A very interesting, but not perfect, film experience

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2010)

It might seem strange the fact that director Michael Haneke, who is mostly famous for making thrillers, made a historical drama which emulates the visual chiaroscuro and the narrative melancholy from various films directed by Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007). However, the screenplay from The White Ribbon hides enough terrifying surprises to make it pretty tense, but the horror itself is left to the audience's imagination, limiting itself to show us the most mundane aspects which surround the moral and spiritual collapse from a small German town in the previous days to the start of World War I.
The elegant manufacture from The White Ribbon reminded me of the European art-house cinema from mid-20th century, cold on its surface, but with boiling emotions which are hidden by the habitual protocol from "the old continent".
The element I most appreciated in The White Ribbon is that the screenplay can be interpreted in various different ways. The historical period from the story (just before World War I) and the commentaries from the narrator (who seriously mentions "the bleak future from my country") can indicate that the movie tries to capture the social discontent which encouraged the nationalist movement...and the eventual rise of the Nazism. Something which can also be interpreted is that the point from the film is to show the inherent "evilness" which is developed from the intolerance. And it is also possible to conceive that what the film tries to say is that the evilness does not exist...the only thing we have is different points of view, where the atrocity committed by one person is the heroic act from another one. There are other levels of interpretation in The White Ribbon, but my point is that it was very interesting to see a film which can be interpreted on different ways, inspiring the spectator to think and draw conclusions.
On the negative side from The White Ribbon, I have to mention that some moments feel a bit pretentious, and that there are some scenes which could have been deleted, since they feel a bit unnecessary in the context from the movie. Nevertheless, the solid screenplay and some excellent moments of anguish and tension are enough reason to recommend The White Ribbon as a very interesting movie.