![]() What follows is both desperate and brutal. ![]() Rather than accept the death of Lukas, he interrogates this symptom, trying desperately to mend the fissure. “Mama” becomes the symptom, the inconsistency in his framework of reality. The rest of the movie is concerned with Elias’s efforts to cling to those bubbles, the vestige of Lukas (the identity constructed in relation to him the reality constructed around him), and his determination to displace the loss somewhere else.įigure 3: Two blurred figures serve as haunting embodiments of the impossibility of Mama.Įlias is a sullen descriptivist: for him, the content of “Mama” does not change so if this self-proclaimed “Mama” rejects that content (by ignoring Lukas and begging Elias to do the same) she must not be that which “Mama” designates but some radical point of break from reality. Elias calls his name, but there is no answer-only bubbles coming up from beneath, headed toward him. Elias floats on a raft in the middle of a dark lake, hovering above his own reflection it is implied that Lukas has gone under the surface and will flash up in an effort to scare him. Lukas serves as a literal representation of Elias’s ideal-ego, a point of reference for emulation, which is made manifest in the shot right before the title appears on screen, concluding a montage of play. The question is how Elias deals with this traumatic loss, a question which is hinted at toward the beginning of the movie as Lukas disappears into the darkness of a cave Elias calls out to him, waits, then hesitantly follows. That only Elias can see Lukas-that he is, in fact, dead-is evident early in the film and gradually confirmed as the narrative progresses. It is impossible to discuss the film without acknowledging a certain factor that, in a less substantial film, would be exposed in a “Big Reveal” moment-a moment that we are thankfully spared. As her strange behavior persists, the twins become more thoroughly convinced that this woman is an imposter, and the plot is driven by their desire to restore the order of the past. This suspicion is compounded by her inexplicable coldness toward Lukas, by her anger with Elias, and by her demand for quiet so she can recover. Elias and Lukas (Elias and Lukas Schwarz), identical twins, begin to suspect that their mother (Susanne Wuest), who has returned home after having cosmetic surgery, her face largely obscured by gauze bandaging, is not really their mother. Goodnight Mommy, Austria, Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, 2015) is a film about righting a radical wrong.
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