Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Christian Friedel, Burghart Klassner & Susanne Lothar
A cold, disturbing drama that does an excellent job at building an atmosphere of tension and fear but might upset some audiences expecting answers by the end. A thought provoking thriller.
No stranger to courting controversy with his films and his recurring themes on the nature of cruelty, not only amongst the characters on screen but also within the audiences that watch them, Michael Haneke’s latest film is, perhaps, his most daring yet. Taking place in a remote German village just a year before the outbreak of WWI in 1914 and an era that would change Germany and the world, The White Ribbon is a complex and disturbing drama/thriller about a small village suffering from long developing tensions and frustrations resulting in a series of violent acts in which some, even many, of the villagers may be responsible for.
Recounting his time living in a German village over 1913 and 1914, an unnamed teacher (Friedel) is present for a series of violent acts that start with a trap that fells and injures the local doctor during a horse riding accident and then follows with the death of a farmer’s wife in a mill, the destruction of the local baron’s cabbage patch, the kidnapping and beating of two children and more. The mystery as to who is behind these acts casts wary eyes from the villagers towards each other. Are the village’s children responsible, children who band together frequently to misbehave and two of whom, children of the town pastor (Klassner), have been victims of violence at the hands of their father? Is the son of the farmer’s wife who died responsible when he was seen destroying the baron’s cabbages? The tensions amongst the townsfolk soon reveal many suspects and many reasons why such acts may even be deserved.
After the disappointing, and unnecessary, Hollywood remake of his own 1997 film Funny Games in 2005, Haneke returns to form with The White Ribbon. Confronting, once again, the nature of violence in society, Haneke’s latest film is very impressive and is ambitious in its scope and complexities. Filmed in black and white with unknown actors gives the film the feeling of a film made in the era of the events depicted though the period itself is not announced until the second half of the film allowing Haneke to build up a sense of tension and oppression within the village before casting allusions of their relevance to the country as a whole and its future until later. Haneke also, smartly, avoids giving explicit answers as to who is responsible for many of the acts committed or, in fact, whether one person is responsible at all. The open-endedness of this approach, which is common for Haneke, may frustrate some audiences but it does add to the atmosphere of the film as does Haneke’s choice to have several acts committed off camera with other events occurring on camera which place the innocence of some of the victims into question. One scene in which a young boy walks in on his father, the town doctor, with his sister is more tense and frightening than any of the violence portrayed elsewhere in the film and the treatment of the pastor’s children by the pastor himself portrays the man as an oppressive influence on the village as well as in his home.
Cast with unknowns, the performances throughout The White Ribbon are strong. Christian Friedel is the lead performer in the film as the teacher who narrates the film (though the narration is provided by an older, unseen actor). Portrayed very sympathetically as the witness to the town’s events and given the only really warmth in the film through the storyline involving his romance of a young nanny, the performance is suitably kind hearted and earnest though there are suspicions that this is merely the narrator portraying himself favourably compared to darkness revealed in the other villagers. Burghart Klassner delivers an intense, intimidating performance as the town pastor whose commitment to purification excuses, in his opinion, the punishments he enacts upon his children when he perceives them to have sinned yet he also demonstrates vulnerabilities particularly in a sub-plot surrounding a young boy’s desire to take care of an injured boy. The child actors are impressive giving their characters the sympathy that goes with children suffering whilst also effectively conveying an eerie, Village of the Damned-vibe when suspicions are aroused. Another interesting pair is the town doctor (Rainer Bock) and midwife (Susanne Lothar). With a secret affair going on between them, their relationship initially looks warm but is later revealed as chilling with the doctor’s detachment becoming abusive in on scene with is made all the more disturbing for the audience and the midwife by the emotionless deliver where the midwife’s emotions are always clear.
Overall, if you dislike films that offer bleak outlooks on life or end with questions unanswered, then The White Ribbon won’t be for you. But, if find complex meditations on society interesting then the film should be rewarding as Haneke builds the tension of this small village falling into violence and bigotry expertly and has made a film that is disturbing and thought provoking.
Rating: 5/5
