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White Material Reviews
The beneficiary of French colonialism, Maria (Isabelle Huppert) owns a coffee plantation in an unnamed African country. Steadfast in her refusal to abandon both her business and her property in the face of a revolution motivated by the desire of the natives to reclaim their land, she puts the lives of anyone in her orbit at risk. While the structure of the film feels a bit wobbly at times, this is probably a conscious effort by director Claire Denis to establish a sense of instability and uncertainty as the protagonist tries to salvage what she believes she is entitled to. As always, Huppert is excellent throughout and Denis directs with confidence. In addition, the primarily handheld camerawork is remarkable and the locations are stunning. Denis again proves herself to be one of the most versatile and impactful directors working today.
As obras de Claire Denis sempre representativa e significativa, de uma intensidade e realismo, cru, quase bruto, os dois anteriores com as mesmas características, mas foi aqui, que eu mais me identifiquei, ela entrou num mundo patriarcal, em meio a guerra civil, e o amor de mãe incondicional, fotografia e caracterizações perfeitas, atuações intensas, roteiro escritos nas entrelinhas, forte e cativante…
While there's a bit of a "have I seen this before? or maybe it was a book?" familiar element to the plot it still hits hard.
Female lead did fight really hard for what she wanted...
mezmerizing. hupert is superb. and some scenes.... are just hard to erase from memory.
Loosely based on the story of Doris Lessing's novel, "White Material" is without question, Clair Denis' most personal film yet. Isabelle Huppert gives another in a string of amazing performances as a determined woman who married into a wealthy white French family who runs a highly profitable African coffee plant. It is clear that since her former Father-in-law has sunk into a sort of drunken retirement, it has been her blood, sweat and tears that has kept the plantation and mill working. Long divorced from her husband, she seems to have largely raised their clearly somehow damaged son and is now more involved with her ex-husband's new wife and child than she really cares to be --- all of the challenges of her daily life take a back seat when the family's coffee plantation is threatened by an African Civil War and racial conflict. Denis does not hold your hand. Much is never clearly explained. Luckily she has Huppert who can convey more with a glance or slight movement than most actors can achieve with a page of dialogue. We come to understand that Huppert's "Maria" is fighting her own internal struggle with sympathy for the revolution going on around her, but she is determined to get one last last coffee season completed. It almost seems as if her determination is fueled by her frustrations with this family and its stupidity in the way it has handled relations with the African natives of the land. When her confused son allows a controversial African "Hero" who stands in opposition to this current regime attempting revolution a hiding place in their sprawling cave of a home -- challenges take on a far more dangerous level of risk -- not just for the family business but for the family itself. As the hate-fueled rebellion gains rage and vengeance, the family is placed under "house arrest" and no one is willing to help Maria save her crop. The last quarter of this film is so very important that I hesitate to write much more. Suffice to say that Claire Denis uses this familial and simultaneous civil war as reminders of the depths of human cruelty can take in the form of "ideals" and "control" -- In the end our protagonist comes face to face with Evil Face of Racism and the result is as surprising as it is devastating. Claire Denis may not offer much in the way of explanation as she really doesn't need to do, but she holds nothing back in this visceral and disturbingly violent film. This is a world where "race" is really not the true motivation. "Children" are no more valuable than the money and righteousness that power can provide. Weapons are in the wrong hands -- sometimes too small to even hold them. And "innocence" and "evil intent" are meaningless in a coup bent on power. Like Maria, we are left struggling to understand the enormity of what has just happened and continues to happen. This is a blunt and brutal cerebral gut punch of a film. Be warned: This film is quite violent. Not for the feint of heart. However, if you think you can handle it -- Claire Denis has a great deal to say here -- And Isabelle Huppert gives one of her strongest film performances of her already breath-taking career. Cinematic Masterpiece.
No one makes films like Claire Denis. Watching her work is like discovering cinema all over again -- baffling, beautiful, indescribable. Its hard to wrap one's head around a film like this because it is so different than what we normally see in movies. And not in a superficial way. This is narrative arthouse cinema, but the way Denis tells the tale, the way the editing functions, the implications of the images and the nuance of its style -- all are vastly revolutionary innovations for the artform. I'm probably underrating this a bit, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.
The film was inspired by Doris Lessing's The Grass is Singing but the story was significantly reworked by Denis to incorporate contemporary events. The storyline is jagged because the film has been oddly edited by Denis for flashback effect; unfortunately the audience does not see the interrelationships that Denis expected us to see.
Definitely an IFC film which leaves you asking WHY oh WHY? Braquo's Nicolas Duvauchelle makes an appearance as the "sluggish" son who just went nuts. And Christopher Lambert speaks French. Is about it for me.
Director Claire Denis paints an empty landscape. While painfully obvious the Vial family doesn't belong here, we aren't really sure why, or even where "here" is. The answers most certainly are not to be found in the vacant stares of the caricatured indigenous under-class. If you have something to say, say it! The age of the angry African metaphor has passed. For something definitive, you might want to see Kim Nguyen's 2012 "Rebelle " (War Witch - 2012) or even the "rubber plantation" sequence from Coppola's extended masterpiece "Apocalypse Now Redux" (2001).
An interesting film about a very stubborn French woman who will not leave her coffee plantation although war is closing in on her. She fights to save her property and family.
I keep asking myself why Maria Vial stays. Is it the coffee? Is it her love for the country? Is it so she can feel like she's fighting for something? Then I think that maybe because I can't put my finger on it--that's why I love this film. Because there isn't just one thing that holds her back. People are more complicated than one thing.
I was really into the way this film was shot and edited. The acting is also amazing but thats to be expected when the cast is headed up by Isabelle Huppert. Her performance coupled with Denis's direction is pretty enticing, but the story itself just doesn't give you much to care about. I liked it more than I didn't but it wasn't nearly as compelling as I would have hoped.