The White Ribbon (includes trailer)
May 18th 2010 02:21
Michael Haneke’s latest film, The White Ribbon, recalls the detached intellectualism and technical precision of Stanley Kubrick and Michelangelo Antonioni’s films. The White Ribbon, is the highly coveted film which also won the 2009 Palm D’Or last year at Cannes. There’s a whole lot of nastiness going on in The White Ribbon, which is set in a small village in North Germany, which all takes place just best before world war 1. The title of the film refers to the adults in the village who tie a white ribbon around the arms of the children, reminding them of the importance of purity, of which most of the grown characters in the story are completely devoid of, aside from the film’s main character, the unnamed school teacher, played by new comer Christian Friedel, who represents the town last strands of hope, and who also narrates the film as an older man looking back.
This slow burning film surgically cuts deep into the wounds of this spiritually rotting village. It focuses on the ritualistic punishing of the children and depicts the kind of on going atrocities by the hypocritical parents that make you want to lash out at the screen. Director Michael Haneke (Hidden, The Piano Teacher, Funny Games) has a cold and clinical approach to the material which gives a shockingly understated and repressed impact on this slow building film. At times it can be overwhelming at how you’re forced to sit and view all this brutality in such in unemotional way, but this slow brooding tale of repression and travesty has the make of a classic and represents a knew height of achievement for an already established master of the craft. The way Haneke meticulously controls this epic film, along with it’s technical perfection allows us to bear witness to what could be the best film made this year.
The White Ribbon feels like it’s going to be slow right from the get-go, it asks for an enormous amount of patience from us in it’s two and a half hours. Those who have seen previous films by Haneke will know that he is a man who takes his time and doesn’t go ahead with anything until it’s up to his own standard of perfection. He loves to observe violence from above, this time he has increased the size of his canvas, in a favourless, objective, detached manner, setting the scene in a town so austere, with a villagers so excommunicated from their own souls that it makes you turn cold. All of this seems to be hinting at how the seeds of fascism in Germany were beginning to rear their ugly head up at the beginning of 20th century Germany as a cycle of mean spiritedness permutated through German society.
The village in The White Ribbon is unveiled methodically, exploring the nooks and crannies of each corner of this small town, finding out where it’s citizens commune to each morning, the austere, static camera observing and exploring what’s lurking around each corner, slowly building up our awareness of where we are, getting our bearings over the emotional geography of this community of people. There is a large picture to paint, filled with an entire village of people to keep track of. The calibre of precision and thought put into this masterful vision is unprecedented, and then just before we can feel safe - out come it’s fangs!
The casting of The White Ribbon is flawless, it’s actually ridiculous how perfectly formed this film is. Each actor’s face perfectly define the souls of their characters. One look at the adults or the children and we know everything there is to know about them. The film’s black and white cinematography is so stark and crisp that it communicates it’s images in the leanest and most direct way. This all creates an alarmingly immediate impact to what we witness. The children of this village are being punished for their parents sins. We begin to witness the frightening goings on of each house hold as we sit down to dinner with them. This is a village so castrated by it’s own values that it has rotted away, people so repressed that they no longer have any moral compass.
As the film builds on more to itself, it’s judicious eyes force us to view an intolerance in these people that is so unbearable that we cry out for release, some times this viciousness turns inwards and bites itself, but it leaves us with a lot to think about by it’s ending. What we see on screen stays with us as the souls of the children go begging in this old fashioned and cold world.
I couldn’t help but feel a little let down by the ending, the mysteries of this town stay locked away. It lets you be a visitor but never a resident. The images of the film stay with you long after you’ve seen it. I expect that the Palm D’Or was awarded, along with Golden Globe and other critics circle awards, for The White Ribbon, not for it’s compelling tale of wretchedness, but more for it’s technically ambitious vision and perfection. The White Ribbon is to be admired, even if it isn’t the most uplifting tale told, it’s a strong one executed with awe inspiring craftsmanship.
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Comment by Matt Shea
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
i still haven't seen this one yet, but being a follower of Haneke it won't be long until I have an opinion to share.