'The White Ribbon'

'The White Ribbon' (R) (Germany) ***

Writer and Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Christian Friedel, Keonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur

"The White Ribbon" which is one of the movies nominated for Best Foreign film at this year's Oscars, takes it's time unfolding like a good novel. This is a movie only for patient viewers that love cold movies that are strange, slow but interesting. Michael Haneke is not one of my favorite directors because his movie can sometimes be pretentious. He made "The Piano Teacher" which was annoying and smug, "Funny Games" with Naomi Watts which was insulting and his best film is "Cache" from a few years back. That movie was very compelling with an abrupt and shocking kill scene that made me jump out of my seat. That movie had a great ending that kept you hanging and talking for days after. This has the same kind of ending but is a lesser film because it is too static and slow in spots. I didn't feel anything really during the movie because it left me cold. Set right before World War I in a small German village, the movie concerns the townsfolk and their children and a series of accidental deaths. Now as the story moves some of the villagers think they are really murders. Now the movie becomes a mystery but I think Haneke is going for a creepy, cold feel here and not concerned with an answer to the deaths. This is all style and the movie is beautifully shot in black and white and the whole movie is beautiful to look at. I liked the movie because it felt like an extended German "Twilight Zone" with sudden bursts of violence which is Haneke's specialty. It also reminded me of a longer "Village of the Damned" which was a creepy cult thriller from the 60's. If you can sit for 2 1/2 hours and you are willing to stay with a frustrating but rewarding movie you might like this. Of course you also have to like foreign films and don't mind reading subtitles.