It sounds so wrong when you say that a child’s cruelty is innocent, but then, to some degree it really is. I guess the comparison is somewhat bad because the little girl in “El espiritu de la colmena” really is very young while the children in “Das weiße Band” are actually very conscious about what they are doing and why that could be wrong, they are much older indeed. Haha, the Aryans indeed.
I’m not sure whether being Catholic makes you so much more sensible to fascism. XD So yeah, apparently Haneke was indeed studying different types of fascism (he said it was very different in Germany and Italy, although I have no idea to which extent that is true), and he also said he wanted to make the movie about ‘violence’ in general, like you said. Sounds somewhat contradicting, but I too don’t like the idea of tying this story to fascism too much. I want to read “Jugend ohne Gott” too! For some reason, I completely forgot about the story, unlike for his other plays.

In my opinion, Haneke and Horváth are entirely different too. While Horváth always shows very realistic, down-to-earth stories with barely any ‘scandal’ at all, Haneke’s stories always seem to be very blatantly shocking. As much as “Das weiße Band” is supposed to be a stereotype, this kind of story does not really happen.

I was literally giggling with disgust in every doctor+midwife scene, they’re so great together! Their dialogue near the end had me just sitting there staring, how can you display so much disdain to another person in such a calm way, aaah! I loved it, I just don’t know why I enjoyed it so much!

On comparing “El espiritu de la colmena” and “Das weiße Band” I really wonder if the inherent cruelty children seem to posess is completely natural or formed by society. I am more fascinated with the loli-cruelty, it seems to be much more natural and innocent. It’s like watching a cat playing with a mouse.
The young Aryans (I’m horrible, I know.) however seem to be applying societal, adult cruelty, which is completely different. They just do it in their closed little children’s circle. They play house, so to speak. It does not have the feel of innocence or curiosity I sensed in “El espiritu de la colmena”

I absolutely agree about the teacher, he definitely felt like an apathetic version of the teacher in “Jugend ohne Gott”. (I have to reread that book. Again.) It would be interesting to know if Haneke was influenced by Horváth there. Other than that I get the feeling he used the teacher mainly to lighten up the story a bit, so the audience is not inclined to hang themselves after the movie.

Also, the interpretation that the whole point is to present us with the reason why Hitler became so big just does not convince me at all. Sure, it reeks of repression, but it is much more “democratic” if I may use this term. Here, everyone represses everyone else, this is an entirely different level than the diffuse fear of repression by a relatively removed entity called government. It may be coincidence but Uncle Adi and almost all of his pals weren’t exactly north German protestants, they were quite the oppposite.
I think the general theme is violence. Where it comes from, what it does to otherwise loving people and how it is perpetuated. It’s just that this particular place and time are a great way to drive the point home.

OMG, you guys are making me want to watch more than just one other Haneke, it’s a scheme! XD

I understand how you can be indifferent to “The White Ribbon” – I can imagine that the film must be incredibly boring when you feel disconnected to it. For me, the teacher was the pleasant counterpart to the village people where everybody is sick. I thoroughly enjoyed his cute love with the young girl. He’s a little bit like the teacher in “Jugend ohne Gott” – or so I felt. Of course the comparison is not great, because here the teacher doesn’t actually do anything at all; but at least he’s someone who is in doubt of how the system worked.

PS. “The White Ribbon” is a great film, because it actually made us discuss it!

as for Knörer: he loves Tropical Malady and hates The New World, so I guess it is purely a matter of chance whether or not I happen to agree with his opinions or not xD

Style-wise, I don’t find it outstanding or innovative at all, I think it was much more the story that feels special to me. As for black/white vs. color, I do think that a colored film would have destroyed some of the depressing atmosphere in “The White Ribbon”. Somehow when I think of color films I think of Pierrot le Fou. XD
I thought the rest of the cast was decent, and indeed the children were pretty good. All in all, the acting was way beyond your typical German movie, and much better than in John Rabe, for example.

I don’t remember any of Knörer’s other reviews but I have a feeling that I usually disagree with him. I don’t really know what Haneke’s “hypothesis” is and from the few articles I have seen Haneke seems to not interpret much about his film either. I understand why Knörer feels like Haneke is patronizing the viewers, but I didn’t feel like that when I saw the movie – in fact, I rather felt like there are many ways to interpret the film, so I guess most of Knörer’s criticism just doesn’t apply to me. By the way, Perlentaucher.de also has some more articles on “The White Ribbon”. And then there is this guy who criticized Knörer’s article, but in the most ridiculous and unreadable way. Well, although I don’t agree with him, at least Knörer’s writing and his arguments are good.

Reading this little critics war makes me wonder if I changed my view upon movies now. It’s been awhile since I have thought about this question of whether a piece of art should be looked at independently from what “the author wanted”. Right now, I’d rather say that I don’t care about what Haneke wanted, but what he did there was something I ended up liking.

It’s been ages since I have seen an Huppert movie! That is reason enough for me to do so… someday, haha.