Innocence  

Innocence (2004)
Lucile Hadzihalilovic
viewed 01.29.06

"Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure in perception" -Stan Brakhage

Of all the things I am most grateful to have learned during my time at UWM it is how to resign yourself to a piece of work. Confronting a film without expectations as to what is should look like or how it should operate allows for the possibility of first understanding it on the level of experience. What are you drawn to? How is it making you feel? Many (including Hadzihalilovic) identify this as a process of immersion; permitting images and sounds to wash over one's-self with out attempting to identify, understand, and interpret.

Innocence is an extraordinary film that brings the audience to a time and world before these interpretative instincts dominated experience. We return to the dark nights and playful days filled with happiness, fear, excitement, and discovery that characterize early childhood. In the film we follow three young girls at a strange boarding school governed by cryptic rules and rituals. In this very real but otherworldly environment the girls and us experience all the anxieties of pre-adolescence (I can't remember the last time I was afraid of the dark for no good reason). There are a million things to say about this film; a million moments to relate. It's probably a hard movie to find playing anywhere but I hope you can see it and experience them for yourself. This film does not provide answers - it has no moral or lesson to impart. It is an opportunity to experience wonder once again.

As an aside, a bit of noise has been made concerning "art-house exploitation" of the school-girls. While I wouldn't be inviting your neighborhood registered sex offender to the film, much of Hadzihalilovic's brilliance is her combination of innocent playfulness and dark mystery. These create a void in which the viewer's perversion becomes the objects of fear. When no answer is given why the eldest girl has to leave every night at nine our minds race with the sordid things we have seen, heard, or thought. I understand the motives of those who seek to protect children and worry about fueling the imaginations of those might to harm. The confusions surrounding youth and sexuality in our culture are intense, but films that explore them should be celebrated, not marginalized.