MovieChat Forums > Innocence (2005) Discussion > Limbo? Death? Purgatory?

Limbo? Death? Purgatory?

posted 16 years ago by Eponymous-2
7 replies | jump to latest

Until the end of the movie I had been figuring that this was all a representation of a sort of limbo or half-life after death for these girls. They just sort of arrive there (in coffins) not seeming to know how they got there or exactly what they are there for. No one, not even parents, ever visits them.

They seem to have pointless existences, not even schooling, only sometimes studying dance. Once they start to get older they are taken to a darker place where they end up dancing for an unseen audience.

There is fear about being stuck there forever. An occasional girl rejects the existence and either "dies" or simply "goes away."

Unless the end is interpreted as "heaven", though, it doesn't seem to fit. There are probably a lot of people who don't want to think sexual attraction exists in heaven, though. That was obviously going on with the boy and girl at the end.

Did anyone else see this as being about a kind of life after death?

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[–] philsadler 16 years ago

i translated the film as purgatory as well
BUT according to everyone i've talked to about the film i'm wrong :P

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[–] dr_panda2002 13 years ago

i didnt see it as purgatory. just a bording/dance school. blues are taken early because they are exceptional dancers. people in the audience are parents. rose guy was her dad. they graduate to a bigger dance institute/bording school. they could be learing in "school", for all we know. They seem educated. sex and violence doesnt need to be injected into everything. my opinion of the film. Still, with EVERY theory I read, their are WAY too many unanswered questions. I like some ambiguity but this was just lazy. still, a very remarkable film for atmosphere and visuals.

[–] PoppyTransfusion 13 years ago

I thought of purgatory because of the coffins but I think the metamorphosis of the butterfly from the pupae is more accurate. It's never clear what the school's purpose is though dance is focused on a lot and with some of the (few) lines of dialogue talking about dance and legs I assume it was a dance school.

Either way it is about life and development and with the losses of Alice and Laura, especially Laura, it is also a meditation on death.

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[–] Falconeer 12 years ago

Death? It's a film about the beginning of life. how do people get "death" from this film?

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[–] hand0096 11 years ago

Does a coffin symbolize "life" to you?

[–] Falconeer 11 years ago

The coffins symbolize the girl's "death" of their innocence. Their arrival at the school in the coffins marks the beginning of their journey into maturity. You really don't get that?? Really; it's not THAT hard to figure out..

"IMdB; where 14 year olds can act like jaded 40 year old critics...'

[–] clockwisecarrot 12 years ago

Ja I also saw it as the girls being in a purgatorial state in the wake of death. The ending, however, made me think that this theory was inconsistent with what the movie gives us.