Renowned German filmmaker Christian Petzold collaborates again with Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski in his latest film. The film is a re-mythologization of the story of Undine (Beer), a water nymph who falls in love with a man (Jakob Machenz) and becomes human, but is sentenced to death because he is unfaithful and tries to end their relationship. This is where the film begins. Undine warns Johannes (Matzenz) that she will kill him if he leaves her, and she aims to survive and break the curse. However, Johannes leaves her, and Undine is left cursed When Undine meets Christoph (Rogowski), she falls in love with him and they start dating you can watch it on moviesrush. Undine starts as a simple drama about a budding romance but becomes much darker as it begins to explore the mythical story it is based on.
Undine’s story in a contemporary setting
Unfortunately, the exploration feels superficial, as Petzold prefers to keep it too simple without exploring the fears of his protagonists.
Undine is angry. Thanks to Paula Beer’s facial expressions and the film’s visual cues, we know this from the beginning of the film, telling us that we are witnessing Undine’s story in a contemporary setting. That’s fine, but it’s not enough to delve deeply into the tormented psyche of the main character moviesrush. When she learns that John is leaving her, she goes back to work and feels a great sense of anxiety.
The incredibly cold and distant relationship
What the audience wants to know is how she feels about John’s infidelity, how she can live in the present in a world where she is destined to die soon, and whether she must do the unthinkable to survive and atone for John’s sins. We don’t know much more than what we see on the outside. It has made them vulnerable. This would be fine if it were the characters’ first instinct, but the film does not try to explore Undine’s inner thoughts on moviesrush. As a result, the relationship between Undine and Kristoff comes across as incredibly cold and distant to the viewer, as we never get to know their genuine feelings.
Undine attact johannes
Kristoff has a life-threatening accident and Undine is in danger. She has to kill Johannes. This is because she has been cursed again. In this moment of absolute agony, when Undine must do the unthinkable to survive, we only have access to her outer thoughts. External thoughts are only half of what the audience needs to understand the character. To get a complete picture of the character’s emotions, we also need her inner thoughts. Otherwise, the movie will just be empty and have no meaning. Petzold seems to think he’s doing something good by having his protagonists speak only implicitly about their external thoughts, but he forgets the most important part of what makes the greatest protagonists in the history of cinema great in the first place moviesrush. what they feel inside. And we don’t need to show them explicitly. It can be done implicitly.
Mythological themes of the film
The mythical story of Undine has already been told implicitly. An audience that knows or has researched this theme beforehand can understand the implicit message of the film better than an audience that does not know who Undine is or what the film is based on. For audiences who are not familiar with the mythological themes of the film, the implicit message is the only way to go. If you don’t need to know much about Undine to understand the gist of the story, Petzoldt could have ensured that much of Undine’s and Kristof’s inner thoughts were conveyed with the same indelible discretion with which he presented the themes.
Undine is not human her interaction is unnatural
Some might argue that Undine is a film about relationships and that we should feel the raw love that Undine and Christoph have for each other. But when they have a reasonably human relationship with each other, we don’t find a single moment that resonates with their relationship or makes the audience say “Aww!” Undine is not human, so her interactions with Christoph are somewhat unnatural. This is exacerbated in the scene where she listens to all versions and covers of Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees on moviesrush. This is exacerbated when Christoph gives him artificial breathing to the rhythm of the song. Her interaction with Kristoff is not necessarily human, but she comes across as very distant and cold (as I mentioned above), which again is great because she can’t express any real human emotions. However, as the opening scene of the film shows, Undine has feelings: she is outraged by Johannes’ infidelity, so she must be feeling something inside.
Christoph search of Undine
This is the worst thing about Undine she only shows us half of what we can see in its entirety. Yes, Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski are excellent. I especially liked the moment when Rogowski awakens from his coma, awakened by Undine’s aura, and thinks only of her. He utters a terrifying and painful cry and goes in search of Undine, who seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Unfortunately, Christoph’s desire to find Undine is more interesting than the relationship on 7starhd, as the film moves at a fast pace.
An interesting film
At 89 minutes, Undine is a shell of an interesting film. Yes, it is well made and features some pretty convincing performances from two talented actors, but unfortunately, they are part of a shallow tautology that is afraid to fully delve into the mythology of Undine, preferring to deliver a banal “bloody relationship” film until it abruptly changes tone and becomes a confused, superficial mess that never explores the inner workings of the characters. This is an interesting film and I hope you will entertain enough to watch this movie. This movie gives you a joyful feeling. Mixed feelings, that’s the ingredient that makes a drama truly surprising. I think that’s a real shame.
