Cinema
The Innocents
Jack Clayton · 1961
Synopsis
Black screen. A child's voice sings a lament in which a woman weeps beneath a willow. Then, in the dark, two hands joined as in prayer, and a woman who says she wanted to save the children, not destroy them, and that she loves children more than anything. We then cut to an interview: an uncle who has, he says, no room for them hires Miss Giddens, despite her lack of experience, as governess to an orphaned nephew and niece, Miles and Flora, who live in a country manor.
Context
The film passes through a play by William Archibald, first staged in 1950, before reaching the 1898 story by Henry James from which it derives. The first screenplay, by Archibald, treated the apparitions as real; the director brought in Truman Capote, who was then working on his own book, to restore the story's ambiguity, and later credited him with most of the result. It was shot in widescreen and in black and white, and the cinematographer, Freddie Francis, darkened the edges of the image with filters and painted lenses. The kiss on the mouth that the boy gives the governess earned the film an adults-only rating in the United Kingdom.
Who it is for
Ninety-nine minutes, in English with subtitles or in a French version; Deborah Kerr plays the governess.
Prizes and reception
Edgar Award for best screenplay in 1962, given by the American crime writers.
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