why don't you want kids excuse me you do
want Darren Aronofsky's mother is the
most loved adore hated film of the year
and a lot of this has to do with how
mind boggling and all over the place the
ending can feel the first half of the
movie still feels like a traditional
narrative that draws heavily on
Rosemary's Baby a young wife is trying
to create a home with her older author
husband when their solitary life
together is interrupted by strange
guests but by the end the movie
escalates into surrealist chaos full of
religious imagery and allegory a
condensed and confused sense of time and
grotesque symbolic brutality there's one
side of people in the movie who think
don't tell anybody anything and then
there's my side or I think it's actually
kind of a sin to let people go see this
movie without understanding the allegory
behind it there are a lot of different
ways to think about this film but the
key to understanding the directors
intention is to view mother as allegory
for Aronofsky the film represents the
destruction of Mother Earth after God
has allowed humans to destroy this home
I wanted to make a film about mother
nature I wanted to make a film from her
perspective so on one level this can all
be read as a parable about climate
change how ironic it is that this film
is coming out as Emma is making contact
with the United States the director has
called the film a cautionary tale of
what's happening to the planet when
mother puts her hands on the walls of
the house she feels a beating heart as
if she is the house biggest tool that I
used for my character was the connection
with the house because I see us as as
one organism so as the unwelcome
intruders destroy her house they're
destroying her our planet when they
finally kill her son the heart that
we've been seeing turns a charred black
mother's hit her limit and she uses oil
to set fire to the house a symbolic
reference to fossil fuels and a message
urging people to stop destroying our
earth or we'll all soon be wiped out the
a TZ show noted as well that when mother
finally fights back against the people
we
Thunder and sounds of nature so it's as
if she's sending them hurricanes and
other natural disasters the very end of
the film shows a new woman waking up
just as Jennifer Lawrence did at the
start so the repetition tells us God is
repeating this cycle of creating a new
woman or a new mother earth to be
destroyed and remade over and over this
mirrors the cycles that are a key part
of nature but it could also mean that
the earth will still continue on in a
new form
after we kill everything that allows us
to live the cycle of life could start
all over again
but as Aronofsky said to Entertainment
Weekly quote it won't be our story
anymore he clarified that just because
it's the end of human life and large
mammals on the planet that doesn't mean
that other life like insects and
bacteria won't thrive this allegory
about Mother Earth is told almost
entirely through major stories and
figures from the Bible
Aronofsky told DW that quote every
single beat and character is related to
the Bible in order all the way through
the Old Testament and the New Testament
as mother tries to make the house into a
secluded paradise this corresponds to
the unspoiled Garden of Eden the story
takes place on the sixth day of Genesis
just before mankind comes into existence
and originally the team internally
referred to the film by the fake name
day6 Edie and Michelle are the first man
and woman and these are the sons and you
could probably then figure out who
Xavier is from that last shot
the first intruders are identified
simply as man and woman meant as Adam
and Eve the first humans created when
Adam seems to be sick and has a mark on
his back this references Adam's rib
which in the Bible is what Eve was
created from soon after that moment in
the movie Michelle Pfeiffer's woman
appears this version of Eve echoes her
story of giving in to temptation as we
see in the shot of her sexual behavior
with Adam and her sexy underwear
compared to mother's plain panties in
the laundry Adam and Eve break the
crystal in gaad's office the one place
they're not supposed to go and so like
Adam and Eve they get kicked out of the
garden next we get their children Cain
and Abel and now that we've moved beyond
just one man and woman and the nuclear
family unit is created this leads to the
birth of violence
Edie and Michelle are really kind of
awful guess and inconsiderate but then
suddenly this dose of a family conflict
comes in and the first violence of
mankind in the history of humanity
starts to unleash in the scene mother is
horrified to witness this perverse human
truth that family which is supposed to
be based on love is also the source of
murder the gathering after Abel's death
leads to a version of the biblical Great
Flood and then the people leave for a
while just as the flood in Noah's time
results in a massive reduction of the
world's population that mother gets
pregnant which uh sure is in the New
Testament part of the story and in
addition to mother nature the character
feels a lot like the Virgin Mary her
baby is fathered by God of course she
doesn't have to go through any of the
usual inconveniences of waiting to take
a pregnancy test she just immediately
knows the morning-after sex that she's
pregnant
this might remind us of the Annunciation
when the angel Gabriel tells Mary that
she'll mother Jesus with a clear message
from above rather than unusual symptoms
like morning sickness as soon as the
Christ child is conceived God has moved
to write another book or the Bible
specifically his new book inspired by
the coming of Christ corresponds to the
New Testament whereas the past writings
he's known for correspond to the Old
Testament and the gap between is
explained by writer's block people who
show up to worship God's book are
fervent Christians when the Christ child
is born the people bring the baby gifts
like the Magi do Jesus and as mother
nurses the baby her face looks a lot
like the way the Madonna is depicted in
many paintings slightly to the side with
a very soft smile like the mother Mary
she can't protect her son from a painful
death she watches him be feverishly
worshiped only to be destroyed she then
sees people eating her son's body an
allusion to eating the body of Christ
the basis of the Eucharist or communion
imitating the Last Supper in which bread
and wine are said to be or at least
symbolize the body and blood of Christ
but we see all this through the personal
filter of a mother who naturally can't
help but view her child as a human being
a baby not a God or a symbol after she
blows up the house and destroys everyone
but God he
asks her to give him her heart and like
a human giving tree she does it's still
beating and still has love for him this
kills her but the heart turns into the
next magic crystal to power a new
creation cycle so she becomes not just
an all giving Mary but also a Christ
figure there's even a cross in the
background of the shot as God carries
her their body shapes echo the Pieta or
lamentation of Christ the Christian arts
subject of Mary morning the body of
Christ after it's come off the cross
she's embodying the ideal of Christ's
forgiveness and resurrection by giving
love to those who destroyed her so that
life may continue throughout the film
mother asks God to make the people leave
but he finally admits that he wants them
to stay I don't want them to go this
shows that he loves humankind more than
the earth
which alludes to the special love God
has for his people in the Bible near the
end God says I am i alluding to Exodus
and what God or Yahweh says to Moses
when asked his name they will ask what
is his name and how shall I answer them
also translated as I am Who I am and he
also tells Moses to refer to him simply
as I am there are also plenty of other
small Bible references throughout the
movie Christin wigs character is called
Herald which could relate to biblical
prophets like Elijah for me it looked
like the creation of religion and it
looks like false idols the later parts
of the story show the creation of
religion as cult we start to see people
worshipping false idols in a crazed way
starting wars and fighting over
territory the chaos and horror signified
the destruction of societies that have
warped religion and grabbed power based
on religious fear events like the
crucifixion and communion are
reinterpreted as dark Tass trophies and
when God tells mother she should forgive
these people
another allusion to the central tenet of
Christianity the context and tone of the
scene makes his request at first sound
absurd mother feels that they could be
happy if they turned the people away and
turned inward toward each other and
their family but the allure of the
others in their worship is more
important to him he's not able to be
satisfied with stable happy nature
because he
I'll use a higher form of destructive
creative expression and the human voice
the earlier parts of the film draw
heavily on Roman Polanski's Rosemary's
Baby
like Rosemary at the beginning mother is
spending all her time painting a new
home although we're in the middle of
nowhere compared to the city rosemary
and mother are both housewives hoping to
have a baby soon their husbands are
creative types who have had success in
the past but are currently struggling or
blocked both husbands find the answer to
their block through sacrificing their
wife to strangers both keep up the
charade for a long time that they're
trying to turn the strangers away but
finally admit that they don't want these
people to leave so both ultimately show
that their ambition and this outside
world are more important to them than
love for their wife michelle pfeiffer as
woman even fixes mother a drink and
insists that she drink it this could be
a subtle allusion to the drink that
Minnie castevet makes for rosemary in
her pregnancy which is made with devil's
herbs in Rosemary's Baby there's also
imagery connected to breaking through a
wall which we see in mother as Vox
writes mother is also about the quote
horror of being trapped in a female body
under the thumb of domineering men like
Rosemary's Baby in its visual style the
film also takes after Rosemary's feel of
realism and using the personal to filter
a supernatural story the entire film is
shot only with three camera angles
there's the close-up you see here
there's the over-the-shoulder you see
here and then every once in a while
there's a POV which you'll see right
here in addition to its allegorical
aspects mother is also a relationship
story about a woman whose husband takes
everything from her and the stages of
the film correspond to the different
stages of the family experience at first
we meet a young couple looking forward
to having kids then we see the nuclear
family bursting in on them showing the
later stages of family conflicts between
children and parents facing mortality
and the third stage is dealing with the
world at large and a mother's inability
to protect her children from that world
in Rosemary's Baby we finally meet a
group of Satanists where as a mother
were presumably seeing God but Mother
reimagines God as a flawed human a
selfish and fallible creative type then
again this version of God does border on
a devil in some ways mother sees a torn
picture of him with devil horns furball
on it he repeatedly rips out the hearts
of women in order to get this beautiful
crystal that inspires his creation so
there's a sense of the demonic in
turning a living beating heart into a
dead crystal even his forgiveness for
his people is portrayed as being due to
his own vain need to be worshipped the
movie uses this God figure to look at
the dark costs of the creative process
throughout his films Aronofsky's
interested in the obsessive and
self-destructive tendencies of creative
people yet here he turns the artist into
someone more exploitative and abusive
while it's not his first intention there
could be a critique in here of the
artist who seems a false god to his fans
but truly takes his creative power from
others like a director perhaps who
demands everything from his actress this
God believes the creation and
destruction must follow from each other
even as the people destroy the house and
mother asks why they say it's because
they want to mark that they've been
their creation in the movie is abusive
and violent but also a deep impulse we
can't resist eventually he says it's not
her fault her love wasn't enough for him
because nothing can ever be enough or we
wouldn't create and he has to create
Aronofsky's fascinated by the creation
myth and what it means to create an art
in nature and in religion but in mother
he's also processing a deep anxiety
about humankind's future and whether
we're headed for a terrible destruction
on our planet perhaps the true reason
that many have reacted so negatively to
the film is because it's so
unremittingly dark but as Aronofsky
explained to Entertainment Weekly quote
by staring into the darkness you reveal
the light so with this film Aronofsky
chose to in his own words lean into the
darkness and the result has been at the
very least a conversation starter
there's this
who's the second time that you watch it
you'll notice it's a it's a loop so it's
it's bizarre
you know the endings really bizarre but
necessary to kind of complete this
insane loop
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