Undine

I love this movie and this couple thay were great in transit to i wish all the best for this tow

Christian Petzold is a big name in German cinema, but his new film "Undine" is doing not so well in the IMDB rating. Having seen the film I wondered why, because I found it fascinating. There are a couple of explanations. The first one is that the regular admirers of Christian Petzold were disappointed. Was he not one of the main directors of the "Berliner Schule" and was he not supposed to make socially critical movies in stead of a mix of romance ad fantasy? Petzold himself put the "Berliner Schule" in perspective in a recent interview and said that it were just a couple of directors who happened to attend the same school at the same time. Of course they were influended by there teachers, but that was all. They were and remained different type of directors. The second explanation is that "Undine" is very hard to follow without prior knowledge of the legend on which "Undine" is loosely based. This is true. See the following information as necessary foreknowledge and not as a spoiler. Creatures who are half fish / half woman can be divided into two categories. The good ones are called Mermaids (the German fresh water synonym is Undine) and they come out of the sea to love a man. The bad ones are called Sirens (German fresh water synonym Lorelei) and they are luring men into the water. Undine is good but in the story of Friedrich de la Motte Fourqué (1811) she is dependent on her male lover for a soul. When this male lover is however unfaithfull he has to pay with his life and Undine returns to the water. Mermaids often are male fantasies. They are sexually mature but mentally very naive. In "Undine" Petzold portrays a slightly more female friendly version of Undine. This is however not attributable to Paula Beer, the actress who is the female lead in the last Petzold films and is a worthy successor of Nina Hoss. It is attributale to her two lovers. The first lover (Johannes played by Jacob Matschenz) is the wrong one, who sees a relationship as a transaction. The second lover (Christoph played by Franz Rogowski) is the right one, who sees a relationshipas as a journey of discovery. He even postpones sex to a later stage. Because of the logic of the de la Motte Fourqué legend the affair with Christoph is intense but nevertheless tragic. Even knowing the de la Motte Fourqué legend makes the film not very easily comprehensible. What is for example the relationship between the death of Johannes and the resurection of Christoph? After the lights go on there is some time needed to "digest" "Undine". For some this is annoying, for me it is the confirmation of quality.

Until now, I respected Christian Petzold without really being a fan. I no longer found the political themes that interesting, and the anachronism at the center of TRANSIT did not work for me at all. So, it was a pleasant surprise to find this film more influenced by Werk ohne Autor (2018) than the director's own earlier work. I was oh so ready to have a new film delight me, as that one did. There are many misalliances of mortals with pagan immortals in German popular literature, and especially opera. Casting one of those in the present--what would it be like for that actually to happen to me?--is brilliant. Undine is at her most deceitful and treacherous when she pretends almost to drown. No space alien or android could have done it better. She is an aquatic being, after all. In her other work, Paula Beer does not monopolize the screen as she does here. I am reminded of iconic female performances from long ago, such as Ava Gardner in Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, or Deborah Kerr in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Submergence (2017) is more loosely based on the same legend.

As with much of Christian Petzhold's work, UNDINE connects storytelling with myth -making more than with most filmmakers. Undine is a mythical European legend about a water nymph (over time it has morphed into mermaids, selkies etc.). As is often the case in his movies, Petzhold uses specific details and settings to ground his tale. Here, it's modern day Berlin. Our Undine (the terrific Paula Beer) is a historian and part-time tour guide for the city's planning bureau. By happenstance, a local industrial diver, Christoph (Franz Rogowski), catches one of her lectures and a relationship begins. As expected, the pair's union is an unusual one. It's not long before Christoph takes Undine for a dive in what he assumes will be HIS comfort zone. There are some beautiful underwater sequences in the movie and they subtly reveal Undine's true nature. To his credit, Petzhold (who also wrote the screenplay) never underlines to the viewer that this is an ancient fairy tale. The viewer is expected to participate. The lectures which Undine gives about the emergence of a unified Berlin after the fall of the Soviet empire are all about uniting the two different world views, and can be read as symbolic of the central relationship here. Beer is entrancing and again shows why she is one of Europe's rising young stars (she won multiple awards for her performance). Rogowski, who teamed with Beer memorably in the Petzhold's previous TRANSIT, has a burly but, vulnerable masculinity. Hans Fromm's cinematography is fine and the classical musical selections are appropriate (with an assist from the Bee Gees!). Still, like his other outright fantasy, YELLA, there is something a bit missing from Petzhold's script. That film took it's cues from the cult classic CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962), and here, some may detect a certain kinship with Val Lewton's masterpiece CAT PEOPLE (1942). Original legend and possible homage aside, UNDINE has to work on its own as a drama, and on that level it's slightly disappointing. The various threads, as good as they are at times, never quite fully connect. UNDINE is certainly worth seeing, but, it's not quite up to Petzhold's high standards.

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A touch of magical realism strikes this film. Yes there's a story of a love affair intertwined with the myth of Undine. Yes there's Undine's job as lecture on Berlin's history which picks up the DDR. So Petzold's usual plot lines are there. In the end it was much better than I thought at the beginning but not convinced I understand what, if anything, the lack of realism adds.

The last scene caused goosebumps shivers.Was u[ to totally reject this movie if the end was tragic, sad. But it wasn't. Ode to love, to all the loves that were and all the loves that are here and now.

I love this movie and this couple thay were great in transit to i wish all the best for this tow

Watched at Sydney film festival Continues this directors rewarding output. Plenty to put the mind across especially if you know something of Berlin. Definitely available for several rewarding viewing to unravel these fine actors and the story they build. I also enjoyed the history lessons as they also reveal things about undine, and provoke thoughts about Berlin the stage for this movie. I enjoyed the way the camera brings us to the characters and we never tire of its lens. It's so easy to be mesmerised by the leads faces and gestures. Can't wait to watch again Bravo Christian!