The hardest part of my CIFF 2005 experience was the series of wrapup reviews I wanted to run. The end result is shorter reviews than I'd like but rest assured you are hearing about movies that will be cycling through your neck of the woods soon - in short they are worth the time it takes me to sort through and comment on. The buzz on this movie was strong and the viewing experience likewise. There is a ham fisted quality to sexual metaphors that often sinks films that deal with coming of age. But the exploration of same in Innocence is anything but naive.
INNOCENCE
One of the very first screeners I got my hands on prior to CIFF 2005 was this excellent French film Innocence. Reminiscent of Peter Weir’s classic Picnic At Hanging Rock the distinguishing characteristic of Innocence is the film’s relentless awareness of the connection between anxiety and wonder and the way that it moves effortlessly between the two.
Where Innocence takes place is a large part of it’s magic. We hear a deep throated subterranean rumbling, followed by an image of rushing water in a deep forest. We flow toward a hidden grate, through hidden passageways and find ourselves in a world that is at once our own and yet nowhere. Five houses are situated in a park hidden from whatever is outside the forest by a large vine covered wall.
The only inhabitants of this world appear initially to be a group of 7-12 year old girls who gather around a just arrived coffin to greet the newest member of their group - six year old Iris. A short while later Iris learns that she has been sent to a sort of boarding school where she will learn only dance, phys-ed and biology. Rebellion of any kind against the established order condemns the girl in question to a lifetime of servitude at the school.
Slowly finding her own place in this strange world Iris is deeply troubled when her best friend Bianca begins attending secret nightly meetings with the older girls. Sensing something ominous Iris follows Bianca one night to the teacher’s house only to make a shattering discovery that leads back to subterranean territory.
Like Picnic at Hanging Rock this film focuses on emerging female sexuality and coming of age but whereas Weir’s film offers a cocoon of palpable disquiet Innocence leads us through to a place where we come out the other end of transformation connecting both the death of childhood and the rebirth of adolescence in a visual life cycle. Some will find the film slow going no doubt, but Innocence actually manages to live up to its title, offering hope at the end of the journey.
There's plenty of gushing water and open apertures here but there's also a sense of movement, growing awareness, and fear of the unknown. In the end sexuality emerges as a mysterious thing full of power, just underneath the surface. This is subtle stuff and the style of presentation lends itself to experiencing wholesale wonder not just stirrings of the anatomy.