In the wake of actress Deborah Kerr’s death, I put up a blog in which I wrote that I was very affected by her depiction of a tormented governess in the movie The Innocents, a film based on Henry James’s classic novel The Turn of the Screw. I wrote that part of what made The Innocents so creepy was the suggestion that the governess harbors a strong pedophiliac attraction to the 10-year-old boy in her charge.
I put this essay on a film newsgroup and learned that someone was there before I – or perhaps this is just another case of great minds thinking alike. Singer Kate Bush released a song called The Infant Kiss with a video made up of clips from The Innocents. The song and video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUTkdw4C0XA. The lyrics to The Infant Kiss are at http://www.sing365.com/music/Lyric.nsf/The-infant-kiss-lyrics-Kate-Bush/E9E7D0A7F3CE36C9482569A0002F3478. I think the song and video capture in the most eerie possible way the unwanted but strong sexual feelings an adult woman may have for a male child – and suggest the genuine horror that can come of those feelings.
What do my readers think?

