Innocence [2005]

---

---

Editorial reviews

Product Description
At the heart of a densely wooded forest lies a mysterious girls' boarding school, cut off from the outside world by a great wall with no door. Within, a group of youngsters aged between seven and twelve gather round a small coffin, from which emerges a new pupil, six-year-old Iris. Led by the eldest girl, Bianca, Iris is introduced to this strange yet enchanting world of lamp-lit forest paths and eerie underground passageways, where there are no adults save for some elderly servants and two melancholy young teachers. But this haven is one from which the girls are forbidden to leave; those that do are never heard from again. Haunting and bizarre, filmmaker Lucile Hadzihalovic imbues Innocence with a fairytale-like sense of menace and images of surreal beauty, creating a mesemrising and timeless evocation of childhood.

---

Synopsis
Deep in the middle of a forest there is a girl's boarding school cut off from the world outside. No one is allowed to leave and those that do are never seen again. A young girl emerges from a coffin surrounded by a group of girls and together they explore the strange and haunting surroundings.

---

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-08-10 rating:
Takes time to get tuned to it, but is worth it
I admit that the first time I saw this movie, I turned the DVD off after about 20 minutes. I felt the movie was just too boring. Then a few months later, a female friend insisted to me that this was a terrific movie, that I should give it another try. So I saw it again. And I have to agree that it improved on second viewing (unfortunately, a sad fact of movie viewing is that how much you like a particular movie depends on a certain degree on how was your mood that particular day). The movie is set in a mysterious boarding school for little girls, that is surrounded by a sort of enclosed forest, and where the girls don't seem to be taught anything else but ballet. Once a year, a couple of the girls are selected by the school's imperious director, and are taken off the school. To where, the girls are not told. The director (the real life companion of infant terrible Gaspar Noe) chooses an ambiguous and indirect form of storytelling. The movie suggests a lot, but delivers a little less than it promises. It is an art movie, but with a lot of the mannerisms of the terror genre. And the ending I found a little disappointing. But if you are armed with a little patience, this might be a worthwhile experience.

---

review by: Toby date: 2008-04-30 rating:
Beware the 'similar items'!
Innocence is nothing like the other DVDs you might see in the 'similar items' category. If you're looking for something which blends eroticism with art then this is not the film for you.

If, however, you are looking for a refreshing exploration of childhood then Innocence is the film for you. There are sinister sexual overtones but they are presented as exactly that. This is a film about the beauty of childhood. Hadlizahilovic challenges the viewer's preconceptions by suggesting and then withdrawing from the notions of sex and paedophilia. The DVD cover is incredibly suggestive but this film is consciously NOT about sex, a fact which leaves the viewer with a refreshingly innocent image of what childhood should be.

---

review by: Peaches date: 2008-03-20 rating:
Beautifully made but......
I think this film didn't quite work for me because I was expecting something else, something more menacing in the way of Calvaire. Although this does have a sinister air about it, it is quite a different film.

From time to time, I did find myself getting taken along with it, but untimely I was wondering what it was really all about and why it was made.

I can understand how some may find the viewing uncomfortable, there were moments when I felt it myself. I am not innocent and I know the world we live in.

It is beautifully filmed though, and the children put in such an understated performance, but I couldn't comfortably recommend this film, due to the languid pace of the film and its subject matter being so evasive.

---

review by: He's the strongest, he's the quickest, he's the best! date: 2007-12-05 rating:
Many questions, not enough answers
If Lucile Hadzihalilovic was aiming for an enigmatic debut with Innocence - then she's certainly succeeded!

The film is set in the micro-reality of a private school cut off from the rest of the world by a surrounding wall. The girls in the school arrive in a coffin to begin their stay. Sounds dark? The feeling continues.

They have no visitors, in fact; no contact with the outside world whatsoever. They have a hierarchical system identified by coloured hair ribbons - red, for example; represents the youngest girls.

With the highly sexualised culture we live in, you can't but feel slightly uncomfortable at the sight of the near naked girls bathing in a lake, and the various other scenes involving more than the usual amount of flesh. This seems to complement the title perfectly - "Innocence" - there is nothing sexual about the scenes, nothing untoward, there is nothing to be uncomfortable about. There is only one scene which could be labelled sexual, but it is a very tasteful moment involving an older girl experimenting with the feel of velvet against her skin.

The general eeriness of the film is fortified by the lack of verbal communication, especially from adults - there must only be 5 or 6 minutes of adult dialogue. There is a sense of unease amongst the tutors and you try to imagine how the cause of this will all be revealed at the end.

Who put the girls in the school? Why aren't they allowed out until they hit puberty? Who are the late night ballet performances for? You start to think the unthinkable, especially when during a late night performance a girl catches a flower from a hidden audience member and is told she is the prettiest girl on stage.

So many questions posed - but unfortunately never answered.

I love a film which encourages you to think, but sometimes it seems lazy to not offer any sort of explanation. You think back to the long scenes and try to think if you saw any clues as to the school's mission, but nothing comes to mind.

In a nutshell: Beautifully shot, lengthy scenes with some dark moments and an overall dark feel. This film ends though without satisfying your protective parental instincts about the girls. At least there is an upbeat scene at the end to stop it ending on a low.



review by: date: 2007-05-07 rating:
Magical, mysterious and sinister...
I had never heard of this film before i picked it off the shelf, so I had no idea what to expect.

It's based on 'Mine-Haha, or the Physical Education of Young Girls', by a German playwright named Frank Wedekind. The plot revolves around a boarding school for girls roughly aged 5 or 6 up until they hit puberty, in the middle of a dense forest.

As soon as the film starts, it fills the viewer with a sense of foreboding, with a long, flickery opening featuring a child-sized coffin and no music, but a deep, ominous rumbling sound instead. That combined with the next scene, of girls in identical white uniforms opening the coffin to reveal thier new, living, companion, certainly made me expect some kind of sinister nightmare. I, like many other viewers, was concerned that it would turn out to be a film about paedophillia, and I was waiting with bated breath for some true horror to come around the corner.

But actually, there are no monsters or paedophiles, but rather a distinct lack of sexual innuendos. The film really is about innocence. The celebration of young girls in the film would only a few decades ago have seemed totally unremarkable, before such images were so sexualised as they sometimes are nowadays. The subject of developing female sexuality is indeed touched on, especially towards the end, but not in nearly as sinister a manner as one might expect.

The school takes on a life of its own. On the one hand its a child's paradise, where the girls can play and practice dance and gymnastics among the trees and swim in the lake, in between exciting lessons. But it also feels like a prison. It is inescapable, and those who try to escape meet a tragic fate or are never spoken of again. There are many dark elements, including mysterious underground tunnels, and strange sounds which come from beneath the lake. The headmistress takes one blue-ribboned girl a year away from the school, based more on neck length and beauty than dance talent or intelligence.

The imagery is magical and very original, from the lamp-lit trees at night to the ominous red curtain. The cinematography is breathtaking, and gives the film a dreamlike fantasy missing from other films of a similar genre.

Innocence is essentially a film about the magic of young girls and thier own utopian world. It touches on thier emotional and sexual development and the authoritarian structure of the school system, with a sense of anticipation and unease pervading the whole film, reflecting the emotions of a young girl going into puberty, with a suprisingly optimistic ending.

I, for one, absoloutely loved it.

---

Similar products

Atomised [2006]
Noce Blanche [1991]
Angela
The Consequences Of Love [2004]
I Am Curious Yellow/Blue [1967]

---

Similar categories

Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Drama
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . DVD
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . BBFC Rating (intended_use_browse-bin) . 15
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Release Date (feature_three_browse-bin) . 2000 and later
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Region(feature_browse-bin) . Region 0
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Editions (feature_two_browse-bin) . Standard Edition
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Language (theme_browse-bin) . French

---