Innocence is not merely the year's best first film, but one of the great statements on the politics of being 'tween.
Innocence (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:17
Fresh:11
Rotten:6
Average Rating:6.7/10
Theatrical Release:Oct 21, 2005 Limited
Synopsis: A subterranean rumbling resonates in the heart of a forest. Hidden by foliage, a metal grate reveals underground passageways, which lead to the cellars of five houses scattered throughout a great... A subterranean rumbling resonates in the heart of a forest. Hidden by foliage, a metal grate reveals underground passageways, which lead to the cellars of five houses scattered throughout a great park. The park is cut off from the outside world by a huge wall with no door. In one of these houses, a group of girls aged between seven and twelve gathers around a coffin. The coffin lid opens, revealing a six-year-old girl. Her name is Iris. Bianca, the eldest of the group, introduces Iris into this strange but pleasant boarding school, home to some thirty little girls. There are no adults here, save for several old servants and two young teachers: Mademoiselle Edith and Mademoiselle Eva. Iris very quickly discovers the rules of the school, where teaching centers on dance, physical education and biology. Obedience is paramount, and any boarder who would rebel and try to escape is condemned to remain in the park and serve the others forever. Time passes and Iris grows accustomed to her new life. But she is troubled by a mystery: every evening at nine, when the lamps are lit, the subterranean rumbling returns and Bianca leaves the house to attend a secret meeting. One evening, Iris follows her to the big house where the teachers live. Inside, all seems deserted. Even Bianca appears to have vanished into thin air… --© Home Vision Entertainment [More]
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Hélène de Fougerolles, Corinne Marchand, Sonia Petrovna
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Hélène de Fougerolles, Corinne Marchand, Sonia Petrovna
Director: Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Director: Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Reviews for Innocence
... haunting and hypnotic fairy tale... with a distinctly European sensibility... lovely lingering scenes that cast a spell over the almost abstract story.
allegorises the innocent joys, confused anxieties and newly awakening impulses of pre-pubescence, where the only certainty is that the innocence of the title, like the film itself, must eventually come to an end...
...often seems like Picnic at Hanging Rock as directed by David Lynch
The line between cinematic art and exploitation has rarely seemed finer and nervier, at least in recent memory, than in the French film Innocence.
Hadzihalilovic succeeds brilliantly at crafting a meaningful enigma that somehow grasps the essence of adolescence, but only grows more mysterious with each revelation.
Withholding basic expository material, and unpredictably restless in its focus, Innocence both rivets and challenges emotional engagement.
Innocence is beautifully photographed by Benoit Debie, directed with assurance and sure to make you wonder what you've just seen.
One of the oddest, most perplexing -- and delightful -- films to come along this year.
It doesn't take long before this bizarre structure becomes interminable...
I can't recommend this film to my readers, because I don’t happen to trust its motives.
Bursting with pretentious pap about women's journey from a state of undefiled innocence to sullied slutdom.
What you feel at the end is nostalgia; not just for your childhood curiosity, but for a time when movies boldly allowed suggestion and shadow to control their momentum.
A visually lush and eerily enigmatic parable of female sexuality, Lucile Hadzihalilovic's ominous fairy tale raises questions you'll be wondering about for days.
Innocence is full of charm and strangeness -- and a sense that childhood is a place of incredible terrors and fleeting joys, of rapt innocence and fatal experience.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 68% 68% | The Last Station | 12/23 |
| 75% 75% | Sherlock Holmes | 12/25 |
| 34% 34% | Nine | 12/25 |
| 30% 30% | It's Complicated | 12/25 |
| | Alvin and the Chipmunk… | 12/25 |
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