the white ribbon
have never really been a haneke guy but i'd heard good things about this one so i was excited to finally see it, hoping this would be the one that clicked with me. unfortunately that wasn't the case and it mostly just clarified for me the reasons i don't care for him.
the main complaint people seem to have with him is his unrelenting bleakness, which i can agree with insofar as i don't his particular strain of miserabilism to be all that worthwhile or interesting from a thematic perspective, but i would be far more sympathetic to his cinematic worldview if any of his movies actually left me depressed instead of just bored. sorry to say that there is just nothing compelling here. i think the only scene i liked in the whole movie was when the kid asked his dad if he could keep the bird, mainly because the kid is pretty adorable and the actor who plays the father finds some interesting notes in his performance. otherwise the characters are just empty vessels, interior-less means to an end, the dullest elucidations on innocence and cruelty and blah blah blah. if haneke doesn't care about them, then i certainly won't be able to, and then the whole thing kinda falls apart. you're just left with sub-par bergman without any of the humanity or poetry.
i will say that it does look nice, and theoretically i am intrigued by the conceptual hermeticism of this fictional town, situated at this very specific point in history. it's probably too allegorical for its own good, but i do think there's something there. still think this was a good nomination for me, and i will probably continue to give haneke more chances even if i'm less optimistic. amour has intrigued me since it came out, and i've heard positive things about cache, code unknown, and the piano teacher even from fellow haneke-skeptics so we'll see.
have never really been a haneke guy but i'd heard good things about this one so i was excited to finally see it, hoping this would be the one that clicked with me. unfortunately that wasn't the case and it mostly just clarified for me the reasons i don't care for him.
the main complaint people seem to have with him is his unrelenting bleakness, which i can agree with insofar as i don't his particular strain of miserabilism to be all that worthwhile or interesting from a thematic perspective, but i would be far more sympathetic to his cinematic worldview if any of his movies actually left me depressed instead of just bored. sorry to say that there is just nothing compelling here. i think the only scene i liked in the whole movie was when the kid asked his dad if he could keep the bird, mainly because the kid is pretty adorable and the actor who plays the father finds some interesting notes in his performance. otherwise the characters are just empty vessels, interior-less means to an end, the dullest elucidations on innocence and cruelty and blah blah blah. if haneke doesn't care about them, then i certainly won't be able to, and then the whole thing kinda falls apart. you're just left with sub-par bergman without any of the humanity or poetry.
i will say that it does look nice, and theoretically i am intrigued by the conceptual hermeticism of this fictional town, situated at this very specific point in history. it's probably too allegorical for its own good, but i do think there's something there. still think this was a good nomination for me, and i will probably continue to give haneke more chances even if i'm less optimistic. amour has intrigued me since it came out, and i've heard positive things about cache, code unknown, and the piano teacher even from fellow haneke-skeptics so we'll see.
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letterboxd
criticker
Most Biblical movies were long If I Recall.
seen A Clockwork Orange. In all honesty, the movie was weird and silly
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