We check out the latest from Christian Petzold (and his lead actress, Paula Beer) as well as his recent film from 2020. See also our reviews of his other one-word titles "Transit," "Phoenix," and "Barbara."
AFIRE (B+) - Director Christian Petzold, for us, is a solid B+ director. His films can meander a bit, lose you for a while, but he always builds to a powerful conclusion. The same pretty much applies to this shaggy-dog story of a shlubby writer who goes off with a friend to a retreat in order to finish his second novel, only to be distracted by a another traveler who was double-booked at the house.
Paula Beer shines, as usual, as Nadja, the free spirit who can't help but be distracting, and who senses the mental block that is afflicting Leon (Thomas Schubert). Among the other distractions -- Leon's pal Felix (Langston Uibel), whose mom double-booked the summer home, is flirting with Nadja's boyfriend (Enno Trebs), and some wildfires are flaring up off beyond the woods.
Petzold takes a long time to delicately place his characters in their precise place in this universe. Schubert is wonderfully understated as the grumpy, arrogant (but insecure) writer, and Beer is light as a feather but fully grounded as a woman who has more going on than it seems. There is plenty of dry humor -- thin walls undermine privacy and sleeping arrangements -- but most of it is laced with melancholy.
After a fairly shocking twist late in the film, Petzold has another fine ending up his sleeve. I wish it had ended five minutes sooner, on a grim note, but a coda provides a serviceable sliver of sunshine and a glimmer of hope. Either way, your patience during the first half will be duly rewarded.
UNDINE (2020) (B-minus) - I get grumpy when there is homework involved, especially when watching a film feels like reading a textbook. Petzold refuses to give any hints as to the mythological backstory to the narrative here, of a mermaid who takes human form, but with some highly restrictive conditions.
Paula Beer holds the center here, too, as Undine, who informs her boyfriend in the opening scene that if he breaks up with her he's going to have to die. But then she takes no steps to make that happen. Instead, she falls in love with sweet Christoph (the always intense Franz Rogowski). Meet-cutes do not get any more twee than this water-logged one, steeped in symbolism. Christoph also happens to be a deep-sea diver who sees Undine's name on an archway deep underwater and has visions of her swimming sadly with a giant catfish of legend. It's often quite dreamy.
Petzold is not only maddeningly obtuse about what he's going for here plotwise, but he also spends large chunks of time watching Undine give tedious lectures to students about the history of Berlin's architecture. Several times. It's frustrating.
It isn't until the final reel that some of the pieces of the plot and unspoken backstory finally play out in a satisfying narrative structure. Petzold plays with time shifts, tosses in a bit of neo-Gothic horror, and then pivots to magical realism in a way that somehow feels earned. It's a shame that it can be such a chore to get to those touching final scenes. Beer and Rogowski, as a couple, are a memorable mismatch made in heaven. It is to their credit that the film just quite seems worth it in the end.
BONUS TRACKS
From a key scene and the closing credits of "Afire," the dreamy "In My Mind" by the Wallners:
From the final scene and credits of "Undine," the plaintive adagio from Johann Sebastian Bach's Concerto in D Minor by Vikingur Olafsson:
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