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| Director Frédéric Hambalek |
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| actress Laeni Geiseler |
WHAT MARIELLE KNOWS (Was Marielle weiß) B- Germany (86 mi) 2025 d: Frédéric Hambalek
The premise behind the film is a good one, using the gift of telekinetic powers to expose just how much of our carefully calculated self-image depends upon a foundation of lies, questioning just what happens when that protective illusion suddenly collapses, balancing perception with self-deception, but the execution leaves something to be desired, never rising to a level of excitement, where you can’t help but think another filmmaker would have been more risqué and brought so much more out of this, with the ending feeling like something of a letdown. Better films on telekinetic powers would be Brian De Palma’s The Fury (1978) or Joachim Trier’s 2017 Top Ten List #4 Thelma, yet this film relies upon the very ordinariness of it, becoming all too banal and downright disinteresting, falling short of its possibilities, which is very hard to do, as the subject itself is so fascinating. Described by BFI Sight and Sound (Eight under-the-radar LFF films | Sight and Sound) as “The most uproarious German comedy since 2017 Top Ten List #2 Toni Erdmann (2016),” but nothing could be further from the truth. Despite some absurdities, and an over-the-top chamber score from Beethoven and Schubert string quartets that only heighten the hysteria, the film is a flat-out exposé on middle class hypocrisy, from a family that on the surface of things has everything, where seemingly open-minded parents pretend to be educated and honest, but the reality is something altogether different, which is confusing enough for a 12-year old child just entering puberty, on the verge of forming her own identity, especially after she mysteriously develops telekinetic powers and is able to see and hear everything her parents do and say. Initially refusing to believe her, suspecting she’s somehow spying on them, yet her recall is so accurate and precise that it’s hard not to believe, completely altering their behavior, forced into hiding all their hidden secrets, turning their lives upside down, pretending nothing is out of the ordinary as the parents feebly struggle to put on a fake front, knowing they are always under observation and every word is being listened to, but the result couldn’t be more inexcusably pathetic, as there’s little left of their bourgeois ideals, ineptly becoming exactly the kind of people they never wanted to be. A family drama passing as a surveillance story, exposing deeply hidden insecurities and a marriage founded on lies and deception, but the real tragedy is the story is told almost entirely from the parents’ point of view, with a focus on how they deal with this new revelation, and the poor girl gets left behind to fend for herself, with no support system in place, as she is never actually taken seriously, instead believing she is playing some kind of sick joke. The film is surprisingly inert, more of an existential dilemma, their lives suddenly on hold, as if waiting to figure out how to deal with this strange phenomena, but that time never comes, as they’re simply not equipped to tell the truth the whole time, as everyone has precious secrets that no one else sees, somehow delving into the uncomfortable realms of Ruben Östlund in Force Majeure (Turist) (2014).
Premiering at the Berlin Film Festival, it sounds like an edgy subject matter, but the director never finds the key to unlocking the film’s precious secrets, failing to utilize a bolder aesthetic, feeling more like something conventionally made for television. Described as a comedy, it’s not really, though there are a few comedic moments, mostly it’s a mammoth tragedy, as the girl is so completely isolated and left all alone, where even her parents doubt her and are not what you’d call helpful, as they double down on their own egotistic superiority, unable to really engage with their daughter, instead they view her with suspicion and distrust, quickly dragging her to a doctor, with no results, only fanning the flames of family dysfunction. As the film is well acted, ultimately the problem is with the writing, as the lives of the parents are suddenly exposed and openly transparent, confused that their everyday lives are completely disrupted, always on watch, but little is known about the girl, who remains a mystery, mostly kept out of sight, and is never seen at school, knowing next to nothing about her life, playing a youthful heroine who never laughs, while avoiding the idea of becoming a coming-of-age film. That’s a problem, as she’s clearly the most intriguing character, where your heart goes out to her, as her easily perplexed parents haven’t a clue how to help or support her, instead they’re all about covering their own tracks. What this says about constructing our own sense of identity is revealing, suggesting our view of ourselves is lined with lies and inaccuracies, offering a buffer to the hard realities we often choose to ignore. Marielle (Laeni Geiseler, reminiscent of the eerie children in the films of Michael Haneke) has an unexplained gift that comes out of nowhere, suddenly her everyday reality after a brief spat results in her best friend slapping her in the face, suddenly discovering she is telepathic, yet she never abuses this gift, which feels more like a curse to her, as the adult world of her parents is suddenly exposed, her mother Julia (Julia Jentsch, from Hermine Huntgeburth’s EFFI BRIEST, 2009) and her father Tobias (Felix Kramer), as their immediate reaction is to self-servingly protect themselves rather than help understand or lovingly comfort her. That leaves her trying to fend for herself in an adult world that is beyond her comprehension, filled with cover ups and despicable behavior that she never knew existed, completely dumbfounded that her parents are less than forthcoming with her. What happens when suddenly your privacy is removed? When the most unpleasant secrets of Julia and Tobias are embarrassingly revealed, they embark on a manipulative game that increasingly leads to more absurd situations, evoking unexpected consequences, where their comfortable middle class lives are not what they appear to be, making you question their seemingly harmonious family life. Unfortunately, Hambalek’s film doesn’t stand up to Fassbinder’s more savagely brutal yet elegantly stylish family exposé Chinese Roulette (Chinesisches Roulette) (1976), or Roman Polanski’s emotionally devastating chamber drama, Carnage (2011), but does recall the 60’s horror sci-fi classic VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960), or those deceptively uncomfortable human conversations trying to outwit the technologically superior but malfunctioning computer Hal in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
A satire of bourgeois family life with all its secrets and lies, it starts, appropriately enough, with Julia having a healthy flirtation, engaging in verbal sex fantasies during a smoking break before entering into a scandalous affair with one of her married coworkers, Max (Mehmet Ateşçi), while at the same time Tobias is humiliated at his job designing book covers for a publishing house, where his planned cover design for a new novel is ridiculed and scorned as pretentious by his colleagues, particularly his younger competitor Sören (Moritz Treuenfels), who completely undermines his authority, leaving him struggling to regain his composure, having difficulties being recognized as the group leader. In both of their minds, they have done nothing wrong and simply embellished the truth, rationalizing every little aspect of their own behavior while advocating for a version of themselves that is significantly better than who they really are. But for Marielle, she sees things a little differently, suddenly seeing through the built-in defense mechanisms of her parent’s private and protected lives, yet when she asks them about it, they quickly deny any wrongdoing, instead reiterating meaningless platitudes that conceals what actually happened, continually presenting themselves in the best possible light, causing confusion in her young life, knowing her parents are lying, but she doesn’t know what to make of it, only adding to the confusion of her young life. By repeating to them what she actually hears, reciting conversations verbatim, they are immediately shocked into altering their behavior, as if they are continuously on camera, with someone always watching them and seeing them in real time. This shift in parental behavior exposes their own hypocrisies, but their initial reaction is to protect themselves, suddenly speaking French to avoid detection, never giving a thought about how this is affecting their young and impressionable daughter, whose life is spinning out of control, as what she’s been led to believe is exposed as a sham, where her parents are not who and what she was led to believe, suddenly much more fallible. Finding herself in the precarious position of being the adult in the room, the only one speaking openly and honestly, literally hiding nothing, while her parents seem to be leading double lives, the ones they are actually living, and a fabricated version they want her to believe. The film ends up being somewhat middle-of-the-road and inoffensive, matching the conventional mindset of the father, where much of this feels like characters walking on eggshells, as if there are potentially explosive landmines everywhere they step, accentuating all the things we say that we would not want others to hear. The choice to focus on the more unimaginative and far less interesting parents leaves Marielle out of sight for most of the picture, mirroring what the mostly befuddled parents are experiencing, but this decision lessens the dramatic impact, feeling overly predictable, where it’s less about the supernatural ability itself and more about its impact on the family, but this leaves out of the picture the one character who is far and away the most interesting person in the room.
