Review of White Material (2010) by Daniel K — 15 May 2011

3: This is only the second Claire Denis film I've seen - the other being Chocolat - so I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. If I'd known it was set in the recent past, I certainly would have assumed it would be a reasonably gloomy African colonial/post-colonial story, as opposed to the more uplifting versions of this world like The Flame Trees of Thika, Out of Africa, and Denis' own Chocolat.

There are of course the Indian versions of these films as well, A Passage to India, The River, and Black Narcissus being the first that come to mind for me. I much prefer these more nostalgic portrayals of a lost time and place, even if it is precisely what led to the current state of affairs on the continent.

One can't expect contemporary films about the last vestiges of colonialism and the rise of the soldier/rebel state in Africa to be very inspiring though. It is about the lust for power, the use of violence, and the inevitable corruption that follows.

Huppert's character blindly rejects change and continues along her chosen path oblivious to the world around her. It is the action of an insane, but dedicated woman. The ending, in which she hacks apart the old man with a machete in an abruptly disturbing scene I would more associate with Michael Haneke than Claire Denis, would tend to suggest that her efforts were in vain and she was simply delusional.

She has lost all of her illusions of power by this time and come to rely on the aid of strangers, which is something she never would have been forced to do at the outset. Her future is not a sunny one, just as the future of countries like the one depicted here is an open question with more bad answers than good ones.

Huppert gives the kind of brutal and powerful performance I've come to expect from her and is backed up by a story and a visual style that serves to heighten the emotion and intensify the effect. It seems obvious that Denis did indeed come from a place like this; I can only imagine how difficult it must be for her to have seen it descend into chaos, at least for a time, and now to show few signs of true progress and success.