El lado negro de La cinta blanca. Pensar el desprecio con Michael Haneke

Abstract

The present paper proposes an analysis of the film “The white ribbon” (Haneke, 2009) centered in the concept of contempt, a type of sad affection based on inequality between people. In the film, the tension between the adult universe and the child and teenager universe is the conflict of the plot. Even so, the contempt is manifests in various ways, in this paper we will work three central modalities: the disregard for children and adolescents (generational difference), towards women (gender difference) and towards the disabled child (biological and intelectual difference). Also the storytelling and the mise-en-scene reflect the logics of the various affections related to the contempt. In this way, the narrative, constituted from absence and negation, enables reflection on the functioning of contempt and its effects on society.