Review: Miroirs No. 3

Image courtesy of The Match Factory.

The films of German director Christian Petzold are often stories about identity or memory, and often feature people on the run from something. Both of these concepts apply to "Miroirs No. 3," a film that might seem like a slight entry in the director's oeuvre, but is more substantive than one might originally recognize.

Petzold's films "Transit" and "Phoenix" were both films about characters fleeing fascism and the latter had to do with a woman under a new guise seeking revenge, while "Undine" was a story that involved a mermaid. "Miroirs No. 3" also fixates - though more subtly - on transformation and identity and, to an extent, a character fleeing something.

In the film's beginning, a depressed piano student named Laura (played by Petzold muse Paula Beer) tells her boyfriend (Philip Froissant) at the last minute that she doesn't want to take a trip with him and his friends, so he is forced to drive her back, a trip during which they get into a car accident that kills him and leaves her dazed.

A woman named Betty (Barbara Auer), who lives near the crash site, finds Laura and brings her to her home. Surprisingly, while talking to the police, Laura tells them that she doesn't want to go home, but instead hopes to continue staying at Betty's house, an arrangement to which Betty agrees without much deliberation.

The two women get along, and we learn that Laura wasn't particularly close to her boyfriend and, therefore, not as distraught as one might think. We then meet Betty's husband, Richard (Matthias Brandt), and son, Max (Enno Trebs), whose existence comes as somewhat of a surprise. It is suggested that the woman and two men might be somewhat estranged - and it's only later that we realize the full circumstances.

Richard takes to Laura pretty quickly, but there's an edge between her and Max, who is somewhat reluctantly tasked with driving her around and helping to fix her bike whenever it needs repairs (which is frequently). Then, a secret is revealed and the group splinters. The picture's final scenes involve a concert in which Laura is performing and ends with a reaction shot of her face that is likely to be debated as much as the ending of Jafar Panahi's recent "It Was Just an Accident."

I won't debate those who'd consider "Miroirs No. 3" a small - or even minor - film for Petzold. It certainly isn't a film that could be considered his defining work - that would be the excellent "Transit," which focuses on his obsessions and themes on a grander scale - and isn't one of his historical dramas or thrillers (such as "Barbara" or "Phoenix"). 

It's a smaller-scale and intimate film about human nature, but there's a lot going on in the picture for a relatively short movie in which not a whole lot happens narratively. It's well performed - especially by Beer and Auer, each of whose characters are fragile in their own right - and written, and makes great use of its desolate locales. Patient viewers who enjoy subtle character dramas will be rewarded.