{"id":51708,"date":"2017-05-01T17:05:10","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T15:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=51708"},"modified":"2017-04-29T06:10:37","modified_gmt":"2017-04-29T04:10:37","slug":"27-05-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=51708","title":{"rendered":"The four-and-a-half-hour Nazi documentary you can\u2019t afford to miss"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>The four-and-a-half-hour Nazi documentary you can\u2019t afford to miss<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

JORDAN HOFFMAN<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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First released 40 years ago, \u2018The Memory of Justice\u2019 uses the Nuremberg Trials as a springboard for unanswerable questions. A newly restored version will be streaming on HBO from April 24<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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NEW YORK \u2014 Marcel Ophuls demands your time. Moreover, the 89-year-old documentary film director, born in Germany and holding French and American citizenship, deserves it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The son of German-Jewish director Max Ophuls (a giant of world cinema whose films include \u201cThe Earrings of Madame de\u2026\u201d and \u201cLola Mont\u00e8s\u201d), Marcel began his career as an actor and assistant director to his father in France, where his family fled during World War II. He made some successful films, including the Jean-Paul Belmondo \u2013 Jeanne Moreau romp \u201cBanana Peel,\u201d but in time he turned toward documentaries, making some of the most important works about the 20th century\u2019s darkest moments.<\/span><\/p>\n

His most lasting achievements can be seen as a trilogy. In 1969 he released \u201cThe Sorrow and the Pity,\u201d a penetrating expos\u00e9 into the culture of French collaboration during WWII. If you remember the \u201cAnnie Hall\u201d joke about \u201ca four-hour documentary on Nazis,\u201d this is the one they are talking about. And that length is actually selling it a tad short.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1988 he won the Academy Award for \u201cHotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbi,\u201d a thorough examination into the life of the Nazi war criminal, his capture and trial. It\u2019s four hours and 27 minutes, and absolutely staggering.<\/span><\/p>\n

In between these two highly-regarded works was a middle child: \u201cThe Memory of Justice,\u201d released in 1976. A bold and philosophical project, Ophuls himself recently referred to it as \u201cflopp[ing] pretty badly when it came out [but] the best work I ever did in my life, or at any rate the most personal and the most sincere of my films.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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