CARMILLA
The Age Of InnocenceW W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K |^055“First love doesn’t necessarily come with
identifying your sexual orientation”
EMILY HARRIS
definitely underpins all of the emotional arc
that we were trying to get at.”
Harris introduces the world of Carmilla
by juxtaposing rigid routine with the wild
abandon of the natural surroundings. The
interiors at night are all lit by candle and
by day only natural light pierces through
the windows. Gerrit Dou’s paintings are
a touchstone for the way the images are
framed and Harris cites Peter Weir’s Picnic
At Hanging Rock and Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s
Innocence as key references for the
atmosphere and feel of the film. “Innocence
was a big influence on me when I saw it,
and how she tapped into that coming-of-
age moment in a female’s life in a really
beautiful way and also created a world that
you just believe. Picnic At Hanging Rock is
driven by this need for companionship more
than lust and that need to be understood.
It’s something that is quite beautiful about
how Lara and Carmilla relate to one another.
That age group, there’s a difference between
being understood and understanding, and I
think the need here is to be understood. Lara
doesn’t mind that she doesn’t understand
Carmilla, she just feels understood. I think
that’s the beauty at the heart of it.”
That’s not to say that Lara doesn’t have
dark carnal desires though. Her burgeoning
emotions are placed in visceral erotic dream
sequences that occasionally pierce heroppressive reality. “The dream sequences
are so bloody and gory,” exclaims Rae. “The
thing Emily and I were talking about, was
that although Lara seems quite innocent
and young, she does have this dark curiosity
inside her. There’s the dream sequence where
I’m being sawn in half so it shows how her
desires are transforming from her attraction
to a man to Carmilla. It’s her inner turmoil
that she can’t express as she’s so repressed
and contained by Miss Fontaine.”
An earlier sequence places Lara in charge
of her sexual cravings and fully on top of
a local magician who she seems to have
a crush on. “The dream you’re thinking
about is the one where she almost enters the
magician through his chest,” laughs Harris
when I suggest how powerful a depiction it is
of untamed, penetrative female longing.
“She’s having a sexual awakening; these
feelings and thoughts are transferring into
her dreams. She’s peeling off the layers of
clothes from this magician character that
she’s infatuated with. It’s almost as if she
can’t get enough of him! Like, peeling his
clothes off isn’t enough so she has to keep
going deeper and deeper inside of him,
which is a dream logic in a sense. It’s not
meant to be nasty or mean, it’s actually
meant to be visceral and sexual. Lara just
wants more, more, more! She literally goes
into him!”The LGBTQ themes that subtly ripple
through the film in this candid exploration
of sexuality that shows how desires can shift
were not something that Harris was initially
focused on. “It wasn’t something discussed
on set, but I’ve noticed that it has come to
the fore as the film has been out there with
the public, and it definitely has that aspect
to it,” Harris says. “I don’t know if this is a
good thing or not, but honestly, I was looking
at first love and it didn’t matter at the time of
writing it what gender that was. It’s set in a
time when female sexuality was repressed,
Lara’s absolutely isolated and everything
she’s learnt comes from Miss Fontaine, who
is really trying to stop her from growing up.”
The impetus was on the importance of Lara
coming-of-age on her own terms. “First love
doesn’t necessarily come with identifying
your sexual orientation. That exploration of
first love can come in any shape or form.”
Rae concludes by explaining what
Carmilla means to her, and what she hopes
an audience will take away from it: “It’s
okay to be different. People are scared of
what they don’t understand or things that
are out of the ordinary. Different isn’t bad.
This different girl that came into Lara’s life is
probably also one of the best things that has
ever happened to her.”Carmilla is in cinemas 3 April.Jessica Raine plays stern
governess, Miss Fontaine.