“War has dozed off, one eye still open.”

Extraordinary French filmmaker, Alain Resnais, died on March 1, 2014 at the age of 91. His long career produced several complex, unforgettable masterpieces of artistic construction.

His best known films, including Last Year at Marienbad, and Hiroshima, mon amour, tackle issues of memory and historical imagination, and always make us question what we know, and how we know it.

His most evocative work, obtuse as it can be, suggests that our memories, like art itself, are constructions that come from a million places and can mean any number of things.

His most astonishing film, for me, was an early short film, Night and Fog, which established his reputation.

In 1955, 10 years after the end of World War II, he made a 30 minute film that juxtaposes footage from the war with then-present day footage of eerily innocuous scenery. Resnais pieces these together in contemplation: how we can come to terms with the horrors committed against humanity?

“Night and Fog” is the description given to the conditions of the night as trains rolled people in to their imminent deaths in the concentration camps. The title also refers to the darkness and haziness of a collective situation in which brutality can overtake beauty, and no one wants to claim responsibility.

“The deportees watch, uncomprehending … Are they free? Will ordinary, everyday life know them?”

~Night and Fog

I love this question, asked in the film’s narration. Will life know or recognize us as we go through unfathomable changes over the course of time?

Will we, do we, can we know ourselves?

Alain Resnais made us think, feel and look deep within so that we could become better citizens, and better humans. What an invaluable contribution to cinema, and to life.

You can watch the whole of Night and Fog here:

http://vimeo.com/25815756

 

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Editor: Bryonie Wise

Photo: courtesy of the author