Claude Lanzmann’s nine-and-a-half-hour documentary on the Holocaust. Survivors, perpetrators and bystanders talk. The sites are shown as they are now. There is no archive footage of the camps in operation. This is the other side of Night and Fog. Resnais used the images so the atrocity could never be downplayed. Lanzmann refuses them. He makes …
In present-day New York, David Moran saves a man who’s just been run over. Later on that day, this event forces David to reminisce about events that occurred in 1958. Meg and her disabled sister Susan are placed in the care of their aunt, Ruth who lives with her sons after their own parents are …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 39- The Girl Next Door (2007)
A sullen teenager, Tom, is upset about his family's move from London to rural Devon. But then a dark family secret is revealed, changing everything. The War Zone is actor Tim Roth’s directorial debut, and he does a great job directing it. The fact that he chose a story involving such a thorny issue as …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 38- The War Zone (1999)
Elephant chronicles an average day in the life of a Portland, Oregon high school. But this is anything but an ordinary day as there is a school shooting. Gus Van Sant was inspired by the Columbine High School shooting to make this film. There’s so much to applaud here. Introducing characters by name on screen, …
‘13-year-old Christiane Felscherinow resides in Berlin with her mother. She starts abusing dangerous substances after she falls in love with Detlev, which causes her to steal from her house, sell all of her assets, and descend to abysmal levels.’ This reminds me of the darkest after-school special you'll ever see, but set in Berlin rather …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 36- Christiane F (1981)
Alain Resnais’ half-hour examination of German concentration camps. This is as shocking as you imagine it to be with the most graphic footage being (rightly) included so the atrocity of the Holocaust is never forgotten or downplayed. But the film also examines the thinking behind the camps, whether it’s their commission, planning, construction, or maintenance. …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 35- Night and Fog (1956)
A doctor, Andrew Bagby is found murdered in a park in Pennsylvania. His lifelong friend plans a documentary about his life featuring interviews with his family and friends along with clips from the short films Andrew starred in when they were growing up. There’s much more I could post about this feature, but I don’t …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 34- Dear Zachary (2008)
Feature-length Studio Ghibli animated film about two orphaned siblings who struggle to survive and stay together during the final months of the Pacific War. This is more animation that's strictly not for kids. In fact, just like The Plague Dogs, this is a harrowing, haunting watch. The innocence of the children in the face of …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 33- Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Snitter and Rowf, a pair of dogs, escape from a research facility where they are being cruelly tested. They quickly discover that life on the outside is just as inhumane. Obviously, this belongs in the genre of ‘animation not for kids’ (another cartoon film adapted from a book by Richard Adams, who also wrote the …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 32- The Plague Dogs (1982)
Precocious NYC youths act with a sense of impunity, as if there were no consequences for their actions. But when Jennie finds out Telly has passed HIV on to her, she tries to stop him before he does it again. This is like an after-school special on steroids. It’s grimy, documentary-like and features the kind …
