2009 TIFF Bytes #1.5: White Material

Too long for Twitter, too brief for the capsule page, some quick takes on films screened at this year's TIFF: White Material (d. Claire Denis) This is Claire Denis's very own Gone with the Wind, and she seems to denote it as epic by shooting it in 2.35:1 widescreen. Headstrong Maria (Isabelle Huppert) struggles to keep the Vial coffee plantation operating in the midst of an African civil war despite accumulating exit cues. Her entire workforce heeds the evacuation call she chooses to ignore. She finds a severed animal's head among the beans. Her son (Nicolas Duvauchelle) goes mad after…