The White Ribbon (2009)

Captivating movie !

Absolutely brilliant

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Be warned that I write this as a WWII historian who has also (obviously) studied WWI so I can see the stupidity of this 'film' on so many, many levels that it was truly excruciating for me. Let's just say that this oh-so-deep analysis of what led Germany to WWI (and WWII for that matter) is......... wait for it......... Germans are inherently evil (canned applause here). My God. So simple. So stupid. And might I add that the subtlety that other writers refer to does not exist. The evil of Germans is rammed down your throat with all the "subtlety" of a machete and a foghorn including some of the grossest acts known to humans performed by just your common village-folk. By presenting racism as an explanation so that we don't have to bother ourselves with anything so complicated as, well, history, it is best to shoot the film in black and white to give it a bit of style, since there really isn't any substance. When the 'moral' lesson is that a ethnic group is just inferior and evil and that's that, you better lean on Style. Stop. Please.

A film that raises a mystery is supposed to resolve it. This rubbish fails to do.There are a series of violent incident. Why? We never learn.In as far as there is an explanation, at least two persons are acting quite independently, in a village that has previously been peaceful.It is supposed to foreshadow Nazism. Which is absurd: the war produced fascism or similar movements in all countries that took part in it. Fascism was invented in Italy, and before Hitler came to power there were similar movements in all Eastern Europe apart from Czechoslovakia. And in the USA and Britain, similar movements maybe failed because the New Deal and National Government did similar things without breaking with conventional politics.It is also slow and dull, or at least I found it so.

So, starting my word with , I want to say that ''white ribbon'' is a movie about a small town of decade 1910 . Director wants to show how the relations of people formed by the happenings of strange facts. Michael Hanecke indicates who's responsible for them : the children of the town or the doctor with the midwife? I will explain to you why I believe that both are. The children live in a strict disciplined, religious, society . They seem to manage to get over with it but the conservatism of their parents sample their patience . So when they are starting to feel isolated they react with different ways. Clara cut the neck of the bird , they drop baron's son in the river and someone bites his hand. I must say that the kid's of poor locals farmers react to the rich and comfortable Sigi because they feel that they are inferior of him. The question which creating is can the children do things like these happened in the small village of our story? Hanecke shows the indignation of children but he indicates what children can do ( for example when Clara cut the neck of the bird). The other suspects are doctor and midwife. The school teacher who is the narrator of our story indicates that these two might have a connection with the death 's wife of doctor. Doctor has sexual behavior with her daughter . The teacher said that Clari's eyes have been wounded them by the doctor and the midwife. The question is who put the wire on the doctor's house and he fell from his horse? Was it midwife or the children? Generally this movie like Hanecke's movies doesn't give you free and easy answers but he wants to make you think, to make you imagine things just like the end which is an open end .Clearly answers are not given and I like these kind of movies because they make you search for the answers and think how your life would be in 1914 . Would you have been able to live in an environment like that ? For Baron's wife, I don't think so and I believe that Hanecke gave so much freedom of her . Don't be free thinker Hanecke ,women didn't act like that especially the wives of rich people. The shot in black and white is very good idea because Michael wants to transport you in a cruel society of 1914.Anyway very good movie

It's quite different from what is usually seen on screens. It's one of the films unique, original in everything. From the point of view of the subject, it's almost hermetically - everyone will understand as much as you can; the aesthetic, the film enchants you with poetic black and white, photography; directing: a masterpiece. And there's also the possible meanings that even if you can not catch on entirely, all you felt you mustiind in this film worthy of the Palme d'Or and learned that last year (2009) . The key to the logic of this film seems to be the film Das Weisse Band that also a parable be taken to refer to dark period of German history the two world wars. Ethics fanatical, extreme guilt and masochistic degeneration odious faces appear in this film. There are scenes of horrific abuse and outrageous verbal and physical cruelty here: but that without proper insist on showing their actual ... bloody images: everything is settled and finesse but also strongly represented in these respects intellectual . White Ribbon movie title, had to gauger children's innocence Germany. But it appears innocence lost and lead to atrocities and disasters of historic proportions. By demonetizing children and young people, due to slippages fatal mentality and morality of parents, this movie is in lineage ideation and Demons famous novel, Dostoevsky's. Michael Haneke maybe wanted to capture in this film as a parable, hideous psychology of fascism, or fanaticism in general, then the decay of a culture reached a point of self-sufficiency and superficiality seriously dehumanizing. Very interesting is the anthropological vision of the film, with rural customs and mentality specific prewar Germany.