MovieChat Forums > Das weiße Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (2010) Discussion > Did I miss something?

Did I miss something?

posted 9 years ago by dgbenner
2 replies | jump to latest

It's really well shot. Most of the cinematography was top notch.

Moody, arty and black and white aside–I felt like it didn't go anywhere. The story gave you a glimpse like a painting, but I never felt attached to any particular character.

I read some metaphoric/allegoric explanations of Nazism, but I'm not sure that makes a difference in liking the journey of the story or not. I'm not sure I agree, since it's mostly a pastoral setting and if so, then so what... It really didn't pay off if the metaphor's presence is/was some lesson to be learned.

It seemed clinical enough to try to make a point, but plays off at the end as a coming of age or pre-war vignette. It wasn't any Fellini's Amacord in my opinion.

What did others like about it? Not the subtext, but just the... text.

--
"And one of the things that keeps popping up is about "subtext." Plays, novels, songs - they all have a "subtext," which I take to mean a hidden message or import of some kind. So subtext we know. But what do you call the message or meaning that's right there on the surface, completely open and obvious? They never talk about that. What do you call what's above the subtext?" - Barcelona, 1994

[–] resmat-1 9 years ago

What did others like about it? Not the subtext, but just the... text.

On a surface level, I think the film is a fairly compelling mystery.

I also think that there's just a novelty to seeing the (thoroughly believable) hypocrisy and authoritarianism of the adult characters play out in tense but understated scenes. For example, I may not actually like or care about the pastor or his son but it's nevertheless interesting to watch the former carefully tell the latter off for masturbating.

The film also allows the viewer to infer lots of things for themselves. It seems fairly obvious that the doctor is sleeping with his own daughter but, because it's never explicitly confirmed, every time I watch the scene where the son walks in on them, I'll now be paying close attention to how everyone is acting. This is how the film keeps me interested.

Finally, unlike some of Haneke's other films, this one actually does have a more humane touch. Again, I'm not sure I would go as far as to say I truly care about any of these characters, but there is something touching about, for example, the little boy being told about death for the first time early in the film, and then, near the end, offering his father a bird to replace his (the father's) dead one.

[–] batigoal9-1 9 years ago

I felt like it didn't go anywhere

I felt the exact opposite, that it went everywhere:

showed magnificently how life was in that time and place
showed all levels of society, aristocrat, doctor, teacher, farmer and many more
showed all levels of age, infants to older people
showed various levels of intellect in people, even a mentally ill kid
showed the whole spectrum of good and evil in people realistically, in many cases it was mixed
film was extremely unpredictable, from the first scene where the doctor falls you never knew what the next scene was going to be
realistic point of view style of plot, a lot of the mysteries remained vague or unclear because a lot of the information was missing from the teacher's pov
excellent ending with the war, it just shuts down everything

I could list other stuff but you get the point. I thought it was a masterpiece and I loved it. I watched it with my parents and they also liked it despite the fact that they are not so welcoming with "tougher" films.