think it’s most likely winning international feature and sound
I just seen the movie and it's trash. A movie about a family of the Reich that doesn't care about the jews and how they go about their daily lives..WOOOOOOW. the clever Parr was having aushwitz just feet away from their house. Not impressed by this movie at all.
@@andresbecerra1183Eh, something tells me they’ll just give it to Oppenheimer because it’s big and loud. Even though this film truly deserves the award instead.
And this is coming from someone who _liked_ Oppenheimer’s sound.
I visited Auschwitz this year. Our guide said that Hedwig referred to Auschwitz as "Paradise on Earth" in her personal diary.
I visited 11 years ago, caught the bus back sat next to a guide . He said its such s depressing job retelling the horrors everyday, cannot make jokes, all too serious. Remember the guides.
@mvnorsel6354 I couldn't help but think of what it was like to be the actual cleaning crew for the museum. Do they actually clean in silence every day? I couldn't imagine gossiping or making small talk with my coworkers inside a place like that. I wondered how long the employees stick around for. I can't imagine the solemnity felt every workday.
the flash forward really got me. when it lingered on the shoes i was on the verge of tears. there was some very dark, absurd humour in it at parts but the flash forward really makes you confront what you've just seen watching.
That was good esp. for American audiences since the display of shoes at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum has been removed---I assume due to deterioration in the shoes. Whatever the reason, the gut-punch that that part of the exhibit created is now missing.
@@ganeshpatel8065what exactly do you think is propaganda?
I felt nausea and almost vomit at that part. Just like the man, felt sick AND was double disgusted. Brilliant.
@@ganeshpatel8065watch out we gotta flat earther comin thru folks 😂
@ganeshpatel8065that's my kind of propaganda, well thought out that hits the common core of human kind.... But the other propaganda that treats its audience like morons, I'm assuming, is your kind of propaganda.
As the director Jonathan Glazer has made clear, this is not just a depiction of a period in history. The film is designed to show how we are all - lazily ignorant or not - complicit in vast crimes being committed around the world, such as the child labour and environmental destruction that provides our devices; or the lethal violence that supplies our cocaine, tobacco and other recreational substances... and so on. We should not come away from this film thinking that we are nothing like the Höss family. We are just like them.
❤
One thing is being ignorant of the things that happens say in Cuba, or North Korean while living in America and another is having an “Auschwitz” camp literally next door to your home.
@@NormaLilia24 Fair enough. The billionaire-owned corporate media, of course, doesn't report accurately on either of those two countries which have for so long been subjected to enormously cruel sanctions by capitalist America.
I agree, I think too much is being said about Gaza, obviously a very real comparison but it suggests we aren’t the problem. If you go to H+M on your high street you are investing in child labour and crimes against humanity albeit from a distance,. If you pick up a cheap piece of ham from your local supermarket you are contributing to the mass killing of trillions of animals each year. We are all carrying on like the Hoss’s as of everything is okay.
The drugs trade really is an obvious one.. I never understood how people think coke is ethical in anyway.
In my viewing of the film, the central point seemed to be the Hoss family as lower class striving for upward mobility and this is what drives Hedvig into a fury. She doesn’t want to lose all she’s grabbed onto and built and grasps it so tenaciously she’s willing to reveal to her husband that he matters less to her than her villa lifestyle. Also, I think you missed how corrupting the system was for the entire family. Even the boys act out kidnapping and barricading in the camp, complete with hissing gas sound. The literal highlighting of the young Polish girl who risks her life to help the prisoners was so touching and effective. That her efforts are rewarded by an anonymous prisoner with the gift of poetry seems very important. A most remarkable film. We saw it twice because many parts of it were so subtle as to be easily missed on first viewing. I agree with another commenter that the soundscape is just as important as the visual part of the movie.
I wouldn't say lower class, more like lower middle-class. The boys acting out the cruelties as play is also nothing abnormal, if you think about how a game like cowboys and Indians is also a childlike simplification of a hostile takeover of an entire continent.
About the girl with the gifts - at one point in the movie there is an altercation followed by an implied beating/execution heard in the background, where the prisoners were caught fighting over an apple - you might've missed this part but I watched the film subtitled.
Didn’t realize why the bothers was hissing until now.
@@martinturon4799 yes, I caught that. Part of the amazingly heightened importance of the soundscape. Even trying to help, in that situation, leads to fatal consequences, for one person
You also see the reality of the upper mobility when Hoess is in the ornate room and he does not belong there. He spent most of the evening by himself looking out at the opulence. Not truly enjoying it just like when he's in the opulence of his home. He always seems like a fish out of water.
Höss...
Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil” phrase was coined to describe Eichmann and his ilk. Höss has struck me as the embodiment of that concept. It doesn’t necessarily describe a person so much as an entire government’s genocidal acts. Anyone in the US wondering how such evil could be ignored needs to take a look at how we respond to the average homeless addict. We ignore suffering we could alleviate all the time.
We ignore our own history. Kristallnacht we know about, most of us. But Wilmington? Rosewood? Tulsa? Where whole, vibrant, prosperous communities of african americans were wiped out, erased in fact and in memory. The Nazi’s looked to us for inspiration and justification. If our national leadership had trended that way, what happened in Germany could have happened here. There were enough who would have been willing to carry out the acts. And more than enough to ignore and look the other way.
@@hifi6638not surprising as the Nazis studied the eugenic practices of GB and the USA which in fact are rooted in socialist concepts the very clue is in the name National Socialist Party.
I vividly remember some US soldiers with a prisoner on a leash and posing with skulls. That wasn't a long time ago...
Excellent point!
I agree with you. I don't think the reviewer actually understands Arendt's concept.
That image of Hedwig holding her lovely child as she enjoys her beautiful garden looks like a beautiful tranquil painting (or more accurately a nazi propaganda poster from the 30s) - then the sound brings the viewer up against the reality of the context like a car hitting a concrete wall. A stunning achievement - and a wonderful way to craft a compelling film that explores sound and image in such a profound manner.
It's entirely made in the style of the first color films of that time.
A random comment about Glazer, but he has a beautiful knack for capturing sunlight. At the start of Sexy Beast, you can almost feel the heat of the hot Spanish afternoon as Gal sunbathes by his pool. Glazer does the same in TZOI. The differnce being the sound filling the sunny afternoons isn't the sound of grasshoppers!
Hedwig got to live out her days in peace and relative luxury until 1989, never paying a price for her complicity.
That makes me so Angry 😡
A very small minority of the people involved in those crimes was punished really. It takes both the perpetrators and the people willing to live among them and look the other way.
Henry Kissinger died in his own bed. In our world monsters walk the earth every day without being held to account for their grotesque acts.
@@maryannchaney5084 I've come to accept that there's no reason power should go to the good guys and generally it doesn't. We live in a world ruled by evil and corrupt people.
The United States took in some of these Nazis to build NASA. Talking about getting away with it in luxury. Those scientists lived well and had post war glory on US soil.
Even the German POWs were treated better than the black, indigenous and Hispanic Americans in the 40s and 50s. After they served their time some of them became US citizens and were welcomed with open arms in local communities.
Middle Eastern countries took some of them in as war advisors. Very few were punished.
Very impressed with this authentic and historically accurate portrayal. There was also no attempt to cast actors who perhaps were not German for example. German speakers are important for authenticity
This movie got under my skin the way human ashes engulfed the creek and the family on the boat. A whole day has passed and I cant get the thoughts and guilt out of my head. Im Korean American, furthest away from this historical context, and I couldnt stop thinking about North Korea the entire movie. The slave camps. The institutionalized, distanced and even admired suffering of the defectors. Caricature of a dictatorship. I feel like the Hoss family
Right, is t it ironic that Hollywood will make movie after movie about Auschwitz but not dare make a film about what is the reality in North Korea … surely by now everyone knows what happened there thanks to all the defactors who continue to speak on it
I don’t think it’s a fair comparison. You have no power over North Korea or its government unlike the head of that family and the numerous wives who didn’t bat an eyelash wearing the clothes of the Jewish women who were robbed and mostly killed. I don’t mean to offend you of course. It is how you feel
Very well put. And a movie that will hang around in my head, I think, forever.
I thought about NK when I saw this too. We go on about our lives and God only knows what atrocities are going on in North Korea at any given moment.
if this got under your skin you should watch Glazers other masterpiece "Under the Skin" lol
The sound design of the movie, and the music at the end--was chilling. I hope who ever did that won an award of some kind. Amazing
One of the lines that was most jarring was when Hedwig is talking about how she has everything she could want on her doorstep. Considering what's on get doorstep it is a really disturbing sentiment.
The scene that really sticks with me though (though the entire movie is going to be impossible to forget) is when Hedwig's mother opens the curtains and sees the fire from the crematoriums. It's so hellish and makes me sick to my stomach.
This is one topic than can literally never be overdone with too many good films. Even after the few good films we have, we're no closer at understanding why this still happens.
Largely because we haven't done any films based on the source history of racial cleansings, the Nazis studied in the US. The American apartheid laws that were the foundation of the Nuremberg Laws. And no films have been made on the genocidal famines instigated in India by the British empire.
@@adriannespring8598’source history’ is a real uninformed way of talking about racism. You think everything has a source as if there’s some mathematical equation to it? Also if ur gonna point out how devastating and atrocious colonial practices were, name something more than just the Bengal famine, thats just scratching the ice-berg, u sound like u just searched up some wikipedia pages and some blogs about how ‘the Nazis actually weren’t that bad becuz these guys also did bad stuff therefore…’ You know its possible to stress how historically fucking significant the Holocaust is and also stress how other genocides were being committed by imperial powers, if you think its a Western European invention though you’d be sorely mistaken though, and if u want to talk about genocides around the period of ww2 than you might as well mention the Shar genocide in Libya, where 1/8th of the entire population was decimated, but i guess that doesnt fit ur moral argument about how America and the West are the ‘real villains’. There are films made about genocides other than the Holocaust if you had bothered to look up any
This happens and will continue to happen since we as humans contain the seeds of evil in each and every one of us.And one of the worst evils that mankind chooses to perpetuate is that of greed.
@@adriannespring8598
Because what you said is not factually accurate.
@@hamwithcheese586what part of it is inaccurate?
This film should be required viewing at least three times every five years. We get lulled to sleep by a capitalistic and materialist culture, and, it just becomes much too easy to drift into social and economic apathy. This is startling and serious stuff, and, it should be! Our compassion and commiseration needs to be resurrected in our midst. Bravo to Mr. Amis and the people responsible for the filming, acting and release of this incredible motion picture. It should serve as an eternal reminder of our responsibilities to our fellow human beings....Bravo!!
Where are you getting any kind of connection between capitalism, materialism and fucking aushwitz…?
Best International Feature Film and Best Sound.
Congratulations, looking forward to seeing it very much.
Man, I could listen to you talk movies, all day.
Check out his Dr Strangelove
An incredible film, it's disturbing in a subtle and clever way. The part on the flowers was the most shocking.
All of it… 😢
Very articulate. An excellent summary, especially your last few statements
Thank you kindly!
I'm on my knees emotionally after watching this. What are we going to do about it? 2024 and complicit
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5:11 It is necessary to make an addendum when we refer to those Germans with a high degree of culture and civility. In fact, I believe that the majority of the population there was very mediocre. If we mention talents in the German musical world (classical music)and in the world of letters and other arts, the percentage will not be so high. Yes, famous jurists helped Hitler create the terrible legislation of the Third Reich, but if we look at who the men at the top were, they were very stupid and banal men, stupid bureaucrats as Hannah Arendt said. Saying that Hitler corrupted an extremely literate and educated people is something that must be analyzed carefully.
You were quite brilliant when you mentioned that the Jewish people are not directly represented in the film, they are in the film indirectly, through the smoke and the ashes. It was an extremely powerful interpretation of yours! Glazer the director is Jewish.
10:05 I saw somewhere here on CZcams an interview with Sandra Hüller where she says that during the process of creating the character she gave the director the idea of transforming Hedwig's walk into something less beautiful, an almost animalistic walk, which would be one of the counterpoints of Hedwig's almost angelic visual figure on screen. The only scene in which she seems to be more brutal is when she learns that she will have to leave her wonderful house, then she becomes fierce with one of the maids, who did not dry the downstairs hallway with the necessary zeal.
11:41 You brilliantly pointed out the situation involving Hedwig's mother and I have seen some analysis that that woman somehow cared about what was happening in the field next door. Personally, I believe that the mother only left because she was bothered by the terrible noise and the smell of burning human bodies. I don't see empathy from that woman in relation to extermination. As soon as she arrives, she comments to her daughter: "That Jewish woman I used to clean for must be there. I was crazy about the curtains in her house, but at the furniture auction someone gave a very good bid and I couldn't keep her curtains. She seemed like a nice woman but who knows what she was scheming with her other Jewish friends, all these Bolshevik ideas."
It is important to realize that all of this did not last just a few days, but years. Hedwig herself says it took her at least three years to put the garden and greenhouse in order.
12:15 I just didn't understand the final part of the analysis. I don't know if you would take back what many have said about the film representing "the banality of evil." If I can understand, you are not in favor of this type of argument. You claim that everything was meticulously calculated and thought out, that evil alone cannot be blamed. But isn't evil capable of executing things with exactly that "refinement"?
I always think of the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben in his studies on the Holocaust. He says that the concentration camp is the most powerful example of the State of Exception ever equaled. The State has the power to execute and not be questioned about the executions. The Jews, completely deprived of civil and legal rights, are reduced to the state of "bare life", they are docile and killable bodies, without mediation. There is literally no one to turn to.
The commentator is an idiot. Has no fucking idea what the words "banality" or "evil" mean.
*spoilers* I am reading many interesting comments here regarding “The Banality of Evil”, but it’s important to remember that the end detours into present day cleaners maintaining the Auschwitz museum. They go about their jobs as collected and dispassionate. A strong statement that one can be acclimated to any horrors if they are exposed long enough.
Absolutely true
You got it.
The commentator on this video has no fucking idea what the phrase "Banality of Evil" means.
Magnificent review. Particularly the conclusion. A deeper reflection. Much appreciated.
very kind thanks @mrblistertips
We appreciate the insights shared in this video. They have a profound impact on people.
The director referred to the genocide in Gaza as he accepted the Oscar.
because of course he did
@laurie9557
@sifridbassoon
Because the movie he was accepting it for, it asked us to recognize what we do even now.
Accepting something that declares it preserves our comfort, security, confidence and spirit when, in fact, is only whispering a sweet nothing into your ear as it commits all the evil it wants for itself.
Not you.
Without any real contract between it and yourself to stop it from manifesting it's lust on you, too.
My thought at the end of the film was that it reminded my of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. No, there were no spaceships and robots, but the style of the stark contrast between people doing mundane things such as eating or playing games and the much larger backstory, the contrast between bright colors and sharp cuts to dark images and the sudden changes in sound-level that made silence more oppressive than the sound.
I think the director studied Kubrick and emulated him. I think that style works very well here.
Interesting comparison 👍
Under the skin is incredibly kubrickian
I’m going to see it Saturday morning. It’s the only time I could find it showing here near me. I cannot wait to see an actual film!
And how was it? I am trying to watch it today.
Masterful summary. Well done.
And so it continues. The constant hum.
Ouch and yes.
💔
Excellent analysis!
It sounds the perfect representation of Hannah Arendt's quote, "The banality of evil." I know you dismiss that but it underlies even the greed that you suggest is at the heart.
The commentator doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about
It's a masterpiece.
The only possible error I spotted was the ignoring of blackout rules in the Berlin scenes.
This film is a masterpiece
The noises in the background of this film are important both dramatically and symbolically. As someone else has pointed out the noises represent a second, more true level of reality.
The real Hoss was apparently contrite on the eve of his hanging in 1947 - he returned to the Catholic Church (which he’d rejected in his teens) and he wrote to his eldest son: “learn to think and judge for yourself . . . Listen above all to the VOICE in your heart” (my capitals). I think the film portrays this ‘voice in the heart’ through the music, which we can hear in two key scenes - the girl leaving the apples, and Hoss’ gastric distress. The girl cannot ignore the background noises, the voices in her heart like Hoss does. The music sounds like the awful voice of god, conscience, judgement, and to me sound like a combination of Buddhist tantric fanfares and the sound of an ulcer forming.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the film is that the family is shown as human, even likeable (the casting of the innocent teacher from The White Ribbon was shrewd). Hoss is not a cackling monster, despite conducting the most monstrous crimes. He’s been seduced by the Nazi ideology of ‘pure living within nature’ but has chosen to repress the unspoken, genocidal flip side of this ideology. Don’t forget that the Nazis never really admitted that they were systematically murdering people; to the German people they were described as ‘work camps’.
The film is extremely relevant today, not just as a reminder from history, but it should also reflect the modern world, where public image is everything and we ignore suffering and atrocity ‘on the other side of the wall’.
such a wonderfully thoughtful analysis. this movie left me absolutely shell-shocked. so well done.
Powerful explanation of a difficult an complex horror.
I like your review of the movie but i think you have missed the entirety of the point of the phrase "banality of evil". The very origins of it agree with the stance you are taking. Before Eichmanns trial in Jerusalem he was characterized as a truly evil man one that was uniquely capable of carrying out such heinous acts. The point of Hannah Arendt's observations and the origin of the phrase is that there is nothing unique or "evil" at all about Eichmann that led to him becoming who he did. That he was a banal man who simply had aspirations of power and found himself in a place where power was achieved through commiting murder the best. And how people who are willing to be or are turned into cogs in the governments that commit these atrocities are in most ways everyday people.
The commentator is a moron. He uses words he doesn't know the meaning of.
'Auschwitz' during high school an exchange student from Finland taught me along with the rest of the class the correct pronunciation. 'Zone of Interest' has something to teach all of us.
For the record, the name “Höss“ has an umlaut, which means the ”o“ is pronounced ”er“, as in ”hearse“.
Or as in "her curls", "word", ... - so it shouldn't be difficult for English native speakers to pronounce the name.
@@klio9611It's not difficult but most people are not interested in correct pronunciation.
neither are they interested in correct spelling evidently. It's "umlaut" with a "t' not a "d."
@@sifridbassoon That too!
@@jazura2 But when somebody is talking about the Nazi time the pronounciation of that name is important. Otherwise it could be unclear who is meant: Rudolf Höss (the Auschwitz Commander) or Rudolf Hess (the "Deputy Führer" who was flying to Britain in a small plane during WWII)?
Does anyone know the name of the Auden poem cited by the reviewer?
Musee des Beaux Arts
Great presenting !
Thank you!
Such a disturbing film, brilliantly put together, great direction, acting, cinematography and the sound, oh my. After I watched it, I just pressed reward and watched the whole thing again. Best film I have seen in the last 20 years.
What is the name of the horror film mentioned at the start of this video, please?
This film was a chilling account of man's inhumanity to man. The problem is history tends to repeat itself.
Interesting and well thought through. Perhaps knowing the context of the original quote about "the banality of evil" would alter your understanding.
The commentator's brain is in a Vortex where the meaning of English words is being flushed down the toilet
Great movie!
You entirely misconstrued Hannah Arendt’s profound insight regarding“the banality of evil.” I suggest you read her.
He should have probably read a book about this concept before blathering on like an idiot
If you watched ZOI and you're still not talking about Gaza in 2024, then you missed the point of this film. It's not just about how evil the Germans were, or about how people can ignore mass atrocities. ZOI is warning you that you yourself may be ignoring mass atrocity right in front of you. People watch this film and think they woud do different, that they wouldn't be like the Hoss family. But in reality, you probably are the Hoss family. Ingoring the ongoing mass atrocity of the moment.
Well said !
❤
What is the “Central Hour”? I tried to google it but cannot find it.
The film is “Detroit”. He is speaking about a central hour in the film.
Going to see it at my local cinema tomorrow night,it's showing late
Excellent final point. Greed is key!
I disagree, it was a great film, but I didn’t feel that Höss was just an indifferent cog in a machine who turned a blind eye. These people were fanatic Nazis from the very start, certainly in his case, he murdered for them before their rise to power. That’s not something a normal person does to just fit in. I think the film showed the disturbing and numb reality of monsters, but I couldn’t relate to the family, if the intention of the film was to think “this could be me.” Although I’m not sympathetic to them, I don’t think most Nazis could do this line of work or be easily complicit while witnessing it, without deep damage or outright refusal. If I recall this is partially why the process was obscured, limited to few people running it and people of very specific temperaments and sentiments being selected for it. The only outsider we witness in the film observing this world (the elder woman) is immediately disturbed.
Good points. But didn't those psychological experiments where people delivered electric shocks to others (shocks were actually fake) show that most people are capable of inflicting pain if told to, without even needing a threat to their family to do it?
I agree partly. Not a lot of Germans took part directly like Rudolf Höss. I don’t know if his wife ever witnessed the atrocities first hand. She lived next to them and managed to ignore them. And as far as I know she didn’t murder anyone and could be described as a pretty normal German of the time. Her mother who left when she became aware of the noise and maybe smell, didn’t take part either but also didn’t have a problem with it as long as she put a distance between herself and the camp. She even talked about the Jewish woman she used to work for and wondered whether she was in the camp. She talked about how the woman’s possessions were auctioned off and she didn’t get the curtains. It was common that the possessions of deported Jews were auctioned off to the communities. So no one can say they didn’t know. They might have told themself lies but it was not a secret that the Jews and others were killed. It’s really fascinating how we as humans can be that way. Even today we all buy clothes that is often made by exploited laborers under awful conditions. But it’s far away and it’s cheap. I would hope that I would not have been complicit as a German in 1940 but realistically I might have been.
Incredible
Literally so.
The one thing that still bothers me, not that this is a criticism of this film by any means, is that because of the Cold War we still cannot get any meaningful portrayal of the heroism of the Soviet Union during the Second World War; to this day. So many fascinating events that have no analog in the Western Front, so many true stories that are absolutely unique, the story of the lone KV-1 Soviet Tank that defended a town against one German Tank division, one German Motorcycle division, and one German Infantry division, along with an Anti-aircraft battery, managing to hold the ground against the advancing German Military until they were killed; we literally only know about this lone KV-1 Soviet Tank and it's fight against these overwhelming odds because of the German Officers who wrote it down in their reports, even having the Tank Crew buried on the battlefield they defend with full honors out of sheer respect for how they never yielded to their opponents. Or how about the deployment of the Soviet Flying Aircraft Carriers against the German outposts in the Eastern Front? Or the battle of two Soviet Armored Trains against an entire German Tank division? What about the Soviet Night Witches Bombing Raids? Or the Soviet Archery Divisions? People still to this day don't understand the scope of the Battle of Stalingrad, just in that battle alone the German Military lost as many soldiers as they did in the entire Western Front. Not to mention inventions that were prototyped during the Second World War, like the Fire Hedgehog or the Soviet Flying Tank. Or the drama of the Soviet Union dismantling and shipping their entire industrial production centers over the Ural Mountains to keep it out of the German Bombing Range, it was the largest movement of industrial equipment in the world at the time. So many brilliant things we still, due to the lingering Cold War apprehension, cannot get a view of in film.
a Fing small pool though.
very contemporary, it's what's going on in Gaza right now. Many of use are complicit and look the other way.
Im curious about the opening of the movie, was it time travel?? I only ask because the film felt so real and nuanced, seemed like we were in the movie ourselves. Probably im being silly and yet it rings true somehow.
Camp commander Hoss witnessed first hand the Armenian and Assyrian genocide while serving with the Turkish Army in WWI. Most of the top Nazis saw mountains of dead bodies including friends and relatives in the trenches during WWI, so there is little wonder how the best educated, most civilized country in the world could stoop to what they did.
What will the soldiers in the trenches of Ukraine be doing 20 years from now?
It’s now. It’s you. If you think it’s then and someone else, it’s wasted on you.
The whole thing is so bizarre it is really hard to believe, to fathom. What sort of "pillow" discussions did the Hoss' have, I wonder?
The idea of folk being experimented on by the powers that be to develop new drugs would never be repeated these days. We would never allow it....
What they didn’t mention is that his wife moved to the USA after the war and died there peacefully !!!!!
Most of the family, having been there at the time, didn't believe it happened.
Happening right now in Gaza by Israel 😭
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It shows the life of an israeli settler family living in the west bank
Brilliant Emmett. Fantastic deconstruction of the themes of this "movie". Zone of Interest is not the type of movie that will go up in smoke. It bears meditating on the implications of complicity and how we all deal with uncomfortable truths about ourselves. This scenario could easily take place in America in 2024, given the subtext of antisemitism of MAGA and QAnon (eg. Charlottesville). The Great Replacement Theory; the Replacement Theology (Jesus is not a Jew; Jewish people are not God's Chosen People).
Is it possible??? It’s happening
Recommend Playback speed at 1.25 or 1.5
A counterpoint to The White Lotus, I reckon.
A modern day American allegory.
Is that hedwig and the angry inch hedwig?
No???? That's the wife's first name. It's German.
The German-born philospher, Karl Jaspers,
"That which has happened is a warning.
To forget it, is guilt.
It was possible for this to happen, and it remains possible for it to happen again... at any minute."
I watched it. Was not impressed and found it misrepresented these perpetrators. I don't buy their normal family life bit. They weren't deluded nor in denial: they were pure opportunists and simply did not care one bit about their victims. There are plenty of so-called normal narcissists out there who will kill to get ahead, but it's not the norm. Most may not have the courage to resist a criminal government, but to actively participate in its crimes at the highest levels takes a depraved mind wirhout conscience. And thats what the Höss's were.
It would be most useful to see a film like the zone of interest about the genocide taking place today, Israel's genocide against Palestinians.
And the Hamas crimes and terror.
Brilliant film but I have read a few articles that have said people who actually met them and said they were quite different! Also it is based on a Novel not a factual book!x
The book was the starting point, but it's actually barely based on the book at all and mostly based on whatever historical records, family photos, letters etc and interviews with people who were in the house they could find. Obviously, relatively little of what's preserved can shed light on the exact personalities or daily routines and topics of conversation within the house.
What articles did you read? Would be interested in hearing more.
thanks vor this analytik of a small eurpean film
I've just seen it literally. I'm well up on the history been researching since my early teens. Didn't know what to make of it. Yes, historically accurate. Style was very original, not seen that style before. It's cinematography and atmospherics are unusual. I've read the novel and the film does not follow it. It's over-immersed in nuance and it does display much artistic pretension in my opinion. Over-hyped, yes. I only really appreciated the dream sequences. It's going to be divisive most definitely. Ending threw me. What do you do with the remnants of Auschwitz? No I prefer Tod ist mein Beruf 1977. Much more accessible. This is one for the critics. Oscars- no, but Oppenheimer didn't deserve them either. If it's Holocaust stick to documentaries such as Shoah
There is no dream sequence. The parts with the girl distributing apples is historically accurate and the film is dedicated to the girl in the Polish Resistance. The refurbished house was actually hers, the bicycle and dress were hers. She provided needed food under the cover of night, and Glazer met her before she died. Her name was Aleksandra Bystron-Kolodziejczyk.
@@ecitraro Absolutely correct. I found that out the other day and watched a short interview with the lady in question so stand corrected. I'm still unsure if I like the movie, I've watched it three times and just don't click with it. I feel that Tod ist mein Beruf' and The Interrogation are better portrayals of Hoess and his motives. Maybe, my opinion will change over time. Who knows. Zone of Interest is still an interesting film though.
Qui bono😢???
I agree with the bulk of the comments on this film. It is an instant masterpiece of cinematic daring and completely deserves every accolade it has received. Having said that, I must say that the first half of the film is infinitely superb and blows your mind right out the gate in the way it combines imagery and sound in what I can only describe as the most successful marriage I have ever witnessed between gorgeous visuals and unrelentingly unsettling sound. That sets the tone for the utter emotional tone-deafness that permeates everything about to unfold. If anything, I felt the second half of the film cannot hold up to the pioneering thunderbolt that hits you in the first half. How could it? Overall, the film was a masterful feat of nuance and subtext that will warrant repeated viewings, but I was still left wanting for something a bit more concrete or perhaps satisfying? as the film winds down to its conclusion.
It's not the same thing, but it makes me think of the people who were living next to Gaza in their beautiful kibbutzis. Did they realize what was going on just a few miles away from them. Of course you can't really compare it, but there are similarities.
Why can't we compare it?
I love it when people say "of course you can't really compare it," and then procede to do just that.
Unfortunately, this review shows all sorts of interpretive anachronism. On its own, as a film and as a story, Zone of Interest doesn't need to connect to the ambiguities in politics today. As a historian, you know this already. But dare I say, the truly horrific moment of this movie is not the sounds, not the train smoke, not the boardroom meeting, or the shoes. The true horror are the two cremation platforms getting dusted off.
The "historian" can't even pronounce the name of the family correctly. He is right to point out that the film is based on a novel. The main point he neglects is that Hoess's confession, on which the novel is based, was obtained by torture, and hence is worthless as a historical source, save as indicating what the torturers believed, or wished others to believe, in the aftermath of the war.
Do historians need to study phonetics? Even if you think that the correct pronunciation matters, arguing ad hominem is a cheap and ugly trick. Anyhow, there is more evidence for what happened at the family's home and there is no doubt that the film is accurate. Do you happen to be one of those despicable Holocaust deniers?
@@MS-fg8qo If he can't speak German, which not knowing the umlaut suggests, he can't have read the original German records, which is pertinent. There is indeed more evidence - e.g. camp orders, building records, British decrypts & remarks by the surviving family, but they don't substantiate the soundtrack. Doubt is part of any serious inquiry, by excluding it and using emotive terms ("cheap", "ugly", "despicable") you undermine your own case. The film is based on a novel.
@@StephenCowley001 Well, I haven't read the original text by Darwin but I'm sure I can rely on the Armada of scientists who have done so. Most anglophones can't pronounce the German Umlaute properly but that doesn't mean they can't speak or understand the language and even if that's the case, any good translation will do. Emotive language is absolutely appropriate with regard to Auschwitz. It undermines nothing but shows that I care about the innocent people who got murdered senselessly. It's intellectually and emotionally unbearable to talk to people who deny or denigrate the Holocaust.
@@MS-fg8qo So you sympathise with the victims and the perpetrators don't deserve sympathy. So far so good, but then you add, it's "intellectually... unbearable" to consider what was said on the perpetrators' behalf. You can read 'Hitler's Willing Executioners" (1996), but not Paget on the Manstein Trial (1948) or the Holocaust handbooks.
Three trillion animals suffer and die every year for our food, and we all turn a blind eye and pretend that it isn't happening. In fact, we happily pay for it to happen. In a hundred years we will look back on our treatment of animals as we now look back on the treatment of people during the Holocaust, and we will be ashamed.
You've read Sapiens I believe, it's very true, please check the follow up to this as we speak about the ability to ignore (animal)l cruelty and other aspects of the film.
I lived in Poland for a year. I went to Oswiecim twice. I have not seen this film. This was evil. Pure demonic evil
Mate. Speak faster for gods sake.
I almost always up the “playback speed.” For nearly any speaker.
@@risk5riskmks93thanks for this. Will save me so much time in the future 😅
I was left unmoved. I can concede it’s a good film, worthy of attention, praise etc, and this is likely a “me” problem- but at the same time, was I supposed to find it disturbing because of the subject matter? You’d think this was the end all be all most horrific thing to happen in recorded history, given the mythological terms its spoken of (I suppose some might argue it was, because the process was systematized).
But then I imagine you have to speak of it in such terms when our entire age, with its so-called rules based order, universal human rights, mass democracy etc, are founded on the aftermath of WWII. “Oh my goodness, they never show what’s on the other side of that wall” i.e. the monster never makes an appearance is already a staple trope of horror movies, and even in this genre Costa Gavras already did it with Amen. (I don’t mean to come off as rude btw, but I cynically can’t help but think the praise is universal at least in part because panning this may come off as diminishing the suffering of a group, to some. And likewise saying you found this film to be some incredible watermark, signals a certain enlightened, cosmopolitan humanity and conscientiousness).
I can see where you're coming from re: the bias the simple subject matter affords it. But I don't think that's where the praise is coming from. There have been so many WWI/Holocaust/Nazi movies (countless really, in every language and industry across the world), and they are not all judged by this bias. Some are downright bad. I think the praise here is because this one is just so different, it takes such a different approach than any other. It manages to show everything while showing nothing, and come as close to making a Nazi a normal human being while still keeping enough distance as to avoid any relatability or sympathy. That's a feat in and of itself.
I'm with you on that. In German we have a word for that, it's: Gratismut. Being against those crimes is seen as humble and humanitarian. At the the end, it's just the right thing. But everyone makes a great fuzz out of it.
I have not seen the movie or read the book but I have been to that concentration camp on a school trip in high school. I tell you we came in a buss full of kids cheerful to travel and we left Auschwiz in complete silence many crying. We drove towards the next camp and once there many couldn’t leave the bus because it was too heavy. Just seeing the film trailer will probably be enough for me. May I ask which country you are from and how old you are?
@@johanna4641I’m 27 and live in the US. In retrospect I tend to feel the school curriculum I was subjected to, beat us over the head with this topic, but I can’t imagine it did compared to what it must be like for Europeans (especially Germans). I haven’t visited Auschwitz but have visited Jasenovac. I’ve also visited the killing fields in Phnom Penh; to be quite frank I just don’t find the suffering of the Jews at all special, and it’s quite tiresome to me that it’s been elevated into a foundational myth of post-WWII society, so maybe I already have that bias towards films like this (though I did sincerely enjoy the closing scene at least).
I also can’t help but feel that this film was done the way it was, at least in part to get the viewer to associate this blonde, European family going about their day to day, as insidious in and of itself (regardless of what’s going on, on the other side of the wall). I think it also calls upon the idea that whites in particular are supposed to be totally oblivious to the suffering of others (i.e. they’re forever unaware of their so-called privilege). Admittedly that’s likely just my warped American mind reading all this subtext into it (as you know, American society is completely obsessed by race), but this tone bothered me.
Maybe I’m missing something, but there was little new here. Script-wise it may be a novel choice to tell this story through the family, but what new revelation about the most examined event in the last 100 years, was reached here? Yes, it can happen again, yes the banality of evil…so what tbh
It's not really about the jews or holocaust specifically but rather about one can blandly coexist immediately alongside inhumane behavior.
Yes, it happens in other places and to other peoples, but the reason the Nazi variation stands out is because it happened in a place that ostensibly represented the height of enlightenment civilization and the holocaust brought the myth of racial, social and cultural superiority crashing down.
The science of eugenics was another factor: prior to WW2, the US had a v dynamic eugenics agenda. The Nazis demonstrated the logical extension of that way of thinking.
Overall this specific horrific event showed thar this kind of madness wasn't something that happened in other "less civilized places" but also to those who thought they had the superior, ideal system.
The mother left because she could not get a night’s sleep with all the shouting and shooting. Her departure was purely self serving.
I'm not sure that's true tbh - especially given the note that she leaves Hedvig, which is immediately consigned to the fire.
This happened to Amon Göth’s lover. Her mother left Plaszow concentration camp in disgust.
Someone who couldn’t sleep would leave in the morning with a fake excuse. She leaves in the middle of the night and leaves a note which the daughter puts in an oven of sorts and locks the door, clearly upset. It is self-serving in a sense. We don’t know how much moral judgement there is, but she is also the only character in the entire film who imagines an individual she knows as being on the other side of the wall.
The Mother was the only one who seemed unnerved by the goings on next door. It was clearly expressed on her face.
There was a foreshadowing the first day when her mother said she saw a Jewish woman that she used to clean for. She seemed uncomfortable about that. I'm not surprised that she left soon after.
Most of Israeli society and its supporters around the world are living in the zone of interest. Right now.
Tarnopol,a Russian trol
@@josgroot6786even if he is, the comment is still valid.
YOU are living in the zone of interest, using the headline story to virtue signal and ignoring the events in Sudan, the death of children happening there every day and being ignored around the world.
Finally, someone said it. I'm so sick of all those fake gasps while nobody sees the parallel.
@@josgroot6786 Jewish, too.
Very Disappointing, was hoping it would be a lot more factually accurate on the other side of the wall.. Too many Trains, No mention of Dachau or Treblinka, and the time line was a joke... Yes they lived next to a concentration camp, but the Death camp was a couple of miles away...
Was very factual. The house is literally on the other side of the wall surrounding Auschwitz camp where people were held before being murdered the gas chambers and crematorium is still there. You may be thinking of Auschwitz Birkenau which is a couple of miles away from the original camp.
In every historical film made today, you will find a diverse bunch of characters of every ethnicity. Even if this is not historically accurate. Take wicked little lies, the film set in the 1920's, which has replaced the first female police officer in Suffolk's history, who was white of coarse. With an Asian female. You will find most of the positions of authority in this film, portrayed by ethnic minorities. This as any one who knows real history will note, is pure fantasy. I will put money on the fact, that the film being reviewed here will have no such insertions in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion. Can you guess why?
Correction i think it is 70 000 and not 700 000 thousands Hungarian Jews ?
You are INCORRECT
Physically impossible in any case.
440000 alone died at the end of the war alone plus not including massacres in Hungary itself
@@StephenCowley001Watch the movie Shoah. Tbere you will hear it from the horses mouth.
I believe your view on german society in the 30s-40s, as a civilized and educated country during nazi era, is flawed. I think you have to get rid of intellect and culture first before being able to manipulate the population like that, make them apathetic towards other human‘s suffering, even towards their total destruction. There is a reason why some govmts try to divest from our educational system.
I agree with this. I do recall reading that the German Nazis whitewashed or suppressed any outside cultural influences that they deemed inferior. An example of that would be refusing to have American jazz played. When they occupied France, they muted any form of expression that did not fit what they deemed to be the German way. Even some of the food in France they refuse to eat because it wasn't truly German. So to me that is narrowing up cultural and artistic intellect.
To me that's not highly educated at all.
Höss not Hoss. It’s pronounced Huss. Is that really so hard?
When you don't speak German and you don't know how the ö is pronounced, yes, it is hard. I'm currently on year 2 studying German. Must be nice to be so perfect.
I disagree. Simply ignoring the spelling when you produce a documentary is sloppy. It can be easily found on Google how to pronounce something.@@santadog9
Gaza is it?
Yes 1000%
It's amazing how any aspect of this movie fits perfectly well with what Palestinian people are facing today. As it's said on the video, we don't have to go any far at all.
Amen!
I disagree. We see what we want to see.
true! Some like to NOT see thousands of women and children murdered and their country delivering the weapons to do this. And others? They want to have a nice meal and a good glass of wine and talk about the singularity of Holocaust@@le13579
Was it ever considered to give the Jewish people Germany? That would have been fair. Its is the world's collective guilt over the holocaust. People have been displaced throughout history. Nobody moves because they want to.
@@bettyblu908 Interesting thought experiment. Why do you think 'they' didn't?
This is an important film. Look at the hate marches happening all over the world since the events of October 7th, we can see that evil hiding behind the garb of victimhood. No one even mentions the open celebrations happening all over the world as the events of October 7th were unfolding, and these same people who celebrated the most brutal and sadistic of events, are now marching and playing victim when justice is being served.
> that evil hiding behind the garb of victimhood
I agree w/ you, impeach and arrest Netanyahu asap
Pretty sure the director of this film himself is anti Israel lol, don't think you've understood the message very well
LOL you've made your level of intelligence very clear. Bye @@cbennoes
Babies being killed is justice being served? You’re sick
Have you seen the videos where adults are putting fake blood on babies to make videos of "babies being killed" Im not saying no babies have been killed because of the people elected Hamas hiding in civilian areas, but what kind of person puts fake blood on babies to gain sympathy?@@emmaa8122
This movie was a monumental piece of crap! Even worst it was a huge missed opportunity. The story of Rudolph Hoss and the normality of mass murder that the Hoss family lived (as did many, many others ) must be told. But arthouse esthetics has no place in any film about the holocaust. Auschwitz and the Hoss family and the human beings being murdered on the other side of the wall happened in real-time. It happened in a biting daily reality and not in metaphors or stylized expressionism. Shame on the filmmakers for not understanding that
The producers are spot on with the normalisation of horror
Hoss was a very robust commandant and spent his days in the administrative function of mass death. It was more than just a meeting with Topf and Sons to discuss enlarging the crematoria… it was the distribution of shoes, clothes, luggage, glasses, back to Germany not just a couple women stealing coats. all the stylization while making for a few good cinematic moments detracted from the reality of Auschwitz. Him walking up and down stairs puking conveyed sympathy for him. You can read his memoir that the Polish government had him write before his execution. This was not a man tormented by his job.
lol how are they not understanding that, exactly? They understand it fully, and their approach to it is to show the people who were responsible for it. It's not a metaphor or stylized expression, it's LITERAL. The entire movie is literally the banality of the daily life of the Hoss family, right next door. The juxtaposition of the normalcy they experienced and the horror everyone else did. There is nothing that ISN'T "biting daily reality" about this. If you can't understand that you don't need to see the event taking place to feel it's horror, then I don't know what to tell you. Watch a documentary instead, because the artform of film isn't really for you.
If 2 1/2 minutes of a blank screen with dramatic music isn’t stylized metaphor I don’t know what is. I’m sure the host family regularly experienced the banalities of everyday life juxtaposed with the reality of the death machine unseen (but heard) behind the wall… a wall that is representing willful ignorance …with 2 1/2 minutes of dramatic music that shut out the sound of the camp. This movie was nothing but stylized metaphor…
This is not a documentary. This is an artistic expression of the horror. Not everything has to be a documentary
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Glazer