Image courtesy of Sony Pictures ClassicOver 10 years ago, Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke came up with an idea for a television mini-series about the tumultuous changes taking place within a German village prior to Word War I. Unable to find a co-producer to finance it, Haneke was forced to shelve the project until 2007 when he decided to revive it as a feature-length film. Finally, after 6 months of casting, 3 months of filming, and almost a year of post-production clean up, Haneke’s latest film, The White Ribbon, is coming to an art house movie theater near you.
To date, The White Ribbon has netted the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Picture, and three Euro Film awards for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenwriter. It was even selected as Germany’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards. Unfortunately, the submission of The White Ribbon as a German entry has stirred up a little controversy.
Apparently, the head of the Austrian Film Commission, Martin Schweighofer, believes Haneke’s film should have been an Austrian submission since the filmmaker (Michael Haneke) is Austrian, even though it was cast, shot, and produced in Germany. According to the vague Academy rules, the film can be submitted by either country. However, the American Distributor for The White Ribbon (Sony Pictures Classic) urged Germany to submit the film for tactical reasons stating that, “Austrian films have been submitted two years in a row (The Counterfeiters & Revanche), making a third consecutive nomination unlikely.”
As for the movie itself, the story is told in retrospect by the schoolteacher (Christian Friedel) of a Protestant German village, who is reminiscing about the year he met his future wife, Eva (Leonie Benesch). During this same time period (July 1913 to August 1914), a series of disturbing events occurred in the schoolteacher’s village of Eichwald. The first incident involved the local doctor (Rainer Bock) being seriously injured when his horse encounters a suspicious tripwire. Later, the Baron (Ulrich Tukur) finds his cabbages destroyed and his barn burned to the ground in retaliation for a woman who died working in the Baron’s neglected sawmill.
Although no suspects have surfaced, the local pastor (Burghart Klaußner) takes it upon himself to start giving confirmation classes to his own children. He also reinstates their mandatory wearing of white ribbons to remind the children of the innocence and purity from which he believes they have strayed. Yet, even with the pastor’s strict reformation efforts in full effect, the mysterious events continue to escalate. Finally, after two of the local children, Sigmund (Fion Mutert) and Karli (Eddy Grahl), are physically attacked and maimed, the villagers enlist the help of an outside police force to get to the bottom of things.
Obviously, the slow metamorphosis of Eichwald is a symbolic synecdoche of pre-Nazi Germany as a whole. During this one tumultuous year in the village, suspicions mount, facades are revealed, desertions are made, morals are shunned, and families are broken. Yet, it’s the corrupted innocents rebelling against abusive authority figures who make us realize that the real underlying theme of this masterfully woven tale isn’t the overt allegory of Eichwald being likened to all of Germany. It’s the genesis of terrorism.
As Haneke himself points out, “The grownups of 1933 and 1945 were children in the years prior to World War I.” Metaphorically, these are the same children who, in the film, are forced to wear their white ribbons as a reminder of the innocence and purity that was lost before their cinematic story even began. Just remember that Haneke’s goal is not to explain their actions. He is merely offering us a possible set of psychological preconditions that drove these misguided adherents towards Nazi fascism.
Ironically, the black-and-white visual design that gives the film an aged look reminiscent of the time period isn’t as authentic as you might think. All of the footage was shot by cinematographer Christian Berger, AAC, in 35mm color before being digitally altered during post-production. Why? Initially, the producers wanted a color version for television. Haneke, on the other hand, wanted to utilize the black-and-white imagery to maintain the audience’s disconnection from the subject matter. Overall, it works because Haneke doesn’t incorporate the typical German Expressionistic elements into the film’s stark visual design. What he leaves us with is a sobering horror drama void of horror imagery.
Overall, The White Ribbon, like many of Haneke’s other films, ultimately raises more questions than it answers. It is not a mystery of suspense. It is one of suspicion. Look closely, and you will find that explanations do exist and logical inferences can be made. This slow-paced, haunting character study of pre-Nazi Germany is a rewarding film for those viewers willing to sift through its ambiguities and ferret out the seeds of horror planted deep within its layers of deceit.
© Left From Hollywood 2/19/2010
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Ribbon
2 http://www.sonyclassics.com/thewhiteribbon/whiteribbonpressbook.pdf
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