AFI Fest: The White Ribbon

The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band)
Directed by Michael Haneke

What to make of the latest from Michael Haneke? A more than cursory dissection of the plot of this Palme d’Or winner is fruitless because, as usual, Haneke is more interested in character and behavior than he is in story. Narrative is just a means to get his characters to expose their true natures and the results aren’t pretty.

In this case we’re talking about the seemingly peaceful citizens of a pastoral German town on the eve of World War I. Haneke’s focus bounces from one character or group of characters to another as a series of mysterious self-inflicted traumas occur that slowly erode the village’s placid façade and reveal the dark currents of hatred, mistrust, selfishness and genuine villainy in everyone from the most respected of citizens to the most apparently innocent. Imagine Cluzot’s Le Corbeau with elements of The Bad Seed mixed in.

As he picks away the layers of the village’s social strata, even the children are cast in an evil light and Haneke reestablishes himself as one of the most excoriatingly misanthropic of filmmakers. At the same time, one of the central subplots of the film involves the sweet romance between the likable new teacher in town and a young woman who works as a nanny. It gives an otherwise hard-edged, unsparing and depressing film a surprisingly warm and soft center. Is Haneke losing his edge or is he pulling another one over on his audience by fooling them into caring for a pair of characters he holds in contempt? I don’t know. I was wondering these things as I left the theater and I’m still wondering them now. Do they matter? I don’t even have an answer to that question.

That’s the thing about Haneke though. He’s a filmmaker that works on your intellect more than you’re emotions and as such he’s not for all tastes. The White Ribbon will also infuriate those who like their movies wrapped up in a tidy narrative.

On the other hand The White Ribbon is an impeccably crafted film photographed in a luminous and almost ghostly black and white. For all it lacks in routine narrative beats, it still works nicely as a mystery and it keeps you fully engaged until the end. For all his craftsmanship, Haneke’s intellectual pretensions and audience disregard in Cache and both versions of Funny Games left me completely cold, but here he’s put a more subtle hone on it. The White Ribbon is a less obvious harangue and a stronger, more beguiling film because of it. I haven’t totaled up everything it amounts to, but it continues to haunt nonetheless.

Filed under: Film Festivals, Reviews
Tags: AFI Fest, Das Weisse Band, Michael Haneke, The White Ribbon