Undine

Paula Beer stars in this romance/tragedy about a woman, possibly an ancient water spirit, who loves and hates with equal devotion.

Is “Undine” a story of supernatural romance, or just the tale of a mentally unbalanced woman who seems to love and hate with equal devotion?

I’m not sure, and I’m not sure we’re supposed to know. 

This German romance/tragedy follows Undine, played by Paula Beer, who is named after a mythical water nymph who falls in love with a mortal man but is doomed to die when he is unfaithful to her. In this telling from writer/director Christian Petzold, though, she is more of a vengeful spirit than haunted victim.

As we first meet her, Undine is being dumped by her boyfriend, Johannes (Jacob Matschenz). They are having coffee at the little restaurant next to the Berlin museum where she works as a historian (though I’d call her job more of a high-end tour guide, giving talks to foreign visitors).

Johannes has a very concerned look on this face that also seems very practiced. He has really good hair and the air of someone who doesn’t have to worry about money and didn’t labor to reach that state. He has found someone (Julia Franz Richter) that he would prefer to be with, so even though he has told Undine he will love her forever, to him it’s a simple matter to make the switch, enduring no cost other than the price of a coffee.

Undine is having none of it, however. She coldly instructs Johannes that she will kill him if he leaves her. She orders him to wait at the shop while she gives her talk to tourists, and if he is not there when she returns, his death is assured. He lingers for a bit, but then off he trots.

Obviously at this point the audience is not sure how to feel about Undine. Is she suffering from mental illness? As played by Beer, this would not seem to be the case. She seems always in control of her emotions and calculating about getting what she wants. So is there a chilling darkness inside her, pushing to get out?

These concerns are laid aside for a time as she meets Christoph, a commercial diver who caught her tour and offers to buy her a coffee. He is the opposite of Johannes, seemingly introspective and even shy. Played by Franz Rogowski, Christoph speaks in a soft, apologetic tone touched by a slight speech impediment from a cleft lip, reminding us very much of a young Joaquin Phoenix.

They have a strange meeting accident involving an aquarium from which Undine hears a voice, part warning and part reassurance. So it seems the water spirits are blessing this new union. 

Later he takes her on one of his underwater trips where he has written her name under a bridge, and they encounter a legendary mammoth catfish in a way that’s both traumatic and magical. And he gives her a miniature statue from the aquarium of an older-school version of his diving equipment with a big bell helmet. This will become their totem.

Things go on from there. Undine appears to truly fall in love with Christoph, as opposed to her feelings for Johannes (who we’ll see again), which felt more like a greedy form of possession than ardor. Undine needs to feel needed, and when she is she is a paragon of compassion, and when she is not her malevolence can be frightening.

Petzold, Beer and Rogowski previously teamed up for 2018’s “Transit,” about a man who impersonates an author and then falls for his widow.

I liked a lot of things about this movie but not the sum total. Beer has terrific onscreen presence and commands our attention. Even at 89 minutes long, it’s very languid in its pacing and wants to linger over things that detract from the romantic impulses that are at its center. For example, Petzold holds on Undine’s speeches about the history of Berlin, which she herself says are boring, and she’s right. 

I think he’s trying to make some sort of point about the reunification of Germany, the transition from socialism to capitalism, and the often transitory nature of recalling that which has passed. If so, maybe you have to be German to get it — to these American ears, it’s dead screen time.

One interesting thing about European versus American films is you don’t see a lot of domestic movies in which the woman is the romantic primary actor rather than the object of desire. Even our romcom female protagonists tend to be frazzled and flighty and waiting for some stud to come along and calm her down.

Undine may be an ancient water spirit and may or may not be murderously evil, but at least she’s setting things into motion rather than waiting for love to happen to her.