White Material (2009)

Director:

Claire Denis

Writers:

Claire Denis (scenario) and
Marie N'Diaye (scenario) ...
(more)

Release Date:

24 March 2010 (France)

Genre:

Drama | War

Tagline:

In the African heat, one woman stands alone

Plot:

Denis revisits Africa, this time exploring a place rife with civil and racial conflict. A white French...

Plot Keywords:

French | Africa | Coffee | Plantation | Coffee Plantation

Awards:

2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Isabelle Huppert	...	Maria Vial
Christopher Lambert	...	André Vial (as Christophe Lambert)
Nicolas Duvauchelle	...	Manuel Vial
William Nadylam	...	Chérif, le maire
Michel Subor	...	Henri Vial, le propriétaire
Isaach De Bankolé	...	Le Boxeur
Adèle Ado	...	Lucie, la femme d'André
Ali Barkai	...	Jeep, le chef des enfants rebelles
Jean-Marie Ahanda
Martin Poulibe
Patrice Eya
Serge Mong
Mama Njouam
Thomas Dumerchez
Christine-Ange Tatah
Suzanne Ayuck
Daniel Tchangang	...	José
Lionnel Messi Inoussa
Antoine Ndichut
Wakeut Fogaing
Denise Djuikom
Marie-Françoise Wouogo
Christian Bitang
Justin Ambassa
Bernard Yopa
M. Ibrahim
Catherine Matzi
Madeleine Manipet
Ebenezer Repombia
Aïcha
Armand Tamo
Poupou Poutougnigni

Directed by
Claire Denis

Writing credits
Claire Denis		(scenario) and
Marie N'Diaye		(scenario)
Lucie Borleteau		collaboration

Produced by
Pascal Caucheteux	....	producer

Original Music by
Stuart Staples

Cinematography by
Yves Cape

Film Editing by
Guy Lecorne

Casting by
Richard Rousseau

Production Design by
Abiassi Saint-Père

Costume Design by
Judy Shrewsbury

Makeup Department
Pierre Olivier Persin	....	special makeup effects artist
Antonella Prestigiacomo	....	key hair stylist

Production Management
Albert Blasius	....	production manager
Laurencina Lam	....	post-production manager
Thibault Mattei	....	unit production manager
Monica Taverna	....	unit manager
Isabelle Tillou	....	production manager
Olivier Torion	....	assistant unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Lucie Borleteau	....	assistant director
Gervais Djimeli Lekpa	....	third assistant director
Anaïs Minet	....	second assistant director

Sound Department
Sandie Bompar	....	dialogue editor
Fred Mays	....	post-synchronisation
Michel Monier	....	sound consultant: dolby
Jean-Paul Mugel	....	sound
Josefina Rodríguez	....	sound editor
Jean-Alexandre Villemer	....	sound recordist
Christophe Vingtrinier	....	sound re-recording mixer
Christophe Winding	....	sound

Visual Effects by
Elodie Glain	....	visual effects coordinator
Jean-Francois Theault	....	digital compositor
Olivier Veau	....	digital compositor
Aurélie Villard	....	digital artist

Camera and Electrical Department
Stéphane Bourgoin	....	chief electrician: re-shoots
Maxime Cointe	....	first assistant camera
Mathieu Dequirot	....	electrician: re-shoots
Martin Levent	....	second assistant camera
Stéphane Thiry	....	key grip
Bruno Verstraete	....	gaffer
Sylvain Zambelli	....	first assistant camera: re-shoots

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Claire Tong	....	costumer

Editorial Department
Sandie Bompar	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Frédéric Cauvy	....	weapons

Production Companies

• Why Not Productions (co-production)
• Wild Bunch (co-production)
• France 3 Cinéma (co-production)
• Canal+ (participation)
• France Télévision (participation)
• TPS Star (participation)
• Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) (participation)
• Les Films Terre Africaine (in association with)
• Cinémage 2 (in association with)
• Sofica UGC 1 (in association with)
• Procirep (support)

Distributors

• Artificial Eye (2010) (UK) (theatrical)
• IFC Films (2010) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Interior13 Cine (2010) (Mexico) (theatrical)
• Wild Bunch Benelux (2010) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Wild Bunch Distribution (2010) (France) (theatrical)
• Aztec International (2010) (Australia) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2011) (USA) (DVD)
• Film1 (2011) (Netherlands) (TV) (limited)
• Imovision (2010) (Brazil) (all media)
• Teleview International (2009) (Lebanon) (all media) (Middle East)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

France | Cameroon

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Ireland:15A | Netherlands:16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:MA (2010) | USA:Not Rated

Company:

Why Not Productions

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #1.13" (2011)

Has some sense of Africa but feels like a lot was left on the cutting room floor

White Material is a film about a coffee plantation in an unnamed African country (shot in Cameroon). Maria Vial (Isabelle Huppert) runs the place for her father Henri (Michel Subor). She has a layabout son called Manuel (Nicolas Duvauchelle) and a weak-willed husband André (played by Christopher Lambert of Highlander fame).

The French army is withdrawing and the country is fractured into regular army, rebels, and newly-formed mad-dog local militias out for rape and pillage, sprung from the ground once law and order dissolves, like Ray Harryhausen's skeleton warriors of the dragon's teeth (Jason and the Argonauts).

It's time to banish the White Material, that is white folk and the trappings of white living. Maria doesn't want to know though and stays on stubbornly trying to process her coffee crop.

The film is quite pretty and captures the feel of Africa on the ground, of the isolation and the wild beauty, but also the extreme lurking danger. Denis has roots in Africa and so manages a lot of authenticity. The dialogue is occasionally awesome, soliloquies in which Maria curses whites and talks about Africa in relation to Europe particularly stand out.

Unfortunately I think there are weak elements, Lambert isn't good enough and his character isn't even necessary (which goes for Henri too), Maria does something brutal and inexplicable at the end (in true clichéd Huppert style), and the film looks like it took a severe amount of cutting as there are plot threads that are barely picked up. The film has the feel of an overly condensed epic. The biggest problem though maybe the narrative structure, where the end occurs at the beginning, which in all frankness, and with due respect to a director who has entertained me with great films more than once, comes off as amateurish.

As usual the Tindersticks provide a wonderful soundtrack for Denis, so important for an auteur to have a proper musical collaborator, but they basically paper over the cracks.

The film is good enough if you just look at is as mesmerising anarchy, but it's not a multi-faceted Denis masterpiece. Isaach De Bankolé is underused as Le Boxeur, the rebel hero general, he's a symbol of a strong moral Africa, gut-shot and dying alone. This character lingers in the memory.