Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane Views
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is a 1976 Canadian-French[1] film directed by Nicolas Gessner and starring Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen. It was written by Laird Koenig, based on Koenig's 1974 novel of the same title; Koenig also wrote a stage play based on his book. The plot focuses on thirteen-year-old Rynn Jacobs (Foster), a mysterious child whose dark secrets concerning her absent poet father are prodded by various nosy villagers in a New England town. The film, though predominantly a dramatic thriller, also blends elements of horror, mystery, and romance.
Jodie Foster's early appearances include Coppertone advertisements, cartoon voices, and Walt Disney's Napoleon and Samantha. Her future star potential became most evident in 1976, when she appeared in Martin Scorsese's brilliant, notorious Taxi Driver and Nicolas Gessner's lesser-known but compelling The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. Laird Koeing adapted the screenplay from his own novel of the same title.1 More than anything, however, the film resembles a play: a very taut, suspenseful play.2 We see few characters and fewer sets, but the plot twists in many uncertain directions.
Rynn Jacobs, an eccentric 13-year-old girl moves to town. She presumably shares the house down the lane with her father, a reclusive author, but no one ever sees him. Both townsfolk and audience begin to suspect she lives alone, hiding some sinister secret. The suspicious include a busybody landlady and her son (Martin Sheen), an emotionally disturbed young man with a warped sexual attraction towards the girl.
Foster's work in Taxi Driver overshadowed this film. Nevertheless, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane remains a well-acted, melancholy thriller, which won the 1977 Saturn Awards for best horror film and best actress. It still turns up on television, especially around Halloween, and its unsettling effects strike deeper and last longer than those of the more sensational, higher-profile films in this genre.
Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane Images
