There's something weird happening in the past two years: movie makers that were supposed to continue their peak (Ceylan, Tarr) fell into less than expected works; while directors that -at least personally- I wasn't expecting much from actually did -relatively- very well. Lars Von Trier came last year with Antichrist, though far from great but nevertheless worth watching and one of his best since Breaking The Waves and Dogville. In that category, and with a more remarkable success falls Michael Haneke.
Haneke is one of those annoying directors, but very wrongly hailed as a master, a genius... etc. He gained attention really by the end of the 80's with his "Seventh Continent" about a family that decided to commit suicide for no obvious reasons. He admits having the goal of "irritating" viewers
Style-wise, in" Seventh Continent" he shoots with quick-edits close up on random objects used by the characters (door handles, steering wheels....) over and over again, and after 10 minutes you feel already fed-up with this "childish" insistence in cinematography. Having said that, Seventh Continent was far better than most of the movies I saw of his (The Piano Teacher, Cache, Time of The Wolf, Funny Games). I can take Godard anytime if I had to be tortured by watching one of them. At least Godard tried few styles (Alphaville is very different -let's say- from Week End, and both are different from "Tout Va Bien", though all of them were not good movies). Haneke made movies with one message: irritation, with insistence. Think of it like banging your head against the wall over and over again for two hours and you get close to what I'm saying. When I thought that Haneke won't get any worse, he remade (frame-by-frame) for the USA, his latest mediocre -and the most annoying- Funny Games.
Being so stubborn I wanted to check his latest that took Cannes (Palme d'Or) and I'm glad I did.
The White Ribbon isn't only very different and far superior from all his previous work. It is actually a very good work. For once Haneke is making a movie for the sake of cinema and not only to disturb people. The narrative is solid, well told through a "passive" young school teacher in retrospect. The stunning outdoors white (snowy) calm landscapes and nature contrast the disturbing events lurking under the surface. Also for once, he paid more attention to the cinematography, the pale B&W is very well placed but most importantly are those superb indoors claustrophobic -though nicely framed- shots; I couldn't escape that the feel resembled Dreyer's Day of Wrath or Ordet. Also style-wise two dialogue scenes (between the village educated physician and his mistress, and between the the pastor and his kids) were -almost- Bergmanic (except for Bergman's intruding close-ups, but with the signature sophisticated self-loathing dialogues). Many characters are "the main" characters and they all take time and mature into multi-layered (and neither good nor bad) qualities. The only character that stays -relatively- white the whole movie is the narrator (school teacher) whose passivity puts him as a spectator. The acting overall is superb, including all the children. Haneke did not conclude the story with a routine ending but he did so well getting us very close to his characters that you don't really miss -or need- a standard conclusion.
I definitely highly recommend The White Ribbon, especially if it's playing on a big screen near you. It's annoying to see people hailing Haneke's last movie as a continuation of his "great" work, it's a radical shift from all the BS he made in the past.
WASSIM
