Les Innocentes

Many young people and westerners will dismiss this movie because it was soviet soldiers that attacked the nuns. The truth is, hundreds of thousands of women of all ages, during and after the war, were raped by soldiers of every army. American, German, Soviet, Italian, Japanese, Australian, British, etc ALL had offenders. All should be ashamed. Those who took part, those that stood by and did nothing and those that deny "their' boys wouldn't do such a thing. It continues today.

The French film Les innocentes was shown in the U.S. with the translated title The Innocents (2016). Anne Fontaine directed this powerful movie.

The year is 1945, just after the end of World War II. A French Red Cross unit is sent into Poland. Their mission was to care for French survivors of the camps. Among the Red Cross staff is a young medical student, Mathilde Beaulieu, played by Lou de Laâge. Early in the film, we learn a terrible secret about the nuns in a nearby convent. Many of them are pregnant, because they were raped by Russian soldiers. Mathilde learns of this, and she is allowed to enter the convent, where she meets Sister Maria, a French-speaking nun played by Agata Buzek. To go further with the plot would diminish the movie, so I'll stop at that point. Let me just say that the situation is even worse than it seems.

This is a movie that is not to be missed. Yes, it's grim, but postwar Poland was a grim place. The film takes place in winter, so snow covers everything, and even the Red Cross staff is miserable. Obviously, for the nuns in the convent, everything is much more terrible.

The acting in the film by the two lead actors is outstanding. Also, the ensemble acting was wonderful. There were no weak links, and no obviously staged scenes. Everything looked real--cold, dark, and threatening--but real.

This is one of those movies where many frames could be lifted from the film and used as a photograph. My compliments to cinematographer Caroline Champetier, who did a brilliant job.

We saw this film at the excellent Little Theatre in Rochester, NY. It will work well enough on the small screen, but the large screen gives you a better sense of the isolation of the convent. The nuns don't expect help from outside. They only expect harm to come to them. Mathilde is the exception, and they (and we) understand that. Small screen or large screen, don't miss this movie!

P.S. The film is based on the experiences of a French doctor--Madeleine Jeanne Marie Pauliac. She was a member of the French Resistance, and did, indeed work tirelessly in Poland after the war. For artistic reasons, director Fontaine focused on Dr. Pauliac's work with the pregnant nuns. The rest of her accomplishments would also make a fascinating movie.

So gripping is this film that I didn't hear a sound from the audience--no talking, none of the usual rattle of bags of popcorn! While I would like to know now, now that I've seen the film, what parts of it are based on actual events, almost everything in the film seemed utterly true. This is not for film-goers who seek amusement, light entertainment, confirmation that the world is a just place. This could have been an unrelentingly grim film, because we see a great deal of the dark side of human nature. Instead, the characters have a wonderful complexity that allows us to empathize and hope. The themes are also rendered with complexity—we get to understand what initially seems incomprehensible. The acting is very fine, indeed. The landscapes are haunting. There is a lot of tension in the movie that provides forward momentum. We've seen many, many films set during World War II but rarely a film that deals with some of its consequences. This is one very worth seeing!

Close your eyes and think about the film Wuthering Heights, try to remember Olivier as Heathcliffe, the Yorkshire Moors swept with rain, fog and snow, and the forbidding house whose young master bullied Heathcliffe away and add Cathy's great performance. This film "The Innocents" captures the Spirit of Wuthering Heights in a post wartime Polish Monastery setting, this film portrays the liberation of Poland from the Nazis, who were supplanted by the vodka, vulgar and volva Russians, who raped the Nuns in this monastery causing several to become pregnant and bitterly ashamed of what had occurred, so much so that they shunned outside help, hid behind closed doors and walls, surrounded by the legacy of a wartime Poland ( Polish saying: Lifes bitter lessons I recall, I seem to remember them all) Aid arrives in the form of a French Doctor working locally for the French Red Cross, who solves their pressing problems. The Sound of Music this film ain't, its storyline is more powerful, more moving and another triumph for the French Film industry. A great film, a wonderful moving film, and a lesson in film making to all.

Based on a true story, this 1945 WW II drama is a very dark look at humanity. A French Red Cross medical worker is in Poland at a hospital for wounded soldiers. She is drafted by a nun to help at a nearby convent. Several of the nuns were impregnated by Russian soldiers. They are mostly innocent young virgins looking to serve God. I am a retired Catholic, and so I will leave my distaste for religious authority at the door here. The saving grace, pardon the expression, is an ending which at least gives a small measure of hope for the human race, regardless of religious affiliation or outlook. One of the best foreign films of the year.