Dru Blood - I believe in the inherent goodness of all beings: The Innocents

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« My overabundant twittering of acl fest... | Main | Low +Charlie Parr @ Mohawk 10/3/2007 »

The Innocents

October 8, 2007

I seem to be randomly choosing a lot of movies lately that affect me a lot more deeply than I anticipate they will. First it was Ghost World, then, to a slightly lesser extent, Broken Flowers...and yesterday in my quest for a horror film fix, I chose The Innocents from Netflix on demand.

I had no idea that, instead of the usual light horror movie fare, I was going to be transported into a darkly moody black and white portrait of either a sexually repressed woman's descent into madness or the aftermath of the sexual assault of two children...or both.

This movie was a cinematic rorschach test in which spatterings and blots of details were provided, and the viewer was left to apply his or her own experience to fill in the white space. For myself...as a mother, I was pulled in one direction. As the victim of sexual trauma, I was pulled in another. It was gut-wrenching.

From an aesthetic standpoint, it was a gorgeous film. Dream-like black and white sequences, mixed with startling uses of sound and silence. This film was suspenseful and dramatic without any of the formulaic devices used in most suspense and drama movies. I will be looking for this to be shown in a theater at some point...I'd love to see it on a big screen. Although I would probably have to go alone, as I don't know that I could comfortably watch it with another person present.

In the end, I was left thinking about all manner of things both within and outside of the scope of the film. Parenting, obviously, and parenting through trauma. But also, the movie made me really think about how we as adults deal with the lives that were handed to us as children. And how the ghosts of our experiences haunt our adult lives. Do we choose to acknowledge those ghosts or do we choose to pretend they aren't there? And if we choose to acknowledge them, do we force others to acknowledge them as well, or do we allow others - both adult and children - to make those choices as is appropriate for them as individuals.
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Now playing: Joy Division - The Eternal
via FoxyTunes

Posted at October 8, 2007 8:13 AM

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Comments

How bizarre: I just signed up to Lovefilm (which I'm guessing is the UK equivalent to Netflix), and The Innocents was the first DVD on my list to be sent.

I'd seen it as a child, when I was way too young to understand anthing of what was going on (for some reason, the only image that stuck with me was Miles smacking the jelly), and again as a young woman in my early 20's. Watching it this time, I had a completely different take on it.

I completely agree about the look of the film: it's nice to be reminded how beautiful black & white can be when it's used well.

I have to say that, while it did distub me, it didn't have quite the impact that it appears to have had on you. Maybe due to my own background, which is when you think about it, quite a tribute to the quality of the film. It's rare that several people watching a film can legitimately come away with different interpretations of it. I saw it as the governess losing her grip on reality while the children truly were innocent. I know that this was diliberately left vague so the audience has to work, so I'm not claiming to have the "right" view, that's just the one I had while watching.

Posted by: Crys T at October 8, 2007 4:13 PM