The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane

In a small coastal town, thirteen-year-old Rynn lives alone. She says her father is a poet and always working; nobody sees him. The landlady keeps trying to get into the house and her son keeps circling the girl. Rynn does not want anyone going down to the cellar. The film is not interested in mystery. It is interested in a child's method of protecting herself: Rynn is afraid of adults and she is right to be, because most of the adults who approach her are a threat. The film does not sort her into innocent or monster. The form is enclosed thriller: one house, autumn, few characters and almost entirely interiors. The pace is slow and the tension comes out of conversation. Nicolas Gessner directed, from Laird Koenig's novel, which Koenig adapted himself. Jodie Foster plays Rynn; she was thirteen and was making Taxi Driver in the same period. She was not used for the film's nude scene, which was played by her adult sister Connie. Martin Sheen plays the landlady's son, one of the most disturbing characters of his career. Who it is for: viewers curious about quiet seventies thrillers and early Jodie Foster. Who it is not for: anyone troubled by scenes implying the abuse of a child. The film does not show it and keeps it constantly present.