Claude Lanzmann, an Ode to Life

This documentary gives a close-up of filmmaker Claude Lanzmann, whose monumental film, “Shoah” from 1985, challenged earlier films on Holocaust. The director, Sylvain Roumette, investigates the period when Lanzmann attended gymnasium in Clermont-Ferrand and enrolled in the French resistance against the Nazis; his years in post-war Berlin; his carreer as journalist; and his relationship with Simone de Beauvoir. Lanzmann also discusses the philosophy behind his moral and artistic choices in the production of “Shoah”. A memorable portrait of a great film artist and a deeply humanistic man.