White tape (film)

Germany, 1913 In a completely prosperous German village, outwardly, everything is quiet and decent. But once in this "bear corner" ominous, mysterious events begin to take place, such as violence perpetrated by unknown persons over a mentally retarded boy. Suspicion falls on the children of the local pastor , who is distinguished by strict manners, who have been wearing white bandages since infancy “as a symbol of purity and innocence, and as a result, lies, evil, and craving for violence grow in their hearts as a protest” ^[5] .

The young village teacher is trying to figure it all out, but almost every villager has their dark secrets, and no one wants them to come out. Almost every character has two sides - one external, familiar and “decent”, and the other internal, burdened by some secret or unseemly action.

The plot of the film remains unsaid and ends with the outbreak of the First World War , and the names of the criminals remain unsolved.

The world premiere of the film took place on May 21, 2009 at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival , where he won the main prize and received positive reviews from the film press ^[6] . At the end of the year, the picture received a number of awards: European Film Academy Award for the best film and directing , Golden Globe for the best film in a foreign language, and many others. Summing up the first decade of the 21st century, global analysts included White Ribbon in the list of best films of the 2000s ^[7] .

The Cannes Jury, chaired by Isabelle Huppert , who played her best role in Pianist Haneke, awarded the Golden Palm Branch . Among other film critics, the choice of the jury was predicted by Andrei Plakhov , who defined the “White Ribbon” as a movie “dry, half narrated in a voiceover, but what was shown shocked by the depth, mystery, amazing play of performers, including very young children” ^[8] .

Haneke worked on the project for more than 10 years, initially he planned to shoot a mini-series for Austrian television. For the role of children, more than 7,000 people were sampled during a six-month cast of actors. For the role of adult heroes, Haneke basically took on the actors with whom he had previously worked. The role of the pastor was to be performed by Ulrich Mue , but he died in 2007 before the filming began. His widow Susanna Lothar played the role of a midwife.

Structurally and thematically, “White Ribbon” resembles Haneke’s previous film, “ Hidden, ” but instead of the private life of one family, this time a whole nation gets into the director’s lens ^[9] . Haneke again draws a system of total domination of the individual and comes to the disappointing conclusions about the cyclical nature of violence in human society ^[10] . The cold cinema monochrome reminds photographs of August Zander ^[11] . White armbands acquire an additional symbolic burden as the forerunner of the Nazi armbands and the yellow star of the Jewish ghettos ^[11] . As in Hidden, the open finale imitates the eternal incompleteness of life.

The director continues the theme of violence on a more global plane using the example of world history ^[12] . The plot develops gradually and poses rhetorical questions ^[13] . The main problem is the emergence of cruelty among the younger generation, hinting at the formation, subsequently, of a fascist dictatorship ^[12] .

The picture collected sharply polar assessments of the world film press, critics praised her for her strong camera and directorial work, thoughtful dialogs, but at the same time she was accused of monotony and understatement ^[13] :

• J. Hoberman at Village Voice , noting Haneke’s repeated use of narrative innuendo, called the White Ribbon Haneke’s best film - “a kind of triumphantly embodied Meisterwerk ”: his cinematic style is as strict as the repressive society that is under his microscope ^[14] .
• A.O. Scott from The New York Times rated the film negatively, likening the director to the pastor, who in the film symbolizes blindness and hypocrisy: Haneke imposes her ideas about the nature of fascism on viewers- masochists for punitive and pedagogical purposes. At the same time, the focus of world evil in Haneke is once again children ^[15] .
• A major resonance in Russia was caused by the screening of the picture as part of the Channel One television program Closed Screening . Guests present in the hall joined the fierce discussion, diametrically opposed opinions were expressed about the film: “In this film I saw not“ White Ribbon ”, but“ White Noise ”. ... Tell me, where is the script here? ”( Yuri Vyazemsky ) /“ I would recommend watching this film to all those who want to learn a lot about the beautiful and great world of childhood, children, to find out why they can sometimes be deadly ”( Vyacheslav Nevinniy Junior ). The host of the program, Alexander Gordon, spoke extremely negatively about both the film and the work of Haneke in general .

• 2009 - three prizes of the Cannes Film Festival : “ Golden Palm Branch ”, FIPRESCI prize , prize from the French national educational system (all - Michael Haneke)
• 2009 - FIPRESCI Prize for the film of the year at the San Sebastian Film Festival (Michael Haneke)
• 2009 - three European Film Awards : Best Film, Best Director (Michael Haneke), Best Writer (Michael Haneke)
• 2010 - Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
• 2010 - ASC Award Award by Christian Berger
• 2010 - Award of the National Society of Film Critics of the United States for Best Cinematography (Christian Berger)

Nominations

• 2009 - European Film Awards nomination for best camera operator (Christian Berger)
• 2010 - two nominations for the Academy Award : best film in a foreign language, best cinematography (Christian Berger)
• 2010 - BAFTA Award nomination for Best Non-English Film
• 2010 - nomination for the Cesar Award for Best Foreign Film
• 2010 - 13 nominations for the German Film Awards : Best Feature Film, Best Director (Michael Haneke), Best Screenplay (Michael Haneke), Best Cinematography (Christian Berger), Best Editing (Monica Willy), Best Actor (Burghard Klaussner) Best Actress (Susanna Lothar), Best Supporting Actor (Rainer Bock), Best Actress (Maria-Victoria Dragus), Best Artist (Christophe Kanter), Best Costumes (Moidele Bikel), Best Makeup (Waldemar Pokromsky, Anette Kaiser), best sound (Guillaume Chiame, Jean-Pierre Lafors)
• 2010 - nomination for the Young Actor Award for Best Leading Role in an International Film (Leonard Proxauf, Leoni Benes)