As atmospheric as it gets

Rating: 8/10 (19 October 2015)

"The White Ribbon" is a German film from over 5 years ago that almost runs 2.5 hours. The writer and director is Michael Haneke, a filmmaker who has been in the industry for many decades now and who made many acclaimed films that rarely received awards recognition in the United States. This one here makes a difference. "Das weiße Band" is set shortly before the beginning of World War I in a German village and shows us how a couple of strange occurrences happen and nobody knows who is behind these. This film is pretty much a perfect example of a truly atmospheric movie. It is extremely bleak from start to finish, which is also helped by the fact that it was made in black-and-white. If you know Haneke a bit, you will know that he always goes for realism in his films, even if it is a violent, ugly reality he depicts and, especially with the ending, there is no feel-good factor involved.
The main character here is a school teacher, who slowly gets closer to the truth about who is committing all the heinous crimes and may have found the solution in the end. Still, there is no closure. The last words are about how he moves away from the village and works in another profession as a tailor. Even if it is not a main factor here, I think one of the most interesting aspects about the film is the historic context. The children in this movie are roughly 20 years older when Hitler comes to power and you may wonder how their strict upbringing and education may have formed them into being the perfect target group for the Fuehrer's goals. But you could also wonder how the sufferings from World War I contributed to that. Anyway, even if it came short at the Oscars to the Argentinean entry, it won many awards, at Cannes for example, but also at the German Film Awards where Burghart Klaußner was for example awarded for his great performances as the village's pastor. And Haneke got a couple wins for himself as well. His works have really grown on me in the last couple years and you can see a common denominator of sociopath young people in his movies. Certainly very interesting and while "Benny's Video" and "Funny Games" play more in today's times, this one goes way back. "The White Ribbon" is one of my favorite German movies of all time and I highly recommend it.