On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Claude Lanzmann
The exhibition "
For
The exhibition focuses on the many years of preparation that preceded filming. During this period, Claude Lanzmann and his assistants, Corinna Coulmas and Irena Steinfeldt-Levy, carried out research in different countries and conducted countless preliminary interviews, recorded on magnetic tape. These audio recordings, hitherto unknown, show the extent to which the director was interested in different facets of the Shoah before choosing extermination as the central theme of his work. They also give a glimpse of memory three decades after the end of the war.
The
The exhibition features excerpts from these recordings. They are presented for the first time at the same time in Paris and Berlin. The course, structured in 6 parts, invites visitors to
We discover the stories of witnesses that Claude Lanzmann did not retain or could film. Among them, survivors of various ghettos and camps, including the poet Avrom Suskever, Erich Kulka (Auschwitz), Ilana Safran (Sobibor), or rescuers such as Friedrich Graebe, and former leaders and executors of the Final Solution.
These recordings resonate with particular relevance in our present, which experiences a break with the end of testimony.
The witnesses who express themselves in the film speak as "revenants" from the dead.
To better contextualize the recordings, the exhibition also presents original documents from the private archives of Claude Lanzman. These documents contain letters, lists, notes and index cards from this period of research, which provide further insight into the practical work of the director and his assistants.
Discover the exhibition in 6 parts
Claude Lanzmann, French director and journalist, was born on 27 November 1925 in Bois-Colombes, France. As a teenager during the German occupation, he joined the Resistance. After studying philosophy, he taught at the Free University of Berlin in 1948/1949.
It was at this time that he produced his first journalistic works. In the early 1950s, he began a long relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. He joined the editorial staff of the magazine
In the following decades, Lanzmann directed many other films. He received numerous awards as a director, writer and journalist. He received the Golden Bear of Honor at the Berlinale for his entire body of work.
Claude Lanzmann dies on 5 July 2018 in Paris, the day after the premiere of his last film,
Photo: Claude Lanzmann in Poland during the filming of Shoah. © Association Claude and Felix Lanzmann.
Scientific Commissioner:
French adaptation:
Programming around the exhibition:
An exhibition designed by the
Review the inaugural conference of the exhibition
Ingrid Cadoret
ingrid@c-la-vie.fr
Ninon France
ninon.france@c-la-vie.fr
