Dark and Haunting

Rating: Null/10 (5 June 2012)

A cold German drama set in 1913, The White Ribbon, directed by Michael Haneke, known for Funny Games, a sadistic thriller/black comedy, is a distinct change in course for the filmmaker. A man works as a school teacher and is engaged to be married to Eva, a nanny to twins whose father is a local baron.
A strict Protestant minister runs the school with an iron hand. He holds confirmation classes and his children must wear white ribbons as a sign of purity and innocence. When his son admits to touching himself, he ties his hands to the bed posts.
The widowed doctor is nice to the children, but treats his housekeeper badly and sleeps with his teen daughter at night; lots of drama at this strange village. Payback occurs when doc is riding his horse and it trips over a wire strung between two trees. More bad things happen. The farmer's wife falls through a rotted floor and her husband hangs himself as a result. A barn burns down. The Baron's wife tells her husband that she is in love with another man. The troubles continue until the end, with the start of World War I.
The White Ribbon is shot in black and white, adding to the ominous tone, and at almost two and a half hours of nothing good happening to anyone; it is a marathon of agony. Haneke must have serious issues to produce something so dark. Be warned; do not watch this if you are having a bad day.