White Material

Name: White Material
Genre: Drama
Released: November 19, 2010
Duration: 106 min
Rating: 81
Cast: Christopher Lambert, Isaach De Bankolé, Isabelle Huppert

2010

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 26 Critics

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Ratings

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6.6

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6.6	Your Score
6.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Ratings

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WHITE MATERIAL

Movie Details & Credits

Not Rated

IFC Films | Release Date: November 19, 2010

Starring: Christopher Lambert, Isaach De Bankolé, Isabelle Huppert

Summary: The regular army is preparing to reestablish order in the country. To clean up. To eliminate the rebel officer also known as The Boxer and rid the countryside of roving child soldiers. All the expatriates have gone home, getting out before things turn nasty. Of the Vials - coffee planters who have lived here for two generations - MariaThe regular army is preparing to reestablish order in the country. To clean up. To eliminate the rebel officer also known as The Boxer and rid the countryside of roving child soldiers. All the expatriates have gone home, getting out before things turn nasty. Of the Vials - coffee planters who have lived here for two generations - Maria stands firm. She’s not about to give in to rumors or abandon her harvest at the first sound of gunfire. Just like her father-in-law and her ex-husband who is also the father of her son (a little too much of a slacker in her opinion) she is convinced that Cherif,
mayor of the neighboring town, will protect them. If she asks him, he will save the plantation. He has a personal guard, a private militia of tough guys, heavily armed and well trained. (IFC Films)… Expand

Director: Claire Denis

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 106 min

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Awards & Rankings

30	#30 Best Movie of 2010

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Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

100

The New York Times - Manohla Dargis

Dec 14, 2010

Ms. Denis has an extraordinary gift for finding the perfect image that expresses her ideas, the cinematic equivalent of what Flaubert called le mot juste.

Portland Oregonian - Stan Hall

Dec 16, 2010

The result is somewhat elliptical but also thoroughly engrossing and propulsive. Compared to Denis' earlier work, it's practically an action movie. Read full review

Village Voice - J. Hoberman

Dec 14, 2010

Claire Denis's strongest movie in the decade since "Beau Travail," her tense, convulsive White Material is a portrait of change and a thing of terrible beauty. Read full review

The Hollywood Reporter - Sura Wood

Dec 14, 2010

Denis creates the threat of imminent danger through stillness and austerity rather than action. She's helped immeasurably by an astringent, fully committed performance from her leading lady, a gaunt, impossibly resolute Isabelle Huppert. Read full review

Movieline - Michelle Orange

Dec 14, 2010

With Huppert as her paradoxical lightning rod, Denis courts class and colonial tensions until they fly apart in the last moments of the film. Read full review

Chicago Tribune - Michael Phillips

Dec 14, 2010

Its dramatic vexations are at war with Denis' prodigious visual skill. And the fight, ultimately, rewards the viewer. Read full review

Time Out - Keith Uhlich

Dec 14, 2010

What starts as an intriguing reverie ends as a hollow allegory. Read full review

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User Reviews

redphi

Jan 13, 2011

This is raw brilliant film work,created by someone who knows the inner workings of Africa and knows how to recreate scenes of merciless bloodshed,brutality and countries & families being torn apart . .I'm really laughing at the previous evaluations, typical ignorance that leads to badThis is raw brilliant film work,created by someone who knows the inner workings of Africa and knows how to recreate scenes of merciless bloodshed,brutality and countries & families being torn apart . .I'm really laughing at the previous evaluations, typical ignorance that leads to bad reviews. I'm a Caucasian born in Africa,and know only too well this " nonsensical" incomprehensible" violence in Africa,to me it makes a lot of sense, it's the way the rest of the world likes to maintain their African slave continent,as to....
" all the characters looking the same ;) " I rest my case. Come to Africa is all I can say,get the full flavor… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

jeremyp

Jun 27, 2011

This is a pretty asinine movie.The usually reliable Huppert lets herself get put in a movie that is full of pretentious angst ridden idiocy. Huppert does well enough as an obsessive coffee plantation owner who insists on rounding up locals for labor (after everyone has fled) in spite ofThis is a pretty asinine movie.The usually reliable Huppert lets herself get put in a movie that is full of pretentious angst ridden idiocy. Huppert does well enough as an obsessive coffee plantation owner who insists on rounding up locals for labor (after everyone has fled) in spite of being smack in the midst of a murederous civil war, somewhere in a former French African colony. To her getting in the harvest trumps saving lives. Her poor evolutionary strategy is passed on to her son, in spades. I can't even get into this ridiculous character, but in the end he shaves off his hair and joins the rebels, and mercifully gets smoked to death. It's all mean to be a metaphor for self centered colonialism, but it's so full of silly white folk pursuing their own stupidity that it's a wonder that the French colonies weren't a bust after on year.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Lyn

Jul 2, 2011

"You're insane," someone says to Isabel Huppert's character. Yes, but so is everyone else in this frustrating movie -- insanely menacing, insanely violent, or insanely clueless. I enjoyed the dusty atmospherics of the African setting, and the buildup of tension was well-done. But it's hard"You're insane," someone says to Isabel Huppert's character. Yes, but so is everyone else in this frustrating movie -- insanely menacing, insanely violent, or insanely clueless. I enjoyed the dusty atmospherics of the African setting, and the buildup of tension was well-done. But it's hard to take the lead character seriously when she's so blind about everything from the threatening politics of her situation to what's happening with her own son. Couldn't help but think of a missionary family of my acquaintance, whose teenage son perceptively worked out a plan to cope/escape from his boarding school, should things blow up in the part of Africa where they were stationed. By contrast with that kid, Huppert's character seems imperceptive to the point of stupidity.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

evancuster

Dec 16, 2010

I really did not enjoy watching this movie. I was very disappointed, particularly since the critics had given it great reviews. I am sure part of the problem is mine: I am really not that knowledgeable about French colonial west Aftrican history. However, even so, I had an extremely hardI really did not enjoy watching this movie. I was very disappointed, particularly since the critics had given it great reviews. I am sure part of the problem is mine: I am really not that knowledgeable about French colonial west Aftrican history. However, even so, I had an extremely hard time figuring out what was going on because there were so many flashbacks and flashforwards. Also, there were no sympathetic characters in the movie. Everyone was crazy: the protagonist was crazy trying to get one last coffee harvest while a brutal civil was was taking place, her son was mad, her husband was crazy, and of course, both sides of the civil war were crazy. I also had difficulty trying to keep track of the characters, as many seemed to look a alike, and there was no character development. I think this is just one of those movies that the critics adore, but the general audience finds incomprehensible.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

ShoggothRex

Mar 27, 2012

Although the film exhibits visual mastery in capturing the brutality and destitution of an African nation in the midst of civil war, and makes excellent use of music and silence, these technical virtues are far overshadowed by its narrative failings. 'White Material' succeeds in shockingAlthough the film exhibits visual mastery in capturing the brutality and destitution of an African nation in the midst of civil war, and makes excellent use of music and silence, these technical virtues are far overshadowed by its narrative failings. 'White Material' succeeds in shocking its audience with scenes of both graphic and implicit violence, but the narrative focus of the movie undermines the value of these scenes as vehicles for social enlightenment; 'White Material' is not at all about the social issues of Africa. These are tangential. Instead, it follows the story of a French white woman, Maria Vial, managing a failing coffee plantation against the advice of every single person in the goddamn film. There are plenty of African natives with much more poignant situations than said-stupid white woman, but they are only given cursory characterization, really only enough so that you recognize them when they die. The madness of Vial nicely parallels the madness in the world around her, but parallelism is also the film's biggest problem: the main character's insane course runs parallel to the backdrop of the civil war in a strangely detached manner, providing no insight into any of the themes at hand. Vial's story might have been compelling had it been set somewhere else, but her angst is relatively insignificant in the context of a third-world nation at war with itself. Ironically, 'White Material' is in the end nothing more than pointless, self-interested, white material, only of value to those who have somehow, through the course of their own moral development, remained completely ignorant of the African continent.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

alfunso

Jan 8, 2011

I agree with Evan. I just finished watching this movie and found it almost unbearable. My girlfriend enjoys movies with "strong female leads" but this one takes it too far. The Isabelle Huppert character made no sense to me. Overall, the movie was more or less nonsensical, violent, and couldI agree with Evan. I just finished watching this movie and found it almost unbearable. My girlfriend enjoys movies with "strong female leads" but this one takes it too far. The Isabelle Huppert character made no sense to me. Overall, the movie was more or less nonsensical, violent, and could even be said to glorify colonialism -- although that just might be me and my EHM political views.

In a way, the movie also reminded me of Tara and Gone With the Wind, another movie that glorified the plantations of the past.

This is the kind of movie that gives foreign films a bad name. And it is a shame that the critics seem to be falling for it.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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