The White Ribbon

[elski]

The White Ribbon
From Friday 13 November Dir. Michael Haneke 2009 Austria/Germany/France/Italy 2 hrs 24 mins Ulrich Tukur, Susanne Lothar, Josef Biebichler

Winner of the 2009 Palm d'Or at Cannes, The White Ribbon is Michael Haneke back on home territory in 1913. At a rural school in the north of Germany, the film centres on a teacher, the sweet mannered Lehrer. Even so, strange things are starting to happen, which seem to be some form of ritual punishment. Does activity at the school presage what is to happen in Germany in the 30 years.

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Rating 15
Running Time 144 minutes
Genre Foreign Language


Anyone else seen this? (I did a search an all that came up were a few comps but don't know if anyone saw it)

I won a place to see it at a press screening this morning (another showroom facegroup comp).

It's released on Friday and may not be everyone's cup of tea, being in german and in beautifully lit and shot black & white, but it's fantastic. I'm hoping someone has seen it as it does leave you thinking about things.

It's long and at times does seem to go slow but you get so caught up in it and have no idea where it's all leading, or who's really responsible for the things that are happening. There are some great perfomances from some fairly young children in this too.
10/10

I had a qucik look and it's got 100% on rotten tomatoes too!

[AYBG]

Haneke's Funny Games (both his original and shot-for-shot remake) was supposed to be pretty pretentious, but I loved Hidden (Cache) and this one looks great.

[elski]

yeah funny games got such mixed reviews and looked so violent it put me off seeing it at the cinema, I still didn't feel like watching it when it was on film4. I shall have to keep an eye out for Hidden though.

[phunkygal]

havent seen the remake but the original funny games is pure class, Haneke can do no wrong in my book

[elski]

there's a trailer for The White Ribbon on the guardian film blog

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog ... on-trailer

[ciro22]

Haneke is a great director but his style really isn't to everyone's taste, so most people either get him or they don't.

He's a bit like the Gus Van Sant or the Coens in that respect, although it seems like fewer people get Haneke!

But if you put enough effort into his films you'll find that you eventually get rewarded at the end of it all (and sometimes only after a few repeated viewings)

[Ms Thrifty]

Well, I don't get him and am certainly not going to see his latest, which sounds too nasty for me. I don't mind a demanding film which requires concentration, but Hidden left me really frustrated as I just didn't understand what was meant to have happened (even though friends had told me to look out for some clue in the final scene), and I don't want a film to make me feel stupid or tricked. As for watching a film more than once, not for me - not even an enjoyable film, because there are too many others to see. And there'd be no guarantee that I'd get it the next time, either! Whilst I don't mind films not having a neat ending - in fact, it's more credible if they don't - I don't like to be left completely clueless, either - I think that's taking your money on false pretences.

[ciro22]

Funny Games would definitely leave you feeling a little tricked so don't see that one!

But I'm not sure that Hidden would leave someone feeling stupid or tricked, perhaps given that you are seeing things through the eyes of the main character there might be some sense of that as the events are a mystery to him.

But for me Hidden is really one of those films where it's more about the journey getting to the ending than the ending itself. Another film like that is No Country For Old Men, and the original classic is Citizen Kane (Do you really care that much that Rosebud is his childhood sledge? Does that make the film any worse? - 70 YEAR OLD SPOILER ALERT! ha )

As for the clue in the final scene, if you want to know what to look out for then you have to keep an eye on the school steps for a meeting between 2 minor characters who might be connected to the main characters and which might explain who was behind the intial prank.

[Ms Thrifty]

Well, I didn't want to see Funny Games or No Country as both sounded too unpleasant for me. And I've never seen Citizen Kane, either! I don't mind films being more about the journey, provided I know what to expect, but with Hidden, I felt that it was a puzzle which should have led to a solution but didn't. And I was looking for exactly what you said in the final scene, but I still hadn't (and haven't) a clue what it meant. So maybe I'm just thick!

[ciro22]

Okay, here's a SPOILER ALERT just for you then!

In the credits sequence, you're supposed to see both the French and Algerian characters' sons meeting up together on the school steps; they talk in a friendly manner for some time and then they leave. Obviously, at the same time there appears to be a camera set up either by them or to watch them.

The idea I think most people get from this is that the two boys are behind the tapes, having met each other at school, found out about the past incident and then decided to pull a prank on the main character.