Vintage Vault: The White Ribbon
By J. Kyle LeBel
Lance Writer
November 18, 2009
 One way to measure how good a film is comes through in how often the said film invites subsequent viewings. Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, screened this past Sunday at the Windsor International Film Festival, is such a film.
Shrouded in mystery and intrigue, The White Ribbon moves at a pace that forces the viewer to reflect deeply on the events unfolding, all the while creating a world that seems instantly recognizable, yet completely removed from existence at the same time.
It should be stated that this review will be scant on some details, as I have only had the chance to see the film once, and still remain puzzled by much of the film. However, the questions raised are likely to remain unanswered, for Haneke is more interested in showing how the characters’ actions are representative of human nature, rather than finding resolutions in situations where none can be found.
The White Ribbon, set one year before the outbreak of World War I, focuses on a small village in Northern Germany that undergoes a series of transformations that slowly shakes a seemingly virtuous settlement to its core.
First, the village doctor falls off his horse and is sent to the hospital for a month, and then a mother of a farming family is found dead from what seems to be an accident. From there, more things begin to slowly unravel within the community, and whatever semblance of tranquility the village has is merely a façade, for below the surface lurks tyranny and fear.
Narration is provided by The School Teacher (played by Christian Friedel, but narrated by Ernst Jacobi) who recounts the events affecting the village in retrospect. Where he is narrating from is not certain, placing the film outside a specific frame of temporal reference, while emphasising how the village exists outside of the faster pace of the quickly modernizing world of the turn of the century.
The School Teacher is often the most level-headed and mild-mannered of those in the village, yet there are moments when his integrity comes into question. Other characters of authority are less morally ambiguous, ranging from a seedy doctor who verbally abuses his mistress with the cruelest remarks any human can utter, to a despotic pastor who frequently abuses his children emotionally and physically.
The Pastor also makes his children wear a white ribbon, as a symbol of purity and innocence. Providing for the film’s title, the white ribbons the children wear also point to how the film is ultimately about the loss of innocence.
Just as the children of the village will lose their innocence like the adults who have long lost theirs, an entire continent will be transformed after suffering an immense toll on human life.
Haneke wisely chose to shoot the film in black and white, generating a gorgeous juxtaposition between innocence and corruption within the images beautifully rendered by cinematographer Christian Berger. Berger’s compositions and Haneke’s direction seeks out the blacks and the whites to cast many shadows, shrouding the nature of the village in darkness, and then slowly bringing its demons into the light.
The White Ribbon is a film that deserves to be seen multiple times, yet it will ultimately be futile to find concrete answers to the events unfolding. There is no villain, because everyone is an antagonist in their own right, and nothing could have been done to prevent the terrible events that shake the village.
Such is the view of Haneke, a director known for being far from optimistic. While the world of The White Ribbon is not entirely inviting, it is more than worthy of multiple examinations and the multiple questions that will inevitably follow.
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