The film, "The Others", plays around with the idea of Purgatory(Catholicism)
and also the popular Victorian ideas of spiritism(communication with the
spirits of the dead). The figure of the mother woke up in a scream after she
has killed her children and then herself, and the state she and her children
lingers in is a limbo state--neither permissible for heaven nor for hell. As
implied in the film, staying on to haunt the living as the "others" is in
itself a form of Purgatorial experience for the mother and her children.
Another dialogue ensues in the middle of the film as the mother argues with
her daughter over the issue of where unbaptized and disobedient children go
after death. Her daughter was insistent on the fact that she was baptised as
an infant, and hence, she would not go to hell despite her disobedience.
This is probably another reference to the Catholic doctrine which states
that unbaptized infants are directed to an "Limbo Infantum" after their
death.
Kevin
*
*
Film-Philosophy Email Discussion Salon.
After hitting 'reply' please always delete the text of the message you are replying to.
To leave, send the message: leave film-philosophy to: [log in to unmask]
For help email: [log in to unmask], not the salon.
**
|