“I’ve never seen footage like that in my life — never,” producer Brett Ratner said in an interview with The Malibu Times, describing his documentary “Night Will Fall” (2014). “It’s the most shocking and visceral footage I’ve ever witnessed.”
He also says this is the film he’s “most proud of.”
In observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins the evening of April 15 and ends the evening of April 16, the Malibu Film Society (MFS) will screen “Night Will Fall,” following a personal appearance and audience Q&A by producer/director Ratner.
The making of the documentary actually began in 1945, using footage of Allied troops entering and liberating European concentration camps run by the Nazis during World War II.
British, American and Soviet combat cameramen serving with the armed forces who were tasked with getting newsreel footage shot the film, which contains some grisly scenes and discoveries. Eleven camps were filmed, including Auschwitz, Belsen (where Anne Frank and most of her family died two weeks before the camp’s liberation), showing not only the dead, but also starving survivors and human remains.
After the British government decided to use the film reels to make a documentary that would provide indisputable proof of Nazi war crimes, filmmakers Alfred Hitchcock and Billy Wilder were brought in to help produce it. But, despite their involvement, the film, originally titled “German Concentration Camps Factual Survey,” was later shelved in the archives of the Imperial War Museums in London, and forgotten for 70 years, until researchers rediscovered it.
MFS’ guest Ratner, producer/director of more than 50 films during the last 25 years, is best known for comedies and big-budget blockbusters that have generated over $1 billion at the box office, including “Hercules,” “Horrible Bosses” and “The Last Stand.”
Ratner’s documentary productions are not as well known. His RatPac Documentary Films company acquired North American Rights to “Night Will Fall” last year, which he also co-produced.
“The Holocaust is something I’ve always been fascinated with,” Ratner said. “I’ve visited Auschwitz, and I’ve always wanted to make a narrative film about the subject and to be a part of it. I wanted to support ‘Night Will Fall’ and finally let the film see the light of day. It’s very powerful.”
The film project has meant a lot to Ratner.
“It’s personally important to me because of the rise of Holocaust denial,” he said. “It goes against everything the Holocaust deniers are saying. The close-ups are such that the wounded and murdered could be identified. This wasn’t shot from a distance like a lot of war footage.”
The documentary first aired in the U.S. on HBO, on Jan. 26, and quickly “became one of the most watched films on HBO,” Ratner said. “It’s now being distributed around the world, playing in theaters and educational institutions everywhere; we get calls about it every day.”
“Night Will Fall” features interviews with Hitchcock as well as recent interviews with survivors of that camp, including former Malibu resident Branko Lustig, the Academy Award-winning producer of “Schindler’s List.” Interviews are interspersed with actual, sometimes gruesome, concentration camp footage. The title of the film came from a line in the original 1945 documentary: “Unless the world learns the lesson these pictures teach, night will fall.”
In the film, Lustig theorized that the 1945 documentary was shelved for political reasons, saying it was because “the Brits had enough problems with the Jews” at that time, referring to the situation in Palestine, which was then a League of Nations mandate under British control. Ratner, however, believes the Brits were trying to preserve their newfound relationship with Germany
“Night Will Fall” will be shown on Wed., April 15, at 7:30 p.m. at the Malibu Screening Room, located in the Malibu Jewish Center & Synagogue complex at 24855 PCH. This screening is free and open to the public, but reservations are requested. Visit imtcorp.com/cgi-bin/respage.cgi for more information or to make a reservation.
