Life-giving Tom. Zuviel Liebe kann dich toten
Niemand hier, der dir vergibt
Zuviel Sehnsucht kann dich toten
Nur der Tod hat dich geliebt
Seit es dich gibt
"OOMPH!"
Tom Tykver's debut feature film, which undeservedly escaped the attention of the general public and does not even have an official Russian name (there are at least three translations of the original Die todliche Maria), became the first and perhaps the only creation of the director, which without hesitation can be ranked as a full-fledged author's film, sustained in classical European traditions, but having a number of individual features.
Mary is unhappy. An ugly freckled face, loose red hair, a crumpled old lady's sweatshirt and a shabby baggy coat. An eternal nurse for a bedridden father and an eternal maid for an unloved husband. From one you can expect nothing but insults, whims and dirty sheets, from another - a dry farewell in the morning, demands for a hot dinner in the evening and tense grunting in the missionary position at night. She dreams of a mysterious reclusive neighbor, looking out of his old-fashioned outfit every day in the hope of seeing the warm shine of friendly brown eyes for a moment. Sublimating the tormenting experiences into daily letters to her deceased mother and senseless collection of fly corpses, Maria endures, endures, endures. But still in vain being - its nuts tightly twisted and long rusted. To escape, one desire is not enough, although even on it the forces are with difficulty and fear.
Already in this work of 1993, one can see a subtle directorial sense of style and the ability to competently present the aesthetics of the everyday and ugly. However, in contrast to the same "Perfume", in addition to a compromise attitude to death, the imperfection of human nature and the painful ugliness of the soul, "Murderous Mary" has a powerful symbolic content. Esoteric subtexts are woven into the screen world of everyday blacks. The most valuable thing for the heroine - a strange-looking statuette - not only acquires the features of a talisman and voodoo dolls, but also turns into an allegory of an invisible otherworldly force that connects with the pinching minutes of the past. From an ordinary piggy bank for money, it turns into a bizarre Horcrux, a storehouse of the life energy of the meek Mary, who one day is bound to spill out.
The death of her mother during childbirth automatically gives Mary a sense of guilt. This contrived, aggravated by the humiliations and abuses of a cowardly father-despot, “original sin” cultivates the pathological victim syndrome in a young and defenseless girl. And the malleability and weakness of the broken personality only attract the predators curling around. In painful and perverse forms, the sexuality of a young woman also follows, which is clearly illustrated by Mary’s vile dreams, comparable in terms of tension and soul-sweeping symbolism to Raskolnikov’s nightmares, and the form of expression correlated with Freudian theory and King’s horrors at the same time. The last dream, shocking anatomical phantasmagoria, marks the sacred rebirth of the heroine, putting the phenomenon of motherhood as the primary symptom of the birth of a new life at the forefront.
The key role in creating the atmosphere is played not only by the picture, but also by sound. Growing in the head of the heroine whispers, frequent loud heartbeat and even the alarming whistle of a boiling kettle - repeatedly repeated throughout the film, these sounds have a rather specific, deliberately depressing psychological effect on the viewer. In general, a set of non-trivial art-house techniques brings the mystic story to a qualitatively new visual and semantic level. And if Tykver subsequently managed to develop and bring almost to perfection the exquisite cinematic aesthetic that originated in this tape, then, taking a step towards the mainstream, without a doubt, the talented director lost his ability to dig deep, see at the root and express himself through capacious visual symbols.
Murderous Mary is a mirror kaleidoscope of family life, where female weakness becomes a reflection of male rudeness. This is the embodiment of an unwritten universal human rule: self-confident love of power makes vulnerable, and long-term ordeals temper character. In the most mundane and even base things, there are hints of something irrational and powerful. Something that is not afraid of time, death and disease. Something that can be called the receptacle of higher justice, giving groundless at first glance faith in people, in the future and in themselves.