140 / BD 202 Shoah: The Four Sisters

Discuss releases by Eureka and Masters of Cinema and the films on them.
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Ribs
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:14 pm

140 / BD 202 Shoah: The Four Sisters

#1 Post by Ribs » Wed Nov 28, 2018 12:08 pm

Listed on Amazon, full details coming tomorrow.

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: 140 / BD 202 Shoah: The Four Sisters

#2 Post by TMDaines » Thu Nov 29, 2018 3:53 pm

Nice!

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domino harvey
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Re: 140 / BD 202 Shoah: The Four Sisters

#3 Post by domino harvey » Fri Nov 30, 2018 12:07 pm

Special Features and Technical Specs:
All four interviews presented across two discs
Optional English subtitles
PLUS: A booklet featuring new writing

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: 140 / BD 202 Shoah: The Four Sisters

#4 Post by knives » Thu Jul 16, 2020 4:03 pm

Finally sat down with this for the three weeks. Like a lot of Lanzmann's satellite films this one is much better then the main feature. The four stories are of course powerful, but more importantly different enough that you really get a sense of the reach of the event. That also highlights something that places a sour taste in my mouth about Lanzmann. This film is trying to bring forth a sorority of the Jewish people by which intelligence, dumb luck, and a knowledge of history has lead to a continuity in the face of devastation. These are hardy characters and yet so limited. Lanzmann pretends that he's showing us a full experience by focusing on far flung people starting in Lodz and following through to Czechoslovakia and Romania. I should suppose I should be glad that he manages to go that far south, but the film in its grandeur acts out an ashkinormative white washing of history delegitimizing the experience of the African, Mizrachi, and Sephardic Jews who also are a part of this story.

Lanzmann has released about twenty hours of footage featuring survivors, kapos, Nazis, Red Cross service members, UN members, and many others who give a sense of space to the project, yet as far as I can recall, please correct me if I'm wrong, his understanding of history doesn't include Tunisia, Morocco, Greece, or any related community. His sorority is for the descendants of the French and doesn't have any room for us others. Which I suppose is fitting with his classical zionism that did the same erasure in a genocidal fashion.

This is one area where Spielberg has the upper hand and whose efforts are more worthy of respect. For those who do not know Spielberg has produced a number of Shoah style short films for the Holocaust museum Yad VaShem. They are very wide ranging and totally non-discriminatory covering more Jewish experiences. I do regret that it doesn't expand its wing to the other groups who were massacred by the Germans and of course their work is no where near definitive. I can't find it on their website, but in particular I remember vividly a story they have of a Spanish Greek couple who survived Auschwitz thinking that the Nazis performed a hysterectomy on her only to find out the doctor was playing pretend to the Germans. That particularly story wouldn't fit with the theme here, but you can't tell me that no one who survived and experienced outside the Ashkenaz sphere would fit with these women?

However much I can admire this film as storytelling since it wants to be treated as more I can't let slide such a painful lie of history.

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