Shoah (1985)

[McCrutchy]

Shoah Blu-ray PRE-ORDER

Over a decade in the making, Claude Lanzmann's nine-hour-plus opus is a monumental investigation of the unthinkable: the murder of more than six million Jews by the Nazis. Using no archival footage, Lanzmann instead focuses on first-person testimonies (of survivors and former Nazis, as well as other witnesses), employing a circular, free-associative method in assembling them. The intellectual yet emotionally overwhelming Shoah is not a film about excavating the past but an intensive portrait of the ways in which the past is always present, and it is inarguably one of the most important cinematic works of all time.

Special Features:
New high-definition digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
Three additional films by director Claude Lanzmann: A Visitor from the Living (1999, 68 minutes), Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m. (2001, 102 minutes), and The Karski Report (2010, 54 minutes)
New conversation between critic Serge Toubiana and Lanzmann
Interview with Lanzmann about A Visitor from the Living and Sobibor
New conversation between associate director of photography Caroline Champetier and filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin
Trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Kent Jones and writings by Lanzmann