The holocaust and interlocution between continuous and discontinuous history/time : cinematic responsibility after 9/11.

Abstract

Between 2008 and 2011 there is a resurgence of films about the historical massacre of European Jewry, the Holocaust. Interestingly, documentaries like Defamation (2009) do not depend on historical footage of German concentration camps. Features like Inglourious Basterds (2009) also avoid an “active-German-Nazi-against-passive-Jewish-victim” narrative.

This project explores two questions. First, when viewing a Holocaust film, can the viewer bear responsibility to the Other? Films like Mark Herman’s The Boy in Striped Pyjamas (2008) and Stephen Daldry’s The Reader (2008), with their unresolved conclusions, disallow viewers to gain closure. According to Emmanuel Levinas, this lack of closure causes the viewer to keep revisiting and bearing responsibility to the film, though it is a thing of the past.

Second, why the sudden return of Holocaust films? I argue that recent Holocaust films can arguably be ethical responses to post-9/11 politics, as the “fate” of 9/11 enters the “fate” of the Holocaust.