The Innocents

Dr Steve GaunsonTextual Crossings RMIT University

The novella

• There’s a strong resemblance between the screenplay and the novella– Both around twenty odd thousand words

• Both have room for subplots (two at a stretch)• Characters established through minimal

explanation — but ambiguous enough to be fleshed out

• The connection with film is the element of performance– Often there is a character telling their story (often

in flashback)• Think of the pulp noir novels — heavy use of

voice-over (VO)• There is also the sense that we’ll be told a story

quickly — and in ONE sitting– The novella is often focused on few locations

Was Deborah Kerr the best choice?

• At 40 years of age she was not the young timid women of James’s novella– Flinching at the grim prospect of “serious duties

and little company”• Does the gravitas of the role require a big and

capable star? – Who would you cast in a remake?

Celebration — Heavy reluctance to change the exact words or sentiment of the source.

• In prose – we’re being told/read a story by ONE author– Greater opportunities for miscommunication/reinterpretation

• What we see on the screen is “truth”– Because we’re seeing it– We believe in what we see

• Film often only wants to give you one reading/answer– HOWEVER — The Innocents want’s to adapt James’s ambiguity to the

screen– Does this by questioning Mrs Giddens as a reliable narrator.

• Characters question her sanity? She questions herself?• Is she seeing hallucinations or apparitions? Jack Clayton says YES to both.

Secondary adaptations — part of broader cycles

Adjustment — changes, and alters the source without losing the sentiment.

• Follows the novella until Miss Jessel’s disappearance

• Introduces a new sequence: Miss Giddens notices a tear drop on the slate on the teacher’s desk– The tears are real. The ghosts must also be real

• Clayton gives evidence to support Giddens’s POV

Analogy — these are often 'inspired by' or 'based on' adaptations. Not literal adaptations but much of the text seems akin to an earlier work.

• The story seems to be almost a sort of Jane Eyre. – A young, inexperienced governess is sent to a mysterious and rather creepy

house. – Jane soon meets the master of the house, falls in love with him, and once they

can meet on an equal footing, she marries him.

• In The Turn of the Screw, the governess also falls in love with the master of the house (although she does not acknowledge this even to herself) – Once there, she finds another male presence – a very dominating male

presence, and possibly a substitute for the master who isn’t there: this presence is Peter Quint, the former valet. And Peter Quint is dead.

• If this link to Jane Eyre was more explicit it would be a parody

Colonisation — the adapter puts their own unique style on the source.

• The end — Miles• In the novella: “the poison of an influence that I dared but half-

phrase” • Makes him appear “as accessible as an older person” • “treat him as an intelligent equal”

• In the movie Miss Giddens kisses Miles full on the mouth — as one would an adult

• It seems more explicit than the book. • Has she developed an unnatural affection for Miles? • Such an explicit ending puts the attention on the director — for

daring to produce such an ending.