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8:15 pm - 11/16/2012

Michael Haneke drags "Schindler's List", "Downfall"



As part of The Hollywood Reporter's Roundtable series, THR's executive editor Stephen Galloway sat down at The Residences at the W Hollywood with a panel of writers that included Michael Haneke and John Krasinski in a conversation that featured a discussion of the fine line between humanizing and sympathizing with certain historical figures.

THR: OK, if you were going to show Osama bin Laden, to what extent do you humanize a guy like that? There was a very good German film, Downfall, about the last days of Hitler, and it was an extraordinary human portrait. The danger is whitewashing what he's done.

Michael Haneke: I have to say that I argued with Downfall writer-producer Bernd Eichinger about the film. I found it both repulsive and dumb. When you're dealing with a figure of such a deep historical context, what are you doing with him? You're creating melodrama. You're trying to move your spectators, but what emotions are you calling on? Your responsibility entails enabling your audience to remain independent and free of manipulation. The question is, how seriously do I take my viewer and to what extent do I provide him with the opportunity of creating his own opinion? Am I trying to force my opinion on the spectator?

THR: Would you make a film about Hitler?

Haneke: No. It's impossible for me, turning this into entertainment. That's why I have problems with Steven Spielberg's film about the concentration camps [Schindler's List]. The mere idea of trying to create suspense out of the question of whether the showerhead gas is going to come is unspeakable. For me, the only film about the Holocaust that is responsible is Alain Resnais' Night and Fog. Resnais asks the spectator: What do you think about this? What does this mean to you?

Chris Terrio: I'm very interested in what Michael said about the suspense of the shower in Schindler's List because in a sense it's the same in Argo. I'm not sure about the ethical implications of taking real people's lives and trying to make it a nail-biter.

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The Hollywood Reporter roundtables typically draw diverse groups of talented people. But the six men who gathered Oct. 2 at The Residences at the W Hollywood might be among the most eclectic bunch we've ever assembled. Journalist and Oscar-winning screenwriter Mark Boal, 39, chronicles the manhunt for Osama bin Laden in his still-unfinished Zero Dark Thirty, while comedy kingpin Judd Apatow, 44, takes funny aim at his own family life in This Is 40. German auteur Michael Haneke, 70, brought along a translator to help him discuss his Palme d'Or-winning Amour with sitcom star-turned-scribe John Krasinski, 33, who wrote the anti-fracking drama Promised Land with Matt Damon. And veteran writer David Magee, 50, shared stories about his fantasy spectacle Life of Pi with Chris Terrio, 35, whose Argo marks his first feature screenwriting credit.

You can also watch the (NSFW) scene mentioned from "Schindler's List", followed by "Night and Fog", in full, below:

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THR, The PLaylist
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mynamehere07 16th-Nov-2012 10:40 pm (UTC)
I agree with him that nothing like genocide should be turned into entertainment. However, I think the shower scene in Schindler's List was not the typical Hollywood suspense. The fear in it comes from a different place than the fear that comes from a suspenseful scene in a scary movie.
moddchicc 16th-Nov-2012 10:41 pm (UTC)
IA
ellie_andrews 16th-Nov-2012 10:43 pm (UTC)
IA
classiqfemme 16th-Nov-2012 10:57 pm (UTC)
I would argue that the way the Jews found out about the shower/gas connection was unlikely. Maybe it happened that way, but that scene was melodramatic and didn't really serve the narrative of the film. The Jews in that scene already knew they were in danger of being murdered at any moment... the showers were used to bring out the emotion of the audience, not further the plot.
And I would add that the scene where Schindler watches the girl in the red dress walk through the liquidation of the ghetto (and then see her body in the bonfire [no idea what else to call it] scene) is Hollywood as hell.
mynamehere07 16th-Nov-2012 11:22 pm (UTC)
I see what you are saying, and yes, those scenes were in there for the audience. But I don't think that's a bad thing in this case, because it gave a visible, tangible form to what was happening in those camps. For a lot of people, there is a sense of distance when you learn about it in school or read books about it. Seeing scenes like those can, for a lot of people, be more impactful because seeing it happen in the moment feels realer than reading or learning about it.
classiqfemme 17th-Nov-2012 12:29 am (UTC)
I guess my question is whether the people funneled into the gas chambers knew enough about Nazi methods to suspect they would be gassed. What I remember from History/Social Studies classes is that prisoners were unsuspecting and therefore didn't panic going into the shower facilities. I think my problem is that the scene wasn't used to show the atrocity, it was played up as a moment of terror and then joy/relief/thankfulness when water came out (basically it's shown as a moment of mercy, a commuted death sentence, or an act of god... which is kind of sick).
I get what you're saying, and I think you're right that often historical events don't seem real until you see it played out... but I can't help but think of all the stories that deserve to be told the Holocaust (and particularly the Jewish experience in the camps as opposed to the homosexual/POW/gypsy/political dissident/all others experience) is used to get Oscars and not necessarily to educate the public about what really happened.
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