©-DR-LE RUBAN BLANC de Michael Haneke (2009) p30 par tellurikwaves blog (75 Paris)

The children in the film are the generation of Germans who became Nazis. Michael Haneke has stated that while that is intentional, the ideas in the film are meant to encompass more than what lead to the rise of Nazism.

All scenes were originally shot in color and then altered to black and white in post-production.

Most of the adults are not given names in the film, instead being called Pastor, Baron, Steward, etc. This includes the narrator, who is only known as The School Teacher.

After it lost the Best Foreign Film Oscar, a few articles were written exposing that the Academy voters for this category were not obligated to view all the films before voting.

Michael Haneke has said the project was in development for more than ten years.

Michael Haneke wanted the environments to be very dark, so many indoor scenes used only practical light sources such as oil lamps and candles. In some of the darkest scenes, where the crew had been forced to add artificial lighting, extra shadows could be removed in the digital post-production which allowed for extensive retouching.

The choice to make the film in black and white was based partly on the resemblance to photographs of the era, but also to create a distancing effect.

Although the town itself is fictional, many of the incidents depicted in the film are drawn from real incidents in Germany and Austria during the 1920's-1940's.

In an interview with Austrian magazine "Celluloid", Michael Haneke stated that he first planned "Das weiße Band" as a three-part TV-mini-series.

More than 7000 children were interviewed during the six-month-long casting period. For most of the adult roles, Michael Haneke selected actors with whom he had worked before and therefore knew they were suitable for the roles.

In the dance scene, where the camera moves in 360 degrees, tiles were added frame by frame to replace the original Eternit roofs.

Before filming started, Christian Berger studied the black and white films Ingmar Bergman made with Sven Nykvist as cinematographer.

Germany's official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards in 2010.

Film debut of Christian Friedel.

Michael Haneke planned this movie with Ulrich Mühe as the pastor, but he died the year before shooting began.

CINEMA :Les blessures narcissiques d'une vie par procuration

©-DR-LE RUBAN BLANC de Michael Haneke (2009) p30