The White Ribbon is a film by Michael Haneke (2009), based in a small German village within the period just before WW1. The film follows the unusual events that had been occurring within the village, Haneke said that he based the film on the origins of terrorism, however after watching the film I thought that it was based around the children of the time and how they were treated.
The film was shot in a way that I was particularly affected by with the use of long static shots and the real time that created tension and made the audience feel uncomfortable throughout the film. This also made the audience feel for the characters and made them wonder what was going to happen next. It was the way that the film was shot along with the use of set and costume to portray a rang of messages to the audience that made the film interesting for me rather than the storyline itself.
The way in which black and white was used within the film was extremely effective and just by using the two colours and many tones within the two, the film was able to portray several important details within that period of time that I feel would not have been portrayed in the way if colour was used. The strong contrast of colour used throughout the film heightened the reality between the social classes of the time, the wealthier you were the more tones of the colours there was within your clothes eg. The pastor and his children wore white and many tones combined in their clothes whereas the nanny just wore a plain black dress suggesting she had less money and was of a lower class to the pastors family. Also the way in which they used the colour white to symbolise innocence through out the film worked well, from tying a ribbon in the hair of one of the girls when she needed reminding of how she needed to behave to most the children having it within their clothing.
The use of Set and space also highlighted the difference in lifestyle within the time period. The poorer houses were small, made with mainly wood and were very plain, with wallpaper in some rooms however it was peeling off the walls with little light due to the small windows. In contrast to this the richer families housing had more decoration with pictures on the walls along with lavish furniture, a lot more space and light as there was larger windows that didn't have wooden shutters blocking the light. The space within the rooms also helped show the contrast in wealth with the richer having more of the room visible within the frames whereas the poorer people were squashed into them and there was little space shown around them.
The scenes that show the characters working created a sense of realism as it showed how different it was to work then too what it is like now, with a clear divide between men and women. This was shown in the scene where the frail woman was sent upstairs to do the lighter work and fell through the rotten wood. This gave the massage to me that the men didn't think she was capable of doing the jobs they were doing, therefore they thought they were better and stronger than she was. Also the scene where you see the children having to help with the hay in the fields (see image above), showed that at that point in time it didn't matter what age you were you were forced to work to provide income for your family, even if it was dangerous and could harm you. This is something that you wouldn't see today and shows how times have changed and respect for different genders and classes has grown.
The one thing that I really liked about the film and think was the most effective method was the way in which the film made you come to your own conclusions on some of the events , leaving you questioning parts of the film as it didn't give everything away in the storyline or shots. One way in which this was done was by shooting scenes behind closed doors or in dark corridors so you couldn't see a lot or sometimes nothing so you had to interrupt what was actually going on in that scene. The one scene in particular was when the little boy walked in on the doctor sexually abusing his daughter late at night (see image above). Nothing was said about the situation but from the emotions and movements, such as her pulling her night gown down showed that the story about piercing her ears they were telling the little boy was just a cover up for the abuse she was going through at that moment. This scene also effected me as it felt like she was obviously scared of her father and what punishment she would have to go through if she told someone, therefore she helped him with the cover up story so that no one found out what he was doing. Through out the film there was also no soundtrack, with the only music heard coming from the characters playing musical instruments, giving a sense of realism again and meant the audience couldn't rely on that to work out the moods and emotions being portrayed. Therefore again it was left up to the audience to work it out themselves. This is one thing that I picked up on through out the film and felt that the whole story line relied on the audience working out the answers to a lot of situations.
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