Prolix, Overrated and Disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (5 March 2011)

A couple of years before the outbreak of the First World War, in a feudal German village, mysterious events happen. First, the local doctor has an accident when his horse stumbles on a hidden wire. Then a woman falls in a hole below the rotten floor of a barn and dies. The young son of the local baron is found hung upside-down and tortured. The retarded son of the midwife is found tied to a tree and brutally battered. In an environment of cruelty and abuses, the local teacher suspects that the repressed daughter and the son of the pastor are the responsible for the crimes.
I was anxious to see "Das Weiße Band - Eine Deutsche Kindergeschichte" and today I have finally watched this awarded film. Unfortunately I found it prolix, overrated and very disappointing and gives the sensation that the ending is missing.
The black and white cinematography is top-notch and one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The performances are awesome and I was particularly impressed with the beauty and acting of the unknown Leonie Benesch. The screenplay is intriguing and engrosses the attention of the viewer from the very beginning. Unfortunately the story that has the obvious intention of showing the birth of the serpent egg of the Nazism and Fascism does not have a conclusion.
Claude Chabrol, just to give an example, was specialist in films with intelligent open ends that forced the interpretation and the discussion of the viewers. Michael Haneke, on the contrary, leaves many questions without answers, even very simple points, like for example whether the teacher has married Eva or not; or the fate of the doctor and his family and the midwife. There are so many abusive and wicked characters that almost everyone would be capable of the evilness against the children. But I believe that the two adolescents with the white ribbon may be the responsible for the cruelties. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "A Fita Branca" ("The White Ribbon")