'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria
'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria
'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria
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Eure Unarmung kann ich mir nicht denken. Wie deine und deine Haut<br />
sich berührt, kann ich nicht denken. Ihr seid meine Eltern. Zwischen euch<br />
bin ich. Ich habe nicht geheiratet. Das habe ich an euch verlernt. (Sanders-<br />
Brahms, Film-Erzählung 112) 57<br />
The voice-over from the perspective <strong>of</strong> the adult narrator hampers the viewer<br />
from enjoying the romance and innocence <strong>of</strong> the scene. By telling the audience that she<br />
decided not to marry because <strong>of</strong> her parents‟ marriage, the narrator distances the viewer<br />
by suggesting that the happy, amorous couple they see on screen will not continue to be<br />
happy and in love. Through the voice-over the filmmaker also exposes her role in<br />
constructing the discourse by revealing her reasons for filming the scene as she does and<br />
for cutting it after her parents begin to undress each other (McCormick, Politics 197).<br />
She uses the voice-over to foreground her subjectivity in the creation <strong>of</strong> the fiction and to<br />
bring the past into relationship with the present. Thus her strategic use <strong>of</strong> voice-over<br />
opens up a dialogue between the past and present and between the generations, especially<br />
between mother and daughter.<br />
A third way in which Sanders-Brahms establishes communication between<br />
generations is by having her own daughter, Anna Sanders-Brahms, play a role in the film.<br />
The character <strong>of</strong> Anna, who represents the filmmaker as a child in the story, is played at<br />
one point by Anna Sanders-Brahms, Helma Sanders-Brahms‟ daughter. When I asked<br />
Sanders-Brahms during our personal interview which actress playing the character <strong>of</strong><br />
Anna in the film was her own child, she replied that her daughter was the toddler "with<br />
her hair sticking out [on end]" (Reed 138). By using her daughter to represent her own<br />
part in her fictional retelling <strong>of</strong> her mother‟s story, Sanders-Brahms doubly emphasizes<br />
57 “I can‟t imagine your embrace. I can‟t imagine how your skin and yours touch each other. You are my<br />
parents. I am between you. I haven‟t gotten married. I unlearned that from you” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-<br />
Erzählung 112).<br />
80