How to film Auschwitz? There has doubtless been no thornier question for post-war cinema to confront, and Godard himself has been particularly vocal on the subject. Among his denunciations of fictional renderings of the death camps, one film finds grace: PASSENGER, released in unfinished form in 1963 after the death of director Andrzej Munk. As released, PASSENGER is a hybrid work, but some of the film’s fiction sequences remain intact, including an iconic orchestra performance by Auschwitz inmates for an audience of the camp guards. Culture and barbarism are, Godard and Munk would agree, inextricably linked.
How to film Auschwitz? There has doubtless been no thornier question for post-war cinema to confront, and Godard himself has been particularly vocal on the subject. Among his denunciations of fictional renderings of the death camps, one film finds grace: PASSENGER, released in unfinished form in 1963 after the death of director Andrzej Munk. As released, PASSENGER is a hybrid work, but some of the film’s fiction sequences remain intact, including an iconic orchestra performance by Auschwitz inmates for an audience of the camp guards. Culture and barbarism are, Godard and Munk would agree, inextricably linked.
