Had the film shown some kind of hint as to him wrestling with or choosing denial, perhaps that would have been interesting.
I think the crucial hint is that she calls him Johnny, and he doesn't question it. The director goes to great lengths to establish that no one at the nightclub knows his real name, and yet here comes this woman who strongly resembles his wife and calls him by his real name. As the audience we're metaphorically screaming at the screen, "Why don't you show any surprise that she knows your name?! This is crazy."
But the director knows exactly what he's doing. What initially seems like a plot hole is in fact a great conceit by which to express the German inability to truly acknowledge the truth of the final solution. Johnny's is a
willful refusal to face up to what is quite literally right in front of his face.
Recall how he coaches Nelly in the way they will reunite on the train platform:
"We'll walk up to each other.
Very tentatively.
We won't speak...
kiss or fall upon each other.
We will simply hug.
You'll lay your head on my shoulder
and we'll both shut our eyes.
We'll do nothing else.
Nothing. For ages."
He has dreamed of this impossible moment, and later, when they act it out for real at the train station, he is clearly deeply moved.
The son of a bitch wants nothing less than to have his cake and eat it. To sell his wife down the river to save his own skin, and yet still get to act out a cathartic reunion. He's trying to obliterate his own guilt. By revealing herself as Nelly during the song, she denies him that self-delusion, withholding it both from him and to a lesser extent, from the others. It's a great moment.
There are so many images and lines of dialogue in the film that take on greater meaning only when the movie has worked to it's final conclusion. That's why we're all here talking about it afterward! Great movie.
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filmflamfilm
8 years ago
I think the crucial hint is that she calls him Johnny, and he doesn't question it. The director goes to great lengths to establish that no one at the nightclub knows his real name, and yet here comes this woman who strongly resembles his wife and calls him by his real name. As the audience we're metaphorically screaming at the screen, "Why don't you show any surprise that she knows your name?! This is crazy."
Did you actually see the film? His "real name" was Johannes. That would be what? Oh, yes, John in English. So, where's the problem?
This is the same lack of understanding as the OP of this thread, who wrote:
"For me, a HUUUUGE plot conceit in this otherwise lovely and immensely moving movie, is that Nelly is unrecognisable to Johnny, yet she is so clearly recognisable to we, the viewers."
Of course, we the viewers,
never did actually see the "original" Nelly, so we have no standard to judge Johnny/Johannes by. In fact, for those few who have actually seen the film and not just the trailer, when the two meet, one of the first things he says to Nelly is "you look a lot like my former wife" (or something similar).
This film, though clearly not terribly popular among IMDB users, is actually rated as the 12th best film of the year according to American film critics. All of whom, I would guess
have actually seen the entire film.
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