'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria
'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria
'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria
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R.R.: Some critics say that she is “outside <strong>of</strong> history.” But in my opinion, at that era, in<br />
that time, with that government she wouldn‟t have had a lot <strong>of</strong> power.<br />
H.S.-B.: No, and I think this way <strong>of</strong> criticizing is very dangerous because it comes out <strong>of</strong><br />
an opinion that people can be courageous under all circumstances. Sometimes it‟s not<br />
courageous to be courageous. And when you are with a child, like Lene is, when you are<br />
with a child, to be courageous, in the sense <strong>of</strong> these critics, would put this child into<br />
terrible danger. And also, this is a question <strong>of</strong> why would you want to set the life <strong>of</strong> a<br />
child at risk just for a courageous action. To me, it seems very uncourageous. It seems<br />
like easy thinking. Yesterday I saw a film that is now playing in Germany. Effi Briest, a<br />
version <strong>of</strong> Effi Briest. Well the Effi Breist <strong>of</strong> Fontane is just a victim. In this film they<br />
try to make her into a kind <strong>of</strong> non-victim, just following these kinds <strong>of</strong> critics who would<br />
all be very happy [with this depiction]. But I feel that this is destroying the special<br />
character <strong>of</strong> this woman. I had the impression that the actress is fighting with the<br />
difficulties. She is set up to be courageous, and actually, when you see what happens to<br />
her, she isn‟t. One gesture that shows that she is courageous is that she smokes…Well, I<br />
mean… (laughs).<br />
R.R.: Is smoking courageous? (Both laugh)<br />
H.S.-B.: I think this is a very important point and we have to go a little further to<br />
understand it. What I feel is that our society, the Western industrial society, is about to<br />
have, as the ancient Chinese would have said, far too much yang and far too little yin. Do<br />
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