An antithesis of Little House on the Praire, or the Sound of Music, if you like

Rating: 10/10 (11 February 2012)

As a child I loved to watch Little House on the Praire (LHP). As an adult, now 30 years later, I LOVE Hanneke' s Das Weisse Band ( The White Ribbon). As a child I like the themes of LHP; family, religion, bad versus good, where the goodies always win. Each episode of LHP came with resolution and I was content the rest of the day because of the 'feel good' of LHP. Except from nostalgic point of view, these days I would not watch LHP and feeling satisfied, not to say bored.
Thank god, I would say, that my taste is changing, if not maturing, in the last 30 years. Otherwise, I would be all the time watching sweet movies like LHP's or the Sound of Music.
Why I use LHP to make an argument that The White Ribbon is an outstanding piece of cinema? This film explores the dark side of human nature, which in often denies in the mainstream film (if it is there, it usually take a form of a caricature, or something or someones that are literally bad). To be more provocative, it explores the dark side of children: that children can be, like adults are, violent, provided the 'right' environment. Others than LHP, where goodies and baddies are distinct, this film shows that things or people are not white or black (ironically, the film is shoot in black and white :-) ).
The film tells a children tale, but certainly not like the old fashioned one. The setting takes place in a German village; beautiful like you might expect from a postcard. But underneath this what might seem a harmonious, beautiful village, there is violence, jealousy, abuse, and revenge. And yes, it seems that children are actively involved in this.
These incidents involves beatings other children, making a trap for the doctor village to fall and seriously wounded. You are caught in a thriller with children as suspects, but there is no resolution: the film do not give away who done it. It only give clues and the audience can make his or her own conclusion. This kind of subtlety is also seen in many scenes and is a strong point of this film.
The story shows a religious , feudal village community, where powers are shared by few: baron, pastor, doctor. And the weak are suppressed: children women, and the poor. The violence is implicitly shown as a 'revenge' of the weak. And to think that children are the guilty ones makes this film provocative.
In spite of its darkness, there are some sweet and heartbreaking scenes: the love story of the narrator with the nanny and the young child of the pastor. The child offers his bird to his father as a replacement of his father's bird which is killed cruelly by his daughter. This is an act of revenge after she got punishment from his father and being humiliated. The bird, to which the father gave affection, was an object of her revenge, because she lacks exactly this affection from her father. The affection of the young child to his father make the father, who is usually controlled, touched. This scene shows that good souls exist, too.
From the cinematography point of view, the director made some brilliant choices. The story is told from an old man point of view on the strange incidents that happens long ago when he was a young teacher in a village in northern Germany. This form gives a fairy tale, old fashion feelings.
The choice to film in black and white produces some of most beautiful scenes. One is when the body of a wife of a farmer is cleaned in a room. The whole scene is shoot from one point only, and not all are shown. In spite of the subtlety, I feel the intense sadness of the farmer mourning, even I do not see his face, only his back, moving back and forth, crying. This scene looks like a painting from van Gogh in his early years. And there are more scenes like this.
The director points an intrigue theory that this film shows an origin of violence. Film the white ribbon is a story of the origin of evil: how children, suppressed by ideological idea, internalize the suppression by exercising violence on the weak. It was set in Germany, preceding the 1st ww, and it hints the origin of fascism that later on took on. However, it applies to all regions in the world where the young people are willing to sacrifice their life for an ideology.
Indeed the children in the film would grow up in Nazi Germany. Although you can be skeptical about this far reaching conclusions (because violence, I think, is universal, every where, in any cultural setting possible) I do believe that violence has more chance in a suppressed society, like the one shown in the film.
This film is a master piece.