While these films operate in radically different contexts from The Nightingale, they chart an intriguing evolution in how sexual violence has been depicted in film. Each circles around the sexual violence white men inflict upon women. In reading Kent’s perspective, my mind fluttered to three classic films from different eras - The Story of Temple Drake (1933), My Name Is Julia Ross (1945), and The Burglar (1957). I didn’t want to look at it from the male gaze.” In actuality, the history of rape in film is more tangled and visually complex than modern works would have you believe. If you look at any rape scene in cinema, you will see women’s naked bodies. ![]() Who do rape scenes serve? What do these multiple scenes teach us that we couldn’t learn the first time? The Nightingale is at once a potent and infuriating film that shows the limits of depicting this sort of violence so explicitly.Ĭuriously, Kent said in an interview at Sundance, “I don’t see those scenes as rape scenes … it’s a scene of someone’s soul being destroyed. But by the third and final rape sequence - which concerns a kidnapped Aboriginal woman - I couldn’t help but consider the cumulative effect on both actors and audience. Kent ( The Babadook) handles the admittedly brutal rape scenes with care and sensitivity while never losing sight of their physical or emotional reality. Violence isn’t just part of the story, it is the story. The film requires us to bear witness to the minute and overarching effects of colonialism. In The Nightingale, history is etched into the characters’ bodies through violence, whether it be the lynched Aboriginal people Clare comes across on her path toward revenge, or her own experiences with Hawkins. Rape scenes in pop culture have often been unnecessarily gratuitous ( Game of Thrones), jarring in their viciousness ( Last House on the Left), and cudgels used to make larger points about society ( The Accused). The camera then pans to show us what she’s looking at: the crackling fire before her. Her expression moves from fear to pain to numbed vacancy, making it evident that this isn’t the first or the last time Hawkins will take advantage of her. The camera stays trained on Clare’s face without losing sight of the particulars of what is happening to her body. Clare tries to squirm from his grip, crying out that she needs to tend to her young baby girl. With each move he makes closer to her, you can feel the possibility of violence until it rips the scene open. He asks her to sing, offering payment in the form of a piece of jewelry. ![]() A curious ritual takes place between them. Whatever gratitude he extends is barbed and hollow, another way to remind her that her life is not her own. He swept her up from the prison she was in to work in his servitude, refusing to give her the papers that would ensure her her freedom. Inside a bare room, lit only by a small fire in the hearth, Clare (Aisling Franciosi) faces Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin), a British soldier trying to move his way up the ranks. Within the first ten minutes of Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale is a rape scene that sets the tone for the film’s depictions of violence in 1825 Tasmania. Aisling Franciosi as Clare in The Nightingale.
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