From the outset of assembly Laura (Paula Beer), she appears misplaced and adrift. Peering over the railing of the freeway whereas automobiles honk in passing, it’s unclear what she is doing right here, nor what she plans to do.
Mirrors No. 3, Christian Petzold’s fourth collaboration with Beer, is a smooth and delicately noticed story of doubling and need. Laura is only one of many characters seemingly floating on by, simply confused for, and brought in by, whoever occurs to be close to. Whether or not Laura is contemplating suicide is an elusive query that goes unanswered. A college music pupil, Laura has an attuned ear however a darkish air about her.
At some point, as she is driving from Berlin to a weekend away along with her boyfriend, Jakob (Philip Froissant), she catches eyes with a girl tending to her backyard within the nation. For no matter cause, Laura instantly calls for to be taken again dwelling, and on the street again, she and Jakob crash proper exterior her dwelling. He dies whereas she will get nothing however a scratch.
Betty (Barbara Auer) takes Laura in and, with a stunning quantity of informality, agrees to deal with her as she recovers. Although Laura is seemingly unhurt, she prefers to stay round Betty’s nation dwelling, ingesting espresso and consuming pastries and adorning the clothes laid out for her.
As Betty, Auer carries a heaviness within the eyes, and it’s to her and Petzold’s credit score {that a} profound sense of loss is communicated with out it ever being spelled out. In a short second so fast it nearly goes undetected, Betty calls Laura by the identify Yelena, earlier than correcting herself with alacrity. Who Yelena is or was stays a thriller for a lot of the movie, however regardless of the case, Laura is cautious and type to not pry.
Laura is clearly some form of alternative for Yelena. Betty and her emotionally distant husband, Richard (Matthias Brandt), a automobile mechanic who operates a enterprise with innocent criminality together with his son, Max (Enno Trebs), are hospitable to Laura but in addition skittish, as if terrified to scare away a stray kitten.
Over the course of 9 days, Laura embeds herself into the material of this delicate familial material. Her mere presence appears to sign a therapeutic shift. Betty and Richard instantly begin spending extra time collectively, plucking plums from the river to bake a cake; Max’s tough exterior melts to disclose a music-loving gentleman.
Miroirs No. 3 Continues Petzold’s Predilection For The Unspeakable Bonds Between Strangers
With clear symbolism, Petzold makes use of the very home as a metonym for the household unit. An out-of-tune piano, a dripping faucet, a temperamental dishwasher, a seat-less bicycle; these are simply a number of the home objects which are on the fritz and which Betty had casually accepted of their respective circumstances till Laura’s auspicious arrival. Abruptly, new life blooms.
Miroirs No. 3 is a bucolic, poetic movie of easy magnificence with mild, magical touches concerning the capacity of a stranger’s love. Just like the matriarch at its heart, it’s a heat, hospitable movie that welcomes you in earlier than divulging its painful secrets and techniques. Even because the truths bleed out and Laura finds herself in a wierd predicament, Petzold’s characters act with charming ranges of self-interest, by no means behaving harmfully nor obscenely.
In one in every of Petzold’s strongest remaining acts, the filmmaker elicits the prowess of communication by way of artwork. By way of area and time, by life and dying, connections are cast. Individuals could be whomever you need them to be.
- Launch Date
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August 27, 2025
- Runtime
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86 minutes
- Director
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Christian Petzold
- Writers
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Christian Petzold
- Producers
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Caroline von Senden, Julius Windhorst, Claudia Tronnier
