At the start of The White Ribbon there is what seems like a very long sequence of titles that fade in white text on a black background and fade it out again. There is no sound at all. OK...
When the picture fades in and the sound starts, there is an intriguing set-up which makes you think "Hmmm. Maybe this isn't pretentious crap after all?"
That lasts for half an hour or so. It is quite interesting. The black-and-white works. The characters have depth, especially the children, which is uncommon.
But then it doesn't really go anywhere. It carries on at the same pace for ages. I found myself checking to see how much longer there was to run; and being disappointed to see that the total running time was nearly 2 1/2 hours.
To be honest I fast-forwarded through the last hour just to see what happened at the end. Hopefully it isn't too much of a SPOILER to reveal my complete incredulity at finding that there isn't any final resolution... the narrator leaves the village without ever finding out what happened... so neither do we.
All I can say is that I'm glad I didn't take the trouble to watch the whole thing. But I did enjoy the first 30-40 minutes. What a shame the film wasn't shorter.
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