I've seen only a handful of the films on Claire Denis' resume, but even with my small sampling I can safely say I recognize her style. To some, it may seem like a parody of a "French film where nothing happens," but anyone who uses such phrases without irony are, well, not the type of people who are likely to even consider watching this movie.
White Material is set now, in an unnamed African country scraping out the very last few sticky remains of colonialism. Our lead character, played by Isabelle Huppert, runs (but does not own) a coffee plantation. Political unrest has reached such a point that violence is likely to break out at any moment, and the last remaining whites are bugging out. Not her, though. She wants to complete the harvest.
Is it because she has a connection to the land? Is in financial dire straits? Actually resents her not-so-hard-working (ex) husband/owner played by Christoph Lambert? It could be all of these things. White Material doesn't make it clear. Denis' camera is much more interested in following Huppert in trucks as she tries to pick up workers, peeking into her son and stepsons' rooms, lingering over the mechanics of modern coffee production.
To say White Material has tone is to say Paul Blart: Mall Cop has fat jokes. The storytelling's hazy logic (I won't lie and say I know exactly what precisely happened to whom and when) matches this sub-Saharan heat, evoking a general feeling of fatalistic inevitability. In short, nothing much happens in White Material until all of a sudden everything happens. It is an interesting, unique, slightly frustrating but ultimately rewarding journey.
