Movie Review: The White Ribbon (2009)

A classic in the making

If you've read any number of reviews of Michael Haneke's Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or-winning film The White Ribbon or even watched the trailer I can only recommend you do your best to forget what you've learned and have seen. I went in absolutely cold and can tell you to know anything more than this is a great film is to cheat yourself of the story that unfolds over the course of a brisk 2 hours and 24 minutes. In fact, the 144 minutes that make up this film are so engrossing you won't want to look away for a second. I've watched the film twice now and while it wasn't long into the first viewing I was sure I was in the midst of a classic, after the second viewing I was positive this was a film worthy of any and every award bestowed upon it.

The White Ribbon is intimately chilling. It hides behind a veil of perceived innocence that will keep you guessing all while the stark black-and-white cinematography will have you marveling at its beauty. If there was ever a modern film to convince younger audiences black-and-white is a legitimate story-telling tool and the classics of such directors as Ingmar Bergman, Jean Renoir and Francois Truffaut are worth investing time in… this is that film.

As any film reviewer will, I will now proceed (delicately) into the plot. However, should you already be convinced this is a film you will watch I suggest you stop reading and do just that. Don't let anything deprive you of the sinister beauty of Haneke's film, an original story set in a small Northern German town, just prior to the start of World War I.

Telling our story is a nameless school teacher. The voice over we hear (Ernst Jacobi) is aged, wise and careful in telling the details — making sure not to mislead, but with every intention of clarifying — as he opens by telling the story of the town's doctor (Rainer Bock) who breaks his collarbone after his horse trips over a concealed wire strung across his gate. This is just the first of a series of "accidents" that befall the town. Further mishaps delve into even darker territory, but the slow and methodical nature in which Haneke reveals each of them, and the vessel he chooses to tell the story, keeps suspicion high all while your focus is periodically misguided by the film's lone love story.

Playing the school teacher at a younger age is Christian Friedel, and while his elder self tells the story in retrospect we watch as he serves as the film's kindest and least self-serving character. It's through him we first get to know the town's children, all of which are central to the story and were carefully chosen out of over 7,000 child actors that auditioned for roles in the film. Like I said, innocence is abound in a film filled with sinister misdeeds and Haneke refused to allow anyone but the best actors portray such goings on.

To point out one performance over another is folly as each actor performed admirably, and all should be recognized for work well-done. However, I found particular fascination in one specific scene where the injured doctor's children, 14-year-old Anna (Roxane Duran) and her younger brother Rudolf (Miljan Chatelain), discuss death. "What's that?" Rudolf asks. "What?" Anna replies before Rudolf clarifies, "Dead." Anna's explanation is just as you would expect for a child Rudolf's age, but the wide-eyed gaze and angelic way in which Rudolf continues his questioning makes for one of the better scenes I have seen all year. As a viewer you look on with compassion, but at the same time you realize his questioning is not to be forgotten as the events of the film continue to unfold.

The expressed, and obvious, intention of The White Ribbon is to tell the story of the children that would live through the First World War and assumedly become involved in the Second. Haneke is quoted in the press notes saying, "My film doesn't attempt to explain German fascism. It explores the psychological preconditions of its adherents. What in people's upbringing makes them willing to surrender their responsibilities? What in their upbringing makes them hate?" It's a monstrous subject to tackle, and by adding in the religious aspects and motivations of the story you have a film all of its own.

Originally shot in color and converted into black-in-white digitally, the cinematography of Christian Berger is absolutely stunning and it was my only wish I spoke German so I could better appreciate it as opposed to reading subtitles. Inspired by the period photographer August Sander, the film feels as authentic as you could ask from the period clothing, the brick buildings and the endless wheat fields. To know the film was made in 2008 is almost shocking as it has the feel and daring of a film 40-50 years its senior.

I can't do anything more than wholeheartedly suggest you go out of your way to see this film in theaters. While it is slowly rolling out in New York and Los Angeles on December 30, it will be expanding throughout the New Year. For a complete listing of theaters click here. It's worth the effort and you won't want to stop at just a single viewing.