Jonathan Glazer’s ‘Zone of Interest’ stuns at Cannes: A devastating Holocaust drama ‘like no other’
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There’s no doubt regarding what Cannes’ highest-profile ticket is, but “Killers of the Flower Moon” is unlikely to be the only major Oscar contender produced by the annual event’s 2023 edition. Jonathan Glazer’s A24-produced “The Zone of Interest” premiered on Friday and became “the first instant sensation” of this year’s festival.
Loosely adapted from Martin Amis’ 2014 novel of the same name, the film is a detached, forensic examination of complacency in the face of evil. Hype has steadily been building for months, but tonight’s premiere confirms that Glazer will be a major factor at this year’s Oscars for his Holocaust drama that many, including David Rooney (The Hollywood Reporter), are saying is “like no other” – a feat in and of itself, considering the regular release of projects on the topic. This is only the fourth film directed by Glazer, whose previous feature, “Under the Skin,” came out a decade ago. He burst onto the scene in 2000 with “Sexy Beast.” His sophomore feature, “Birth,” was similarly followed by a 10-year hiatus. Though he is pivoting to Oscar-friendlier fare with “The Zone of Interest,” the first wave of reactions suggests the movie is no less narratively or formalistically daring than what we’ve come to anticipate from the experimental filmmaker.
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Embracing as its ethos Hannah Arendt’s timeless phrase, “the banality of evil,” “The Zone of Interest” follows the idyllic lives of real-life Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel, “The White Ribbon”) and his family. Screams and gunshots are distantly, but, thanks to Johnnie Burn’s “extraordinary deep-textured” sound design and composer Mica Levi’s score, no less chillingly heard over the wall separating the notorious prison complex from the family’s Edenic home. The film’s lead character is Höss’ wife and self-proclaimed “queen of Auschwitz,” Hedwig (Sandra Hüller, “Toni Erdmann”).
Explaining what drew him to the material, Glazer stated during an appearance on the podcast “A Dash of Drash,” per IndieWire, “I remember being very taken by the faces of the bystanders, the onlookers, the complicit, you know? Ordinary Germans. I started wondering how it would be possible to stand by and watch that.” His non-judgmental approach to telling their story will make some viewers uncomfortable, but “The Zone of Interest” seems like a movie that will be discussed in psychology and film courses for years to come. Underpinning the screenplay’s clinical treatment of the subject is Oscar-nominated “Cold War” DP Łukasz Żal’s cinematography, which works in tandem with Chris Oddy’s production design to create a uniquely alienating visual experience.
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Glazer and Żal “shot simultaneously on up to 10 cameras in different rooms using no film lights and allowing the actors to move unobstructed,” Rooney writes. He continues, “The film unfolds predominantly in fixed wide shots under natural light, establishing a detached observational style that somehow makes its scrutiny more chilling.” Glazer famously used a similar technique in “Under the Skin.” David Ehrlich (IndieWire), who tweeted after the world premiere that “The Zone of Interest” is the “first major work of art” he’s seen at this year’s Cannes, writes in his formal review, “The ‘authorless’ quality of Glazer’s images frees the characters within them from the emptiness of moral judgment.”
Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian) compares the movie to the works of Claude Lanzmann and Michael Haneke. References to “Downfall” also seem apt, as the film contains stretches of the Third Reich’s administrative brass unfeelingly discussing mass murder and the most efficient method by which to achieve it. Rooney writes, ““Glimpses of standard bureaucracy and infrastructure being applied without a flicker of emotion to genocidal extermination make your blood run cold.” Pete Hammond (Deadline), echoing his colleagues, states, “Holocaust movies are virtually a genre of their own, but I can safely say I have never seen one, sans any visuals of violence and suffering, that still manages to be just as harrowing and frightening, maybe even more. ‘The Zone of Interest’ takes its place among the great films made on the Holocaust and will probably haunt you long after seeing it.”
Will A24 follow its historic performance this past awards season with a Palme d’Or? We’ll find out on May 27.
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