Saturday, May 25, 2024

The Zone of Interest (2023)

IMDb plot summary: Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden beside the camp.
Directed by Jonathan Glazer. Starring Cristian Friedel, Sandra Hüller and Johann Karthaus.

The Zone of Interest follows a German family where the patriarch manages Auschwitz, and he and his family live just on the other side of the wall. The story mostly just looks at the family's day-to-day lives, which on the surface are mundane, but of course they can't, be, because interspersed through all of it are the sounds, smells, sights, and unspoken understanding of the horrors mere feet from them. The movie is done well, but I think I admire its impact intellectually more than responded to it myself. It is unsettling to watch these people being able to tune out so much of their environment, just so they can move forward in peace with dinners and gardening and visits from family, and it is an important reminder of how easy it is to isolate ourselves and think, "As long as I'm OK, everything's OK." Sandra Huller turns in an especially good performance here -- what a year she had in 2023! So, yeah. Glad this movie exists and that it's getting attention.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Zone of Interest > Following
The Zone of Interest < Dark Passage
The Zone of Interest > Kajaki
The Zone of Interest < Waking Ned Devine
The Zone of Interest > The Whistleblower
The Zone of Interest < Wolf
The Zone of Interest < Ikiru
The Zone of Interest > Men in Black
The Zone of Interest > La jetee
The Zone of Interest > A Star Is Born (1937)
The Zone of Interest > Destroy All Monsters
The Zone of Interest > Moonlight
Final spot: #1307 out of 3891, or 66%.

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