'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

ombs fall downward from the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Next follows a
close-up shot of Lene‟s face which is contorted in agony. In a loud, firm voice, the
midwife tells Lene to push her knees into her chest. The action jumps back to another
aerial shot of a rural town which is hardly visible beneath the clouds of smoke billowing
upwards from the explosions. The bombs in this shot fall from the top left-hand side of
the screen, creating a strange symmetry with falling bombs of the earlier shot. The rapid
juxtaposition of the birth and bombing scenes underscores the fact that both actions are
happening simultaneously.
The camera then cuts to another close-up shot of Lene pushing her knees into her
chest. She lets out three agonizing screams and the midwife tells her that the baby‟s head
has appeared. She then leans back on the pillow and smiles. Lene screams once more
and the midwife tells her that the birth is completed and that she can relax. The off-
screen voice of the midwife even jokes with “Die Beine aufstellen, sonst erdrückt man
sein Kind!” (Deutschland, bleiche Mutter n. pag.). 32 Lene smiles at this joke and then the
midwife congratulates Lene and announcing the sex of the child: “Heil Hitler! Ein
Mädchen!” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 53). 33 The midwife‟s congratulatory “Heil
Hitler!” is a representation of the intrusion of politics into the private sphere. The
midwife has been so indoctrinated with Nazi ideology that she continues to salute the
German Führer even when a bombing raid brought on in part by the politics of his
government is destroying her city.
The following scene, cuts to a shot of a newborn baby with its umbilical cord still
attached lying in the blood of the afterbirth and whimpering. Lene‟s off-screen voice
32 “Keep your legs up or you will smother your child!” (Deutschland, bleiche Mutter n. pag.).
33 “Heil Hitler! A girl!” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 53).
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