White Material details
| Formats: | 15 DVD, Blu-ray |
|---|---|
| Starring: | Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Claude Brialy, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Isaach De Bankolé, Isaach De Bankole, William Nadylam, David Gozlan, Christopher Lambert |
| Director: | Claire Denis |
| Genres: | Drama, World Cinema - French |
| Studio: | FUSION MEDIA SALES |
| Name | Discs | |
|---|---|---|
White Material |
15 Feature |
DVD Information
| Run time: | 1 hour 40 minutes |
|---|---|
| Rental release: | 06 Dec 2010 |
| Main languages: | French |
| Subtitles: | English |
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LOVEFiLM Review
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By Tom Charity from LOVEFiLMClaire Denis' latest drama takes her back to Africa, with the haunting White Material.
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Most helpful review
Black & White
By obviously (1 review) from New York USA , 15 Feb 2010[Highly rated reviewer]
Denis goes back to the colonial Africa and tells a story of a coffee plantation owned by a white family caught in civil war. Mme. Vial (Isabelle Huppert), a matron of the family is perhaps a clueless, arrogant white woman, as she tries to hire fleeing locals to finish coffee harvest, oblivious to total chaos around her. But we are definitely not watching some helpless puzzle piece in an overwrought, meticulously planned Haneke movie. Vial is not quite the white devil. It's her ingrained sense of entitlement that makes her a curio as she refuses to leave and calling other whites undeserving of the beautiful land. We are in the Denis territory and there are some amazingly blissful sequences- Mme. Vial riding a motorcycle on the dirt road, piles of child soldiers all doped up with pills and junk food spread out in the Vial house...just to name a few. Huppert fits perfectly in the white woman role. Her glaring whiteness is used well against the black continent. Isaach De Bankolé's Ché like rebel leader the Boxer, Michel Subor (The old man with the dogs in L'intrus) and Christopher Lambert as the deceiving husband, Nicolas Duvauchelle as the wacko son round up the elusive supporting cast. White Material is not her most abstract film yet Denis still manages to keep the film absorbing and enigmatic without ever being didactic or boring. It's definitely headier and feels more substantial than her other works. And the sense of freedom I feel when I watch a Denis's film that I like the most is still intact. It's invigorating.- Was this review helpful to you?
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(41)White Material
By Kw54 (44 reviews) from London , 08 Jun 2012Claire Denis's authentic-feeling drama is set in an unnamed African country where a messy,anti-colonial conflict is under way. Isabelle Huppert is the enigmatic Maria Vial,a French woman trying to keep the family coffee plantation alive with no help from the feeble men(chiefly,her largely absentee husband Christopher Lambert and indolent,depressed son Nicolas Duvanchelle) and seemingly oblivious to the mounting danger.
An unsentimental portrayal of a driven woman.- Was this review helpful to you?
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SACRE BLU
By a customer , 07 Mar 2012Sacre blu! Theres so little dialogue in this it didn't really need subtitles! The WORST film I've seen for a long time. I still can't believe the ending which was just stupid. Slow and boring. Avoid.- Was this review helpful to you?
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The courage of asking questions without answers.
By LeehamPeeders (13 reviews) , 23 Feb 2012Astonishingly powerful and intelligently complex, this multidimensional work from Denis is proof what an interesting story and a storyteller unafraid to take risks can do. With its structure all over the place, a knockout performance from Isabelle Huppert - she lives this role - and a smartly balanced approach to the question of colonialism and its effects, White Material surely stands as one of the best works of its year. Astonishingly good filmmaking.- Was this review helpful to you?
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Shocking slow and boring
By a customer , 17 Dec 2011This movie left large gaps that were never resolved and left me feeling nothing for these characters. I kept expecting it would start to make more sense or be more compelling, but it never happened.- Was this review helpful to you?
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Revelations on an African coffee plantation
By RichPickings (167 reviews) from 'kin Bruges , 27 Nov 2011Absolutely superb rendering of worlds colliding in an unnamed French colony. Its sureness of footing, brevity of language and yet unerring trajectory are a marvel. Not a user friendly or intuitive film, so yes the similarities to a less overtly muscular 'Apocalypse Now' do bear up. Sumptuous authenticity of humans in a landscape. Memorable, stultifying, atmospheric, worrying and mysterious.- Was this review helpful to you?
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