![]() Laszlo Nemes' Son of Saul is an intimate portrait of two days in the life of Saul Auslander, a Hungarian prisoner working as a member of the Sonderkommando, at the Auschwitz Crematorium. Without going into too much details about the plot, much of the story revolves around Saul's pursuit of locating a rabbi amongst the chaos, who can help bury a young boy who Saul mistakes as his son. Son of Saul provides a personal experience of a concentration camp, examining a man who is haunted by the death of his son. Saul is a character who essentially turns his back on the living due to this obsession to bury this young boy, as his personal regrets and despair has completely clouded his judgment. Through Saul, the film captures the shattering of the family unit, but strangely enough, intentionally or not, it also speaks to the inherent selfishness of love and loss, as Saul shows little regard for the living. While I had a host of issues with Son of Saul, which I'll get into in a second, there is no denying that the filmmakers have crafted a singular vision of this horrendous time in human history, though it never manages to get past the inherent problems I tend to have with these types of films. The cinematography and sound design in Son of Saul are without question the film's strongest aspect, creating a claustrophobic and chaotic experience that makes the film very immersive. Much of the film consists of tight compositions centered around Saul, where chaos surrounds him, a very cold way of expressing the cruel experience of the concentration camp. While technically impressive, this is also where my problems begin with the film, as Son of Saul feels liked a twisted amusement park ride through the atrocities of the concentration camp at times. I totally get the appeal of making the film contained and personal, but something doesn't sit right with me about Saul's story carrying more emotional weight than the death that surrounds him, as the filmmakers never seem to indicate that his inherent selfishness could cost more lives. One can argue the film is merely showing the world through his perspective, but I'd argue that the filmmakers themselves fall into the same trap as their main protagonist, getting overly wrapped up in the sentiment of one man. One cannot deny that aspects of Son of Saul are emotionally resonant, but I'd argue not much is earned beyond the intrinsic despair of any film having to do with the darkest time in world history. Technically impressive, Laszlo Nemes' Son of Saul can't quite match it's impressive technical aspects, with a story that feels a tad insulting and quite frankly disrespectful to the weight of death surrounding its main protagonist.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
|