The opening scene is beautiful, a woman named Ms. Green and a young girl are out on the water in a small boat. The young girl looks at Ms. Green with piercing admiration and lust. Ms. Green nonchalantly smokes a cigarette and dresses like a man. I love this costume choice. Not only does she look handsome and seductive, but it plants the first seed in our minds that Ms. Green is not your typical woman of the 1930s.
The young girl Di then talks about how she read the book Ms. Green gave her, and how the book was banned by the school, and how Di does not think it corrupted her. I got the sense that the book did corrupt her, or that Ms. Green's influence is corrupting the young girl. Ms. Green then passes her cigarette to the girl, who takes a drag.
The next scene is a remarkable juxtaposition. We go from a romantic scene between a girl and an older woman, to a church, where the girls sing in the chorus about God, which plays as the antithesis of sexual desire, let alone homosexual desire. However, some of the girls show a deviousness in their eyes, which plays again on the possible corruption by Ms. Green referred to in the earlier scene. I feel like this is the first occurrence that the film demonstrates the binary between holiness and sin. We have the holiness of the pure young virgin girls singing with angelic voices in a Church in homage to God, and then we have the look in their eyes of their desire to experience something much deeper and darker and primordial.
In the next scene the Di confesses her sins to a Priest. The Priest is one of the few male figures in the film, and remarkably he does not have a single line. He merely reacts to the young girl, who surprises him by saying she has had lustful thoughts towards the gardener boy. Then she asks him if she should recite every single lustful thought she has had, and how she has had many. The Priest looks stunned and beside himself.
The confession is a symbol of Di wiping away all of her sins. When you confess you become pure again until the next time you sin. However, this does not seem to be a girl who will remain pure throughout the film. Also, she admits she did not confess all her sins. She is secretive and mysterious, not only to us, but also to God. There is a sinful nature to this, but to us it appears poetic and beautiful. I feel like the film glamorizes sin as a thing of lush beauty to be gazed at and admired.
Later we encounter the headmistress of the All Girls Christian Academy. I was reminded again of how important woman are to the importance of this film. I only notice because this is a rarity in film today. It is often the case where men are 90% of the characters in the film, and women only play minor, support roles to the main men of the film. This is the complete opposite case, which I love and find refreshing.
From the headmistress, we find out that Di is the Team Captain of the Diving Team, and also we find out how cruel and mean the Captain can be to new girls. Also, we find out a new girl is coming to the school to join their Diving Team. Her name is Fiamma and he has been sent from Spain. She is an Aristocrat, much like a Princess. The Headmistress asks the girls to be nice to Fiamma, since she is unfamiliar with England and is not used to the provincial lifestyle.
When Fiamma arrives at the school, we get a good look of the building from wide angular shots, that show a gray cold facade. Then when Fiamma walks the hallways, they seem stale and unwelcoming. The girls look and stare, and Fiamma stares back. She seems completely out of her element and unsettled.
When she walks into her room, where the girls on the Diving Team all sleep in different beds in the same room, Fiamma suddenly becomes strong willed. She holds her chin up high, and she shows no signs of wanting to interact with the other girls. She does not even introduce herself, and merely brings her luggage to her bed, and starts putting her things on the night stand. It is like Fiamma is marking her territory, and claiming this space as hers. Di will have none of this, and sees Fiamma's air as threatening. Di marches over to her and demands that she only have 5 things on her nightstand and how those are the rules. Both Di and Fiamma are strong-willed, very much alike in certain ways, but due to this nature they clash. Fiamma does not hate Di, and I don't think Di hates Fiamma, but Di is the leader and she feels the need to impose her power onto others. (I forgot to mention in the dining room scene with the headmistress, Di scolds and humiliates one of the other girls for not putting enough butter on her toast. Then Di justifies her actions by saying there must be order, and it is her job to ensure there is order, or there would be chaos.) Di plays on this idea with Fiamma, and Fiamma then says my favorite line in the film:
In her Spanish accent, Fiamma says, "Listen..." It is mysterious and poetic, because we are unsure what she is asking Di to listen to, as though there is an invisible sound in the room. After a pause, Fiamma then says, "That is the sound of the world ending." Her sarcasm and wit is astounding. She is basically saying to Di, I don't give a fuck how many things I can have on my nightstand. Using the metaphor of Cracks, this is the first crack that appears in Fiamma's relationship with the other girls.
Oh! I failed to mention, before Fiamma arrives in the school, Ms. Green has a remarkable meeting with the girls of the swim team. She asks one of the girls what the most important thing in life is. The girl says, "God." And Ms. Green right away snaps, "No!" I love how quick Ms. Green says no, as though that is completely not the answer. However, this is a Christian Academy, where God being the most important thing in life would be the correct answer. The next girl says, "All of God's creatures," which Ms. Green says no too also. I also love Ms. Green's face when the girls are responding this way. It is like she is astounded that these girls could possibly care about God so much. Immediately I thought of Ms. Green as the serpent or standing in for the Devil. Ms. Green is a tempter, and she is tempting to the girls to turn away from God and to accept pleasure instead. It is Di that says the correct answer. She says, "Desire." Ms. Green affirms that is right, that desire is the most important thing in life, and how the girls should go after their desires. She also tells them how they have the power to do anything they want in life. This is actually quite amazing. I feel as though girls are taught at a young age to behave and to be obedient. That they should listen and know their place. Ms. Green is destroying this notion, and telling them they can and should do what they desire, and that nothing else matters.
One of the most beautiful scenes in the movie is when we see the girls dive for the first time. Di stands on the diving board and effortlessly dives into the water, the camera catching her in slow motion, and there is beauty and grace in her movements. We also see Fiamma interacting with the Diving Team in her element for the first time. It is obvious that Fiamma is an experienced diver. However, she covers up her body and is cold. I assume it is Spring because she shivers, and also she is used to the warmer weather in Spain. Ms. Green convinces Fiamma to dive by asking her what she is afraid of. It is obvious that Fiamma is not afraid of anything, so Fiamma naturally takes off her shawl and reveals her beauty. She is in a gorgeous diving suit, with an amazing figure. All the other girls are wearing the same black rubber bathing suit, but Fiamma is in bright cloth. All eyes are on her, especially Ms. Greens, and then Fiamma pulls off effortlessly a perfect spinning dive. It is beautiful and reminds me of the Olympics. Only the film shows it poetically, as though the image can be etched into our mind forever.
Ms. Green says to Di, that Fiamma has raised the bar, where only minutes before Ms. Green had said to Di that Di had set the bar. You can see the jealousy in Di's eyes.
Needless to say, I really loved this film. I actually don't want to go any further, because you really should watch the film yourselves. The asceticism and emotion of the film astounds me.
All in all, Cracks is a well-made, well-directed, well-scripted, well-acted, well-shot film. Also, the symbolism and structure of the film arouses my literary senses. A great film for Literature & Film lovers! Watch it! A must!
9 out of 10.
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