My wife and I watched this last night. The film offers an innovative way of telling the fascinating and horrifying story of a Nazi SS commander (Rudolph Hoss) and his family’s life in an idyllic WWII Germany homestead, which just happened to share a wall with the Auschwitz concentration camp, over the course of the war. If you haven’t heard of the film, it’s unique in that the horrors happening only feet away are never shown, but heard in the background–and sometimes foreground–in a never ending and dreadful drone of machinery, wailing, gunfire, and incineration. As such, the plot isn’t explicit and told in typical fashion; rather, it’s a visual and largely audible conveyance of the banality of evil and the horrors of history.
The film won an Oscar for Best Sound, and understandably so. This is worth a read to appreciate all that went into the sound design. The director recently took heat for daring to speak of Israel’s actions in Gaza during his speech:
All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present — not to say, “Look what they did then,†rather, “Look what we do now.†Our film shows where dehumanization leads, at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present. Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation, which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?
Regardless of your taste in films, this is worth watching. It’s provocative and innovative filmmaking that warrants our attention.
Wife and I also watched a few days ago and we are both amazed and impressed. My wife is German. For her, movies of this topic carry a different weight. The juxtaposition of beauty against the evil and horrific backdrop is unique and devastating.
I was comfortable with Oppenheimer winning best picture. Then I watched this film. If I had a vote, it would have been for this film for best picture.
I’m sure this film is very good. But holy crap did anything else ever happen in history besides WWII? If so, it seems like the film industry hasn’t heard about it.
I’m sure this film is very good. But holy crap did anything else ever happen in history besides WWII? If so, it seems like the film industry hasn’t heard about it.
An excellent point.
One of the very first thoughts that I was able to verbalize after watching; It was amazing to me that this story could be told in a brand new and different approach. With the hundreds of times this topic has already been told via music, movie, tv, literature, etc. they somehow managed to re-tell this story in a unique and different way.
As Sphere emphasized in the OP, it’s the sound field. What your eyes are seeing and what your ears are hearing just does not compute. You’re struggling to account for these differences and really must draw upon your own experiences to reconcile the two. Although we have an amazing surround sound system in our home, I now wish I had seen this in the theater. Although, that would likely have been even more devastating to view/hear/experience.
I had the same thought. This should be viewed in a theater to really appreciate the purpose of the film.
There are so many moments in the film that grab your attention and almost always for the juxtaposition of the immediate visual focus and the background acoustic story. Most jarring in that regard was the disconnect between the plot in the foreground, with the couple resolving marital and familial disputes like ordinary people while unavoidable horrors happening mere feet away are being casually ignored. Children making games of these horrors both knowingly and unknowingly. I appreciated how the director maintained this theme while also acknowledging the palpable tension indirectly, with the colicky baby and the mother’s unspoken and unacknowledged inability to countenance her family’s complicity in the horror.
I’m sure this film is very good. But holy crap did anything else ever happen in history besides WWII? If so, it seems like the film industry hasn’t heard about it.