The White Ribbon (2009)
Directed by Michael Haneke
An aged tailor recalls his life as the schoolteacher of a small village in Northern Germany that was struck by a series of strange events in the year leading up to WWI.
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What critics compared The White Ribbon to
But in peering ahead to the Salem trials, “The Witch” also faintly echoes Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon,” another drama in which the forces of patriarchal repression and the cruel realities of agrarian life will exact a devastating future toll: We’re watching not just a private tragedy but a prequel to a larger-scale catastrophe, sowing seeds of suspicion, violence and fanatical thinking that will be passed down for generations to come.
This is essentially an art film comparable, in terms of its approach and impact, to Michael Haneke’s similarly elusive “The White Ribbon,” and suggesting otherwise is almost a recipe for disaster.
My own experience with the horror genre is not as broad as some -- absent professional obligation I tend to avoid them -- but I'd suggest that the feel of The Witch isn't too far removed from that of the Michael Haneke movies, Cache (2005) and The White Ribbon (2009).
It wouldn’t be surprising if Mr. Eggers was also familiar with “The White Ribbon,” Michael Haneke’s 2009 film about God and patriarchy, authority and domination in Germany before World War I.
We could throw in other contenders as well, like Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon” or the ‘70s British horror classic “The Wicker Man” or even Lars von Trier’s profoundly disturbed “Antichrist.”
…and there is something of Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon (2009) to this silent conspiracy of children against the sins of their parents.
What unfolds is a discursive but well-paced portrait of a community seemingly infected with evil from within — a cross between John Wyndham’s sci-fi classic_The Midwich Cuckoos_ (adapted twice as Village of the Damned) and Dogville — that even when it is at its most scoldingly obvious resists easy answers and withholds critical information.
Where Lars Von Trier's Dogville (2003) exposed a small town's malevolence and corruption to our full scrutiny, Haneke puts such perversions back behind closed doors (or out of shot) - but the effect in either case is much the same, in films that use a parochial setting to dramatise the ills of a nation, or even of human nature in general.
Unlike "The Sweet Hereafter" or "Dogville" — two movies it superficially resembles but which bend, respectively, toward redemption and retribution — "The White Ribbon" doesn't provide an escape.
You might see Goodnight Mommy as an illustration of the price to be paid for bad parenting—and, given the blonde angelism of the sons here, you might then want to theorize on what bad parenting has meant for certain Austrian and German generations (that, of course, being a primary text of Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon).
If Problem Child filtered gorily through The White Ribbon sounds good to you, maybe this is your thing.
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No one’s going to confuse this for “The White Ribbon,” but the movie is at its best when it shows a little sympathy for the devil.
In its icy precision, Glazer's movie reminded me of the Austrian director Michael Haneke, whose films, like Caché and The White Ribbon, are often about the violence simmering beneath well-maintained domestic surfaces.
Rudolf Höss (The White Ribbon’s Christian Friedel) is the commandant of Auschwitz, and he and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) have come from very little, and now have the home of their dreams, complete with several kids, and a handful of Jewish women that work within their house.
Glazer boldly avoids these possible exploitive dishonesties by only focusing on the ice-cold characters at the center of the black hole in place of the film’s heart: that being Commander Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel, best known for his remarkable work in Michael Haneke‘s The White Ribbon) and his wife, Hedwig (the captivating Sandra Hüller).
When he asks her to lure that wealthy Russian into a hotel room, she successfully uses her wits to accomplish the mission, but Vanya's betrayed her, allowing her to be raped, the target murdered by hit man Matorin (Sebastian Hülk, "The White Ribbon," "Hanna") mid thrust.
The film, shot by Cuarón himself in black and white – an artistic high-dive against the grain but in good company (think “Schindler’s List,” “The White Ribbon” and “The Artist”) – is a scrumptious wonderment to behold.