Innocence (2004/II)

Director:

Lucile Hadzihalilovic

Writers:

Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Frank Wedekind (novella)

Release Date:

12 January 2005 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery

Plot:

A look inside an offbeat boarding school for young girls. |

Plot Keywords:

Girl | School | Boarding School | Teacher Student Relationship | Fountain

Awards:

9 wins

Cast

Zoé Auclair	...	Iris
Lea Bridarolli	...	Alice
Bérangère Haubruge	...	Bianca
Marion Cotillard	...	Mademoiselle Eva
Hélène de Fougerolles	...	Mademoiselle Edith
Olga Peytavi-Müller	...	Laura
Alisson Lalieux	...	Selma
Ana Palomo-Diaz	...	Nadja
Astrid Homme	...	Rose
Joséphine Van Wambeke	...	Vera
Johanna Surbier	...	Fanny
Grizelle Crozet	...	La fille choisie
Corinne Marchand	...	La directrice
Sonia Petrovna	...	Son assistante
Véronique Nordey	...	L'intendante
Micheline Hadzihalilovic	...	Madeleine

Directed by
Lucile Hadzihalilovic

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Frank Wedekind		novella

Produced by
Geoffrey Cox	....	co-producer
Alain de la Mata	....	co-producer
Patrick Sobelman	....	producer
Paul Trijbits	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Richard Cooke

Cinematography by
Benoît Debie

Film Editing by
Adam Finch

Casting by
Patrick Hella

Production Design by
Arnaud de Moleron

Art Direction by
Pierre Duboisberranger

Costume Design by
Laurence Benoit

Makeup Department
Fabienne Adam	....	assistant makeup artist

Production Management
François Lamotte	....	production manager
Philippe Toussaint	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Dominique Delany	....	first assistant director
Caroline Tambour	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Laurie Crochelet	....	painter
Laurence Demoulin	....	painter
Alberto Sebastiani	....	painter
Smygol	....	construction coordinator
Marc Van Haelen	....	head painter

Sound Department
Olivier Busson	....	boom operator
Pascal Jasmes	....	sound
Stéphane Morelle	....	boom operator
Grahame Peters	....	dialogue editor
Andy Walker	....	sound effects editor

Visual Effects by
Matthew Bristowe	....	digital lab producer
Giles Livesey	....	digital film colorist
Begoña Lopez	....	digital lab producer
Isabelle Roussel	....	digital compositor
David Tomaszewski	....	digital compositor
Thomas Urbye	....	online film editor
Pat Wintersgill	....	on-line editor

Camera and Electrical Department
Susie Allnutt	....	still photographer
Joan Bansillon	....	grip
Mathieu Cauville	....	electrician
Olivier Cazzitti	....	electrician
Luc Frisson	....	assistant camera
Olivier Godaert	....	electrician
Jim Howe	....	gaffer
Jan Rubens	....	Steadicam operator
Felix Touret	....	key grip
Laurent Van Eijs	....	additional electrician
Raphael Van Sitteren	....	electrician
Jo Vermaercke	....	Steadicam operator

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Sabine Zappitelli	....	set costumer
Silvana Sacco	....	assistant costume designer (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Pani Ahmadi-Moore	....	first assistant editor
Fiona DeSouza	....	assistant editor
Enrica Gattolini	....	additional assistant editor

Other crew
Silvana Sacco	....	background production

Production Companies

• Ex Nihilo
• Ateliers de Baere (co-production)
• Blue Light (co-production)
• UK Film Council (co-production)
• Love Streams Productions (co-production)
• Gimages (co-production)
• Kinetique (participation)
• Cofimage 15 (participation)
• Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) (participation)
• Région Wallone (participation)

Distributors

• CDI Films (2005) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Cinema Mondo (2005) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Frenetic Films (2005-2006) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Leisure Time Features (2005) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Mars Distribution (2005) (France) (theatrical)
• Amazonia Films (2004-2012) (Venezuela) (all media)
• Artificial Eye (2006) (UK) (DVD)
• Image Entertainment
• Seville Pictures (2006) (Canada) (DVD)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2005) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2005) (Argentina) (VHS)

Special Effects

• Moving Picture Company (MPC) (digital intermediate)

Other Companies

• Crossfade  sound post-production
• Malde & Co.  auditors

Also Known As:

"Athootita" - Greece (festival title)
"Innocence - viattomuus" - Finland
"Inocência" - Portugal (imdb display title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some sexual content and brief nudity involving a minor

Runtime:

122 min | Argentina:115 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

Belgium | France | UK | Japan

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

Finland:K-11 | Brazil:14 | USA:R | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Japan:PG-12 | Argentina:13 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Belgium

Company:

Ex Nihilo

Movie Connections:

Version of The Fine Art of Love: Mine Ha-Ha (2005)

Soundtrack:

Pliés

Haunting and imbued with a dreamy, meditative veneer

The final title, "for Gaspar" (Noe, director of IRREVERSIBLE), hints at the pedigree of the makers of this quite fascinating study of young girls on the cusp of adolescence.

Benoit Debie, the cinematographer of IRREVERSIBLE, shot the film.

Six year old Iris (Zoe Auclair) arrives at her new country school in a coffin. She becomes infatuated with twelve-year-old Bianca (Berangare Haubruge) who disappears each evening and returns in the morning. The girls spend most of their days studying ballet and preparing for an important exam.

The school is like a keep. The girls are encouraged to find happiness in obedience. Parents never visit. The world beyond its tall hedges exists like something within a dream.

Director Lucile Hadzihalilovic imbues every aspect of the film with a dreamy, meditative veneer. Shots of the pre-teen nymphs dancing, cartwheeling and splashing about in shallow water recall the grainy erotic imagery of David Hamilton's early feature films -- in particular, LAURA and BILITIS. The ballet sequences and striking compositions of solitary female figures in towering external landscapes owe a small debt to Dario Argento's SUSPIRIA and, to a lesser extent, his PHENOMENA. But this is not a deliberate softcore meditation on childhood sexuality. It is a metaphorical examination of how innocence is ruptured by its own curiosity.

The camera angles stress the importance and prominence of legs to a fetishistic degree. This focus is an organic extension of the girls' ballet training; a darker purpose for legs is indicated later in a chilling line of dialogue. Debie's cinematography emphasizes light and shade and is never pretty for its own sake.

The forest filled with lamps has a deliciously surreal, fairytale quality. The sequences where the girls dance for a faceless audience reminded me of one of MULHOLLAND DRIVE's most haunting sequences. The film's sound design also echoes the internal voids of the Lynchian world.

The film is not big on explanations and is a touch too slow at times, but it presents a thoroughly realized universe that is a stark metaphor for life's discoveries and disappointments. The performances possess perfect pitch and the tone remains both haunting and consistent.

What exactly is the film about? The girls may be in a purgatory of sorts, a resting place between life and death. Perhaps not. Perhaps they are in a holding pattern between childhood (innocence) and adulthood (a state requiring some loss of innocence), and when they manage to escape (succumbing to their pre-adolescent curiosity), they have forfeited their place in childhood forever. But only perhaps.