Deirdre Morley is in the news at the moment because of a brouhaha involving the release of her psychiatric records relating to the inquest into her children’s deaths. You may remember she suffocated her three sons in 2020 and was deemed not guilty by reason of insanity.
The theme of infanticide in popular culture has its origins in the Greek tragedy Medea. It’s been in films for as long as I’ve been attending them, going back to the accidental death of a child as a result of a parent’s negligence in The Country Girl (1954), a theme that reverberated more piquantly in Casey Affleck’s Oscar-winning turn in Manchester By The Sea in 2016.
When the killing is intentional, it’s very difficult to understand the motivation behind it. If you’re interested in the subject, there are a number of films you can buy online documenting it.
Depictions
Real-life cases of it are dealt with in the TV mini-series Small Sacrifices (1989) and the full-length feature The Afflicted (2011). In The Rapture (1991), it’s depicted in an act that occurs as a result of a skewed religious motivation. In It’s a Girl: The Three Deadliest Words in the World (2012), it’s set against the policies of India and China vis-à-vis governmental policies regarding reproduction.
A year or so ago, it was featured poignantly in a film I praised on this page, Mothers’ Instinct. This was a revenge tragedy reminiscent of Rebecca De Mornay’s breakthrough film, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, in 1992.
The most recent manifestation of it was in last year’s Baby Doe. It documented the case of a woman arrested for killing her newborn son almost thirty years after the crime occurred.
For a truly moving depiction of it, I urge you to see Lucie Borleteau’s Lullaby. I got this in my local library. It’s a French film based on Leila Slimani’s coruscating book about a busy couple who employ a nanny to look after their two young children as they pursue their careers. They’re gratified to see how committed she is and give her more and more input into their lives as a result.
If the film was made by an American director, I imagine it would have a lot more violence and melodrama. Borleteau nuances it in such a way that the mental illness of the nanny, played with achingly beautiful understatement by Karin Viard, is indicated to us in small but telling touches.
The first of these is a strange expression that appears on her face in an early scene when she’s playing with the children. It suggests she’s becoming more involved in the game than one might regard as normal.
Afterwards, she reverts back to being the perfect carer again. But a doubt has been lodged in our minds. We watch the remainder of the film in a state of tension.
If someone appears to be too good to be true in life, they usually are.
