The film opens with the nuns singing, before one of them
suddenly rushes outside into the woods. That’s a gorgeous shot, by the way, the
black of the trees and white of the snow on the ground matching the nun’s white
and black clothing. At a nearby town, children lead her to a hospital, after
demanding money from her for the service. The hospital is full and we learn it
is running low on penicillin. And they cannot help the nun. The Red Cross is
there only to help French citizens, not the Polish people. But after Mathilde
sees the nun knelt down in the snow, silently praying, she becomes determined
to help.
The nun leads her back to the convent, where we hear the
wails of the patient before seeing her, just as Mathilde experiences it. The
film, though it tells the story of these nuns and deals with questions of
faith, is really delivered through Mathilde’s eyes, and it is her story as much
as it is theirs. And this perspective is established in early scenes like this
one. When she learns the nun is in an advanced state of pregnancy, she quickly
determines it is a breech baby and that she will have to operate. Before this,
we’ve only seen her assist another doctor, but now she must act on her own.
The nuns accept Mathilde’s help, but need to keep their
condition secret, for fear that their convent will otherwise be shut down and
they will all be shamed. Mathilde too needs to keep her work secret, for by
helping these Polish women, she is going against her orders. She feels she
can’t even tell the doctor with whom she is having relations, a Jewish man who
at one point says the Poles got what they deserved with the Germans and Russians.
She also faces other physical dangers in traveling alone to the convent, and a
terrifying encounter with Russian soldiers on the road one night brings her
closer to the nuns. Lou de Laâge is particularly good in that scene, so real in
fact that is difficult to watch. This is a film that is going to stay with me
for a long time.
Special Features
The DVD contains a few special features, including a
behind-the-scenes featurette, in which the director and some members of the
cast offer their thoughts on the film while we see footage of the production.
This is approximately eighteen minutes. The special features also include an
interview with Anne Fontaine, in which she talks about the story and characters
of the film, and the casting. The interview is in English, and is approximately
eleven minutes. There is also a Q&A with Anne Fontaine, with Agnieszka
Holland, filmed in Los Angeles in April of this year. It is approximately
fifteen minutes. The theatrical trailer is also included.
The DVD also contains a booklet, which features a printed
interview with the film’s director, as well as a copy of a report written by
the real Mathilde in June of 1945.
The Innocents was released on DVD on September 27,
2016 through Music Box Films.
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