Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Christian Petzold
Starring: Paula Beer, Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt, Enno Trebs
Following Transit, Undine and Afire, Miroirs No. 3 marks the fourth collaboration between Christian Petzold and Paula Beer. The writer/director and his star are forming something of a symbiotic partnership at this point, to such a degree that Beer can almost feel out of place in other filmmakers' work. She has an enigmatic, ethereal quality that Petzold has specifically tapped into. Beer's acting style is a contradiction; her face tells us a lot but keeps us guessing. In Undine Beer played a mermaid, but in all of her roles for Petzold she creates the impression that we're watching a woman who might have emerged from the water.
Petzold and Beer's latest collab opens with what seems like a self-referential nod to Undine. Beer plays Laura, a depressed piano student, and we're introduced to her as she gazes into a river. She is interrupted by a passing diver, leaving us to wonder if she might have allowed the water to consume her otherwise.
While on a trip with her boyfriend Jakob (Philip Froissant), Laura suffers a panic attack and insists on returning home. While driving, the car crashes, killing Jakob instantly. Dazed but barely scarred, Laura is discovered by a local woman, Betty (Barbara Auer), who takes her to her home. After being patched up by paramedics, Laura asks if she can stay with Betty for a few days. Betty is delighted, and the two women begin to develop a surrogate mother/daughter bond. Things get complicated when Betty invites her estranged husband Richard (Matthias Brandt) and their adult son Max (Enno Trebs) to dinner. The presence of Laura unsettles the two men, and there is clearly an unspoken dynamic here to which Laura is oblivious.
Like his earlier film Phoenix, Petzold's latest explores a theme of dual identities. Laura's accident affords her the opportunity to reinvent herself, and she gladly plays into the role of a replacement daughter for which Betty tees her up. Wearing Betty's late daughter's teenage clothes, Laura almost regresses to a childhood state, happy to be doted over. Seeing the positive effect it has on Betty, Richard reluctantly goes along with the sham, but Max finds it distasteful. There is an irony in Max threatening to disrupt Laura's new life, as his work at his father's garage sees him remove the GPS from cars, allowing their drivers the sort of freedom and anonymity Laura is currently embracing.
The core setup is reminiscent of Georges Lautner's 1970 thriller Road to Salina, in which Robert Walker's young drifter goes along with Rita Hayworth's belief that he is her missing son. It may also remind viewers of the real life case of the French con artist Frédéric Bourdin, as detailed in Bart Layton's 2012 documentary The Imposter. But Miroirs No. 3 is a much more forgiving adoption of this concept, and there is no suggestion that things are about to take a dark turn, even if we do wonder if Laura might have purposely caused the car crash. Naming Laura's dead boyfriend Jakob might be a nod to Jurek Becker's novel 'Jakob the Liar', reflecting the notion that sometimes a lie can be excused if it appears to have a positive impact. Here, we don't frown on any of the parties for continuing what is ultimately an unhealthy charade as we see how both Laura and Betty appear to be reborn by each other's fortuitous appearance in their lives.
Miroirs No. 3 is in UK/ROI cinemas from April 17th.
