You may gather together something very great and high, something higher than any Literature ever was; and when you have done so, you will find that it is not Literature at all.
     John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University (1858)

   A small village in Germany on the eve of World War I is plagued by a series of accidents and cruel crimes. Perhaps the creepy local kids are to blame. Or perhaps it is more senior members of a social order which is still at least semi-feudal.
   Peyton Place meets The Village of the Damned (except, y'know, for intellectuals) in this overlong, self-consciously enigmatic analysis of the roots of Nazism, shot on crisp high-definition monochrome video. Haneke and his cinematographer Christian Berger obtain occasionally striking results with their new medium, but their achievement in this regard pales alongside a similarly-shot current picture by a much less heralded contemporary Austrian master: Peter Schreiner's experimental documentary Totí².
   The latter, similarly evasive when it comes to provide "answers" or fulfilling conventional audience expectations, is a superior film in pretty much every regard but, thanks to the clod-headed deficiencies of contemporary distribution, will almost certainly not coming to an arthouse near you any time soon.
   A "new Haneke" is still, conversely, a major event for many cinephiles, and winning the Palme d'Or will no doubt ensure a wider audience than he's previously enjoyed. But despite its Cannes triumph* (evidently a lifetime-achievement gong) this is pretty minor work from this particular source, all told – anyone encountering Haneke for the first time might well wonder what the fuss is about. 
   He's now in his late sixties, and his generally downward, coasting slide from his previous plateau of chilly excellence (Funny Games, Code Unknown, Time of the Wolf) to slightly more accessible but rather less impressive altitudes (The Piano Teacher, Hidden) continues here, perhaps even accelerates - the shamefully underrated Funny Games U.S. was, it seems, a deceptive blip of an uptick. 
   Only intermittently rising to the challenge of its ambitious subject-matter (the superb, tormented performance by Susanne Lothar elevates proceedings whenever she's on screen) The White Ribbon feels a bit like exquisite, elaborate pencil-sketches for a masterpiece. Indeed, it often comes across less like a film, more like truncated segments from a 10-part TV series (there's no place like Heimat!). Or, perhaps, expertly illustrated notes for the sprawling historical/political/psychological novel Haneke might want, some day, to write.

All the same I must plead guilty to manufacturing this Brighton of mine as I never manufactured Mexico or Indo-China. There were no living models for these gangsters, nor for the barmaid who so obstinately refused to come alive.
     Graham Greene, Ways of Escape (1980)

Neil Young
14th November 2009

THE WHITE RIBBON
6/10
Das weisse Band
full title Das weisse Band – Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte
Germany/Austria/France/Italy 2009
directed by Michael Haneke
144m (BBFC)
[16/28]

seen at 
The Tyneside Cinema
Newcastle
14th November 2009
paid  £7.80

* Palme d'Or 2009
7/10 Fish Tank
6/10 Antichrist; Bright Star; Inglourious Basterds; A Prophet; The White Ribbon
4/10 Broken Embraces