Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Christian Petzold
Starring: Paula Beer, Franz Rogowski, Gloria Endres de Oliveira, Jacob Matschenz, Rafael Stachowiak, Maryam Zaree
Men have been falling for mermaids and water nymphs on screen for quite
some time now. In 1948, Glynis Johns' Miranda was snagged by
a hapless fisherman. Dennis Hopper played a sailor who falls for Linda
Lawson's siren in 1961's
Night Tide. Tom Hanks reeled in Daryl Hannah in 1984's Splash. More recently, mermaids and nymphs have cropped up in arthouse fare
like Robert Eggers'
The Lighthouse
and the Polish musical The Lure. The best of the recent crop of mer-movies is Lisa Brühlmann's coming of age drama
Blue My Mind, in which a teenage girl discovers the changes her body is going through
are preparing her for a return to the sea.
The latest in the recent wave (no pun intended) of mermaid/nymph/siren
cinema comes courtesy of Germany's auteur du jour,
Christian Petzold. Working once again with his
Transit
leads, Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski, he's the latest
filmmaker to tackle the myth of the Undine, a water elemental that takes
the form of a beautiful human woman upon receiving the love of a man. But
to retain her human form, she must remain loved by said man.
Petzold's Undine opens at the point where this is all about
to fall apart, as his Undine (Beer), a museum guide, finds herself being
dumped by her lover, Johannes (Jacob Matschenz). Determined to keep him, she threatens to murder
him if he leaves. Dismissing her as batty, Johannes makes his exit.
Luckily for him, before Undine can carry out her threat, a new man comes
into her life.
Undine has a soggy meet-cute when the affable Christoph (Rogowski)
follows her into a coffee shop chancing his arm at a date. Undine is
entranced by the café's large aquarium, which begins to rumble in her
presence, eventually soaking both her and Christoph. Bonded by this
odd event, the two become a couple and all goes well until Undine's past
threatens to ruin things.
Undine is a slight piece of fantasy that plays out against
the not very fantastical backdrop of modern day suburban Berlin (an odd
place for a water nymph to wash up). For long periods it plays as a rather
straightforward romance, and thanks to the charm and chemistry of Beer and
Rogowski, we're kept engaged by this likeable young couple. They're the
sort of young lovers who would make an old lady smile if she saw them
kissing on the train, and we want the best for them.
Of course, we gauge early on that we're in the realm of tragedy here, and
that when water and earth mix you just end up with mud. When Petzold
brings the mythical elements into his drama, it feels as though he's too
self-aware about trying to do so while keeping his film grounded. We never
actually witness Undine transform, rather Petzold gives us obfuscating
hints of her true nature and her relationship to water. If he was overly
conscious about employing any special effects, how do you account for the
laughable shot of Undine hitching a ride on the back of a catfish, an
image which positively jars with his film's otherwise sober tone?
With his collaborations with actress Nina Hoss (Yella, Barbara, Phoenix), Petzold has established himself as a modern equivalent of what were once
known in Hollywood as "Women's Directors". Beer is the Hoss surrogate here,
and Petzold's camera adores her. It has a higher sense of Undine's worth
than she does herself, and it almost seems like the camera is trying to
catch her unaware as she hides her face, as though oblivious to her
considerable appeal, or perhaps all too conscious of its dangers. With
performances in the likes of
Frantz, Transit and
Never Look Away, Beer has established herself as one of the most captivating presences in
European cinema. Perhaps the most fantastical element of
Undine is the idea that any man could wish to break up with
her.
Undine is on MUBI UK now.