The padophilia issue.

It took till around a third into the film before the issue of some saying this is a extravaganza of paedophiliac imagery dissipated. And now in retrospect I resent the film was tainted with these preconceptions gathered from reviews given that to consider this film such implies a rather morbid mind and why should others suffer because of a critics inability to percieve things as innocent-instead naturally assuming the title must be ironic.

What do you think was the primary cause of this misjudgement? Media sensitivity to paedophilia? Reactionary critics? Or was it a fault of the film- personally I think most of the furore would have been avoided if the second or third scene hadn't been a gaggle of young girls swimming half naked in a pool. I felt some discomfit with this due to the placing- when the elder girl stands naked infront of a mirror I felt no discomfit and this scene is potentially rather more discomfit inducing given young girls do run around half naked in public on occassion wheras developing girls very seldom pose naked infront of a camera. It being early in the film, the sustained shots and me not knowing what to expect led me to think this was in bad and irresponsible taste- after seeing the rest of the film of course I decided this was a stupid view and the sustained shots fitted in with the pace of the rest of the film. But it did seem gratuitous at first in the same way it would seem gratuitous if a film about cloistered women began with sustained shots of them frolicing topless in a lake in a similarly unsensual way. The film didn't allow the viewer to adapt to the tone and aesthetic of the film before throwing you into an unfamiliar situation- which led to discomfit and led to the tainting of the film as a paedophiles wet dream.

However, saying that is was perhaps necessary since there does seem to be an abiding underlying metaphor and also a symmetry to the film that would have been ruptured. And I don't think an artist should have to compromise there vision for fear the media misrepresent your film as something perverse. So ultimately I think the director made the right choice- I'm just curious whether if she had pushed that scene back 10 minutes the film would be seen in the press for what it is. Not for what it could be used for.