Andrew reviews 2004 French cult film, Innocence.
Known
in the film community as the wife and frequent collaborator of French
provocateur Gaspar Noe, writer-director Lucile Hadzilhalilovic has sadly enjoyed
less exposure and lives somewhat in her husband’s shadow. This is a shame because her first full length feature,
Innocence, an eerie kind of fairy
tale
about an unorthodox boarding school for girls
aged between six and eleven years old, is an atmosphere-drenched powerhouse of a movie bearing all her husband’s trademarks (or hers for that matter?). It is as beguiling to contemplate as it is entrancing to see, hear and feel.
about an unorthodox boarding school for girls
aged between six and eleven years old, is an atmosphere-drenched powerhouse of a movie bearing all her husband’s trademarks (or hers for that matter?). It is as beguiling to contemplate as it is entrancing to see, hear and feel.
Starring an ensemble cast of gifted child actresses playing the schoolgirls, with few adult supervisors (including an early role for Marion Cotillard as a ballet instructor), and loosely based on Frank Wedekind’s novel Mine Haha, the film is a purely cinematic experience that uses ambiance, its natural forest locale, and the mysterious machinations of the school to evoke an experience of…maturation? Death? Transcendence? Hadzilhalilovic doesn’t tell as much as she invokes a mood of undisclosed fear of the unknown.
This
is undoubtedly the work of a woman in close quarters with Gaspar Noe, and it shows
in almost every scene. Gaspar’s regular
director of photography, Benoit Debie, lenses a lush series of images populated
by oversized walls covered by foliage, riverbeds, wooded trails lit by hanging
lights that buzz through the night, ornate stairwells and theaters leading
through dark sewer tunnels, giving a sense of unease to the heavenly beauty on
display. Also imparted from husband to
wife is the echo chamber sound design that ranges from low white noise to
thundering bass levels, almost as though we’re being unleashed into the outside
world before being yanked back into the womb. Even the full credits playing out in the opening scene with none left at
the end, other than a final subtitle, most certainly reverberate his work. But that’s not to say Lucile’s efforts simply
mimic that of her husband’s. Using the
tools perfected by him, she has run away with a completely original piece of
cinema that is simultaneously minimalist and massive, taut yet free. Much like Peter Weir’s equally unresolved
all-girl school mystery Picnic at Hanging
Rock, Innocence is less
interested in answering its inquiries than it is in evoking our undefinable
feelings we experience during the period we move from childhood innocence to
adolescent curiosity.
While
nowhere near as provocative or shocking as her husband’s filmography, Lucile
Hadzilhalilovic’s fable isn’t necessarily for younger viewers. It is as bizarre and difficult to define as
any of the great surreal masterworks of our time, intent on remaining enigmatic
and cloaked in vague tension. We’re not
sure of how these young girls arrived at this weird school or where they’re
going next, not unlike our own ordinary lives. Innocence manages to take the
juvenile point of life, notably from a female perspective, and present it as
something truly strange and hard to put into words. As a technical piece of filmmaking, editing
and audiovisual design, it is supreme! Some will no doubt emerge from the film feeling as though their hands
have closed on air and won’t necessarily be able to convey what they think it is
really about. Fans of the shock and awe
germane to Gaspar’s work will come away somewhat disappointed that the film is more
heady and peculiar than they expect. Others
will find Hadzilhalilovic’s meditation on young maturation from the days of
heaven to be utterly engrossing and among the most unique films they’ve ever
had the pleasure of viewing! I know I
thought it was absolutely great!
9/10 - Andrew Kotwicki