was chocolat the one with johnny depp and juliet binoche? if so,i hated that one :-)
will give this a look though as it comes so highly recommended
Haha, no not the magic food Irish gypsy Johnny Depp crapfest directed by Lasse Hallström – the 1988 francophone African film.
^didn’tt hink so man, but i got a little worried for a second. thought you dropped your guard. shame on me :-)
Ari, I was truly spellbound by White Material. It gets my vote for best of the year so far… I’m not sure where I would rate it within the Denis canon, but she is certainly at the pinnacle of her powers with this kind of muscular opacity. The collaboration with Huppert is inspired. I find Denis’ work really gets under the skin and I have often found myself returning in my head to the bruised and searing poetry of these figures and faces wrestling within the landscape. White Material is too physical and vivid to be called “dreamlike”, but it grips in the memory like a nightmare.
White Material was absolutely wonderful. If it’s not the best film of the year, it’s the second best. Which reminds me, I need to make a Claire Denis list. I think it was even a tad better than 35 Rhums and that movie was excellent.
Sorry this is unrelated guys, but I really need some help. Could anyone please tell me where to find the budget of this film? Even the budget figure would do…
Peter Bradshaw Guardian: White Material does not behave like a “thriller”, nor like the traditional hand-wringing, breast-beating movie about Africa, and yet it as lapel-graspingly urgent as either, a movie that remains in the mind long after it has finished.
Fernando F. Croce Slantmagazine: White Material strikes the senses as much as the director’s great films, but its lack of mystery ultimately keeps it from lingering like them.
Both reviewers bring it down to lingering aftereffects – I think that is key to appreciating Denis’ style.
Yeah, define ‘best’ in terms of lingering aftereffects….
^ that
Well, if “lingering aftereffects” is the key criterion, I think I’m in the lukewarm camp. I can understand if the film lingered with people—as I think Denis’ filmmaking style can have that effect—and for the most part, it’s done well here. The film drew me in and kept my attention, but it sort of lost steam. I think I started to lose interest in the actual themes and ideas behind the movie. Now, I haven’t really thought about the film much, but the ideas seemed rather pedestrian. For example, the film seemed to about the negative impact of colonialism and the way European nations struggle to let go of these colonies (to their own peril). Maybe I’m missing something, though. I’d be interested in hearing more from people who really liked the film.
What do people make of Maria clubbing the old guy at the end? (Was he like a manager of the plantation?)
Bueller? Anyone? Anyone?
……………………
Attempting to have an opinion after one viewing, I’d say it’s not the greatest film of the year, and coming right after 35 Rhums, which I thought was her best, it’s a teeny step down, but those two films are great contrasts between the dread of losing the comfort of ownership in life and the dread of not losing it.
@RobertTIN
Have you seen The Intruder? If so, do you think 35 Rhums was better? (I haven’t seen 35 Rhums.)
@Jazzaloha
I have seen The Intruder, a fascinating challenging film. I do think that 35 Rhums while very different is better.
I think it was too politically motivated to be meaningful in any way. I’m definitely not a fan of politically motivated film but that aside, these themes have been harped on forever… and White Material doesen’t even give any new take on them or any particular insight into the issues. It’s basically just a(nother) film very much in line with more or less mainstream thought on the post-/ colonial problem.
…and yes, I agree with the “lingering effect” critique.
@RobertTIN
Ooo. OK, that makes me want to see 35 Rhums—because I loved The Intruder (while I’ve been lukewarm on other Denis films).
@FN
…and White Material doesen’t even give any new take on them or any particular insight into the issues. It’s basically just a(nother) film very much in line with more or less mainstream thought on the post-/ colonial problem.
That was my reaction as well. But I’m curious to hear if anyone think there is something more.
So the film stayed with you for a long time? It didn’t with me, although I think Denis’ style does have a lingering effect.
it stayed with me too for a very long time. it’s a beautiful film but also enormously cruel and disturbing.
it has a same effect like Hunger, it really packs a punch.
35 Shots of Rum is a masterpiece. It aint L’intrus, but it’s a wonderfully sustained work, and maybe her most human. It doesn’t sail off into the unknown like L’intrus.
i don’t get on well with Denis. it frustrates me.
I’ve only seen 35 Shots of Rum and White Material. So far I think Denis’s films are amazing. I’m interested in how they stack up against her earlier work like Chocolat and Nanette and Boni.
@Joks
If it makes you feel better, I really didn’t get No Fear, No Die or Beau Travail.
@Micky
Why cruel and disturbing? Not to say that the film was a picnic, but, like Faux Nom alluded to, this is stuff we’ve seen before I think.
dehumanization of post colonial Africa. we’ve seen it, still White Material was a stunner for me.
“So the film stayed with you for a long time? It didn’t with me, although I think Denis’ style does have a lingering effect.”
Rather it didn’t. I prefer Beau travail.
“If it makes you feel better, I really didn’t get No Fear, No Die or Beau Travail.”
Beau Travail is a Denis-ization of Melville’s (Herman, not Jean-Pierre) Billy Budd.
Beau Travail is a Denis-ization of Melville’s (Herman, not Jean-Pierre) Billy Budd.
Right. But the gap between watching the film and reading the book might have been too great, as I really had a hard time seeing the connection, except on a really superficial level.
I think a lot of people are missing the point of White Material. It’s not about whites vs blacks or about post colonialism specifically. There’s a lot more to the film. I think people aren’t watching it carefully enough. In the film, a civil war is ensuing between rebels and government supporters, while Huppert’s family is stuck in the middle. The blacks view her as an outsider and she views herself as a local. A situation that can be disturbing for someone whose spent their whole life their on the soil. There’s much more, as well, but I wouldn’t know how to succinctly sum it all up at the moment. I think a lot of people are just watching with a preconceived notion that it’s another rehashed post colonialism flick without even carefully watching the film, and I can understand why this would be the case, but that’s besides the point.
I believe it is post-colonial to the extent it denies Europeans much of a role in Africa’s future.
A complicated film that is sustained by Huppert’s terrific performance.
I don’t think the theme/message of a film though is what should make a film great or not but rather how its relayed, regardless of that theme. The theme of bourgeois hypocrisy and materialism has been beaten away at for decades, if not centuries and film lovers still flock to see films exploring such themes, not wholly because of the theme itself, but also due to how the message is relayed by the filmmaker. Why should it be any different with a film exploring post colonialism? Denis indeed explores Post colonialism in the film, but how she explores the theme is what counts, and I’m the themes of this film could be applied to the wider context if one took the time to reflect on it. Themes explored in White Material are themes that’ll always be pertinent when discussing human nature. Think films like Viridiana and The Exterminating Angel, which certainly share similarities with White Material, at least as far as theme/message is concerned. Let’s face it, the blacks aren’t the only ones acting like animals in White Material.
I like that scene when the son is stripped naked. That’s all I have to say about that.
Ari
Any thoughts on Claire Denis’ latest masterpiece? Obviously recalls Beau Travail and Chocolat in terms of theme and setting but I thought it was better than either of them.