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The White Ribbon

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The White Ribbon
German-language poster
Directed byMichael Haneke
Written byMichael Haneke
Produced byStefan Arndt
Veit Heiduschka
Michael Katz
StarringUlrich Tukur
Narrated byErnst Jacobi
CinematographyChristian Berger
Edited byMonika Willi
Distributed byFilmladen
Les Films du Losange
Lucky Road
X Verleih AG
Release dates
21 May 2009 (2009-05-21)
(Cannes Festival)
17 September 2009
(Germany)
24 September 2009
(Austria)
21 October 2009
(France)
30 October 2009
(Italy)
Running time
144 minutes
CountriesAustria
Germay
France
Italy
LanguageGerman
Budget€12 million

The White Ribbon (German: Das weiße Band) is a 2009 drama film written and directed by the Austrian Michael Haneke. The screenplay focuses on the children in a village in northern Germany just before World War I. According to Haneke, the film is about "the origin of every type of terrorism, be it of political or religious nature."[1]

It premiered at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival in May 2009 and won the Palme d'Or. This has been followed by positive reviews and several other major awards.

Plot

The events portrayed in the film are narrated as distant memories of the village schoolmaster.

The setting is the Protestant north-German village of Eichwald between 1913 and 1914. Here the pastor, the doctor and the baron rule the roost over women, children and peasant farmers. The puritanical pastor gives confirmation classes and causes his pubescent children to have guilty consciences over trivial offences. He makes them wear white ribbons of purity to remind them of the path of righteousness from which they have strayed. When his son confesses to masturbation, the pastor has the boy’s hands tied to the bed frame. The doctor, who treats the village children in a kindly way, nevertheless humiliates his housekeeper (the local midwife) and sexually abuses his own daughter. The baron, who is the lord of the manor, does as he pleases and rides roughshod over his workers. This exploitation so angers the son of one of the farmers that he destroys a field of cabbages belonging to the baron. The young man’s mother had previously been killed when she fell through rotten floorboards at the baron’s sawmill and his grieving father is later found hanged.

Mysterious things happen. A wire is stretched between two trees causing the doctor to fall from his horse. The baron’s eldest son is abducted on the day of the harvest festival and is found the following morning in the woods, having been bound and thrashed with a cane. A barn is set on fire. The handicapped son of the midwife is attacked and almost blinded. The pastor discovers that his canary has been cruelly killed - apparently as revenge for the draconian punishments to his children.

The schoolmaster begins to analyse the facts, finally confronting the pastor with his suspicion that the latter’s own children have been meting out punishments on the weakest. The pastor threatens the schoolmaster, warning him to keep his suspicions to himself – otherwise he will face disciplinary measures. The culprits remain undetected and the events are not explained.

The film ends with the assassination in Sarajevo of the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Ferdinand, and the declaration of war on Serbia by Austria Hungary.

The midwife rides into town on a bicycle – perhaps she has evidence for the police. The schoolmaster leaves the village never to return.[2]

Cast

  • Christian Friedel as school teacher
  • Ernst Jacobi as narrator, school teacher as an old man
  • Leonie Benesch as Eva
  • Ulrich Tukur as baron
  • Ursina Lardi as Marie-Louise, baronin
  • Fion Mutert as Sigmund
  • Michael Kranz as private tutor
  • Burghart Klaußner as pastor
  • Steffi Kühnert as Anna, pastor's wife
  • Maria-Victoria Dragus as Klara
  • Leonard Proxauf as Martin
  • Levin Henning as Adolf
  • Johanna Busse as Margarete
  • Thibault Sérié as Gustav
  • Josef Bierbichler as steward
  • Gabriela Maria Schmeide as Emma, steward's wife
  • Janina Fautz as Erna
  • Enno Trebs as Georg
  • Theo Trebs as Ferdinand
  • Rainer Bock as doctor
  • Roxane Duran as Anna, doctor's daughter
  • Susanne Lothar as midwife
  • Eddy Grahl as Karli
  • Branko Samarovski as peasant
  • Birgit Minichmayr as Frieda
  • Aaron Denkel as Kurti
  • Detlev Buck as Eva's father
  • Carmen-Maja Antoni as the washer of corpses

Production

Haneke has said the project was in development for more than ten years.[3] The initial version of the script was written as a television mini-series for the Austrian broadcaster ORF, but when no co-producer who was willing to invest in the project had been found after five years had passed, Haneke decided to put the project on hold.[4] Eventually revived as a feature film, the production was led by the Austrian company Wega Film. It was also co-produced by X Filme (Germany), Les Films Du Losange (France) and Lucky Red (Italy).[5] The film received financial support from the Austrian Film Institute, various local funds in Germany, the French CNC and the Council of Europe's film fund Eurimages.[6] It had a total budget of around 12 million Euro.[4]

More than 7000 children were interviewed during the six-month-long casting period. For most of the adult roles, Haneke selected actors with whom he had worked before and therefore knew they were suitable for the roles.[3] The role of the pastor was originally written for Ulrich Mühe, an actor who had starred in several of Haneke's past productions, but who died in 2007. Various actors were considered for replacement and eventually the part went to Burghart Klaußner, whom the director did not personally know before. Actors with significant stage experience were preferred because of the measured language of the screenplay.[7]

Filming took place between 9 June and 4 September 2008. Locations were used in Leipzig, Lübeck, Michaelisbruch (Dreetz) and Netzow (Plattenburg).[8] The choice to make the film in black and white was based partly on the resemblance to photographs of the era, but also to create a distancing effect.[3] All scenes were originally shot in color and then altered to black and white in post-production. Digital cinematography allowed for extensive retouching in order to remove modern details from the images, as well as sharpen objects and facial expressions.[7]

Release

The film premiered on 21 May 2009 as an official selection at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival and had its theatrical release in Austria on 25 September 2009.[4][9] In Germany, it was released in selected cinemas on 17 September, followed by a wide release on 15 October.[10] For American distribution, it has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics who will release it on 30 December 2009.[11]

With a fully German cast and setting, as well as being co-produced by a German company, it has been discussed whether the film should be regarded as an Austrian or German production. Haneke himself has expressed how he is uninterested in such categorization: "in the Olympic Games the medal doesn't go to the country, but to the athlete." The general consensus is that it primarily is a Michael Haneke film, and secondarily a European production.[12]

Reception

The film currently holds an 90% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 36 reviews.[13]

Awards and honours

In Cannes, the film won the Palme d'Or, FIPRESCI prize, given by the International Federation of Film Critics, and a special mention from the ecumenical jury.[9][14] This was followed in August by the FIPRESCI Grand Prix for best film of the year.[15] It won three major prizes at the 2009 European Film Awards, held in Bochum, Germany, for Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenwriter.[16]

The film has been selected as Germany's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards.[17] This has caused some controversy as well as confusion about the rules of the Academy, which would have accepted a submission from either Germany or Austria. Martin Schweighofer, head of the Austrian Film Commission, has expressed that he is not happy with the decision: "The discomfort arises because of the vague rules of the Academy. In essential regards the film is Austrian." It has been reported that the American distributor, Sony Pictures Classics, pressured Germany to submit it rather than Austria for tactical reasons, since Austrian films have been nominated two years in a row with 2007's The Counterfeiters and 2008's Revanche, making a third consecutive nomination statistically unlikely.[18]

References

  1. ^ Austria Presse Agentur (2009-05-24) "Michael Haneke: Das Spiel mit der Angst" (in German). Kurier. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
  2. ^ Synopsis of plot based on the article in the German Wikipedia
  3. ^ a b c Lemercier, Fabien (2009-05-21) "Interview with Michael Haneke". Cineuropa. Retrieved 2009-05-25.
  4. ^ a b c Austria Presse Agentur (2009-04-23) "Michael Hanekes ist im Wettbewerb" (in German). Der Standard. Retrieved 2009-05-25.
  5. ^ Vienna Film Fund - Das weiße Band
  6. ^ Weisse Band, Das (in German). Austrian Film Institute. Retrieved 2009-12-11.
  7. ^ a b Omasta, Michael; Pekler, Michael. "In jedem meiner Filme muss ich laut lachen" (in German). Falter. 38/2009. Retrieved 2009-11-23.
  8. ^ The White Ribbon. Filmportal.de. Deutsches Filminstitut. Retrieved 2009-12-11.
  9. ^ a b "Festival de Cannes: The White Ribbon". festival-cannes.com. Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved 2009-05-09.
  10. ^ DAS WEISSE BAND - EINE DEUTSCHE KINDERGESCHICHTE (in German). X-verleih.de. X Verleih AG. Retrieved 2009-12-11.
  11. ^ McClintock, Pamela (2009-06-17) "Sony to unfurl 'Ribbon' at Christmas". Variety. Retrieved 2009-06-22.
  12. ^ Austria Presse Agentur (2009-05-28) "Michael Hanekes 'Matura'-Feier" (in German). Der Standard. Retrieved 2009-05-30.
  13. ^ "The White Ribbon". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2009-12-24.
  14. ^ Stone, Jay (2009-05-23). "Antichrist gets an anti-award in Cannes". National Post. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  15. ^ Hopewell, John (2009-08-27). "'White Ribbon' wins Fipresci prize". Variety. Retrieved 2009-08-28.
  16. ^ Meza, Ed (2009-12-12). "'White Ribbon' is a fav at European Film Awards". Variety. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
  17. ^ Meza, Ed (2009-08-26). "Oscar could wear 'White'". Variety. Retrieved 2009-08-28.
  18. ^ (2009-08-28) "Haneke greift für Deutschland nach Gold" (in German). Der Standard. Retrieved 2009-08-28.
Awards
Preceded by European Film Award for Best European Film
2009 		Succeeded by
TBD
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