Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winning feature (that’s the coveted top prize at Cannes), “The White Ribbon” has now been scheduled for a late December release by Sony Picture Classics according to publicists for the film.
It’s an interesting move putting the film out during Oscar season. Why? For one, don’t Academy Award Foreign Film contenders need to come out by the end of September to qualify for this year’s Oscars? (Or wait, maybe just in the country of its origin, which is this case is Austria, we’re a little cobwebbed today). Still, could Haneke’s stark, black-and-white film compete with the big boys for Best Picture? Seems very, very unlikely (as least from the Oscar mainstream P.O.V), but regardless, the film has a release date and we’ll see it here around Christmas (though it surely will appear at the Toronto Film Fest and New York Film Festival in the fall before that, no?). Here’s the synopsis.
A village in Protestant northern Germany, 1913-1914. On the eve of World War I. The story of the children and teenagers of a choir run by the village schoolteacher, and their families: the baron, the steward, the pastor, the doctor, the midwife, the tenant farmers. Strange accidents occur and gradually take on the character of a punishment ritual. Who is behind it all?
We missed this one at Cannes and are dying to see. Haneke’s a humanity indicting finger wagger who believes people are cruel and evil by nature, but when he’s on point, he makes chilling cinema.
