The White Ribbon

THE WHITE RIBBON Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 4:43 pm

While I was watching The White Ribbon, I kept thinking back to how lucky I was that I attended a high school with teachers that turned out to be better than any of the professors I had in college.  Without these teachers, I may have never learned that white doesn’t always mean innocence, but it also represents nothingness, which in term represents existentialism.  Without these teachers I may have never considered how works such as Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” and Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis gazed into the 20th century with horror and the fear of living in a world without reason and without salvation.  Armed with this knowledge, I was able to sink into the beautiful and stark world of Michael Haneke’s latest film.  Submerged in subtext, The White Ribbon is a fantastic film that offers no easy answers and a future both inescapable and inexplicable.

Nine Films Still In Contention For Foreign Language Oscar, Including Golden Globe Winner THE WHITE RIBBON

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: January 20th, 2010 at 4:43 pm

The contenders for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film have just been narrowed to an elite nine films: El Secreto de Sus Ojos, Samson & Delilah, The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner, Un Prophète, The White Ribbon, Ajami, Kelin, Winter in Wartime, and The Milk of Sorrow.  Germany’s The White Ribbon probably has the highest profile stateside, as it recently won the analogous Golden Globe.  If it makes the cut, Un Prophète would give France it’s record 35th nomination in the category.  Meanwhile, Australia, Bulgaria, and Peru are all looking to earn their first nominations in the award’s 43 years of existence.  Although I haven’t seen it, I’m pulling for The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner out of Bulgaria based on title alone.

Hit the break for a press release with the full list including director and nation of origin for each film, plus a description of the selection process.

THE WHITE RIBBON International Trailer

by Michael Sullivan    Posted: September 6th, 2009 at 1:40 pm

A new international trailer for “The White Ribbon,” the new film by Michael Haneke (“Funny Games”) that walked away with a handful of accolades this year at Cannes, has just been released. The film seems to follow a series of strange events that haunt a rural school in Germany in 1913 that has some connection with the birth of fascism. The feature’s in black and white, and from the trailer alone, you can see how it employs some really eerie chiaroscuro. Check it out after the jump.

New Images from Director Jaco Van Dormael’s MR. NOBODY and Michael Haneke’s THE WHITE RIBBON

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: August 26th, 2009 at 10:10 am

The Toronto Film Festival starts in a few weeks and like every year, the Festival is loaded with plenty of world premieres. While I had planned on attending this year’s Festival as a member of the working press, due to my deciding to attend too late, I missed the cut for getting a press badge. However, I’m still going, and hope to be able to report on the films and interview a lot of the people attending.

Anyway, to help excite you for what’s coming, I’ve landed some new images from director Jaco Van Dormael’s “Mr. Nobody” (starring Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger and Linh-Dan Pham) and director Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon”. Take a look after the jump:

When Can You See Cannes Films THIRST and THE WHITE RIBBON?

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: June 3rd, 2009 at 3:42 pm

American readers: did you not have enough money to make it to this year Cannes Film Festival?  Did you find that you lived in the real world and that in this economy, making it all the way over there to see great films would send you into even deeper debt (Hey, I thought General Motors was a good investment too)?  Well take the gun out of your mouth and listen!  Two films from the festival are now coming our way!

First, we have Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner “The White Ribbon”.  You may want to get some therapy before you see it because, knowing Haneke, it will probably depress the ever-loving fuck out of you, but you definitely have enough time to get your mind right because the film is now slated to hit stateside in late December (although if you can get yourself to the Toronto Film Festival or the New York Film Festival in the fall, chances are it will make an apperance).

For those unfamiliar with the story, the synopsis reads thusly: A village in Protestant northern Germany, 1913-1914. On the eve of World War I. The story of the children and teenagers of a choir run by the village schoolteacher, and their families: the baron, the steward, the pastor, the doctor, the midwife, the tenant farmers. Strange accidents occur and gradually take on the character of a punishment ritual. Who is behind it all?

Haneke.  Haneke is behind it all.  You’re in his film.  You should have known better.

Find out when we get “Thirst” after the jump.

Michael Haneke’s THE WHITE RIBBON Cannes Win The Palme d’Or

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: May 24th, 2009 at 10:07 pm

Michael Haneke, a director whose films are quite good but not for those looking for a nice, pick-me-up (“The Piano Teacher” has nothing do with piano lessons or teaching, I assure you), took home the Palme d’Or, the top prize at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival for his film “The White Ribbon” which is a stark black-and-white drama set in a rural German village on the eve of WWI…so still probably not a laugh-a-minute romp.

This is Haneke’s first time taking home the Palme but he’s received love from the festival before, winning Best Director in 2005 for “Cache” and the Grand Prix for “The Piano Teacher”.  Actress Isabelle Huppert, who won Best Actress for “Piano Teacher” at Cannes and served as President of the Jury this year, bestowed the award on a delighted Haneke.

Other awards include the Grand Prix for Jacques Audiard’s tough prison drama, “A Prophet,” and Sony Classics must be pretty happy right now since they bought the rights to both “Ribbon” and “Prophet” before either film screened at the festival.  That’s some nice foresight on their part.

Adding fuel to the Oscar-buzz he’s already gaining for his performance in “Inglourious Basterds”, Christopher Waltz took home Best Actor for his portrayal of Col. Landa, a Nazi “Jew Hunter” (please let the film have bagels on fishing hooks; pleeeease let the film have bagels on fishing hooks) and while Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist” provoked strong reactions from its audience, Charlotte Gainsbourg won Best Actress.

Finally, Grand Jury prizes were given to Andrea Arnold for “Fish Tank” and Park Chan-wook for “Thirst”.

Click here to see the full list of award winners.

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