Monday, February 22, 2016

Date night in Auschwitz




One night last week, Tom said, "Linda said we should go see SON OF SAUL. Let's go tonight."

"Okay, which one is that?" It's Academy Awards time and I forget what's what. Especially after I've seen my favorites already.

"It's about a man in Auschwitz," Tom said.

"So, it's date night in Auschwitz tonight. What a romantic devil you are."

I have to say I loved the "gripping drama" and the close camera angles and the story itself (it turns out you don't know if the dead boy is actually Saul's son or not, but he matters to Saul, who wants to bury him with Jewish rites rather than have the boy burned in the ovens). It's not the kind of film I can recommend to people who think movies ought to entertain or make us feel better.

This movie has you writhing in your seat knowing that none of it can possibly end well.  But then you think, well, people did survive Auschwitz, so maybe . . .

Here's what one critic said, "If you’re not a fan of ambiguity, either from a narrative or moral perspective, you may have trouble here. But this is just a marvel of controlled filmmaking—a bold vision carried out with powerful simplicity, and an impressively assured debut form both Nemes [the director] and Röhrig as his star."

I was glad I saw it.  Thank you, Linda, for the nudge.




1 comment:

  1. Oosh. Oosch. I cannot, after visiting Dachau, watch a movie such as this. I had nightmares for two weeks after, as most humans should. (If we should not for many, many, many weeks more.)


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