Les usages du paysage dans Shoah : esthétique, narratif, pragmatique

Abstract

This paper addresses the representation of the landscape in Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah (1985). It aims to articulate three complementary aspects. First of all, the relation between landscape and testimonies is elaborated through the question of the disappearance of the traces of the Genocide. Then, the paper focus on the narratives functions of the landscape. These sequences are examined as a way to apprehend a form of continuity between either the present and the past, or the sites of the genocide and the places wherein the witnesses were testifying. Finally, these sequences are perceived as a way to facilitate the editing process. This argumentation moves beyond an esthetical or a narrative point of view in order to understand the making of the film.