Paul Cox`s latest film Innocence has been winning praise and awards all around the world - finally we get to see it in Australia... it`s an autumn love story
Claire and Andreas were young lovers in Belgium just after the war. The film is set some 50 years later in contemporary Melbourne where Andreas discovers that Claire is now living in the same city. He writes to her, they meet. They rekindle what they had so many years ago. Andreas is a widower who is watched over rather anxiously by his daughter - Marta Dusseldorp. But Claire is still living within a rather dessicated relationship with her husband John played by Blake`s real life husband Terry Norris. Robert Menzies plays their son who`s appalled when he finds out his mother is having a liaison with Andreas. And John is shocked and dismissive.
This very moving film about the validity of love at any age reminded me of Paul Cox`s 1984 film My First Wife, always one of my favourites of his. It`s about the pain involved in the conflict between love and duty, it`s about self realisation through genuine love.
Visually there are distinctive Cox moments, particularly in the scenes recreated from the past. He`s served very well by a distinguished cast with newcomer Marta Dusseldorp impressing as Andreas` daughter. It`s a modest film, proudly modest, but it proves that you don`t have to have big production values to make a movie with heart.
I was moved to tears by Innocence.
