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Deep Dive: The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band)

🕑 Added 2023-12-04 17:10:29 +0000 UTC

Comments

hyperballadbrad

I'm glad The White Ribbon won out (from someone who voted for Downfall). Not just the usual insightful discussion, but this one was exciting! Big questions, big ideas, big opinions! All my fave things :-) Interesting to hear o Haneke's opinion on Spielberg's opinion on the Schindler's List shower scene. He makes a very good point. Although I watched The White Ribbon around the time of release (what feels like a million years ago), and I didn't have the knowledge and experience of film I do now (and that is still not much relatively), I remember it left a deep impression on me and my mind was full of questions and thoughts. I am definitely going to revisit.

James Herbert

I think that Haneke does show innocence in a parent in one particular scene. When the pastor's son brings his pet bird into his father's study and offers it to him as a replacement for the bird his sister has recently killed. The pastor is clearly upset by the loss of his own bird and very touched by his young son's offering. This is all the more marked by the fact that the boy had nurtured the bird back to good health, after having found it injured, which the pastor and his son discuss in a previous scene, and is obviously sacrificing a lot due his attachment and relationship with the bird he is giving away. The pastor is grieving but in an almost childlike way, his eyes, posture and the way he shakes during this scene contrast with his child who, although also noticeably upset, stands upright and seems far more resilient and emotionally restrained.