One Paragraph Movie Review: Das Weisse Band/The White Ribbon

Ninety-third film: Das Weisse Band, or ‘The White Ribbon’, a 2009 movie given an early alphabetical guernsey in the order I’m watching movies due to a slapdash attitude towards foreign-language definite articles. Look. Listen. I have no idea if I enjoyed this film or not. It looks brilliant and somehow not dreary despite being filmed in pre-war black and white in an Austrian farming village — as jolly as that sounds. It’s part atmospheric, part whodunnit, without ever giving any clues as to what flavour the atmosphere is or who, in fact, did done it. The only clunky bit is the application of the white ribbon, seemingly to justify the title and nothing else, unless its symbolism escapes me. I’ll come clean though — symbolism often does escape me on the first viewing. Not a waste of two and a bit hours, and I’ll probably keep thinking about it for days, but… not… y’know… not something I’ll recommend. Two and a quarter neatly plaited buns out of five.