Film ReviewsThe Innocents:
Sep 23, 2016 Anchorage Press
|
|
Philippe Maynail stitches together a compelling story based on notes from his aunt, Madeline Pauliac (1912-1946), a French doctor and part of the Resistance. Paulaic was also part of the post WWII effort to care for the wounded left behind by the genocide and bring home those who could be saved. She worked with the Blue Squadron-a unit of women ambulance volunteers of the French Red Cross, and through this effort-she performed more than 200 missions throughout Poland and the Soviet Union. Pauliac died abruptly in a car accident in 1946. Although Maynail weaves a story based on actual events, his version is fictionalized and augmented by characters and events that result in a good tale and a solid film. Through the adaptation by Director Anne Fontaine, Pauliac's observations and notes help The Innocents explore the aftermath of complex devastation of WWII.
The story opens in a remote and desolate forest somewhere outside Warsaw in the winter of 1945. The Polish landscape is tattered, as are the roads, buildings and people reeling from the war. Fontaine sets the stage through stark images, choppy editing that eventually smooths out and a deafening silence. The story focuses on the painful experience of a group of Catholic nuns in a countryside convent after they have been repeatedly raped by Soviet troops toward the end of the war. Before the characters can begin to heal from the war, they have to face the lingering circumstances that loom over them in the form of scars that nine months later result in a completely new reality for the Sisters.
Mathilde Beaulieu, played by Lou de Laâge, is a young French doctor who is approached by a young novice (Joanna Kulig) and taken to the convent where Mathilde realizes the magnitude of the situation. From that point forward Mathilde helps care for the Sisters but her presence also penetrates the impenetrable habits shielding trauma, shame and confusion. The actresses give excellent performances; Laâge and Kulig in particular have been building careers through movies like L'Attesa (The Wait), and Ida, respectively. Another captivating performance is delivered by Agata Kulesza as Mère Abesse. Kulesza also played the Aunt in Ida, and her character as Mère Abesse is just as convincing. One of the most beautiful characters developed in The Innocents is that of Sister Maria, played by Agata Buzek. Her transformation is interesting because in the context of the stagnant walls of the convent-and as silences are slowly broken-viewers change along with Sister Maria, as she discovers the transformative force of motherhood all around her.
Fontaine leverages the cast's magnetism to construct a lyrical film in which the illusions created by a hubris of righteousness in the form of an unyielding institution-the church-have to give way to the gradual intimacy of the relationships inside the convent. The story unfolds in a somewhat predictable manner, but as some say, it's all about the journey and the art of film making. The film is quite beautiful-not only is every actor beautiful inside and out-but the landscape itself has a presence, and Fontaine goes as far as making the connection to the aesthetic and symbolic qualities of the color blue. She infuses whole scenes with the color; like the persistence of love that just won't go away and is so subtle, it may go unnoticed. She explores situations that force one to ask questions about what it is to be human under such conditions, how lost can rigid institutions get when they lose sight of what is true, which justifications are acceptable, and which are easily judged by viewers; blind faith never sees hope coming.
Plays Monday Sept. 26 at 8:20 p.m. at Bear Tooth.
The story opens in a remote and desolate forest somewhere outside Warsaw in the winter of 1945. The Polish landscape is tattered, as are the roads, buildings and people reeling from the war. Fontaine sets the stage through stark images, choppy editing that eventually smooths out and a deafening silence. The story focuses on the painful experience of a group of Catholic nuns in a countryside convent after they have been repeatedly raped by Soviet troops toward the end of the war. Before the characters can begin to heal from the war, they have to face the lingering circumstances that loom over them in the form of scars that nine months later result in a completely new reality for the Sisters.
Mathilde Beaulieu, played by Lou de Laâge, is a young French doctor who is approached by a young novice (Joanna Kulig) and taken to the convent where Mathilde realizes the magnitude of the situation. From that point forward Mathilde helps care for the Sisters but her presence also penetrates the impenetrable habits shielding trauma, shame and confusion. The actresses give excellent performances; Laâge and Kulig in particular have been building careers through movies like L'Attesa (The Wait), and Ida, respectively. Another captivating performance is delivered by Agata Kulesza as Mère Abesse. Kulesza also played the Aunt in Ida, and her character as Mère Abesse is just as convincing. One of the most beautiful characters developed in The Innocents is that of Sister Maria, played by Agata Buzek. Her transformation is interesting because in the context of the stagnant walls of the convent-and as silences are slowly broken-viewers change along with Sister Maria, as she discovers the transformative force of motherhood all around her.
Fontaine leverages the cast's magnetism to construct a lyrical film in which the illusions created by a hubris of righteousness in the form of an unyielding institution-the church-have to give way to the gradual intimacy of the relationships inside the convent. The story unfolds in a somewhat predictable manner, but as some say, it's all about the journey and the art of film making. The film is quite beautiful-not only is every actor beautiful inside and out-but the landscape itself has a presence, and Fontaine goes as far as making the connection to the aesthetic and symbolic qualities of the color blue. She infuses whole scenes with the color; like the persistence of love that just won't go away and is so subtle, it may go unnoticed. She explores situations that force one to ask questions about what it is to be human under such conditions, how lost can rigid institutions get when they lose sight of what is true, which justifications are acceptable, and which are easily judged by viewers; blind faith never sees hope coming.
Plays Monday Sept. 26 at 8:20 p.m. at Bear Tooth.