The director of Transit returns with a somewhat pointless film about an art historian who has a passionate affair with a diverChristian Petzold’s Undine is an intriguing,bemusing oddity of a film: a suspense drama-thriller with a fey supernatural twist. It’s a sphinx that, if not exactly without a secret, and has less of a secret than it thinks it has. And it is possible to advance away from the film less than convinced,but very impressed by the sheer force of Petzold’s film-making talent (recently so stunning in his drama Transit) but which has been here deployed for something which is a bit flimsy and foolish.
Paula Beer plays Undine who, as her name suggests, or may own intense sympathies with water. She lives in Berlin,and is a stylish and elegant historian who lectures on the city’s architectural history at the Berlin City Models exhibition. But she is also conducting an downhearted adulterous affair with Johannes (Jacob Matschenz), which is reaching its downhearted end at the film’s opening - revealing a flash of something excited and even violent in Undine.
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Source: theguardian.com