Discuss The Appointment

The movie is heavy on atmosphere, a terrific score, and a quality that leaves you thinking and feeling haunted afterwards. However, it's short on explanation. I first saw this in my teens as a late night movie in the 80's, and watched it again a few times after that when it aired again at various times (e.g. Saturday afternoon movie, late night, etc.) The impression I came away with and that's been in my mind all these years is that his daughter is behind all of it. Either she "befriends" the presence in the forest that kills the school girl at the beginning of the film, or she is herself that presence, having developed otherworldly powers.

I looked it up on YouTube and quickly reviewed the opening and ending to clarify my memory of it (I hadn't seen it in two decades), which confirmed what I recalled of it. Below are my thoughts.

Why does Joanne (the daughter) kill her dad? Simply because he chooses to make his business appointment instead of go to her concert. That was my takeaway of the opening and exposition, along with the final scene of his daughter sitting at the fence to the forest with three Rottweilers sitting on the other side, with her humming a tune. The opening exposition about the girl that gets sucked into the woods alludes to her having "friendly rivalries" due to her being the top violinist, and that despite no one predicting this rivalry would be anything other than friendly, "someone thought otherwise".

Putting all this together confirms in my mind what I remembered of the film: that Joanne was behind all of it. She knocked off a rival so that she could make it to the top position in her orchestra (notice how it focuses on the girl's violin being crushed after she's pulled into the forest). Whether Joanne herself has powers or she's made some pact with an evil presence in the woods is hard to say. It could be a little bit of both. That's where the movie is very threadbare on explanation. Cut to three years later. We hear the conductor/teacher say "okay girls from the top" and the movie's score kicks in, connecting Joanne's playing to the haunting melody of the score itself. I think it’s actually pretty clear what the movie is portraying.

After the opening credits we cut to girls leaving a classroom in the school. The exposition picks back up with speculation that occurred over the course of the past three years "but that the truth is as elusive as ever". Cue the music again, and on cue Joanne walks out alone from the classroom after the other girls leave the area, presenting it as if she is the answer to the "elusive" question. The exposition continues and explains that it's "felt" that there's sufficient evidence the girl was killed by an "immensely powerful psychopath that will undoubtedly strike again for equally unfathomable reasons". Joanne walks off-screen. End scene.

Enter: Ian (Edward Woodward), Joanne's father. So Joanne is set to play in a big concert, or as his acquaintance at the beginning says "the big event". During this conversation, Ian asks his friend how he should break the news to his daughter that he'll have to miss the concert. At the end of this discussion Ian says "she's only a child", and his friend responds with "sure she is; just don't make the mistake of telling her that." It cuts to a series of shots, one of them Joanne in first chair in front of the orchestra playing her violin, clearly the top of the class and the "star" of the orchestra.

And there we have it. Joanne killed her rival for top chair in the orchestra. She then kills her father for missing her concert. "Immensely powerful psychopath" indeed. I think on one level the film is an allegory for the power of a 14-year-old girl's emotional state, how intensely they feel and react to experiences, and in this case how a father missing a concert that's important to her feels like the end of the world and a major betrayal. Unfortunately for Ian, that 14-year-old girl is also either in league with something supernatural, or is herself a corporeal incarnation of pure selfishness. Regardless, she’s a youngster who's emotions and will can be made manifest (even if just subconsciously) into the real world.

In fact, contemplating it now and watching this again, I actually think what’s going on is largely subconscious for her. Meaning, I’m not sure Joanne is entirely aware of the impact and power of her emotional state, and how it’s manifesting around her. I think we’d see different behavior on her part in the film if she was fully aware that her will was literally imposing itself upon reality and shaping it. As a side note, that aspect of it reminds me of another film that's always stuck with me called "The Sender", where a boy's nightmares are manifest into reality. I'd recommend checking it out if you can find it.

2 replies (on page 1 of 1)

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I saw the movie. Your logic cleared up my confusion. Thanks for taking the time to write this well-thought out synopsis!

You're very welcome!

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