The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, December 8th, 2023) Movie • Page 6

Oh woops! Meant to quote radio

 

Yes, it’s a litmus test movie for me now. If someone doesn’t get it or worse, just doesn’t engage with it, I don’t trust their opinions on movies

 

I didn't see The Boy in the Striped Pajamas until about three years ago when an administrator actually asked me to show it for World War II. I couldn't believe what I was watching.

 

This was harrowing. Not much to add that hasn't been said in here. It succeeds at portraying visceral evil without showing a single act of violence on screen. The sound design, the experimental techniques, it all really comes together to create a film that starts slow and creeps under your skin unlike anything I've really seen before. It's not a film you enjoy, obviously, but I think it may be perfect.

 

2024 BAFTAs

Outstanding British Film
Best Film not in the English Language
Best Sound

 

This hits digital tomorrow

 

I'm glad I caught it on a big screen, the editing and sound design are absolutely wild

 

In the theater now. First movie since The Whale. Hope it’s as good!!!!

 

Despite having an indie theater in town that gets virtually every single Oscar film, or even like, the next two or three tiers below, no one around me ever showed this. Excited that it will finally be available.

 

Lol, one of these movies made me want to krill myself after watching it and the other was The Zone of Interest

 

Incredible.

 

We saw it last night in a small auditorium with a bunch of people though we were not directly next to anyone.

Im used to much emptier auditoriums, given what we've seen recently.

I have a tough time explaining how I felt about this.

I walked away unsettled. There were some scenes that I just had to look away. I was expecting more Schindler's List type movie (Its about the Holocaust, so...)

Having a relative that died in the Holocaust, I found the sounds/screaming unsettled, and I walked away with the same feeling. Did I enjoy sitting there? No.

But a powerful movie? Yes.

 

An interesting opposing view

 

It has been a while since I’ve seen Act of Killing, I didn’t draw this connection

 

The problem is that showing the camps and the showers and all the things you normally see in this movie has been explored so many times before and audiences are often desensitized to it. The film is operating under the belief that you have already seen stuff like Night and Fog and Schindler's List and read your wiki pages and understand these things without having to rub your face in it.

 

I don’t necessarily agree with the take, I thought the film was well done. I am also not sure what that op would have preferred…I guess the film to not be made at all?

 

The Static Shot in ‘The Zone of Interest’

Idk if I agree with this either, but it is well written

 

There is a small group of people who object to the MTV music video sleekness that Glazer brings to his films, but what he does here is very effective.

 

I think that person entirely misunderstands the movie. It’s a scathing indictment of us as a viewer, nothing about it remotely “pats us on the back”

the restraint is a direct reflection of the banality of situation the Hoss family places themselves in; and the irony of their predicament.

In short it feels like engagement bait

I haven’t seen the Act of Killing

 

Yeah, idk if it’s the limitations of Twitter or that he just has a halfbaked analysis. I do think that the Medium post I linked does a better job, and it has left me thinking

 

That take just seems like them patting themself on the back. The movie was very effective.

 

Releasing online today plus awards season silliness often leads to some of the more half-baked criticisms. Since this is the last one that people have had a chance to see it is its turn.

 

Here's what's different about Zone of Interest: I've seen plenty of movies that make me despise Nazis, but I've never seen one that made me feel like one. That's what's so horrifying and singular about this film to me. It doesn't invite you to gawk. It invites you to be complicit for two hours and immerses you in an atmosphere that's horrifying before it becomes almost normal which is even more horrifying.

I felt nauseous at the end. I had no empathy for the characters but the setting made me feel like I was there with them to the point of being one of them. Seeing someone gassed in a film is immediately repulsive and alien, which is effective in its own way. But seeing smoke unceremoniously rising from a chimney in the distance and thinking way too casually "Oh, are those the ovens?" hits closer to home. It takes the tact of inviting you to feel less so you can feel more, because it's not just the events that are horrifying now, it's your response (or lack thereof) to them.

It really makes you feel what it must have felt to be numb to the every day horrors of the Holocaust. And that makes you realize how many modern day horrors you're already numb to today. The movie really is brilliant and awful.

 

Calling it an “unearned character moment” makes it sound as if they think the movie is saying that Hoss was having a revelatory moment in that scene. But it isn’t at all — he immediately gets over it and moves on. Literally the exact opposite of the guy in The Act of Killing

 

"it's obvious why critics loved this: they get to (indirectly) gawk at human misery while the film pats them on the back for acknowledging the disgusting spectacle unfolding before them"

not only does the film not pat anyone on the back, but goes very far in showcasing the way atrocities are normalized, even decades later. I will definitely read the medium article, but this specific criticism is a big miss for me.