Film Review
After winning international acclaim for his groundbreaking social realist drama
Room
at the Top, British director Jack Clayton went on to make what many consider to
be one of the greatest supernatural thrillers of them all,
The Innocents.
Closely based on Henry James' novel "The Turn of the Screw", the film skilfully draws
its spectator into a dreamlike Gothic fantasy world and then proceeds to shock the life
out of him or her through a combination of sublime acting and hugely inventive camerawork
- all shot in glorious black-and-white. A marvellously restrained performance from
Deborah Kerr is narrowly eclipsed by the contribution from her two young co-stars Martin
Stephens and Pamela Franklin, who are mesmerising (but utterly terrifying) as the all-too-angelic
Miles and Flora.
The beauty of this film lies in its simplicity and in the way it manages to sustain the
tension and the ambiguity right up until the final frame. Whilst the harrowing,
heart-stopping climax provides a more than satisfactory end to the drama, we are still
none the wiser. Who can tell whether the children really were possessed or whether the
ghosts were merely the figment of Miss Giddens' diseased imagination? It is left
to the spectator to draw his own conclusions and ponder on the true significance of the
film's enigmatic title.
© James Travers 2003
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.
Next Jack Clayton film:
The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
Film Synopsis
In Victorian England, Miss Giddens accepts the position of a governess to two young children
living in a luxurious country estate. When she first meets the children, Miles and
Flora, they appear to be the model of innocence, but, on learning that Miles was expelled
from school, Miss Giddens soon begins to suspect that something is terribly wrong.
The housekeeper Mrs Grose reveals that the children may have been influenced by their
previous governess, Miss Jessel, and her violent lover, Mr Quint, who both died the previous
year in mysterious circumstances. Having seen what she believes to be
the ghosts of Miss Jessel and Mr Quint, Miss Giddens becomes convinced that their spirits
have taken possession of the two children. She takes it upon herself to save the
children before it is too late…
© James Travers
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.