'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

forced back into the oppressive dependency of the patriarchal nuclear family. Lene reacts
to the loss of her agency by masochistically playing the part of the victim. She retreats
from reality by escaping into physical sickness in the form of her facial paralysis, alcohol
and prescription drugs, and finally an attempt to take her own life.
From the perspective of the feminist daughter creating a film about her mother‟s
story in the late 1970s, the phases of Lene‟s spiral towards self-destruction must be
shown and criticized. Thus, Sanders-Brahms depicts Lene in an increasingly negative
light in order to diminish the sympathy the viewer feels toward her. Lene is shown
withdrawing from active life, shutting out the reality of the world outside the domestic
sphere by closing the curtains of her apartment and taking refuge from her depression in
sleep. When Anna tries to encourage her mother to eat by preparing a cup of hot broth
and carefully carrying it to Lene‟s bedside, Lene rejects her daughter‟s attempts to sustain
her strength by throwing the hot broth into Anna‟s face and telling her daughter to leave
her in peace. This scene marks a division and alienation between mother and daughter.
This rupture is remarkable as in the earlier scenes of the film, Lene and Anna are almost
always shown in close physical proximity to one another. Moreover, by showing Lene‟s
brutal treatment of her daughter, Sanders-Brahms, the feminist filmmaker, rejects Lene‟s
repression of personal trauma which leads to her self-destructive behaviour (Kaes 157).
Her resistance at repeating Lene‟s tragic fate in her own life is evidenced in the voice-
over comment earlier in the film, “Ich habe nicht geheiratet. Das habe ich von euch
verlernt” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 112). 93
While Sanders-Brahms rejects the model of the helpless, voiceless mother
depicted at the end of the film, she suggests that the example of the resilient, resourceful
93 “I didn‟t marry, I unlearned that from you” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 112).
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