X
- 2009
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 2 h 24 m
- 2009
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 2 h 24 m
Summary 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 punishme...
Directed By: Michael Haneke
Written By: Michael Haneke
- 2009
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 2 h 24 m
- 2009
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 2 h 24 m
The White Ribbon
7.9
Where to Watch
Summary 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 punishme...
Directed By: Michael Haneke
Written By: Michael Haneke
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 34 Critic Reviews
84
88% Positive
30 Reviews
30 Reviews
9% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
3% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 34 Critic Reviews
84
88% Positive
30 Reviews
30 Reviews
9% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
3% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
The White Ribbon is a ghost story without a ghost, a whodunnit without a denouement, a historical parable without a lesson, and for two and a half hours, this unforgettably disturbing and mysterious film leads its viewers alongside an abyss of anxiety.
Shot in spectacular black-and-white by cinematographer Christian Berger, and marvelously acted by a first-rate German ensemble, The White Ribbon captures a mood of thickening tension and mounting violence.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 110 User Ratings
7.9
85% Positive
93 Ratings
93 Ratings
10% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
5% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 110 User Ratings
7.9
85% Positive
93 Ratings
93 Ratings
10% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
5% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
I'm dumbfounded.
Seriously, this took a long time to fully appreciate. Not like a day or so, but almost two weeks. I guess I got so wrapped up in it's mystery that I couldn't get a word out. A film that explores depression, cruelty, and life's biggest mysteries. What we see is a mixture of the truth, lies or rumors. It ends on a cold note with nothing ever answered, and these nothing quite like it.
"The White Ribbon" is another masterpiece from the brilliant Michael Haneke. The grim atmosphere and the re-creation of the time period is it's own achievement. Haneke is the best living film making of this decade. He's one of the few filmmakers right now that creates such compelling stories and questions with no answers, but questions that many will be thinking long after it's over.
The performances from the children was both fantastic and natural. The childlike behavior and the little innocence felt real. And for someone who's a **** for amazing cinematography, this movie has it. Every singe shot is framed so perfectly that you could easily take any shot from the film and make it as the poster.
This is one of those movies that you can find something new with repeat viewings. With such a powerful narrative that excels all my expectations.
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A kind of mashup of "Our Town" and "Village of the Damned," the film is both draining and enthralling.
Haneke’s vision is gripping. The craftsmanship, classically shaped narrative and icy visual beauty cannot be denied.
The White Ribbon comes dangerously--wonderfully?--close to playing like an evil-kid flick.
Unlike "Caché" and "Code: Unknown," where Haneke's investigations into societal and spiritual despair resonated with poetic force, The White Ribbon doesn't resonate at all.
Chill to the core, Haneke presents human cruelty not to make us empathize with the victims or understand the oppressors but to rub our noses in the crimes of our species. He thinks he’s held on to the subversive ideals of punk, but all I smell is skunk.
an absolutely disturbing film and needs to be hailed as one of the best films of its decade. I've only watched two of Michael Haneke's films (the other being Cache) too realise that this man is a genius. it is a simple story, but to create that level of unease and uncertainty requires sheer craft. Great film.
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Beautifully filmed and acted and directed, yet ultimately unsatisfying. The story of a small German village told years later by its schoolteacher, who recounts a series of unsettling events in the months prior to WWI. The film centers primarily on the town's parson, the town's landowning baron,the town doctor, the schoolteacher and the children he teaches. Odd stuff happens and no one seems to know why. As the film slowly winds from one event to another we await resolution, but there is no satisfying moment of understanding or clarity, and all is left unsettled. The characters are so odd that the Marty Feldman character from Young Frankenstein would have fit right in and provided some needed comic relief.
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Unlike most people on here, I did not enjoy 'The White Ribbon.' It just did not get its message across, for me. Yes, the black and white cinematography was excellent and it definitely contributed to the general gloomy, dark feeling of the film, but cinematography alone cannot save the film. I found myself, quite often, being bored out of my wits because of the extremely slow pace of the film, and just being rather frustrated at the end, with the open-endedness of the whole picture. Also, I do not really see the connection between this story and the origins of National Socialism, but I guess maybe if I watched it again I could pick up on more things. Sadly, I just do not feel like wasting another 2 1/2 hours on this.
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Bring a bunch of Germany- haters **** them in a film room...this is what you get. A piece of perverse slanderous trash. This film portrays the rigid Prussian Protestant world of 1910 as a nation of incestuous child- molesting morons. This is one of the most inaccurate and slanderous films that I have ever seen. A real chore to sit through the whole thing....whatever it is.
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Oh attention, c'est une palme d'or ce truc-là ! et c'est du gros film d'auteur de merde qui se regarde le nombril tout en comptant les mangeboules qui viennent lui manger dans la main et lui manger les... oui, c'est dire s'il est sûr de lui l'empaffé, à la manière sans doute d'un Godard ou de tous ces autres connards qui prétendent faire du "cinéma"... au delà du delà, des trucs, des bidules "auteuristes" (?) et qui sont au cinoche ce que l'art moderne est... à l'Art : un tas de fumier et d'étrons.
Donc, évidemment, c'est en noir et blanc, c'est sans queue ni tête, sans direction et çe ne va nulle part... c'est lent mais d'une lenteur qui semble s'être arrêtée pendant que les pauvres comédiens viennent raconter n'importe quoi devant la caméra ; on cherche une vague cohérence à ce merdier qui paraît sans fin, un but éventuel mais en vain : ça n'a pas de but autre que de vous abrutir ! du remplissage interminable et résoluement minable pendant deux plombes et quart (!)... putain mais quelle chiasse !
Même en accélérant à fond, ça ne voulait pas se terminer comme si la télé était habitée, contaminée par la vacuité de l'insondable ennui de l'infâme étron démoulé par le trou de balle Haneke ! j'ai cru un instant qu'il faudrait appeler un exorciseur pour exorciser le Malin qui était entré dedans ! non, mais ça va mieux, c'était juste une chiasse audio-visuelle, une daubasse de l'asile de Cannes.
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Production Company
X-Filme Creative Pool,
Wega Film,
Les Films du Losange,
Lucky Red,
ARD Degeto Film,
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR),
ORF Film/Fernseh-Abkommen,
France 3 Cinéma,
Mini-Traité Franco-Canadien,
Canal+,
TPS Star
Release Date Dec 30, 2009
Duration 2 h 24 m
Rating R
Website
http://www.dasweisseband.at/
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 2 Nominations
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
German Film Awards
• 10 Wins & 13 Nominations
