How The Best Horror Novella Was Adapted To Film

in Henry James's classic 1898 Novella the turn of the screw a young woman travels to a Manor House in the English Countryside to assume the role of governess to two orphaned children at first pleased with the house and the children the governess soon begins to see two ghosts around the property and gradually becomes convinced that the children are being possessed and corrupted by them this conviction drives her into a state of heightened paranoia and fear which in turn scares the children the novella ends in tragedy when the governess aggressively perhaps violently confronts the young boy about the supernatural visitor and he dies mysteriously in her arms the question is what actually happens in the turn of the screw are the ghosts real or do these evil visitors exist only in the mind of the governess both answers are disturbing either the children are being possessed by evil spirits or they're being tormented by their caregiver who's having a nervous breakdown critics have debated this question Ad nauseam but the general consensus today is that this ambiguity is the point James intended for us not to know the answer crafting the story carefully to trap us in uncertainty this uncertainty is characteristic of what svetan todorov called Fantastic Fiction the essence of the Fantastic is hesitation between a supernatural explanation of events and a rational one in the case of ghost stories this hesitation can intensify the feeling of Terror in the reader it's scary if the children are being possessed it's scary if they're being tormented by a hallucinating governess but a total lack of explanation is scarier than both we turn to stories for closure for a version of reality that is tidier than our own when stories fail to provide explanations were unsettled in the case of the turn of the screw both readings are fully consistent with the text they never merge into one how would you capture this hesitation in a movie that was the challenge Jack Clayton took on when he directed the innocence in 1961 a stellar adaptation of James's Novella starring Deborah Carr he believed wholeheartedly in preserving the ambiguity of the story but a filmmaker's tools are different from a novelist's James had the power of writing in the first person for example which is a crucial element for most fantastic story series according to tatarov the narrator experiences the uncertainty themselves and through the use of the first person the reader puts themselves in their mind movies of course have voice over which can approximate first person but in a visual medium it's not really an ideal solution instead you can do what you just saw on screen let's go back a bit notice how the camera moves with Deborah Carr through the landscape this is the case all throughout the film incredible Dolly and crane Shots by cinematographer Freddie Francis follow the governess in sweeping wonders through the house and across the grounds this is a visual way to capture first person narration we are literally with her through the story and through Deborah Carr's eyes the children do appear to be somewhat creepy through her eyes the house does take on a spooky quality like it's concealing a secret it's a test to francis's brilliant work that he makes this enormous estate feel claustrophobic in cinemascope no less one way he did this was by hand painting glass camera filters with black on the edges to enclose the governess and darkness these techniques do a great job of transferring the governess's suspicions to the audience but at a certain point in the story we need to become suspicious of the governess too in order to preserve that ambiguity as she becomes more sure that the children are possessed we need to feel less sure of her well here's one way that Clayton does that the second time the governess sees the male ghost she's playing hide and seek with the children when The Apparition Glides toward her from outside the window she goes outside to check and when she returns Clayton places her in the exact same spot where the ghost appeared later in the classroom the governess turns to see the female male ghost crying at the desk she walks over but the ghost has again vanished she sits at the desk and the housekeeper finds her in the same place where the ghost was in similar clothing no less and similar framing Clayton and Francis find Visual ways to equate the governess with the ghosts by the end the governess has a strong conviction that the ghosts are real but our conviction has only become weaker when it reaches those final scenes I don't know it seems to me that she has in fact gone mad something that reflects Carr's incredible unhinged performance looking back on the story I see that all those things that seemed creepy about the children are actually perfectly within the realm of normal behavior and probably would have seemed so if I wasn't locked into cars perspective but even this reading is complicated at the very last moment in the finale when the governess is forcing the boy to admit that he sees the ghost Clayton for the very first time inserts a shot from the point of view of the ghost looking down on the governess and the boy a second later he returns to that shot but the ghost is now a statue does this mean that the spirit is actually the one who murders the boy or does he die from the governess smothering him unfortunately I'm afraid we'll never know I have miles hey everybody thank you so much for watching I'm a bit of a Henry James Super fan and I also love this movie so I really hope you enjoyed this episode was brought to you by Squarespace if you don't know Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online whether you're just starting out or managing a growing brand Squarespace makes it a beautiful website engage with your audience and sell anything from products to content to time all in one place all on your terms their templates are flexible their blogging tools 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Channel: Nerdwriter1

Views: 139,345

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Id: PeusvKr7dnA

Length: 7min 32sec (452 seconds)

Published: Wed May 31 2023