Review: Undine

Image courtesy of IFC Films.

Director Christian Petzold follows up his transfixing "Transit" with an even stranger film - "Undine" - that is based on the legend of a water nymph who falls in love with a man, but - depending on which variation of the legend you know - either he or she is doomed to die if he is unfaithful. 

As the film opens, Undine (Paula Beer) is confronting a recent lover named Johannes (Jacob Matschenz) at a cafe, where he is telling her that he has met someone else and wants to break off their relationship. She warns him that if he does, she'll be forced to kill him. He thinks it over, while Undine goes back to her job, which involves her being a tour guide who gives presentations on urban development in the 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

After giving her lecture, she goes back to the cafe, where she is supposed to meet Johannes to discuss the matter further - he's not there - and instead bumps into another man, Christoph (Franz Rogowski, the hero of "Transit") and after some further fumbles, he accidentally breaks a gigantic glass fish tank, which sends the pair to the floor covered in water. Somehow, this leads to them agreeing to going on a date.

Christoph is a professional diver, although it's a little unclear to what end his work is utilized. He takes Undine down into the water to get a glimpse of what he experiences daily, although there's a sense that she's familiar with the water, especially when the name "Undine" is found scrawled on an underwater wall and when she floats near the top of the surface caressing a gigantic catfish that Christoph has seen on his numerous dives.

The film has a strange, dreamlike quality that is punctuated by this underwater scene involving the catfish, but is especially gorgeous when it shows Christoph and Undine floating in the water as if they were floating through air. The underwater scenes are breathtaking, adding to the picture's somewhat surreal allure. 

Later in the film, a tragedy strikes and Christoph is taken out of the picture for a while. A scene in which he accuses Undine over the phone of lying to him is later refuted to have taken place by a diving partner of Christoph's, and Undine fulfills a promise late in the movie to Johannes, much to his horror. The film has the feeling of a strange fairy tale, and much is left to the imagination as to what it all means.

Petzold is one of world cinema's most interesting filmmakers, and certainly one of the finest that Germany has to offer at the moment. "Transit" was a fascinating, modernized take on "Casablanca," while "Undine" utilizes fairy tales and legends to craft a story that's not always exactly easy to get a grasp on - but I don't mean this as a slight. It's a beguiling - if slightly minor - work from a major director. It will likely cast a spell on those who submit to it.