Michael Haenke. Love him or hate him- you wouldn't leave him alone around your kids.
Not that I'm implying anything sordid but he'd probably ask them disturbing existential questions which would leave them cold and prone to weeping for no reason.
There's a moment in The White Ribbon, where a young boy asks his sister,
'What was wrong with that lady?'
'Who?... Oh. She was dead.'
...
'What does dead mean?...'
The White Ribbon is basically 2hrs of this, folks.
Set in 1910's Provincial Germany, it's set on a Lutheran compound. And when I say Lutheran, I mean Amish without the dope hats; A very strict Christian community where the common man does backbreaking labour and being upper-class must have been very boring indeed; Musaraf's Burden, as I calls it.
There's a story and plot but it's more about Germans being shitty to one another presumably because it was 1910; before they decided to start being shitty to their neighbours in France. I mean there is something going on with people (including children) being maimed but i've seen a few Michael Haenke films before- I thought he was just warming up. There's a mystery plot with the narrator (also schoolteacher) trying to figure who was behind these mutilations but well, we're seeing the German countryside-what's the rush, yeah?
I mean Haenke's not flipping off the story in his mind but you need a few characters that are likable or identifiably human in a story and I couldn't see them.
There are 2 characters you like- the aforementioned schoolteacher and his shy and quiet fiancee. Their relationship is actually tender. In Heinke-terms, that's like an interlude into the Care Bears Movie. The character of the minister, the religious figurehead of the village is a serious nasty piece of work torturing (literally and figuratively) his children. Fair dues to the actor playing him, after a few seconds of him on-screen- you just know he's the worst sort of bully and sadist. The town doctor is a horrible shit too; maybe his crimes are worst of all.
Seriously, I'd like to think of myself pretty perceptive but I had no idea what was going on or more then that, what this film was trying to say. I was kinda just sticking around to find out the conclusion the mystery, not that that had a satisfactory answer and then it ended. Don't get me wrong - I was ready for it to end but I was still puzzled until I watched the interview with Haenke did I get it. It's apparently about adults misleading children or some gift. Adults and the lies they tell- my mistake- all his films are about that.
But who am I to call shit on this film? You may say that it was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars and won THE Palme D'or at Cannes. And I would say,the award hype surrounding the film was the only reason I wanted to see this hump but then... since when did being judged by a jury of your peers become an infallible device for anything?...
There's a moment in The White Ribbon, where a young boy asks his sister,
'What was wrong with that lady?'
'Who?... Oh. She was dead.'
...
'What does dead mean?...'
The White Ribbon is basically 2hrs of this, folks.
Set in 1910's Provincial Germany, it's set on a Lutheran compound. And when I say Lutheran, I mean Amish without the dope hats; A very strict Christian community where the common man does backbreaking labour and being upper-class must have been very boring indeed; Musaraf's Burden, as I calls it.
There's a story and plot but it's more about Germans being shitty to one another presumably because it was 1910; before they decided to start being shitty to their neighbours in France. I mean there is something going on with people (including children) being maimed but i've seen a few Michael Haenke films before- I thought he was just warming up. There's a mystery plot with the narrator (also schoolteacher) trying to figure who was behind these mutilations but well, we're seeing the German countryside-what's the rush, yeah?
I mean Haenke's not flipping off the story in his mind but you need a few characters that are likable or identifiably human in a story and I couldn't see them.
There are 2 characters you like- the aforementioned schoolteacher and his shy and quiet fiancee. Their relationship is actually tender. In Heinke-terms, that's like an interlude into the Care Bears Movie. The character of the minister, the religious figurehead of the village is a serious nasty piece of work torturing (literally and figuratively) his children. Fair dues to the actor playing him, after a few seconds of him on-screen- you just know he's the worst sort of bully and sadist. The town doctor is a horrible shit too; maybe his crimes are worst of all.
Seriously, I'd like to think of myself pretty perceptive but I had no idea what was going on or more then that, what this film was trying to say. I was kinda just sticking around to find out the conclusion the mystery, not that that had a satisfactory answer and then it ended. Don't get me wrong - I was ready for it to end but I was still puzzled until I watched the interview with Haenke did I get it. It's apparently about adults misleading children or some gift. Adults and the lies they tell- my mistake- all his films are about that.
But who am I to call shit on this film? You may say that it was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars and won THE Palme D'or at Cannes. And I would say,the award hype surrounding the film was the only reason I wanted to see this hump but then... since when did being judged by a jury of your peers become an infallible device for anything?...
I watched The White Ribbon (2009) on DVD via LoveFilm.
My 2011 In Movies will return with Paul (2011)...
My 2011 In Movies will return with Paul (2011)...
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