Village of the Damned
Wolf Rilla
Evening in the English village of Midwich. Suddenly, time stands still and the village is plunged into a supernatural sleep for three hours. The inhabitants lie where they fell in the streets and whoever approaches the area immediately loses consciousness. Nine months later children are born, all of them blond. They are remarkably intelligent, and also have telepathic powers...
With : George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Martin Stephens, Michael Gwyyn
Screenplay : Stirling Silliphant, Wolf Rilla, Ronald Kinnoch (d'après le roman The Midwich Cuckoos de John Wyndham)
Image : Geoffrey Faithfull
Editing : Gordon Hales
Music : Ron Goodwin
Screenplay : Stirling Silliphant, Wolf Rilla, Ronald Kinnoch (d'après le roman The Midwich Cuckoos de John Wyndham)
Image : Geoffrey Faithfull
Editing : Gordon Hales
Music : Ron Goodwin
Production : MGM
Distribution: Warner
Distribution: Warner
The Village of the Damned is surprising on account of the realism and austerity, far from the special effects usually found in fantasy films. The feeling of insecurity and paranoia are present in the opening scene when everyone faints and there is no scientific explanation. The director then stretches the action out over several years where a series of worrying clues gradually heighten the feeling of anxiety. But above all it is the faces of the children, normally symbols of naivety, which the extraterrestrials take on, with only their eyes revealing their strangeness, which sends a shiver down the spine. The spirit of rebellion which exudes from the film bears witness to the fears of the youth of the 1960s in tune with the backdrop of the cold war and the memory of European colonialism and totalitarianism.