Diamonds of the Night

This is an incredible film. Before viewing it I was told it wasn't available in the states, and what a shame. It's stark visuals and haunting imagery kept me on the edge of my seat. I wouldn't care if I got a version w/o subtitles because their are maybe 10 spoken lines, and time is played with as the viewer follows flash backs forwards and dream sequences. This is the best war movie I have ever seen. The beginning scene running up the hill is bone chilling.

If at all possible watch this movie.

Two young men escape from a prisoner transport train on their way to a concentration camp. They try to survive in the dense woods, but the unforgiving terrain forces them back to civilization.

I started out enjoying this film. It's lack of dialogue (very little is spoken for much of the runtime), handheld camerawork, and harsh locations were innovative and compelling. However, as the film progressed I grew tired of the lack of narrative and the tedious experimental-film-style digressions, in the form of quick jumps for a few seconds, to what I am assuming were supposed to be the random thoughts and memories of one or both protagonists. By the film's third act, wherein a large band of elderly and doddering German citizens awkwardly chase the duo through the forest, the whole thing had fallen apart for me, and became laughable and pretentious. As usual, many or most will disagree with me, as this is another critically acclaimed "masterpiece" that I failed to connect with and/or fully comprehend. It's only 67 minutes long.

This surrealist masterpiece directed by Jan Nemec has had limited exhibition in the US. Mostly seen at film festivals and in museums, this 63 minute film concerns two boys who escape from a train taking them to a Nazi death camp. As they run through dense, rugged and unfamiliar terrain, their escape is interpolated with their dreams, hallucinations, fantasies, and memories. Like Forbidden Games, Fires on the Plains, and Grand Illusion, Diamonds of the Night is an anti-war film that does not deal with actual warfare. With a minimum of dialog, the film conveys the boys' physical and psychological deterioration with a maximum of cinematic bravura. This sadly neglected film deserves a Criterion DVD release.

I saw DIAMONDS OF THE NIGHT one late night and I thought the movie was a recorded dream. It felt so unreal and dream-like that I thought I was inside someone's head and experiencing their dream state. The 60 minute long film is experimental but even so it's more powerful than an entire year's worth of best films. It has a documentary feel to it but the repetitious editing (day-dreams?) and amazing sound-scape obviously pulls it out of that category. The film at times feels more real than reality. The cinematography was jaw-dropping. The image quality of the version I saw was faded and it didn't look like it was a new digital transfer (or maybe that's how the film was made to look like), regardless the look was unique: super fluid editing, camera composition and movement. It's a truly amazing cinematic achievement, probably more so today as it clearly stood the test of time and its experimental qualities resonate beautifully today.

A must see for fans of pure cinema.

Made in 1964 this was a film that has more than stood the test of time. It opens with two Jewish boys running from a train transport somewhere in Germany. They are running for their lives and the film captures the sheer fear and desperation perfectly. Using camera techniques that take you with them rather than as a voyeur you are transported with them to their plight. The hand held camera is often used to show in graphic detail the hardships they go through.

They are starving, wet and cold – add to this the exhaustion and fear and you can feel only pity for these two lads. The film also uses flash backs and dream sequences to things that may or have happened and repeated visuals of nightmares and glimpses of what might have been. Instead of acting as an alienation device though, these techniques help to explore the complex feelings and mind sets of the boys.

At only 68 minutes long it does seem to fly by but it is a film you will remember long afterwards. In some scenes the boys have the letters 'KL' painted on their backs. I tried to find out what this was referencing and I think it indicated that they were inmates of the concentration camp at Krakov – this would fit with them being transported to another camp which is the film's back story. This is a brilliant, stark, moving and exceptional piece of film making that I can highly recommend to cinema history fans.