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Innocents, The (1961)
03. Jun 2006 at 04:36
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The Innocents

Released 2 June 2006

UK 1961 Dir Jack Clayton
100 mins. Black and white. Cert 12A.
Starring Deborah Kerr, Michael Redgrave, Peter Wyngarde, Martin Stephens, Pamela Franklin
Opening venue: National Film Theatre - book tickets online-

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"The best ghost movie I've ever seen"
Pauline Kael

On 2 June bfi releases new prints of The Innocents, Jack Clayton's celebrated adaptation of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, scripted by William Archibald (whose play of the book had been on Broadway) and Truman Capote, with additional scenes and dialogue by John Mortimer.

A brilliant exercise in psychological horror, The Innocents tells of an impressionable and repressed governess, Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr), who agrees to tutor two orphaned children, Miles (Martin Stephens) and Flora (Pamela Franklin). On arrival at Bly House, she becomes convinced that the children are possessed by the perverse spirits of former governess Miss Jessel (Clytie Jessop) and her Heathcliffe-like lover Quint (Peter Wyngarde), who both met with mysterious deaths.

The sinister atmosphere of The Innocents is carefully created not through shock tactics but through its cinematography, soundtrack, and decor: Freddie Francis' beautiful CinemaScope photography, with its eerily indistinct long shots and mysterious manifestations at the edges of the frame; Georges Auric's evocative and spooky soundtrack; and the grand yet decaying Bly House, with spiders crawling from dilapidated statues, ants from the eyes of dolls, and rooms covered in dust sheets.

But it is Deborah Kerr in the performance of her career - struggling to veil her mounting hysteria under a civilised façade - who makes The Innocents such an intensely unsettling experience. Are the ghosts the products of Miss Giddens's fevered imagination and emotional immaturity, or a displacement of her shock at the sexually precocious behaviour of ten-year-old Miles? Is she the protector or the corrupter?

Despite a lukewarm critical reception on its original release, The Innocents was passionately defended by Pauline Kael who called it "the best ghost movie I've ever seen". It is now widely considered to be one of the greatest of all cinematic tales of terror, and continues to inspire today's 'haunted house' movies, most notably The Others of Alejandro Amenábar.


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« Last Edit: 06. Jul 2008 at 20:05 by Zabladowski »  
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Re: the innocents
Reply #1 - 04. Jun 2006 at 02:23
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Despite a lukewarm critical reception on its original release, The Innocents was passionately defended by Pauline Kael who called it "the best ghost movie I've ever seen".

Its nice to be able to agree with Pauline Kael on occasion. Smiley I never tire of recalling what an impact this movie had on me when I saw it in the early 60's. It felt like a special rich gift.
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