White Material

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White Material

Theatrical poster
Directed by Claire Denis
Written by Claire Denis
Marie NDiaye
Starring Isabelle Huppert
Christophe Lambert
Music by Stuart Staples
Cinematography Yves Cape
Editing by Yann Dedet
Distributed by Wild Bunch Distribution
Release dates
  • 6 September 2009 (2009-09-06)
Running time 100 minutes
Country France
Language French

White Material is a 2009 French film directed by Claire Denis and co-written with Marie NDiaye.[1]

The film stars Isabelle Huppert as Maria Vial, a struggling French coffee producer in an unnamed African country, who decides to stay at her coffee plantation in spite of an erupting civil war. The film was well received, earning high ratings and appearing in several movie critics' top lists for 2010.

Plot

Maria Vial is a white French farmer who runs (with her ex-husband, Andre, and his sickly father) a failing coffee plantation in an unnamed African country in the present day. Maria and Andre have a lazy mentally unstable son, Manuel, while Andre has another half-African son Jose. Civil war has broken out and rebel soldiers, many of them child soldiers, are advancing on the area. The French military, while pulling out, makes one final plea for Maria to leave, but unyielding in her desire to protect her family's home and blinded by her own anti-white prejudice she ignores the warnings. Meanwhile, a rebel DJ on the radio urges the rebels on and advocates attacks on emblems of colonialism. Maria's workers fearing the conflict flee. Maria stubbornly refuses to abandon the plantation and its harvest which will be ready in five days. Risking her life and unable to find Andre she drives to a village to hire men to finish harvesting of the coffee. On the way, she is forced to pay off bandits who threaten to kill her at a roadblock they have established. After hiring the workers she stops at the elementary school and collects Andres other son Jose. Jose is upbeat boy of about 12. He is black and we later learn that his mother is the much younger housekeeper for Andre's father.

Meanwhile, we see Andre in town meeting with the African mayor, Cherif. Cherif seeing that Andre is desperate, takes advantage of the situation and offers to purchase the plantation for the cancellation of Andre's debts. Cherif requires Andre get his father to sign over the coffee plantation to him. Having returned to the plantation Maria searches out her son Manuel and finds him in bed after mid-day. Trying to rouse him she laments his listlessness and scolds him the he is without purpose. Manuel rises and after a swim is intrigued by a noise in the house. It is two young rebels who run as he nearly catches them. Without shoes, Manuel follows them far from the home and is eventually cornered by them as they are armed with a spear and machete. The rebel boys threaten him and after cutting his hair retreat to the bush firing shots from a revolver. Maria, Andre and some workers converge on Manuel and are shocked to find him stripped and standing naked in the field. Maria loads him in the tractor and heads back to the house. Manuel obviously traumatized and out of his mind abandons the tractor and goes to his grandfathers home. There the heavily tattooed Manuel reacts to his assault by shaving his head, stealing his grandfathers shotgun, attacking Jose's mother, and disappearing on his mother motorbike.

Despite Andre's continued pleas that they flee, Maria remains steadfast in her efforts to bring in the coffee crop. She discovers the wounded rebel hero known as 'The Boxer' in a barn and feeds him. As night falls the workers bed down and Maria falls asleep dreaming of an earlier evening where we see her discussing Manuel with Cherif in what appears to be a romantic situation fueled by marijuana. Cherif warns her that her son is half-baked, a statement which makes her laugh. She awakens and attempts to start work again. However, the radio issues reports that the Boxer is being harbored by the "foreigners" and that loyal citizens should oppose them. The workers hearing this demand to be paid. Upon threat Maria opens the safe to find the money is all gone likely taken by Andre to secure passage out of the country. The workers demand to be driven back to the village. Maria agrees and starts driving them home.

Before they can reach the village they are stopped by a band of young rebels who appear to be wearing her clothing and jewelery. The rebels demand the truck and, when a worker protests that they just poor villagers, shoot him and drive off leaving Maria by the roadside. Maria discovers they have looted the pharmacy and killed the doctor and his assistant. Driving the truck down the road the rebels are stopped by Manuel who tells them he knows where the Boxer is and leads them back to the plantation. He is clearly mad as he assists the rebels to loot his own family's food store. The rebels and Manuel gorge themselves on the food and then ingests many pharmaceuticals they have stolen. Mostly they pass out.

Government troops retake control of the area. We see them slip onto the plantation grounds immediately in front of Andre's father who calls out no warning to anyone inside. We see the troops move from room to room and place to place slitting the throats of the rebels who are passed out from the orgy of food and medication. Government troops lock the gun-toting Manuel in one of the farm buildings and burn him to death. Andre is shown dead on the floor of the house holding the family passports.

In the town Maria overwrought, she is seeking a way back to the house when Cherif sees hers and gives her a ride. At the plantation Maria sees Manuel's charred body. She notes Andres father is unharmed and in fit of rage approaches him from behind and hacks him to death with a machete.

At the end, we see one rebel running from the area with the wounds to his head. He carries with him the beret of the Boxer. He runs off into the wilderness.

Cast

Reception

White Material has an overall approval rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes."[2]

Manohla Dargis of the New York Times described it as a "...powerful, agonized film." Roger Ebert was especially impressed with the performance of Isabelle Huppert, "...small and slender, [she] embodies the strength of a fighter. In so many films, she is an indomitable force, yet you can't see how she does it. She rarely acts broadly. The ferocity lives within. Sometimes she is mysteriously impassive; we see what she's determined to do, but she sends no signals with voice or eyes to explain it."[3] Michael Koresky of IndieWire concurs, and also praises the ensemble cast: "Maria is hardly the film’s only character. Christophe Lambert gives a surprisingly fragile performance as her ex-husband, while Nicolas Duvauchelle is downright frightening as the beautiful, blond, lazy Manuel, who descends to peculiar pathological depths and thrusts himself into unexpected action." [4] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times also praised the film, "Though it deals with serious political themes and confronts deep personal issues, perhaps the most unexpected thing about "White Material" is that it never forgets to add artful beauty to the mix."[5]

Home media

A digitally restored version of the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection in April 2011 and features new interviews with Denis and actors Isabelle Huppert and Isaach de Bankolé, a short documentary by Denis on the film’s premiere at the 2010 Écrans Noirs Film Festival in Cameroon, and deleted scene.[6]

Top ten lists

The film has appeared on a number of critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2010.[7]

  • 1st – Guy Lodge, In Contention[8]
  • 2nd – Michael W. Phillips, Goatdog's Movies[9]
  • 3rd – Reverse Shot[10]
  • 3rd – Amy Taubin, Film Comment[7]
  • 3rd – Mike Wilmington, Movie City News[7]
  • 4th – Sean Axmaker, MSN Movies[7]
  • 5th – Mark Asch, L Magazine[7]
  • 5th – J. Hoberman, San Francisco Weekly[7]
  • 6th – Melissa Anderson, Village Voice[7]
  • 10th – Caryn James, indieWIRE[7]
  • 10th – James Rocchi, MSN Movies[7]

Awards and nominations

References

Notes
  1. ↑ Dargis, Manohla (2010-11-18). "NY Times: White Material". NY Times. Retrieved 2011-11-21. 
  2. ↑ "Rotten Tomatoes". Retrieved 2011-01-13. 
  3. ↑ "Review: White Material". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2011-01-13. 
  4. ↑ "Review: Running Scared: Claire Denis' White Material". Retrieved 2011-01-18. 
  5. ↑ Turan, Kenneth; Critic, Film (2010-11-26). "Movie review: White Material". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-01-13. 
  6. ↑ "White Material". The Criterion Collection. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 "Movie City News: 2010 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Movie City News. Retrieved January 13, 2009. 
  8. ↑ "Watching and waiting: Guy’s best and worst of 2010". Retrieved 2011-01-05. 
  9. ↑ "Top Films of 2010". Retrieved 2011-01-13. 
  10. ↑ "Reverse Shot's Best of 2010". Retrieved 2011-01-13. 

External links

Films directed by Claire Denis
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