The White Ribbon
This year's Cannes Palme d'Or winner, the subtle but utterly engrossing mystery from Austrian director Michael Haneke, draws us into the life of a pre-WWI German village.
A series of macabre events rock this still feudal community to its core, but quite who is responsible, and why, remains tantalizingly difficult to pin down.
Taking place over the period of about a year, from the early summer of 1913, The White Ribbon quietly outlines the class hierarchies in the village and introduces four or five characters who will have a significant impact on the story as it develops. A voice-over narration by the schoolmaster gives the movie a novelistic feel, and also puts us on notice that strange things are afoot, not all of which the teacher feels confident in accounting for.
Cast details
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Michael Haneke
Born: 23 Mar 1942
Munich, Bavaria, GermanyTop rated films View all 71 Fragments Of A Chronology Of Chance (1994) 
The Michael Haneke Trilogy
The Seventh Continent (1989)
The first mystery is this: who strung a wire between two trees in what seems to have been a deliberate attempt to throw the doctor from his horse? Was it an elaborate prank, or a serious attempt on his life? A widower, the doctor survives, but is sent off to hospital, leaving his housekeeper to look after his two children.
This unsolved mystery is forgotten when a more serious incident transpires: a peasant woman dies in a workplace accident (or is it?). Her grown son blames the local landowner, the baron, for the fatality, and destroys his cabbage field in protest. This compounds the family’s misery however, and corrodes the mistrust between the baron and the farm workers still further.
Yet these unpleasant incidents only give a foretaste of the repellent turn of events that will overtake the village.
Shot in a period-evocative black and white, The White Ribbon is a more classical, old-fashioned film than Michael Haneke (Hidden; The Piano Teacher) is known for – the storytelling is less affected with post-modern tricks and tropes than Joe Wright’s not entirely dissimilar Atonement, for example. It’s also his most expansive film to date, with the widest range of characters and the most leisurely running time (143 minutes).
The White Ribbon
Still, Haneke-watchers will recognize the elliptical storytelling, the restraint and refusal to pander, as well as the stern, grim view of humanity. It’s an ungenerous vision in which cruelty, exploitation, abuse and revenge cycle across the generations. Compare and contrast Jean Renoir’s great film set on a French estate just prior to WWI, La Regle Du Jeu.
This film is more explicitly grounded in a wider historical consciousness: right from the beginning the narrator postulates that the events may shed some light on the subsequent pathology of his country, and we duly note that the children in the movie will grow up to become citizens of Hitler’s Fatherland. (In Germany, The White Ribbon carries the sour subtitle: “A German Children’s Story”).
It seems a bit glib to suggest that we can explain the Third Reich by the conjunction of religious repression and child abuse in German society, and to be fair, Haneke is never so explicit in stating his thesis. If that’s not what the film is about, though, then I’m a Dutch uncle.
It’s an impressive piece of work all the same, superbly crafted, and engrossing from first to last.
Reviews
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Critics' reviews
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Michael Hanekes extraordinary new film is a black-and-white ensemble piece set in a north German village on the eve... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful members' reviews (3)
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20 out of 20 people found this review helpful
Pleasantly shocking.
Perfectly shot in glossy B&W. The rhythm seems slows but the pain grows and is excruciating the more the story evolves.
You can see violence, repressive education, obsessed religious credence and, fundamentally, a very poor education to be the perfect primordial ingredients of what is to become the future of Germany. You see those and and then you realize that Nazism is the only possible outcome.
Haneke is as usual superb 360 degrees. The unsaid and the unseen is even more shocking to be imagined than if he had it shown to the viewer.
Superb -
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
deeply impressive
As with most of Haneke's work, attempting to figure out what it's all about can lead you up many fascinating, but ultimately blind alley-ways. The critical response to The White Ribbon has been a general discomfort with the suggested premise; that the rise of fascism in early 20th century Germany can be linked to the mistreatment of a generation of children. Surely a far too simplistic conclusion for this complex and rich work from a revered stalwart of the avant garde? And it's true - the film is so sophisticated, absorbing, beautiful and haunting, one doesn't like to believe that in the end its message boils down to 'what the world needs now is love-love-love' - but this conclusion is hard to dismiss.
But interpretation aside, The White Ribbon as pure experiential cinema is superb. As a viewer you feel like you're fulfilling that fantasy of being a ghost or an invisible man, able to wander around town and walk through walls, observing domestic scenes at random. The atmosphere is intimate, secretive, and never less than intense. The huge ensemble cast, from ages five to seventy-five, is simply a marvel. This is acting of the highest order, every moment steeped in an austere authenticity. The overall effect is mesmerising, often troubling, and deeply impressive.
Haneke's target here appears to be the parents, dominated by a group of unhappy, unkind, authoritarian fathers. It's interesting to consider this in relation to Haneke's own tendancy to authoritarianism; the feeling you get that there's an element of sermonizing in his work - one which he is keen to down-play, and so shrouding his films in mystery and enigma.
It struck me while watching The White Ribbon that the children of the village - children who we know will one day lend their support to National Socialism - are considered by the adults as either angels or devils; either beyond reproach or to be damned. It is often painful to watch them suffocating within the vacuum created between these two illusory extremes.
And what of the current intensity in our attitude to children and teenagers - is this Haneke's sermon? Is this a cautionary tale? -
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Rich, deep and involving
Michael Haneke has a long background as a theatre director before he made his first film around 20 years ago. This must be one of the reasons he achieves such truthful performances from his actors. The quality of acting from the large cast of adults and children is, quite simply, fabulous. Anyone interested in the art of acting will revel in this film. Add to the acting the extremely focused and intelligent direction and the inspired black and white cinematography and you have a masterwork. But what is it about, you may ask? Well, it seems to me that Haneke is exploring repression in the family and how that impacts more widely in society. But this is such a rich piece of cinema that there is lots, lots more going on. For instance, the brutality of men in the patriarchal country that was Germany in the early 20th century. Even the essentially kind schoolmaster stands by as police brutally interview a young girl who has done no wrong. And, not just Germany and not just 100 years ago. Think of the recent case of the Austrian who locked his daughter in a cellar and abused her for years. Haneke explores these dark areas of human behaviour in the most intelligent and rigorous way. If you are interested in the power of world cinema to engage the mind and the emotions you are likely to find this one of the best films of the year. Highly recommended.
-
Most recent members' reviews (2)
View all -
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
deeply impressive
As with most of Haneke's work, attempting to figure out what it's all about can lead you up many fascinating, but ultimately blind alley-ways. The critical response to The White Ribbon has been a general discomfort with the suggested premise; that the rise of fascism in early 20th century Germany can be linked to the mistreatment of a generation of children. Surely a far too simplistic conclusion for this complex and rich work from a revered stalwart of the avant garde? And it's true - the film is so sophisticated, absorbing, beautiful and haunting, one doesn't like to believe that in the end its message boils down to 'what the world needs now is love-love-love' - but this conclusion is hard to dismiss.
But interpretation aside, The White Ribbon as pure experiential cinema is superb. As a viewer you feel like you're fulfilling that fantasy of being a ghost or an invisible man, able to wander around town and walk through walls, observing domestic scenes at random. The atmosphere is intimate, secretive, and never less than intense. The huge ensemble cast, from ages five to seventy-five, is simply a marvel. This is acting of the highest order, every moment steeped in an austere authenticity. The overall effect is mesmerising, often troubling, and deeply impressive.
Haneke's target here appears to be the parents, dominated by a group of unhappy, unkind, authoritarian fathers. It's interesting to consider this in relation to Haneke's own tendancy to authoritarianism; the feeling you get that there's an element of sermonizing in his work - one which he is keen to down-play, and so shrouding his films in mystery and enigma.
It struck me while watching The White Ribbon that the children of the village - children who we know will one day lend their support to National Socialism - are considered by the adults as either angels or devils; either beyond reproach or to be damned. It is often painful to watch them suffocating within the vacuum created between these two illusory extremes.
And what of the current intensity in our attitude to children and teenagers - is this Haneke's sermon? Is this a cautionary tale? -
Deeply impressive
I cannot really add much to the reviews of the content and the depth that makes this film so exceptional but three points:
1. the wonderful photography throughout
2. the sound of the snow falling - that gentle hissing noise that for me was a magical touch and a detail that, for me, highlighted the quality and thought behind this film
3. the crass American subtitles - why oh why are so many European films subtitled in gross, contemporary American language and phrases, wholly unsuited to the period or the European culture. Please can we have English!
-
20 out of 20 people found this review helpful
Pleasantly shocking.
Perfectly shot in glossy B&W. The rhythm seems slows but the pain grows and is excruciating the more the story evolves.
You can see violence, repressive education, obsessed religious credence and, fundamentally, a very poor education to be the perfect primordial ingredients of what is to become the future of Germany. You see those and and then you realize that Nazism is the only possible outcome.
Haneke is as usual superb 360 degrees. The unsaid and the unseen is even more shocking to be imagined than if he had it shown to the viewer.
Superb -
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
deeply impressive
As with most of Haneke's work, attempting to figure out what it's all about can lead you up many fascinating, but ultimately blind alley-ways. The critical response to The White Ribbon has been a general discomfort with the suggested premise; that the rise of fascism in early 20th century Germany can be linked to the mistreatment of a generation of children. Surely a far too simplistic conclusion for this complex and rich work from a revered stalwart of the avant garde? And it's true - the film is so sophisticated, absorbing, beautiful and haunting, one doesn't like to believe that in the end its message boils down to 'what the world needs now is love-love-love' - but this conclusion is hard to dismiss.
But interpretation aside, The White Ribbon as pure experiential cinema is superb. As a viewer you feel like you're fulfilling that fantasy of being a ghost or an invisible man, able to wander around town and walk through walls, observing domestic scenes at random. The atmosphere is intimate, secretive, and never less than intense. The huge ensemble cast, from ages five to seventy-five, is simply a marvel. This is acting of the highest order, every moment steeped in an austere authenticity. The overall effect is mesmerising, often troubling, and deeply impressive.
Haneke's target here appears to be the parents, dominated by a group of unhappy, unkind, authoritarian fathers. It's interesting to consider this in relation to Haneke's own tendancy to authoritarianism; the feeling you get that there's an element of sermonizing in his work - one which he is keen to down-play, and so shrouding his films in mystery and enigma.
It struck me while watching The White Ribbon that the children of the village - children who we know will one day lend their support to National Socialism - are considered by the adults as either angels or devils; either beyond reproach or to be damned. It is often painful to watch them suffocating within the vacuum created between these two illusory extremes.
And what of the current intensity in our attitude to children and teenagers - is this Haneke's sermon? Is this a cautionary tale? -
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Rich, deep and involving
Michael Haneke has a long background as a theatre director before he made his first film around 20 years ago. This must be one of the reasons he achieves such truthful performances from his actors. The quality of acting from the large cast of adults and children is, quite simply, fabulous. Anyone interested in the art of acting will revel in this film. Add to the acting the extremely focused and intelligent direction and the inspired black and white cinematography and you have a masterwork. But what is it about, you may ask? Well, it seems to me that Haneke is exploring repression in the family and how that impacts more widely in society. But this is such a rich piece of cinema that there is lots, lots more going on. For instance, the brutality of men in the patriarchal country that was Germany in the early 20th century. Even the essentially kind schoolmaster stands by as police brutally interview a young girl who has done no wrong. And, not just Germany and not just 100 years ago. Think of the recent case of the Austrian who locked his daughter in a cellar and abused her for years. Haneke explores these dark areas of human behaviour in the most intelligent and rigorous way. If you are interested in the power of world cinema to engage the mind and the emotions you are likely to find this one of the best films of the year. Highly recommended.
-
Deeply impressive
I cannot really add much to the reviews of the content and the depth that makes this film so exceptional but three points:
1. the wonderful photography throughout
2. the sound of the snow falling - that gentle hissing noise that for me was a magical touch and a detail that, for me, highlighted the quality and thought behind this film
3. the crass American subtitles - why oh why are so many European films subtitled in gross, contemporary American language and phrases, wholly unsuited to the period or the European culture. Please can we have English!
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Critics' reviews
-
Michael Hanekes extraordinary new film is a black-and-white ensemble piece set in a north German village on the eve... read more on Time Out