A very interesting documentary with insights and information about the making of the 1961 film "The Innocents," a ghost story based on the Henry James novel "The Turn Of The Screw."
I recently watched this brilliant film again and it is so cleverly done and the actors were brilliant, Deborah Kerr so beautiful. The story still gives me the creeps after all this time. If you haven’t seen this amazing film, you must watch it. ❤
Won't stop the yanks from trying. Theres not an original idea left in Hollywood. So they'll inevitably raid the Brit classics again. As long as Keira fking Knightly doesn't play the governess. I think Tilda Swinton would nail it.
Brilliant commentary. The film holds its own due to Deborah Kerr and amazing cast. It asks disturbing questions and the supernatural issues augment the distress. A masterpiece without doubt.
Frayling is one of the best commentators on film and literature I have come across; he wears his learning and scholarship lightly and engages the listener as an unseen - he is totally without bombast. There are few others; Robin Wood was another, especially when discussing Hitchcock. This film is quite simply a masterpiece and, I think, delves even further into the rich material of James than the actual text of the novella. It manages to balance simultaneously three possibilities; that of the supernatural existence of malign spirits; the evil present in seemingly innocent children; and (most disturbingly) a possibly unhinged and sexually dangerous central character in the form of the governess, with a sublimated desire for the young boy. These three things are spun/balanced against each other in the most marvellously elliptical screenplay, mise en scene and in the performances. The entire cast and crew achieved some of their best work for Jack Clayton, with the result that we have a film which not only improves on its source, but also outclasses even the best of other treatments, including even Britten - at least from a dramatic perspective.
+Joyce Little An excellent comment, thank you. I would venture a guess that you have some professional experience as a writer, a movie/book critic, or both!
I always love the singing birds during the night, because it evokes the impression of a very weird night coming to the end in the very early morning. The atmosphere I know after having a traumatizing night mare. This movie is just fantastic .Full of psychologic symbolism.
This is a cinematic masterpiece. Detail everywhere. The combination of writers, directors camera, editing, set design, costume design and actors (forgive me if I have forgotten anything here) all came together to give an unsettling glimpse into what is underneath, and leaves it up to you to decide what goes on....because they know we are intelligent viewers. The art of film perfection.
I'm so glad to have found this! 'The Innocents' is one of the first, really frightening movies I ever saw as a child. I believe my parents were out for an evening, and I found it on television - something my parents would never have let me watch, had they been at home. The film has always stuck with me - all the performances are marvelous, the mood of story and place are so well written and directed, and the fantastic cinematography all hold up very well. I'm so glad they shot it in black and white - it would have lost much of its ambiance to have been shot in color. Again; thank you for making this available, and my only regret is in not having found it sooner. :)
@@mariestreeting9145 Same here. :) I wish I had a physical copy of it, but it's fine that it's available online. The scene of Flora dancing by the lake, and Miss Jessel sitting among the reeds, still gives me the chills.
The atmosphere: The Innocents, The Haunting, The Shining, The Changeling, The Others, The Fall of the House of Usher, Hour of the Wolf, Carnival of Souls, I Walked with a Zombie, Vampyr, The Phantom Carriage, The Blair Witch Project, Inland Empire, Meshes of the Afternoon, Unglassed Windows Cast a Terrible Reflection, The Trial... not all of them are horror movies ... but their atmosphere always haunted me a lot ... and they are among my favorite movies.
I know this documentary is several years old, but I always wondered why no one thought of this as a psychological thriller. The key statement was made by Mrs. Grose. She told Miss Gibbons that sometimes it’s better not to “wake the children up.”
The apparition in black in the reeds of the lake and the silhouetted figure of the woman crossing the corridor during the hide and seek scene stayed in the black and white recesses of my 14 year old mind, until I saw this film again, 40 years later... It still affects me in a most unusual, frightening way! The cast is perfect, and all I knew, then, of the wonderful Deborah Kerr is that we share a September 30 birthdate...!
It's not true that we see Miss Gidden's reaction to the ghosts before we see them. In the greatest scare of the movie, she's hiding from the children, and behind her, the face of Quint flows out of the darkness. We see the face before she does, which tells me that the ghosts are real, and we're not seeing them "through" Miss Giddens.
Yes. And with Miss Jessel at the lake, Flora sees her before the Governess does. The children also make comments - such as Flora saying something about dead people coming back to walk around. I read several years ago that James himself said he intended to write a ghost story…and I’ve always see it as one. The whole ambiguity thing bores me.
@@geslinam9703Actually right before flora goes to bed she says her prayers and ask miss gibbons what happens when you die ? Miss gibbons states God takes you to heaven. Flora replies what happens to people God doesn't take , Do they walk the earth ?
Wow I so much enjoyed this after watching the film.BRILLIANT.The best of British.They sure do not make them like this any more. Thank You for the upload.
But are the ghosts in The Innocents real or just part of her imagination. We never properly find out exactly what has happened. I've never found The Haunting to be scary but The Innocents really creeps me out.
The Haunting may be scarier, but from a cinematographic point of view The Innocents is miles ahead. Every shot is a painting full of symbolism. The lighting is amazing considering Cinemascope difficulties with in-door shooting, the soundstage design is second to none, even the costumes are telling a story. I love The Haunting, but Clayton was just on a different level.
This is an excellent film/story and one that never reached the level of interest it deserved. I was a young projectionist when it first hit the big screen and was lucky enough to show the film for 7 days. It was one film that inspired my own ghost story writing, as was the work of M R James, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins and many other 19th century writers of the macabre. Thank you for this video. The use of vignette at the edges of the film was an act of pure photographic genius, as it drew us, the viewer/witnesses, into the scene rather than allowing our attention to be scattered and lost on details that were unimportant. Much like the way a writer constructs a sentence, keeping everything as tight as possible.
This guy is great at commentary about the subject, does he do a lot of these or is this film a singular deal he has knowledge of? I'd happily watch him riff on other productions.
a truly mesmerizing and disturbing film where the supernatural is but a veneer to a deeper level of sadism and child abuse very david lynch with "twin peaks" and "fire walk with me" australian film "the picnic at hanging rock" and the best haunting minor melody theme music ever.
Saw this film for the first time three weeks ago. Very Atmospheric and the children played the parts that you were not quite sure if they were evil or not. You could feel the genuine fear of the governess.
While the original novel and the play were mentioned, nothing was said about the chamber opera "The Turn of the Screw" by Benjamin Britten written and first performed in 1954, 7 years earlier than the film, regarded as a masterpiece and still in the repertory. I would love to know whether it had any influence and, even if not, how the opera and the film compare in their treatment of the story. Having seen both several times, I got the impression that they were quite similar in a number of ways.
Not "everyone" is innocent, especially Quint & Miss Jessup. I don't even like horror stories but I read the book (The Turn of the Screw) as a child, and Kerr carried the movie so very well. It's worth a watch!
Spooky Great movie. The scene of the ghost appearing across the lake to the sound of thunder is one of the scariest scenes I've ever seen in a horror movie. Good documentary on the making of this movie. I'm disappointed the actress who played the ghost standing across the lake wasn't mentioned.
I watched this movie again just yesterday and I did take notice of the fact that Miss Giddens is wearing all black towards the end of the movie instead of white as she does in the beginning. It will always remain one of the best horror movies I have ever seen and I feel that upon repeated viewings, I will discover something I haven't noticed before.
It's amazing how scary a game of hide and seek can be in an old creepy house. There's a similar scene in another black and white classic Dead of Night. One of the films stories involves a game of hide and seek.
wonderful info, thank you so much....found the movie dark and confusing, this doc helps with understanding the screenplay goals which were lost on me...they could have walked around the grounds filming the gardens for my money
Saw this film recently and was completely mesmerized by it - Ms Cann was superb as were all the performances. Still very disturbing even today especially Martin Stevens who is indeed creepy in this story
@@nataliedeshow768 yes you are right, I thought I had written Kerr but might have had the "guess what the human is typing and adjust accordingly" mode on. Thank you x
+Gerald Martin Thanks and, yeah, you're right. Even the experts on trailers think so, Have you seen this? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wMKtpM7qtfU.html
Thanks for posting this...*)! I love, love, love this movie. Since I saw it the first time as a kid. And throughout my life it never lost it's beauty. I introduced so many people to this movie during the 80th, because no one knew it. At least in Germany.
Ps: wonderful special. I've never seen this by now. Do you know if there are some specials on the original DVD? I only have the movie as an avi file, but not the DVD.
I think one reason both The Innocents and The Haunting (Julie Harris version) were successful are being so frightening is that they are in black and white.
I have a question: What is the poem MIles recites? I always thought this poem was the creepiest part of all in the film. I never have been able to find it.
Interesting there's no mention of the infamous corridor "ghost". I'll have to re-check my copy for the exact time, but in one of the scenes where Kerr goes through the dark halls inside the house, if you watch the background, a tall white figure appears out of a doorway down the hall behind her, and then back out of sight. It's only for two or three seconds long and quite easy to miss. I never even noticed it myself until I'd seen the movie several times, which leads me to believe that whatever it was, it was unintentional. There used to be a long thread about it on the IMBD messageboard for The Innocents a few years ago, but sadly those forums no longer exist. Anyone else know what I'm talking about here?
I read that James himself called it a ghost story - why are we still hanging on to the sexual repression idea??? Likely the filmmakers in 1961, not the time of the novel, but still not such a great time for women, wanted people to think that. It wasn't just the governess who was frightened either - the housekeeper alluded that something was wrong from the beginning. I loved the story, I loved this version of the film - in my mind, one of the scariest, and best ghost stories ever.
Glad someone agrees with me on this. It was a "Freudian " interpretation (yawn) very in vogue in early 20th century. In the book James goes out of his way to show us his view - the governess is described as "very sensible" by the narrator. She describes the very singular looking Quint (red curling hair etc...) very accurately before knowing what he looked like. This is changed in the film (- she sees the miniature first, which is a cheat ). The governess is much younger in the book and rather naive, but she's not crazy and not merely in need of sex. I do love this film though, the most upsetting bit for me is when Rupert the baby tortoise gets chucked through a window- eeeugh still can't watch that bit!
Chainsaw Kitten oh I know from the biography oh Henry James that he used to write with a certain way to make us doubt for many things ..he was quite a master in this subject..so he told us that he wrote a ghost story but....he classified this novela with other books he wrote and are about characters with oppressed feelings and not with his ghost stories..so....he wanted us very much to wonder eternally. And honestly in the novela from my point of view has many hints that she is very fragile mentally ..even if he's saying it's a ghost story he takes it back and he puts it on the table again and he takes it back etc... He is a genius isn't he ??
Its been a long time since I read the book, but having recently watched the innocents, I was blown away by its deft use of ambiguity. It can totally be read as a straight up ghost story, but also there is room to watch it through the sexual repression/psychosis lens... or some bizarre combination of the two. I love how this mystery is left up to the viewer. Such an exquisite masterpiece of film
Ah...Hmmm...My Choice of Best Ghost Story Ever Made Is...The Uninvited, Starring Ray Maland, Ruth Hussy, Gail Storm, Donald Crisp, To Name A Few Talented Actors.
+Joseph Hayes All I can tell you for sure is that it's copyright BFI 2006, which I assume is when it was made. BFI is the British Film Institute, I believe. It *looks* to me like it may have been shown on one of the British TV channels at some point. It also *could* be an "extra" on one of the DVD releases of the movie. Sorry I can't be of more help. If I find anything else out, I'll post it.
It was for a BFI DVD re-release of The Innocents, probably a digital re-master. Probably shot 2005, can't remember exactly but I shot it. It wasn't shown on tv to my knowledge. I've done a couple of interviews with Frayling and he is one of the best if not the best film commentators we have. Great post stereoldie. Many thanks. G
@@thatguybloke4849 I'm only adding to your comment because so many others are asking about the narrator (Christopher Frayling). Here's his Wiki page that includes links to other commentaries of his (quite a variety!) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Frayling
Sadly, we see this type of mental deterioration and its disastrous consequences in the recent Lori Vallow Daybell child murder case and the Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt child abuse case. These tragedies were rooted in religious mania; not Freudian, sexual repression.
You could never make this movie today, with all the retarded SJWs clamoring for blood and saying it is an incentive to pedophilia. We live in sad times indeed. I fear we might soon wake up to an Orwelian dictatorship of these "well-meaning people".
His name is Christopher Frayling. Strangely, I don't think it's shown on the documentary, at least not this version. Here's his wiki page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Frayling
