The White Ribbon (2009)

Directed by Michael Haneke. Starring Leonie Benesch, Christian Friedel, Burghart Klaußner, Ulrish Tukur, Ursina Lardi, Steffi Kühnert, Susanne Lothar, Maria-Victoria Dragus, Leonard Proxauf, Fion Mutert, Rainer Bock, Josef Bierbichler, (voice) Ernst Jacobi. [R]

Dismal but strangely fascinating meditation on the oppressive, nigh-casual growth of evil, from a director who has often presented a worldview of renunciation. Set in a small German village shortly before the start of WWI, the townspeople are at a loss over a series of seemingly random but methodical incidents of violence; loyalties split between the Baron’s (Tukur) seat of power and the Pastor’s (Klaußner) seat of influence furrow resentment and cause rifts of blame; the innocence shallowly represented by white ribbons cuffed to children gets smothered by the stern moralizing of the authoritarians. Its arm’s-length approach to the material diminishes its resonance, especially at nearly two-and-a-half hours of gloom on the cusp of monotony. Regardless of the reductive qualities of its chilly mechanism, the film’s point is clear while evading an emotionally satisfying conclusion (this ain’t a whodunnit begging for a dramatic reveal during the final reel). Even those who are put off by its observational remoteness should find the gorgeous cruelty of Christian Berger’s photography too incredible to dismiss.

77/100