Analysis of 'The Innocents'

'The Innocents' provided inspiration for our opening titles:



The opening titles are filmed in black and white, the technology was avaliable to produce the film in colour but the director 'John Clayton' chose to use the juxtaposition of black and white and light and dark, to suggest a contrasting and deluded premise throughout the film. The other reasoning is that to produce the film in black and white would be a cheaper form of production and lower the value increassing the overall profit, but I choose to believe the former that the actual cinematic experience in enriched by the visual tone of the film.

The composition of the opening shot divides the opening sequence evenly disttributing a proportion of the screen for the 'prayer' shapped hands and for the title layer. When the hands are introduced there is a myriad of interpretations of their purpose. The could be connoted as 'praying' but the alternation in movement could suggest begging, form the performance there is a nervous attitude and the lights movement off the skin is irratic, forceful and piercing the subjective view is that the expression of a female's pain and struggling. Furthering the plot pitch, there is a link between the iconography virginal begging and male domination (also dictating a religious preference).

The title itself has a direct denotation of a state of innocence. The birdsong which is played is 'innocent' in its playfulness and indirect contradiction to the fearful nature of the image. The cliche music is a periodic piece, the minilmalitic ideas combined with an orchestral element in the string department are tensious and atonal deriving a suspect composition.