Fails the Bechdel test

The White Ribbon

Name: The White Ribbon
Released: 2010

2010. Directed by Michael Haneke, written by Michael Haneke.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

1 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
17 women characters. 4 of them speak.
No 2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other.
No 3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

The film

From July 1913 to the outbreak of World War I, a series of incidents takes place in a German village: A horse trips on a wire and throws the rider; a woman falls to her death through rotted planks; the local baron's son is hung upside down in a mill; parents slap and bully their children; a man is cruel to his long-suffering lover; another sexually abuses his daughter. People disappear. A callow teacher who courts a nanny in the baron's household narrates the story and tries to investigate the connections among these accidents and crimes. What is foreshadowed? Are the children holy innocents? God may be in His heaven, but all is not right with the world; the center cannot hold.

Released: 05 Mar 2010
Genres: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.8 / 10
Metascore: 84 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 2 Oscars. 62 wins & 49 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Schoolteacher 45 lines
Narrator 35 lines
Eva 15 lines, woman
Pastor 13 lines, man
Doctor 11 lines
Baron 8 lines, man
Midwife 8 lines, woman
Xenia 8 lines
Marie 7 lines, woman
Farmer 5 lines, man

Full cast, 84 people

Christian Friedel as The School Teacher
Ernst Jacobi as The School Teacher as an Old Man (voice)
Leonie Benesch as Eva
Ulrich Tukur as The Baron
Fion Mutert as Sigmund
Ursina Lardi as Marie Louise
Burghart Klaußner as The Pastor
Steffi Kühnert as The Pastor's Wife
Maria Dragus as Klara
Josef Bierbichler as The Steward
Rainer Bock as The Doctor
Susanne Lothar as The Midwife
Roxane Duran as Anna
Eddy Grahl as Karli
Levin Henning as Adolf
Leonard Proxauf as Martin
Gabriela Maria Schmeide as The Steward's Wife
Janina Fautz as Erna
Detlev Buck as Eva's Father
Birgit Minichmayr as Frieda
Carmen-Maja Antoni as Bathing Midwife
Michael Kranz as The Tutor
Thibault Sérié as Gustav
Johanna Busse as Margarete
Enno Trebs as Georg
Theo Trebs as Ferdinand
Miljan Chatelain as Rudolf
Branko Samarovski as The Farmer
Klaus Manchen as The Farmer (voice)
Sebastian Hülk as Max
Kai-Peter Malina as Karl
Kristina Kneppek as Else
Stephanie Amarell as Sophie
Bianca Mey as Paula
Aaron Denkel as Kurti
Mika Ahrens as Willi
Anne-Kathrin Gummich as Eva's Mother
Luzie Ahrens as Schoolchild
Gary Bestla as Schoolchild
Leonard Boes as Schoolchild
Felix Boettcher as Schoolchild
Sophie Czech as Schoolchild
Paraschiva Dragus as Schoolchild
Selina Ewald as Schoolchild
Nora Gruler as Schoolchild
Tim Guderjahn as Schoolchild
Jonas Jennerjahn as Schoolchild
Ole Joensson as Schoolchild
Gerrit Langentepe as Schoolchild
Lena Pankow as Schoolchild
Sebastian Pauli as Schoolchild
Franz Rewoldt as Schoolchild
Kevin Schmolinski as Schoolchild
Alexander Sedl as Schoolchild
Nino Seide as Schoolchild
Marvin Ray Spey as Schoolchild
Malin Steffen as Schoolchild
Lilli Trebs as Schoolchild
Paulo Wolf as Schoolchild
Margarete Zimmermann as Schoolchild
Christian Klischat as Gendarm
Michael Schenk as Detective
Hanuš Polak jr. as Detective
Sara Schivazappa as The Italian Nanny
Marisa Growaldt as The Maid
Vincent Krüger as Fritz
Rüdiger Hauffe as Workman
Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey as Farmer
Florian Köhler as Farmer
Sebastian Łach as Foreign Harvester
Marcin Tyrol as Foreign Harvester
Sebastian Badurek as Foreign Harvester
Krzysztof Zarzecki as Foreign Harvester
Sebastian Pawlak as Foreign Harvester
Lilli Fichtner as Girl at Harvest Feast
Amelie Litwin as Girl at Harvest Feast
Paula Kalinski as Girl at Harvest Feast
Matthias Linke as Band Musician
Vladik Otaryan as Band Musician
Peter Mörike as Band Musician
Hans-Matthias Glassmann as Band Musician
Nikita Vaganov as Band Musician
Mercedes Jadea Diaz as Eva's Sister (uncredited)
Simon Pawlowsky as Villager (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 57% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 3

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 1	7	15
2 to 2	1	4
3 to 3	28	33

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 41 are women's.

36 lines from women, 52 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

17 women and 34 men in the cast. 4 women and 8 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 4 of 204. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 32 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 33% of the words (2,505), men 67% (5,177). Women have 41% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit D: the test the other way

Run the other way, for men, the film scores 1 out of 3.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit E: behind the camera

5 of the 14 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 33% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Michael Haneke (man)
Written by: Michael Haneke (man)
Story by: Michael Haneke (man)
Produced by: Stefan Arndt (man), Veit Heiduschka (man), Margaret Ménégoz (woman), Andrea Occhipinti (man)
Shot by: Christian Berger (man)
Edited by: Monika Willi (woman)
Production design by: Christoph Kanter (man)
Costumes by: Moidele Bickel (woman)
Cast by: Carmen Loley (woman), Markus Schleinzer (man), Simone Bär (woman)