Claude Lanzmann | |
|---|---|
 Lanzmann in 2014 | |
| Born | (1925-11-27)27 November 1925 Bois-Colombes, France |
| Died | 5 July 2018(2018-07-05) (aged 92) Paris, France |
| Occupation | Filmmaker |
| Years active | 1970–2018 |
| Known for | Shoah (1985) |
| Spouses | |
| Partner | Simone de Beauvoir (1952–1959) |
| Children | 2 |
Claude Lanzmann (French:[lanzman]; 27 November 1925 – 5 July 2018) was a French filmmaker, best known for theHolocaust documentary filmShoah (1985), which consists of nine and a half hours of oral testimony fromHolocaust survivors, without historical footage. He is also known for his 2017 documentary filmNapalm, about a love affair he had with a North Korean nurse whilst visiting North Korea in 1958, several years after theKorean War.
In addition to filmmaking, Lanzmann had also been the chief editor ofLes Temps Modernes, a French literary magazine.
Lanzmann was born on 27 November 1925 inBois-Colombes,Hauts-de-Seinedépartement in France, the son of Paulette (née Grobermann) and Armand Lanzmann.[1] His family wasJewish, and had immigrated to France from theRussian Empire.[2] He was the brother of writerJacques Lanzmann. Lanzmann attended theLycée Blaise-Pascal [fr] inClermont-Ferrand.[3] While his family disguised their identity and went into hiding during World War II,[4] he joined theFrench resistance at the age of 17, along with his father and brother, and fought inAuvergne.[3] Lanzmann opposed theFrench war in Algeria and signed the 1960 antiwar petitionManifesto of the 121.[5]
Lanzmann was the chief editor of the journalLes Temps Modernes, founded byJean-Paul Sartre andSimone de Beauvoir, and lecturer at theEuropean Graduate School inSaas-Fee, Switzerland.[6] In 2009 he published his memoirs under the titleLe lièvre de Patagonie ("The Patagonian Hare").[7]
Lanzmann's most renowned work,Shoah (1985), is a nine-and-a-half-hour oral history of the Holocaust.Shoah is made without the use of any historical footage, and uses only first-person testimony from perpetrators and victims, and contemporary footage of Holocaust-related sites. Interviewees include the Polish resistance fighterJan Karski and the American Holocaust historianRaul Hilberg. When the film was released, the director also published the complete text, including in English translation, with introductions by Lanzmann andSimone de Beauvoir.
Lanzmann disagreed, sometimes angrily, with attempts to understand the why ofHitler, stating that the evil of Hitler cannot or should not be explained and that to do so is immoral and an obscenity.[8]
Lanzmann also oftentimes pushed his subjects to extreme emotional limits to bring out the most authentic reactions for his audience. The interview with barber Abraham Bomba is an epitome of a Claude Lanzmann interview.[9]
A compilation,Shoah: Unseen Interviews, was released in 2012, which included interviews filmed at the time of the original production but that never made it into the film.[10]
On 4 July 2018, his last work,Les Quatre Soeurs (Shoah: Four Sisters) was released, featuring testimonials from four Holocaust survivors not included in hisShoah. Lanzmann died the following day.[11][12]
Lanzmann was part of a leftist delegation which visited North Korea in 1958. Toward the end of the visit, he fell in love with a local nurse and had an illicit love affair, which was discovered by the authorities. Never forgetting the romance, he made a 2017 documentary entitledNapalm, as the nurse bore scars from American bombings during theKorean War.
From 1952 to 1959, he lived withSimone de Beauvoir.[13] In 1963 he married French actressJudith Magre.[14] He later marriedAngelika Schrobsdorff, a German-Jewish writer.[14] He divorced a second time, and was the father of Angélique Lanzmann and Félix Lanzmann.[15][16] Claude Lanzmann died on 5 July 2018 at his Paris home, after having been ill for several days. He was 92.[11][12]
Filmography
As subject
Books
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