about life and death in a small town, or anywhere

Rating: 10/10 (22 January 2010)

There is a very important scene in Michael Haneke's new film The White Ribbon, which is on the surface about a series of crimes and deaths and strange occurrences in a small German town around 1913-14 before WW1. In fact it's one of those rare scenes in movies where it had me tearing up, almost without knowing entirely why until after the movie ended, from its existential significance. A little boy's father, a doctor, has been injured after being on a horse that was tripped over by a wire left mysteriously tied up. The woman taking care of him assures him he'll be alright, that he won't die or anything. Then the little boy asks her 'What is dead?' The boy is so innocent and unknowing of anything about death that she has to explain to him, holding back some tears, about death (specifically about his mother), and that she will die, just some time later. It puts him in a foul mood, to say the least.
While I can't be sure if Haneke meant for this to be a key scene, it feels like one. A mystery is taking place where all of these things are being done (the horse-trip wire and doctor's injured, a woman is found dead, a barn is set on fire in the middle of the night, a retarded boy is beaten mercilessly and left in the woods), and by the end of the film it's really hard to say exactly who did it. We might believe the Schoolteacher (Christian Friedel) and his theory that it was some of the children who perpetrated these acts, as they were present at some of the occurrences, but, as with something like Zodiac, Haneke makes no claims and nothing is resolved. Which works fine, except that there is something that those in the town know and know perhaps all too well: death is a certainty, be it by disease or war or some other act. And as well, as Haneke also wants us to leave the theater knowing, evil is pervasive and starts at the dinner table or behind closed-doors.
It's a bleak story, something that, maybe obviously, echoes some of the emotional dread conjured by Ingmar Bergman (there's one scene specifically, when the Doctor stops his midwife woman from trying to arouse him and berates her about how she looks, kicking her out of her job and his life, that looks especially cribbed from Bergman, lovingly of course). But it's really Haneke all the way, and anyone who has seen some of his solid previous works (Funny Games not included here though some might) know his attitude towards the evil in men, women and even children. It doesn't just spring out of nowhere, and bad deeds aren't just committed out of boredom. His message is strong on this point: in repressed societies, where punishment and brutality are an unspoken given, and sex and love is kept down (except, of course, for things like molestation as we find out in a shocking night-scene), and where people, ultimately, start to forget about these crimes after a time, it's very likely a Nazi regime could come about twenty years later (the mention of WW1 isn't subtle, though it is effective).
The White Ribbon is, as they say, an 'art' film, but this is not a bad thing for Haneke. He paints with his camera in black and white a very cold and rural environment, often marked by dark rooms at night and shocking images like the barn burning at night or when a character discovers a suicide by hanging (listen to the audio there, by the way, for the irony in children playing in the distance). It's an unrelenting tale with multiple story lines that all feel crucial, especially the character of the Pastor who most of all comes from that 19th century time of being a "tough-love" father, always with a cane by his side. And there's some fantastic acting throughout, and some really haunting-beautiful images conjured up in these scenes of silence, or a camera placed specifically at a door or at a dinner table. There's a lot going on here.
If there is a criticism, however minor, it's on the narration. I found there to be just a little too much at times, too much explaining or telling the story in such a way that, while from the reminiscing of the teacher, didn't do much to add to what was on screen (it also may be covering up points as Haneke had planned this originally as a mini-series). It's not all bad, but it does get distracting, albeit usually done over shots of snow and fields and the town that bring out the emptiness and chill of the countryside. For those who are ready for Haneke's level of moral expurgation, of indicting humanity, not just Germany or modern-day Muslims (as he's been quoted saying, again repression), it's breathtaking and provocative. And if you leave knowing a little more about life and death, there's another point to take in favor of the film. It's a genuine article of classic cinema.