Innocence

Justamente por retratar seu universo estranho e incômodo de modo tão natural, o filme consegue ser intrigante e assustadoramente perturbador.

this film was mentioned in another review i read for a movie called Evolution which is sort of similar but with an all boys island versus an all girls boarding school. i was a bit thrown off while watching this because the version i found happened to have Spanish voice-overs when i was so sure this was a French film. also, no English subtitles so i'm just going off body language here... but i didn't really care for it. it was fine & i liked the creepy factor, but it wasn't nearly as intriguing as Evolution was.

One of the most empty film I have seen in long. It is A long video clip with no story or message to share with the viewer.

"Innocence" is a mesmerizing poem to pre-adulthood and is done in such a rich, colourful, and (often haunting) beautiful approach that it stays with the viewer days after, taunting and shouting in one's head for another appraisal.

This is a weird, weird film. One interesting thing about this movie is that it can practically serve as a litmus test for pedophilia - if you watch this movie, you will know for sure whether or not you are a pedophile afterwards. (I am not, for the record.) On the surface the film is very quiet and deliberately paced - it at first appears to be a simple depiction of a very strange boarding school for young girls. There are tons of scenes of the girls just playing, practicing ballet, eating, and doing other little girl things. It gradually becomes clear to the viewer that something more sinister is going on here, but just what that is is never, ever explained. I like how resolutely the movie stayed in the children's perspective. It's got beautiful cinematography and scenery. Marion Cotillard is good in a supporting role. But this movie, which on the surface seems so innocent, will burrow its way into your mind and stay there ever afterwards, growing weirder and darker with time.

Here's a slow-burn French film that really got under my skin. It's unnerving and mysterious, beautiful and thought-provoking. From the very first moments, I was filled with dread and minute by minute it elicited all sorts of anxious emotions and memories from childhood. So...quite the heady brew it concocted. Sometimes it felt like a horror movie, other times like a fairy tale but by the end of it, I was fascinated and confounded and disturbed. I couldn't get it out of my head so I started to read up on it and found a really interesting interview with the director (who unsurprisingly I learned was also responsible for writing Enter the Void...another movie that really messed with me). Here's a link to the interview, helped me piece some things together: http://scene360.com/articles/492/lucile_hadzihalilovic/#.UWuW7r-QekQ.

strange and slow but i quite liked it. was nicely shot.

An enigmatic and allegorical film that manages to sustain a penetrating feeling of uneasiness and suspense in a visually exuberant parable of female sexuality. It is a journey so vibrant that the lack of destination becomes an asset rather than a limitation.

Haunting would be a good word to describe this film, written and directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, and based on a short story by Frank Wedekind. If it's answers you want, this is not your film. But, if you enjoy pondering the questions, plop yourself down and give this one a watch. A group of young girls are sequestered in a strange, isolated boarding school where they are instructed in dance and science and generally left to amuse themselves. There is a definite air of mystery that pervades, and the filmmaker does little to alleviate a sense of dread that one feels as one watches this. Is there something nefarious going on behind the scenes? Are these girls being cultivated for some white slaver scenario? Or is everything as idyllic as it seems on the surface. Marion Cotillard and Helene de Fougerolles play the enigmatic teachers, but it is a bevy of young child actors that make this the fascinating watch that it is. Of particular interest were Zoe Auclair, as the newcomer, Iris; Lea Bridarolli, as the rebel, Alice; and Berangere Haubruge, as the eldest, Bianca. The major action, such as it is, revolves around these three characters and their interactions with each other and with the rest of the girls. Filmed on location, using available light, the film is saturated with vivid colors that pop on the screen against the white uniforms that the girls wear. The soundtrack makes extensive use of ambient sounds, evoking the natural world, with occasional bits of classical recordings during the dance scenes. Watching the interviews with the director afterward, one finds that the film was purposely ambiguous. We are not meant to be able to "figure it out". But it certainly does challenge one's thinking and may even reveal flaws in one's own character, as one tries to fill in the intentional blanks. In French, with English subtitles.

I liked it but can anyone explain to me what was going on?