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{en} Annette Insdorf. Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust, 3rd ed. (Cambridge - New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989)

Abstract

"Indelible Shadows investigates questions raised by films about the Holocaust. How does one make a movie that is both morally just and marketable? Annette Insdorf provides sensitive readings of individual films and analyzes theoretical issues such as the 'truth claims' of the cinematic medium. The third edition of Indelible Shadows includes five new chapters that cover recent trends, as well as rediscoveries of motion pictures made during and just after World War II. It addresses the treatment of rescuers, as in 'Schindler's List'; the controversial use of humor, as in 'Life is Beautiful'; the distorted image of survivors, and the growing genre of documentaries that return to the scene of the crime or rescue. The annotated filmography offers capsule summaries and information about another hundred Holocaust films from around the world, making this edition the most comprehensive and up to date discussion of films about the Holocaust, and a resource for film programmers and educators."---Publisher description.

Contents

Finding an appropriate language. The Hollywood version of the Holocaust ; Meaningful montage ; Styles of tension ; Black humor -- Narrative strategies. The Jew as child ; In hiding/onstage ; Beautiful evasions? ; The condemned and doomed -- Responses to Nazi atrocity. Political resistance ; The ambiguity of identity ; The new German guilt -- Shaping reality. The personal documentary ; From judgment to illumination -- Third edition update. The Holocaust as genre ; Rediscoveries ; Rescuers in fiction films ; The ironic touch ; Dysfunction as distortion: the Holocaust survivor on screen and stage ; Documentaries of return.