White Material

A story of a distressed woman willing to die and sacrifice her own family rather than giving up some acres of land somewhere in the middle of nowhere merely to prove (to none) that she is not afraid.

Isabelle Huppert provides as always an excellent and charming neurotic character. Her character is brave and determined but the whole objective of her determination makes no sense at all.

Overall, the script is pretty poor. It is not certain if the movie wants to talk about female neurosis, ignorant expatriates behavior, social revolution, oppressed against colonizers, black and white or simply tell the story of how someone can get blind by her own ego.

Nice photography of landscapes, some minutes of enjoying to see Huppert acting and absolutely nothing more.

excerpt, more at my location - In Claire Denis' White Material (shot in Cameroon), themes of colonialism and rebellion collide within the context of an unspecified African nation. The film is, at times, deeply disturbing and shocking, and marks Denis' filmmaking return to Africa (after previously studying themes of African colonialism in films such as her 1988 directorial debut Chocolat) whilst drawing on real-life experiences of growing up in the continent.

White Material is a worthwhile and thought-provoking film, even if it does not quite reach the full sum of its parts. Isabelle Huppert is intriguingly complex and engaging in the central performance, with Nicholas Duvauchelle also shining in a difficult role as a young man descending into darkness.

In French colonial Africa, Maria Vial (Isabelle Huppert) is struggling to finish the coffee bean harvest. The rebels are approaching. French forces are leaving. Local have turned to banditry and her workers have mostly abandoned her. The African mayor bullies André Vial (Christopher Lambert) to get his father to sell the plantation. Maria has their white son Manuel and André has his half-African son Jose. Maria stubbornly refuses to leave the harvest even after Manuel is stripped naked by a couple of boys. Manuel starts to deteriorate mentally. Maria discovers wounded rebel fighter Le Boxeur in her barn.

Isabelle Huppert embodies a fierce interior and stubbornness. The family's varying reaction to their situation can be mind-boggling. There is real tension but also frustration with Maria. These are maddening characters in a maddening world.

The setting for the film is a West African, French-speaking country riven by civil unrest and fighting between the army and rebels who consist of children, many orphaned. The rebels' icon and unofficial leader is a former soldier known as The Boxer (a cameo from Isaach de Bankole). Directed by Clare Denis she presents the country's unravelling situation and uses a non-linear narrative to loop back and forth within the 48-hour period that is the story's time frame.

Amidst the mayhem we are slowly introduced to the owners of a coffee plantation, who are a white family of French origins: Maria Vial (Huppert), her ex-husband Andre (Lambert), their son Manuel and his grandfather Bernard. Living with the family is Andre's second wife/partner Lucie and their son Jose. At the point we meet the family they are 5 days from coffee harvest and their workers are fleeing the plantation afraid for their lives. They leave to return home because 'coffee is just coffee and not worth dying for'. Maria does not feel the same way and recruits some replacement workers to ensure a successful harvest. Meanwhile Andre, who shares the workers' fears, is plotting the family's escape which means selling the plantation to the local mayor who will ensure their safe passage out of the country. This is kept from Maria who has vowed never to leave.

As events unfold it is obvious to everyone around Maria that the situation is becoming less stable and increasingly precarious. She refuses to see or acknowledge this. Interspersed throughout we hear a DJ allied to the rebels, used as a sort of narrator, playing reggae and making pronouncements against the existing government and white people, who are the 'white material' of the title.

The film's narrative and characters make it difficult for the viewer to apprehend what is happening immediately and/or to like/relate to the characters easily. This is part of its success: the situation and people we are presented with are complex. Although of French origin and white we learn that Bernard and Manuel were both born in the country making them citizens. Maria has left France and never wants to return; she herself despises the white French people ('these dirty whites ... they don't deserve this beautiful land') and clearly does not perceive herself to be one even though the rebels and army see her as one such 'dirty white' who makes the country 'filthy'. Throughout is woven the theme of where is home and what it means to feel you belong and rooted in a situation where others label you an outsider.

Maria is a tough fighter but lacks sensitivity and does not seem to realise, or wish to see, how she is perceived. We witness the tragic consequences of this to her, her family and the people who work with her as the film works to its conclusion.

The film is beautifully shot with an atmospheric soundtrack provided by Tindersticks. The colours, the heat, the expanse are well evoked and make you realise why Maria loves it so she is prepared to risk her life and those close to her. There is spare use of dialogue and Huppert excels at the role of Maria, a difficult woman of few words. This is the sort of film that benefits from more than one watch as Denis packs in characters and events all of which add to the texture of the film and its politics.

The strengths: The colors are glorious and the cinematography is extremely direct, yet immaculately composed. I could practically feel the dirt between my toes as I was watching it; this being my second Denis film I've seen, I really can see a sensual theme to her direction! As with Beau Travail, the way the film portrayed the male body and African culture was really authentic and aesthetically pleasing. The acting is very genuine and believable, and the atmosphere is lovely. With every facial gesture Huppert made, I felt she was truly her character, determined and plodding. The score is muted, yet I would say it is *perfect*, with just the right level of mystery and ominous tension. The pacing is unique in how non-linear it is, but never lets up the intrigue. I myself did not have a hard time understanding which was a flashback or not. But on the topic of this, now we segway into the negatives, which unfortunately make this could've-been-great film a little lacking!

Negatives: The aforementioned jumbled pacing kind of kills the forward motion that the film tries to build up as it's main driving force. In the middle of a great montage it can cut back to her on the bus, in the present. I love how this film respects the audience's intelligence and doesn't announce the flashbacks at all, but the repetition and level to which it does it obscures clarity and drags the film down! However, the Achilles heel that shatters a could-be-perfect film is an unfortunately very, very prominent lack of any characterization. Everyone seems stilted and one dimensional, even Maria at most times! To relate to any of these characters, I'm not asking to be spoonfed any excessive exposition, but any would be nice. Is Manuel lazy or mentally unwell? Why does he shave his head and go off the rails, what broke inside him in the fields? Why did Andre divorce Maria? Why is Maria so attached to her plantation? Why does she dream of the Boxer? The reason I found the ending so frustrating wasn't because it wasn't the outcome I was looking for (although it wasn't). It was because it didn't make sense because I didn't have any feel of her character's emotions or motivations. In Beau Travail, the ending is similarly sad and disturbing. But somewhere in that more effective film, between the layers of obliqueness, the subtext can carry you through to the final conclusion and you can lay back and think as to how and why we got here. With all the strengths and beautiful qualities White Material embodies, I don't think we got to that point of knowledge or fulfillment.