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Fateless [DVD]
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Genre | Kids & Family |
Format | AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC |
Contributor | Bla Dra, Marcell Nagy, Lajos Koltai, Andrs M. Kecsks, Pter Fancsikai, Pter Vida, Blint Pntek, Endre Harknyi, ron Dimny, Mrton Brezina, Dani Szab, Zsolt Dr, Imre Kertsz, Tibor Mertz See more |
Language | English, German, Hungarian |
Runtime | 2 hours and 20 minutes |
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Product Description
Dont miss this unforgettable story of a child who had the courage to come home.
Set in 1944, as Hitlers Final Solution becomes policy throughout Europe, Fateless is the semi-autobiographical tale of a 14 year-old Jewish boy from Budapest, who finds himself swept up by cataclysmic events beyond his comprehension. A perfectly normal metropolitan teen who has never felt particularly connected to his religion, he is suddenly separated from his family as part of the rushed and random deportation of his citys large Jewish population. Brought to a concentration camp, his existence becomes a surreal adventure in adversity and adaptation, and he is never quite sure if he is the victim of his captors, or of an absurd destiny that metes out salvation and suffering arbitrarily. When he returns home after the liberation, he missed the sense of community he experienced in the camps, feeling alienated from both his Christian neighbors who turned a blind eye to his fate, and the Jewish family friends who avoided deportation and who now want to put the war behind them.
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : Unrated (Not Rated)
- Product Dimensions : 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches; 2.88 Ounces
- Director : Lajos Koltai
- Media Format : AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
- Run time : 2 hours and 20 minutes
- Release date : May 9, 2006
- Actors : Marcell Nagy, Bla Dra, Blint Pntek, ron Dimny, Pter Fancsikai
- Subtitles: : English
- Language : Hungarian (Dolby Digital 5.1), Hungarian (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
- Studio : Velocity / Thinkfilm
- ASIN : B000EQ5Q2W
- Writers : Imre Kertsz
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #39,849 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #356 in Foreign Films (Movies & TV)
- #582 in Military & War (Movies & TV)
- #7,342 in Drama DVDs
- Customer Reviews:
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On his way, the protagonist encounters evil in many forms. The SS that beat and degrade him and the rest of the Jews without regard for their humanity. Later, in the concentration camps we notice the main characters demise and lost of interest in life. Many of his fellow inmates struggle to get him to care about life and to have hope, but he is just merely to exhausted and disgusted with life to care at this point.
At his most vulnerable point and on the cust of death, liberation comes and the protagonist is saved from a certain death. He then return to Hungary to witness that many people have continued life as if nothing happened. To make matters worse, many of his fellow-countrymen and even his fellow Jews are indifferent to his suffering at best and disgusted by him at worst. We notice that the protagonist is changed. He has no hope. He talks about his experiences and describes them as normal. Not normal in the real world, but normal is his mind.
The movie in itself is very powerful but it leaves you asking many questions. It definitley doesn't provide you with a "happily ever-after" ending. It is an awkward feeling to have a film with such violence and evil and suffering and not have any good come out of it.
Feeling jipped out of a good ending, I went to the Special Features section and found an interview with Kertesz about the film. Imre Kertesz not only wrote the novel "Fatelesness," but he also wrote the script to the film "Fateless." In a section of the interview, Kertesz expresses his disgust for the film Schindler's List. He takes great exception to the "happy" ending portrayed in that film. He argues that there wasn't always a silver lining to the suffering of the Jews. In fact, there hardly was one. The reality of the Holocaust was that there was a massive scale extermination and infliction of suffering with no purpose. There was no greater cause. No good that came out of it. For example, in Schindler's List we see that "Schindler Jews" at the end of the movie and we feel a sense of relief, that there was some good that came out of all that suffering. Also, we witness the Jews waving at Oskar Schindler in that movie and saying "hi boss." Kertesz argues that this is just no factual. Everyday life in extermination camps robbed you of your humanity. The exhaustion, the lack of rational behavior, it all compounded and greatly affected the psyche of the Jews. In Imre Kertesz' case, there was no good that came out of his suffering, so he didn't want to portray a film as such. Therefore, you are left with a raw film with no hope. Suffering and pain for the sake of suffering and pain. It is very powerful and a must-see for everyone. A must-have, especially for those with an interest in the Holocaust and WWII.
The director and cinematographer chose to film Fateless not in black and white, as Schindler's List was done, but in almost colorless tones washed over with sepia and grey, which give the film the appearance of very early photography, the kind your grandparents and great grandparents might have appeared in. And, just when you think you're watching a black and white film, small hints of real color appear, almost the way real colors sometimes show briefly in departing dreams. The film is an impeccably crafted work of visual art, and it is its imagery that most moved me.
There are three moments of unexpected beauty that for me were most memorable. The first is a sequence showing prisoners forced to stand at attention, knowing that should they fall they will be punished or put to death. Dressed in their striped uniforms and standing in lines, as the impact of the fear drains their weakened bodies, they begin to shake and to sway. And, the movement is accompanied by the mournful singing of what could be a hymn, richly done by a single female voice. As the camera pans over them, it is almost as though they are one with the music, and the effect is gut-wrenching.
The second is a sequence in which the boy makes his way through a downpour in the mud toward a goal which remains ambiguous. As he slips and slides and falls, silhoutted against the falling rain, we no longer see the child he was but simply a human being reduced to the barest of necessities, the need to fight to remain alive. Filmed in black and grey, it is among the film's most powerful symbolic moments.
And, finally, a scene in which the barely living boy is laid out among corpses on the threshold of his own death. As he lies there, we see what he sees: a sky filled with flowing clouds that intermittently allow weak rays of sunlight to filter through them. It is a deeply personal, yet universal statement: the few seconds of time most of us will have as we look at our living world for the last time. Almost incongruously, the moment becomes the beginning of his salvation.
I am sure other viewers of Fateless will take from it parts of the film that they will treasure. These three were among mine. I intend to watch this film many more times. It is a beautifully rendered work of art.
Okay, finished watching the movie. It did get better. The movie is well made, well acted, and realistic. The unfortunate part is the subtitles, as there is a fair amount of rapid dialog and I spent a lot of time just reading the subtitles instead of watching the movie. I'll have to watch it again to appreciate the realistic sets, makeup, and costumes. Worth the money? Yeah, I guess so!
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Imre Kertesz (Prix Nobel de la Littérature en 2002) a lui même écrit le scénario de ce film. Lire le livre permet de mieux situer certaines scènes que le temps d'un film téléscope un peu. Cela fait mieux entrer également dans le regard du jeune garçon, naïf et confiant; puis dans sa réflexion.
Sur la forme:
Le film est beau. Les images sont soignées, voire splendides. Même dans les camps. je trouve que cela rend bien la façon dont le jeune Gyurka aborde les événements.
La période Hongroise, à Budapest, est colorée en sépia. Nostalgie et paix.
Déportation et vie dans les camps sont presqu'en noir et blanc.
Le retour est traité en plus chaud, mais reste triste.
(ici le DVD est en Hongrois, avec des sous-titres en Anglais. Rien en Français)
Sur le fond:
Le film est un reflet très sincère du ton du livre. Le garçon, et son entourage, ne s'attend pas du tout à ce qui va lui arriver. Il est parti, presqu'enthousiaste. Et l'accueil réservé à Auschwitz le séduit.
Puis, la prise de conscience se fait doucement, comme si la conscience refusait d'appréhender l'horreur.
On assiste enfin à la déchéance infligée par un système destructeur.
Gyurka s'en sort. Son livre n'en explique pas plus que le film même s'il décrit plus à fond les événements qui ont concouru à son sauvetage.
Tout au long de son "aventure", le garçon réfléchit et intériorise. On ne peut qu'être vraiment ému à la lecture (très succinctement transmise à l'écran) de ses maturations, ses prises de consciences, ses résolutions qui émergent lorsqu'il est confronté aux difficultés. En cela, beaucoup de nos jeunes pourraient en prendre de la graine.
On a reproché au film d'être trop beau. Mais c'est le reflet de la perception du garçon.
On lui a aussi reproché de ne pas montrer les chambres à gaz' mais Imre Kertesz raconte qu'il ne les a pas vues. Même s'il ne fait pas l'impasse, car il en a entendu parler, et le récit comme le film, le précisent.
Ce film est un témoignage personnel, individuel. Beau et émouvant.
Il manifeste également ce travail de distanciation qu'Imre Kertesz a voulu faire en écrivant "Etre sans destin". En cela, on pourra le trouver un peu froid par moments.
Enfin, il convient de resituer les événements pour mieux comprendre l'état d'esprit du garçon.
La Hongrie était un allié du Reich. Une discrimination était en vigueur à l'égard des Juifs (persécutions économiques et politiques), mais ils n'étaient pas victimes de la solution finale.
Après la défaite de Stalingrad (février 43) où les soldats Hongrois ont été décimés, l'amiral Horty et son premier ministre Kallay envisagèrent une défaite de l'Allemagne, et cherchèrent à négocier un armistice séparé pour la Hongrie avec les alliés occidentaux.
Pour contrer ces efforts, les Allemands ont envahi la Hongrie le 19 mars 1944, et installèrent un fanatique pro-allemand comme Premier Ministre, le général Sztojay. Celui-ci engagea la Hongrie dans la poursuite de l'effort de guerre Allemand, et coopéra dans la déportation des Juifs. En avril, ordre fut donner de rassembler les Juifs dans certaines villes. A la mi-mai, les déportations commencèrent. Elles cessèrent le 7 juillet, sur ordre de Horty sous pression des alliés, la situation militaire s'étant vraiment dégradée pour les forces de l'Axe.
Près de 440.000 Juifs furent déportés, et environ 63.000 tués.
Un très beau DVD rappelle ces faits: " Les Derniers jours ", de James Moll.
Le film, à l'instar du livre, nous montre des Juifs d'une nation alliée aux Allemands, qui admirent ces derniers (organisation, civilisation, etc). Ils n'imaginent pas une seconde qu'ils partent pour l'horreur, lorsqu'on leur "propose" d'aller travailler en Allemagne. le jeune Gyurka, dans le livre, exprime même qu'il en attend une expérience enrichissante qui va faire de lui un homme responsable.
Dans le livre " Dans la fosse aux lions : La Vie d'Oswald Rufeisen " par Nechama Tec, Oswald Rufeisen, témoin direct de massacres, dit combien les Juifs (en Pologne et plus loin à l'Est) même avertis, même entendant les coups de feu du village voisin, ne croyaient pas qu'ils seraient liquidés et refusaient de partir. On ne sera donc pas étonné de l'attitude naïve des Juifs Hongrois, montrée dans ce récit.
However this film has been recomended, by a Auschvitz surviver(who I have had the privilege of meeting), as giving the best insight into how things really were for a jewish boy of that age during the holocaust.
It is worth noting that this film is subtitled