Afterimage : film, trauma, and the Holocaust

Argues that cinema has become a significant witness to the Holocaust when it has formally repeated and transmitted the traumatic structure of the experience of witnessing the events themselves. Presents a theory of post-traumatic cinema in two stages. In the first stage, atrocity footage potentially causes vicarious trauma in the audience. In the second stage, certain films adopt a form of narration evocative of post-traumatic memory. Examines documentary and fiction films that made significant contributions to the post-traumatic cinematic discourse of the Holocaust, contrasting them with realist films that tended to deny the traumatic impact of the Holocaust. Resnais's 1955 documentary "Night and Fog" largely originated the post-traumatic narration of history, and influenced later films of this type. Traces the development of the post-traumatic Holocaust documentary, focusing on Lanzmann's "Shoah", and discusses the adoption of post-traumatic narration in fiction films, focusing on the contribution of Lumet's "The Pawnbroker". Views three films written and directed by the Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivor Istvan Szabo in 1966-73 as examples of post-traumatic autobiography. Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-213) and index. xvi, 213 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.