Cannes 2009: Michael Haneke’s THE WHITE RIBBON
Dave Calhoun in Time Out London, via David Hudson’s The Daily:
"For quite some time at the beginning of Michael Haneke’s latest film, which is a two-and-a-half hour parable of political and social ideas set entirely in a north German village in 1913 and 1914, you wonder what you’re watching, how its disparate parts hang together and what it all might mean. More than ever, the playful, challenging, sometimes shocking director of Hidden, Funny Games and Time of the Wolf solidly resists answering the ‘what’s it all about?’ question and makes you work hard to make sense of what you’re seeing. As in Code Unknown, he resists focusing on one story or [...]
by Massimo David | May 21, 2009
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Tags: Austrian Cinema, Caché, Cannes 2009, Cannes Film Festival, Code Unknown, Das Weisse Band, Dave Calhoun, Drama, Eric Kohn, Film Festivals, Funny Games, Hidden, indieWIRE, Ingmar Bergman, Michael Haneke, Mike Goodridge, Mystery Movies, Political Movies, Screen Daily, Terrence Mallick, The White Ribbon, Time of the Wolf, Time Out London, Wendy Ide, Xan Brooks
Cannes 2009: Lars von Trier’s ANTICHRIST
Antichrist: Filmmaker Lars von Trier (top); Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe (bottom).
In this pyshcological horror-drama, a married couple struggles to come to terms with the accidental death of their son.
Wendy Ide in The [London] Times:
"Von Trier has moved away from the sparse, rough and ready work of the Dogme era and embraced a stylised and visually sumptuous look for Antichrist. The movie is packed with arresting and atmospheric images, some of which you’ll wish you could permanently erase from your memory.
"If von Trier’s issues with female sexuality have been evident in previous films, particularly Breaking the Waves and Dogville, in Antichrist he ups the ante, constructing a gender war of nuclear intensity between [...]
