Das Weisse Band

Das Weisse Band

I finally got around to seeing Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon which I would say was one of the best cinematic experiences in recent memory. If you want to watch a contemporary filmmaker literally channel Ingmar Bergman, this is the film. In lesser hands I would call it plagiarism, but the pathos and zeitgeist that was captured here more paid tribute to the morose, psychological tone of Bergman's films while simultaneously addressing Haneke's familiar themes of characters at odds with their environment.

I loved this f-n movie and it reminded of the excitement I felt 10 years ago when I saw The Silence for the first time and realized how psychologically and emotionally penetrating motion pictures can be.

Look at just this one image - there's a whole story captured in this one frame of film. Could this not be from a Bergman film?