Anastos Blogspot: The Innocents (1961): Review

Figure 1: The Innocents (1961) Film Poster

The Innocents (1961) is a British horror film directed by Jack Clayton. The film is based on the novella “The Turn Of The Screw” written by Henry James. The film has perfect black and white photography and has given its name to other horror movies. “Clayton's filmmaking, mustering frisson by both candle and blazing daylight, could serve as an object lesson in its genre” (Atkinson, 2005). The filmmaking technique and the atmosphere of the film is gorgeous for a horror movie. The film starts with Miss Giddens where she has been given a job to take care two children by their uncle, Flora and Miles. As long as she arrives she gets on really well with the children and she meets the house keeper Mrs. Grose.

Figure 2: The Innocents (1961) Miss Giddens with the children.

The film from the start is really ambiguous and produces a psychotic meaning to the audience. The place where Miss Giddens has been to take care of the children is really weird and uncanny. Dead silence, nature and weird things happening gives the sensation of the uncanny. Miles the boy as soon he arrives from the boarding school a letter come to the house that he is expelled from the school. Miss Giddens is confused because the two children are really polite and friendly and she thinks that a mistake from the teachers has been made. During the film Miss Giddens tries to talk about the letter with Miles but he always refuses to talk about it and weird behavior from the two children by sharing secrets and acting in an unexplained way.

Figure 3: Flora acting in an unexplained way.

Miss Giddens is experiencing visions and voices from a man and a woman where Mrs. Grose identifies them being Miss Jessel and Peter Quint, they were working for the children’s uncle before their death. Mrs. Grose revealed that Quint was abusive to Miss Jessel and they were indiscreet by performing sexual acts straight to the people and probably in front of the kids. After Quint’s death Mrs. Jessel drowned herself in the lake. Miss Giddens is very disturbed by these “hallucinations” and she believes that the weird and sometimes disturbed behavior of the children is caused by these two people ghosts. “..Miss Giddens’ desperate desire to help while overtly suggesting a note of repressed hysteria, hinting that the ghosts may be externalizations of her own inner demons.” (Biodrowski, 2008). The scenes where Miss Giddens see the ghosts of these two dead people are very disturbing and confuse the audience. As the audience you are confused and you think it’s only Miss Giddens imagination but you are not sure until the end. Strange things happening with the children. One night Flora is seeing Miles walking alone in the dark in the garden. Miss Giddens goes down and escorts him to bed. Then Miles is kissing her for goodnight in a very adult way. This scene is really shocking for the audience and also implies that these children have experienced in the past many situations and have too much knowledge as they should have.

Figure 4: Miles kissing Miss Giddens, the shocking scene.

Another incidence that shocks Miss. Giddens is where she finds Flora dancing alone in the lake and sees the ghost of Miss Jessel in the background.

Figure 5: The ghost of Miss Jessel in the lake.

Miss Giddens is determined that the kids are possessed by these two people’s ghosts and she is determined to rescue them from the possession. She forces Flora to talk about what she saw but she goes away screaming and crying. Then Miss Giddens decide to send Flora back to her uncle and stay with Miles in order to make him talk and rescue him from the possession of the ghost that is haunting him. While they are left alone Miss Giddens and Miles he forces him to talk. Suddenly Miles when she admits that he was talking in a bad way to other kids in school he starts to talk in an unexplained way, saying insults and laughing manically. The ghost of Quint appears in the window behind Miles. Then Miss Giddens forces him to say his name in order to be rescued. Then the hand of Quint brakes the windows and Miles falls to the ground.

Figure 6: The ghost of Quint in the end scene in the window

Miss Giddens goes and takes him from the ground believing that he is cured but she realizes he is dead. Then she kisses him in the lips while crying. The movie is a really good horror movie with many Freud ideas. It’s worth seeing it and in general as a ghost story it has succeeded. “As a ghost story, it works perfectly - through its restraint as much as anything else - even if it politely sidesteps much of the original story's sexual undertones.” (Pulver, 2006).

Illustration List:

Figure 1: The Innocents (1961) Film Poster.

http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/product_images/1020/252262.1020.A.jpg

(Accessed: 10/1/2012)

Figure 2: The Innocents (1961) Miss Giddens with the children.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l13n97sauc1qzqmq8o1_500.jpg

(Accessed: 10/1/2012)

Figure 3: The Innocents (1961) Flora acting in an unexplained way.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRaIt2Te2eZBKUUYkfW0UpPmjWGsGOKH7r-qmjMvL-cicxc5CyyNF6ytGmYtqJOsqaU5Ke2Aed41SUkMw4ieWjCEvL5mBVx3QRV-meUn8kAj__VYgb4bpgsagC8T9V5F-UcGXFHVSExTE/s1600/inno+2.jpg

(Accessed: 10/1/2012)

Figure 4: The Innocents (1961) Miles kissing Miss Giddens, the shocking scene.

http://cineplex.media.baselineresearch.com/Images/123667/123667_large.jpg