For Collège Maisonneuve's Berlinale bloggers, Ophély Coallier and Clémence Lallier-Lafleur describe their impressions of Frédérick Hambalek's competition film, “Was Marielle weiss”, previewed at Berlinale 2025.
What Marielle Knows, a feature film by Frédérick Hambalek, premiered at this year's 75th Berlinale. This German feature film mixes all kinds of film genres and remains captivating from beginning to end. It moves between melodrama and comedy, including satire. Without obscuring the message, the subject at hand - the invasion of privacy - is made light of. The movie's aesthetics may not be particularly interesting, but its story is worth the detour!
First and foremost, Hambalek's feature works essentially on the concept of voyeurism. Indeed, it's the story of a family that's not necessarily doing well, in which their daughter develops the gift of seeing and hearing her parents' every move. It makes you think about the film's subject matter, because everything Marielle sees, we see along with her. It's an interesting concept, since the director lets the viewer become a voyeur of the young girl's voyeurism through a highly effective mise en abyme effect. For example, in one particular scene, Marielle's parents are having a conversation, and the camera moves in behind them in a stomping motion. This gives us a subjective point of view, as if we were walking towards them. The implication is that the young girl is listening to them. The film is also a sobering reminder that parents can afford to spy on their children's lives, but not vice versa? It's a rather weighty issue that often causes conflict in families, from which we could have imagined a more dramatic film. However, the director has decided to turn his film into a satirical comedy, which makes it even more interesting and original. Without going overboard and exaggerating, as in Ruben Östlund's Triangle of Sadness for example, the director succeeds in creating an effective balance between unease and humor.
A stereotypical family
The director's choice of characters is ingenious, because together they create satire. To this end, the director uses stereotypical characters to build the family. We have a very naive father, who lies very badly to try to impress his family, a mother who is bored in her relationship and an arrogant young teenager. This mix of characters plays heavily on the reactions of each of them when they discover that their lives are on display for their daughter's eyes, creating a chaos of over-the-top reactions and humor. In short, there's something particularly unique about the choice of tone for this feature film, which marries perfectly with its message. In short, if Frédérick Hambalek's Was Marielle weiß is worth a look, it's because it raises important ethical questions such as how human behavior changes when we know we're being watched, but also, and above all, what children should know about their parents' relationship.
