"Mother and Son" is a film about solitude,self-knowledge, and death; and the contingency of the body as central to each. In other words, it shows that human-ness means an integration between the body and the self; that there is no self apart from the body; and that the love of another must embrace the self /body as one.
Sokorov's mother-son intimacy does, I think, occur, but it must be all but non-existent in western culture, especially in its films, and literature. So, it is incredible to view this silent feat.
I think much of "Mother and Son's" success lies deeply in what it refuses: modernism, post-modernism, Freudianism, doublespeak (violence is love), cynicism, misogyny, male detachment, and abstract freedom.
What "Mother and Son" accepts is an approximate equality between a woman and a man. Yes, it's the son's nurturance which compels our attention, but he's only returning what he's received. What has been her entire life as a mother and teacher, has in this short period of her illness and death, become his life--and he embraces it fully and ordinarily.
The mother's and son's mutuality is actually pretty profound. They have the same dream, share the same silences, humor, touch, and gaze. Each takes their cue from the other, compelling each other's attention in face to face, or head to head, communication. They enclose and disclose each other with a kind of certainty which comes both from their shared solitude and their loyal affection.
In a certain sense, their companionate relationship bypasses their mother and son roles. Although her concern and worries on his behalf are real, she has in some sense given herself to his care. But not to the care of the family head, not even to the care of a man--his transforming bond with her no doubt severing his bond with men and to male identity--but to the care of an equal who may be as close to her as to a daughter, and whose affection is removed from control and power. Galatians 3:28 reads "there is no male or female," and here in this indeterminate world, removed from public demands and interpretations, this appears possible.
But there's no abstraction in this intersubjectivity. The son is not just nurturing; he does what a mother does in these circumstances. He cooks, he keeps house, he deals with all the details; he grooms and cleans his patient; he carries her on walks, and he reads to her from dusty postcards. In short, he looks to her physical and spiritual needs--in a consoling, innovative, and certain manner.
It is the very liminality of their present circumstance that enlarges their experience, of one another, and of their own specific lives. (The monastic ideal never vanishes). Poverty, isolation, and illness seem to root them in being, in a fruitful solitude, allowing them an inner quiet to reflect and ponder life's design, their anxiety, and the nature of consciousness.
The son's final walk is like a rite of passage. This time he walks, jogs, runs over much of the earlier terrain but now it takes all his courage and honesty because now solo, his course is uncharted. Painful contemplation under ancient tree trunks, gazing out to sea... these seem mother symbols, and spell out a continuity in the discontinuity which is his mother's death. The pilgrim knows through his growing self knowledge that his way will now be hard, but that despair will not take hold. He knows that his dead mother hears his words: "We will meet. Wait for me. Be patient, wait for me."
Sokorov's mother-son intimacy does, I think, occur, but it must be all but non-existent in western culture, especially in its films, and literature. So, it is incredible to view this silent feat.
I think much of "Mother and Son's" success lies deeply in what it refuses: modernism, post-modernism, Freudianism, doublespeak (violence is love), cynicism, misogyny, male detachment, and abstract freedom.
What "Mother and Son" accepts is an approximate equality between a woman and a man. Yes, it's the son's nurturance which compels our attention, but he's only returning what he's received. What has been her entire life as a mother and teacher, has in this short period of her illness and death, become his life--and he embraces it fully and ordinarily.
The mother's and son's mutuality is actually pretty profound. They have the same dream, share the same silences, humor, touch, and gaze. Each takes their cue from the other, compelling each other's attention in face to face, or head to head, communication. They enclose and disclose each other with a kind of certainty which comes both from their shared solitude and their loyal affection.
In a certain sense, their companionate relationship bypasses their mother and son roles. Although her concern and worries on his behalf are real, she has in some sense given herself to his care. But not to the care of the family head, not even to the care of a man--his transforming bond with her no doubt severing his bond with men and to male identity--but to the care of an equal who may be as close to her as to a daughter, and whose affection is removed from control and power. Galatians 3:28 reads "there is no male or female," and here in this indeterminate world, removed from public demands and interpretations, this appears possible.
But there's no abstraction in this intersubjectivity. The son is not just nurturing; he does what a mother does in these circumstances. He cooks, he keeps house, he deals with all the details; he grooms and cleans his patient; he carries her on walks, and he reads to her from dusty postcards. In short, he looks to her physical and spiritual needs--in a consoling, innovative, and certain manner.
It is the very liminality of their present circumstance that enlarges their experience, of one another, and of their own specific lives. (The monastic ideal never vanishes). Poverty, isolation, and illness seem to root them in being, in a fruitful solitude, allowing them an inner quiet to reflect and ponder life's design, their anxiety, and the nature of consciousness.
The son's final walk is like a rite of passage. This time he walks, jogs, runs over much of the earlier terrain but now it takes all his courage and honesty because now solo, his course is uncharted. Painful contemplation under ancient tree trunks, gazing out to sea... these seem mother symbols, and spell out a continuity in the discontinuity which is his mother's death. The pilgrim knows through his growing self knowledge that his way will now be hard, but that despair will not take hold. He knows that his dead mother hears his words: "We will meet. Wait for me. Be patient, wait for me."