I’m on a bit of a war-themed roll here so I might as well keep it up for one more day. Screening at the RPL Theatre at 9 p.m. is this German language film (with English subtitles) by Michael Haneke. Shot in black-and-white, The White Ribbon is set in a German village on the eve of WWI, and looks at the children who managed to survive that conflagration and later grew up to be the generation that permitted, and even welcomed, Hitler’s rise to power.
This is a complicated issue as a lot of things happened at the close of WWI and in the interwar period that created conditions in Germany that made Germans receptive to the rise of Nazism. Yeah, I think there was sort of an innate Wagnerian sense of Teutonic superiority and mythology that was operating. But with all the demands for territorial concessions, reparations and military occupation that France in particular, and Britain too, made on Germany following WWI, the Allies helped engender a sense of desperation in the German people. And when people are desperate, they become susceptible to radical influences.
During Armistice negotiations then U.S. President Woodrow Wilson called for a “Peace Between Equals”. The agreement that was signed, and its aftermath, were anything but. And we played a big price down the road.
The White Ribbon took top prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Here’s the trailer. (YouTube) And if you’re in the mood for a double-bill, A Town Called Panic is playing at 7 p.m. Here’s a link to a post Shane did on our old blog on this animated feature from Belgium.
Musicwise, DFA with Tarantuja and Robot v Monster are at Fainting Goat Restaurant. It’s an all-ages gig. Doors are at 6 p.m. $5. And no, I’m not sure about the Death From Above allusion either.