This film, The White Ribbon/Das Weisse Band, was released here in the UK on November 13th but has only just received a release in the cinema near me. I heard some very good things about this film, it won the Palm D’Or at Cannes, and so when I learned I had a chance to see the film I jumped at the opportunity, though not quite literally.
I know there will be people either reading this on my blog, or at some later point at More To The Game, who will be scared by this film. Not because of the content, but because it is a German film. A German film in German with English subtitles. And it is in black and white. Those people who loved Transformers and 2012. Who are pant-wettingly excited that avatar is close. They will be so scared they won’t see this film. We have a word for these people. Philistines.
Film Poster for Das Weisse Band
The problem here, is that these people see monochrome films, or foreign language films, as in some way inferior to these big, over-the-top Hollywood Blockbusters that rake in silly amounts of money because people don’t want to be left out of the loop when people start quoting horrible one liners from these films. These people will never experience Eraserhead, may well look over some greats from early cinema, maybe even Citizen Kane, feel that Cronos is clearly not worth watching, despite the vampires, because it is in Spanish, and feel that greats like the Godfather needs 3D so you can reach out to that horse’s head. If all those films weren’t proof enough that colour, the English language, and 3D were all hideously overrated, Michael Haneke has given us The White Ribbon. Yes, that is the man who made Funny Games. Twice.
It’s hard to place this film. The plot suggests a crime drama film. Set in a German town pre-World War 1, the film starts with a narrator saying that the events of this town may well shed light on what happened in the country. Those familiar with Haneke’s back catalogue may find this hard to believe, and are unlikely to be surprised that it does little of the sort. We start when the doctor meets with an accident whilst riding his horse, and accident that seems to have been planned by someone. The events slowly escalate through two attacks on children from the town, and a barn being set on fire. The film runs deeper than this, however.
Haneke has progressed from Funny Games where he was almost constantly pointing at the audience, asking why they were still watching, and has become all the better for it. Throughout we get a sense that the children in the village are in some way connected to the happenings. Reminiscent of The Village of the Damned, these children seem to act with a single mind, and are very sinister. We are reminded, with certain external events described towards the end of the film, that these children, some distinctly Aryan, will grow up to be adults in Word War 2, and the groundwork here is being laid for that war. Whilst the immediate future in this 1913 village is the First World War, it is the second that lays ahead for these children.
The full extent of the children’s involvement is never fully explained, and that only gives more to the tension and anxiety generated in the audience. Whilst the black and white of this film certainly helps provide some distance from the goings on in the film, it also acts to add more connection. You are an observer, able to see more than any single character at the time, and so almost become part of any conspiracy that you can perceive.
Children in Das Weisse Band
This film walks a very fine line. There are elements of social commentary and political satire in evidence, and also the crime drama, but the main element is much more paedophobic horror, that is to say the fear of children, not paedophiles. It is a very targeted anxiety, and one that works very effectively. You leave the cinema with a real sense of anxiety, far more than I did after Paranormal Activity or The Descent Part 2.
It is also worth noting that there are elements of child abuse and torture, including that of a disabled child. They are treated in a very subtle way, this isn’t Saw 7, and the BBFC saw fit to grant this film a 15 certificate. Nothing in this film is overstated, and the subtlety is where the greatness lies.
It is an excellent film, and as long as you can see past a German language film in black and white, you are sure to enjoy it.
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This content is reposted from the Random Blog of Random Blogginess. The original post can be found here. It is used, with permission, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
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This sounds interesting. I’ll have to try watching it, although given the amount of time my local cinemas devote to foreign films I may have to wait for a DVD release.
Some of the best films I’ve seen over the past few years have been in a foreign language, but I don’t let it put me off. In fact, I always make a point of watching it in the original language with subtitles, rather than dubbed.