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3.1.17.1 The aftermath (Prologue).
** What is shown in the "flight scene"
of the Prologue?
* The archival soundtrack distorts, dissolves into a roaring sound and screams
gradually break into the foreground sound. * We smash through trees and foliage from the
perspective of the runners, a steadicam shot. * Cut to a long tracking shot from
below/behind, our view obscured by foliage, of the girls running up an inclined path
through the woods. Juliet, in her grey coat, is leading. Pauline, in her brown coat,
follows. We can only see the motion and the coats and hear the screaming. * Cut to
close-up of legs, running, stumbling, bloody and muddy. We see shoes. The sound is
immediate, foreground sound; we hear branches being hit, mud squirting. * Cut to sepia
legs running on a wooden deck, through streamers and the bars of a railing. The sound is a
musical score--strings. The absence of foreground sound is startling. * Cut to bloody
legs, running, feet and, prominently, brown school sandals and socks. The soundtrack is
forground sound, screaming, crashing. * Cut to sepia torso side shot of Juliet, in a print
dress running in front of Pauline, in a white summer blouse and skirt. Both are smiling as
they run on deck, brushing aside streamers; the railing is prominent. * Cut to a
'parallel' torso side shot of the girls running through foliage, breathless, in panic. And
that soundtrack. * Cut to shot from behind Pauline, looking forward. We see her black hair
flying, her brown cloth coat and Juliet in front. * Cut to front shot, sepia, on the deck.
Juliet is in front; she waves and laughs and calls out "Mummy!" Pauline bobs
into view from behind, with the same laughing and waving. She cries out:
"Mummy!" Juliet turns to look at Pauline. Their voices are the only foreground
sounds. Everything else is silence. * Cut to see a couple standing at the rail. The man is
coated, hatted, the woman is dressed all in white. They begin to turn. There is a huge,
growing wind sound. * Cut to the final dash. First, a steadycam shot around a hedge; we
see a woman running down the steps toward the camera. Then a jerky handheld camera shot
from the woman's perspective. The girls run up to the camera and we see their faces for
the first time. They are both covered in blood and gore on their faces and their hands.
Pauline cries out: "It's Mummy! She's terribly hurt!" Juliet puts her face into
the camera and screams: "Help us!" By the end of the film we will find out that
this is the only time Pauline will refer to Honora as "Mummy"... every other
time it is "Mother."
** What 'facts' about the aftermath are shown in
the film?
* The girls both ran screaming and completely hysterical back up the path to the
teahouse. * The teahouse proprietor ran out to encounter the girls, who were covered in
spattered gore on their faces and clothes and Juliet's hands are also shown covered in
blood. * Pauline cried out "It's Mummy! She's terribly hurt!" Juliet cried out
for help.
** Are these 'facts' accurate?
These 'facts' of the aftermath match parts of Mrs Agnes Ritchie's statements made
to police, section 7.5.1, but there was much more to the aftermath, of course. See section
4.7 and 7.3.
