Undine: Dead and Haunted Space for Eros

Christian Petzold, a well-known pillar of the Berlin School and “Gespenster Trilogy,” revisits the old conflictual themes of life and death in Undine (2020). The film, considered a drama, mystery, and fantasy, has at its core the love affairs between the three main protagonists in urban Berlin. Paula Beer (Undine), Franz Rogowski (Christoph) and Jacob Matschenz (Johannes). The tragic stories unfold as the camera and dialogues provide another poignant tale of Berlin, a city with eight centuries of history and traumatized and rebuilt on war and millions of untold human relationships as the one depicted in Undine.

The opening scene introduces an intriguing start to the viewers. There is a quarrel between Christoph and Undine in a cafe close to the Urban museum. This space gets revisited a few other times during the film. One may wonder, what is the secret? The interesting play by Petzold is to foreground space to tell a shifting story that is carried with different emotions. One may associate with the conception of space as not just a physical space but a memory of it and the context at which space is conceived. Undine and Johannes remember that space that would eventually determine their fates and toxic relationship. Petzold uses camera angles cleverly to create the same mystery and fluidity for space. Once Undine views the cafe from far, once it is directed through a serendipitous reply in the museum and more touchingly when the departing partners meet twice. This aspect is repeated during the underwater scenes in which Undine and Christophe go for a short dive. As before, space takes on a unique meaning by the recreation of memory between loving pairs, without which that space would have been dead and a place just for an industrial diver. Interestingly, this view of thinking on how Petzold put space (cinematic) as the center of action and story-telling could explain the fantasy element of the film. In a sense, the reality is overtaken by fantastical spatial imagery where an unrealized reality may take hold.

Apart from space which gets its meaning from personal encounters, Berlin is another undercurrent of the film. Through the presentation of Undine and another curator, we get to know more about this historic city, its socialist urban history, Walter Ulbricht’s dreams, and why it matters that the camera brings the viewers to the presentation model scenes many times. Berlin is a live character as Undine and Christoph. It lives, and its history sets its course of development. Fantasy, drama, and mystery occur in Berlin, too, even when its palaces are reconstructed. A German and Berliner may understand the nuances, but it is clear that Berlin transcends a city for any general audience. In parallel, the element of water and its frequent references, as the title suggests, play a driving role in the film. The two main protagonists lose their lives in Water. Christoph is also preyed on by water and almost gets drowned.

Nonetheless, at least in his case, water does not devour its creature. Petzold uses water as a symbol and metaphor for the conflict between Eros and Thanatos. The death drives dominate, but the erotic urges as the fish tank scene remind the possibility but a weaker alternative. In short, Petzold’s fascination with fairy tale story (Next film on fire) takes a sharp turn in Undine as he is driven to move away from the brunt realism of German cinema and present the myriad of social and personal elements relatively freely.

Undine crosses generic conventions and highlights the complex and conflictual relationship among water, space, memory, love, and death. The superb acting of all four characters, including Maryam Zaree (Monika) and soothing piano music, first-class cinemtagraphy allows the viewers to be absorbed and be surprised by the twists of the story and journeys crossed by train, underwater, and across the city space. Petzold is not shy to screen Catfish, surreal scenes and use sophisticated underwater shootings, rather to compel us to think about space and symbolic elements that can drive our lives in many directions, in real and fantastical spaces.

Score: B+