The Innocents (1961) (12A)
SCREENING AS PART OF FROM PAGE TO SCREEN FILM FESTIVAL
Tickets: Adult £6 | Cons & U25’s £5
Deborah Kerr is magnificent as the novice governess in this classic adaptation of Henry James’s chilling ghost story. The genteel setting of an English country estate, stylishly captured in Cinemascope by legendary cinematographer Freddie Francis, provides the backdrop to unnerving disturbances – shuffling curtains, disembodied whispers, snuffed candles – that convince her that she is in the presence of supernatural evil, from which she must protect her young charges, unaided by aloof uncle Michael Redgrave. The atmospheric interplay of dark and light mirror the psychological torment of the governess in this masterpiece of black-and-white horror.
Guest curator Rebecca Lenkiewicz, who adapted The Turn of the Screw for the stage, will introduce the film.
DIRECTOR | Jack Clayton
STARS | Deborah Kerr, Michael Redgrave and Peter Wyngarde
SOURCE TEXT | Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw
SCREENWRITER | Truman Capote and William Archibald from his stage play, with scenes & dialogue by John Mortimer
Reviews
“Oozing ambiguity, Jack Clayton’s shimmering gem is a masterclass in suggestion, a flawless evocation of the uncanny which pits the subconscious against the supernatural to genuinely hair-raising effect’’