FILM ·
When someone new enters a broken heart — Film <Undine>
Christian Petzold <Undine> (2020)
<Undine> (2020), by Christian Petzold, director of <Phoenix> and <Transit>. A woman meets someone new after a breakup. Love has ended, but the love story continues.
A city historian meets an industrial diver in a cafe. An aquarium breaks, soaking them both. They end up in the same state before they get to know each other.
Undine lectures on the history of Berlin. Linking a city’s memory to a person’s memory makes for a convincing reading. What remains is someone with a past love meeting a new one.
A woman named after a water spirit, and a man who works underwater. Their meeting invites a mythical reading, but the aquarium really does break. Words about romance sit alongside wet clothes.
The two from the cafe also meet at a station. You go there to see someone and return from them through the same place. Stations work that way. In love, it feels a little unfair.
Undine rests her hand on Christoph’s neck. Their eyes meet at close range. They are closer than they were at their first meeting. A hand on the other’s neck has become natural between them.
Undine moves closer to someone new with a heart still bruised by a breakup. We might expect love to wait until our feelings settle. Their meeting has already begun.
In <Phoenix> and <Transit>, Christian Petzold explored love held back by circumstance. His <Undine> (2020) follows Undine, who lectures on Berlin’s urban history. After a breakup, she meets Christoph, an industrial diver.
An aquarium shatters at the cafe, leaving them both soaked. A new love begins. The way Undine rests her hand on Christoph’s neck and looks at him up close brings to mind the time when you begin to like someone again with a heart still bruised by a breakup.
The memory of a love that has ended and feelings just beginning can exist in the same person. Finding your way through those feelings and getting closer to someone do not always happen in that order.
#Undine #ChristianPetzold
Read the full story: https://www.shampoo.app/magazine/en/undine-2020