The White Ribbon

The White Ribbon is an instant classic of European cinema. Filmed in black and white and set in a rural village in northern Germany circa 1912, it may remind you of early Bergman, Bunuel, and other great European filmmakers of the black-and-white era, but it is an homage to none of them. Michael Haneke, at age 67, has crafted a brilliantly original film. So authentic is the mise-en-scene, every element seems to have come out of a time machine. None of the actors in this film will be recognizable to American audiences, but many of them have faces like those that can be found in the austere and melancholy etchings and woodcuts of Albrecht Diirer. Haneke's decision to do without a musical sound track adds to the intensity of our aesthetic experience.