Film presented by Villi Hermann
In a little town on Lake Lugano arrives a new schoolteacher, who always dresses in red and perhaps has transferred here to run away from something. At least that’s what is murmured by the townsfolk, especially the boatman (Teco Celio) and the mayor, who pretend to be worried and scandalized but secretly hope to take advantage of her. However, the teacher’s behaviour is irreprehensible, she cares for nothing but home and school. The children become fond of her; one becomes her devoted slave and always carries her book-bag right to her door. Until, one day, she invites him in and then tells him to come back for tutoring.
«Shot on the shores of Lake Lugano, taken from a novella by Francesco Chiesa but set in the recent past, L’innocenza is striking for its unaffected delicacy and moderation. Moderation in its taste for rural naïveté, in how the actors and their physical characteristics and acting abilities are used, in its brief flights into imagination and fantasy. But the special flavour of the film is that given it by the two very young protagonists, with their undershirts and “airy” Lombard dialect. With a very few settings, Villi Hermann has built a landscape around them, has given them a rhythm, perhaps has lent them his recollections. The outcome is a film that speaks in dialect, even cinematographically, but that is very close to poetry». (Alberto Farassino)
