Wayne State University Press The Construction of Testimony: Claude Lanzmann's Shoah and Its Outtakes (Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Series)

Review The Construction of Testimony admirably begins the process of opening some of the many portals into the seemingly seamless, closed system of self-proclaimed auteur Claude Lanzmann's Shoah that the construction of the USHMM's Claude Lanzmann Shoah Collection has made possible.--Jay Geller "Holocaust and Genocide Studies" (1/3/2022 12:00:00 AM)In sum, The Construction of Testimony admirably begins the process of opening some of the many portals into the seemingly seamless, closed system of self-proclaimed auteur Claude Lanzmann's Shoah that the construction of the USHMM's Claude Lanzmann Shoah Collection has made possible.--Jay Geller "Holocaust and Genocide Studies" (12/3/2021 12:00:00 AM)This outstanding volume brings together a rich body of scholarship on the Claude Lanzmann Shoah Collection, which has been digitally archived at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and consists of 220 hours of unedited interview and location outtakes as well as sound tapes, interview summaries, and 7,300 pages of original transcripts....Bringing Lanzmann's multifaceted mode of production to light-thus reading Shoah against the intent of the filmmaker-this superb publication demonstrates that Lanzmann was even more of a maverick than he (re)presented himself to be.--Charlotte Schallié "Central European History" (12/31/2021 12:00:00 AM)The Construction of Testimony is proof positive that we must no longer assume the veracity of everything we see (and hear) in the original Shoah. There's no denying the film's artistic and historical significance, but it is ultimately a piece of a far richer, unfiltered puzzle. Indeed, Lanzmann's most significant contribution may not be any one of his acclaimed documentaries, but his collection of unaltered interviews, which were very nearly lost before USHMM acquired and preserved them. This powerful anthology illustrates how the archives are so much more than mere outtakes; they comprise an essential body of historical material, one which must continue to survive for posterity.--Thomas Puhr "Film International" (1/12/2021 12:00:00 AM)[This] incisive analy[sis] of the outtakes do much more than to give us insights into the changing goals, complex choices, and momentous omissions that determine this landmark film. [ . . . ] [It] carefully demonstrate, the outtakes contest the vision of the Holocaust, of testimony, and of the act of witness that Shoah, through these and other iconic moments, has been influential in shaping over the last 35 years.--Marianne Hirsch "Los Angeles Review of Books" (5/22/2020 12:00:00 AM)Here in one central source, the reader is presented with an essential companion to fully appreciate Claude Lanzmann's now classic film.--Sanford R. Silverburg "Association of Jewish Libraries News and Reviews" (12/1/2020 12:00:00 AM)There were some 220 hours of 'outtakes' that never made it into the 9 1/2 hours of Lanzmann's monumental film. Lanzmann stated that he was tempted to destroy this filmic material because such a drastic gesture 'would prove that Shoah is not a documentary.' This was a bizarre tribute to 'art' along with the supposed control over it by the 'auteur.' It was also an insistence on a misleading binary logic that obscured the documentary and referential dimensions along with the role of many co-makers (notably, women and disparaged Polish interlocutors), as well as the nature of Lanzmann's and his chief editor Ziva Postec's own at times problematic and extensive editing of a film that disclosed much to its viewers about the genocidal effort of the Nazis and its effects on victims and survivors. The archive of what the editors aptly term the 'not-yet-edited' and the 'never-to-be-edited' raises important questions about the bases of Lanzmann's decisions as well as his preferred method of eliciting or provoking traumatic reenactment. Readers may of course disagree about which contributions display the most critical insight, but they are all worth careful stu