Israel

Identifier
irn1004921
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 1996.166
  • RG-60.5069
Dates
1 Jan 1985 - 31 Dec 1985
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • Silent
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Claude Lanzmann was born in Paris to a Jewish family that immigrated to France from Eastern Europe. He attended the Lycée Blaise-Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand. His family went into hiding during World War II. He joined the French resistance at the age of 18 and fought in the Auvergne. Lanzmann opposed the French war in Algeria and signed a 1960 antiwar petition. From 1952 to 1959 he lived with Simone de Beauvoir. In 1963 he married French actress Judith Magre. Later, he married Angelika Schrobsdorff, a German-Jewish writer, and then Dominique Petithory in 1995. He is the father of Angélique Lanzmann, born in 1950, and Félix Lanzmann (1993-2017). Lanzmann's most renowned work, Shoah, is widely regarded as the seminal film on the subject of the Holocaust. He began interviewing survivors, historians, witnesses, and perpetrators in 1973 and finished editing the film in 1985. In 2009, Lanzmann published his memoirs under the title "Le lièvre de Patagonie" (The Patagonian Hare). He was chief editor of the journal "Les Temps Modernes," which was founded by Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, until his death on July 5, 2018. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/claude-lanzmann-changed-the-history-of-filmmaking-with-shoah

Scope and Content

Location filming of the desert landscape, cemeteries, the city of Jerusalem, and life at the seashore in Tel Aviv, Israel for SHOAH. FILM ID 3611 -- Tel Aviv. Bor de Mer. Prieres Dizengov People milling about the seaside in Tel Aviv. Camera pans out to show more people on the beach and cars parked on the grass. Two armed soldiers walk by and smile at the camera. 01:01:38 Man holds clapper indicating camera roll 85. People fishing, children look at the camera filming them. Camera pans over beach and shore. Camera focuses in on a mother talking to her young son, then out over the sea and coast. A man sits by the sea. CUs, families. A group of adults gathers to read. Adults and children look with interest at the camera filming them. 01:14:08 The sun sets while a group of Hasidic men walk down to the seashore and read from the Torah. One man from the group notices they are being filmed, he waves for the filming to stop. Scenes of the sea. Looking out at the sea, the group of men sway as they sing. 01:20:18 A bulldozer at the beach. Night has fallen, and a group of people sit further inland. Some wave at the camera. FILM ID 4722 -- Jerusalem 1-12. Les Remparts. Le Mur. (14:45) Landscapes, including cypress trees, dirt and sand overlooking the water. Church of Mary Magdalene located on the Mt. of Olives. Houses on the hill and stone walls. Cars driving on the road and houses. A boy runs after dogs/cats, and a woman joins him. Stone walls, homes, buildings along the hillside. Dome of the Rock, old city of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque. Wall and rocky terrain. Tower of David museum. Roads. FILM ID 4723 -- Jerusalem 13-42. Meah Shearim (24:34) Several men (Hasidic Jews) in black coats with long beards and tallit gather together on wooden benches talking, sunny day. Men walk along the street and then on the sidewalk. 01:03:25 Man pushes stroller through crowded sidewalk. Busy street scenes with pedestrians, buses and cars. “Ban Hapoalim” building, people stand around outside. 01:05:55 Narrow street, people walking around, some carrying packages. Some graffiti in Hebrew on the walls and buildings. 01:13:25:05 Marketplace. FILM ID 4724 -- Jerusalem 43-62. Rues Vides Kippur (18:03) Street scenes. Cars parking along residential side roads. 01:02:38 Pedestrians. Residential neighborhood filmed from a moving vehicle, moving into a commercial area with traffic lights and stores. Return to neighborhood streets, pedestrians walking along the street. There are banners in Hebrew hanging between the buildings and families along the sidewalk. More street scenes. FILM ID 4725 -- Jerusalem Cimetiere 1-7. Ceremonie FILM ID 4726 -- Jerusalem Cimetiere 8. Calme FILM ID 4727 -- Cimetierre + Kfar Iona FILM ID 4728 -- Kippur 1-30. Shabbat (33:30) Temple mount and Dome of the Rock. Western Wall. 01:02:48 A close up of praying at the Western Wall. Wooden arc, men sitting on benches and in chairs talking and praying. Tables covered with burgundy velvet covers with gold Jewish stars. Shots alternamte between the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall. 01:12:28:06 Israeli soldier stands on the wall. Dome of the Rock is in the distance. Men pray, soldiers on the radio. 01:25:51 Large group of teens dancing, arms around shoulders, swaying in one long line. They form a circle while other people are praying. Then they circle forms into one big cluster. FILM ID 4729 -- Kippur 50-58. 65-83. (15:59) At the Western Wall, men are praying. Men stand by a wooden arc with tables and chairs. Men are dressed casually and formally. Dome of the Rock and Israeli soldier. Women praying. Soldiers. Dusk begins and night falls. Crowds at the Western Wall. FILM ID 4730 -- Kippur 59-64. 31-34. Fin Kippur 35-49. 84. Veille Kippur. (20:52) Men praying at the Western Wall, closing in on their faces devoutly praying. 01:04:34 Young men in a large circle swaying at Western Wall. Men leaving, shaking hands with one another. Older Hasidic man with long beard departing. 01:08:39 Nighttime at Dome of the Rock. Men in a circle at the wall. Switches back to daytime at Western Wall. 01:17:01 Two soldiers at the black booth before the Western Wall. Dome of the Rock and Western Wall. FILM ID 4731 -- Paysages Divers I / orangeraie, champ de coton, el arch (10:04) Highway. Pan to a field of orange trees. Small plane flying over. Field of white flowers. 01:05:30 Israeli soldier on the road. People gathered. Donkeys and carts, children. 01:08:08 Soldiers getting into a truck. FILM ID 4732 -- Paysages Divers II / orthodoxe Kfar Iona Lochamei Hage. FILM ID 4733 -- Plans Muets Journaux Petits Annonces 242, 243, 244 (24:57) Newspaper headlines/articles, CUs, silent. 01:01:43 Prag, Freitag, Den 1. Dezember 1944 “Organ des altestenrates der juden”. “Regierungsverordnung” vom 13. Oktober 1944. Advertisement for “A. Schafer” with a Jewish star on either side of the name. Title of the paper “Judische Rundschau”. Panning to other ads “Palestine & Orient Lloyd”. 01:07:36 “Aus der Rechtsprechung”. “Palestine Agricultural Settlement Association, Ltd. Jerusalem." More advertisements: “Haifa die Perle von Palastina” Savoy Hotel. “Judische Rundschau” Berlin. Article: “Selbstvertrauen trotz Sorgen” 5 March 1937. Headline “Probleme der judischen Umsiedlung” 1 December 1939. FILM ID 4734 -- Deserts / Sinai. Judee. Negev. Mitspe Ramon / Bte. 60,61,63,64 (7:08) Construction vehicles and green fields in the distance. Road through the desert. 01:03:56 Roads from inside a vehicle. Slate: “Bob 47” on the dashboard. Hills and a small town in the distance. FILM ID 4735 -- Deserts / dont il existe des retirages couleurs

Note(s)

  • No transcript

  • Claude Lanzmann spent twelve years locating survivors, perpetrators, and eyewitnesses for his nine and a half hour film Shoah released in 1985. Without archival footage, Shoah weaves together extraordinary testimonies to render the step-by-step machinery of the destruction of European Jewry. Critics have called it "a masterpiece" and a "monument against forgetting." The Claude Lanzmann SHOAH Collection consists of roughly 185 hours of interview outtakes and 35 hours of location filming.

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