Miroirs No. 3
We can see that Laura (Paula Beer, "Undine," "Afire") is unhappy even before she arrives for a rural weekend with a music producer who is important to her boyfriend Jakob's (Philip Froissant) career and asks him to turn around and take her back home to Berlin. The producer tosses Jakob his car keys, suggesting he drive Laura to the train station, but the couple never make it in "Miroirs No. 3."
Laura's Review: B
The latest from writer/director Christian Petzold ("Phoenix," "Afire") is a most peculiar ghost story, a case of post-trauma shifting identities told with humor, heart and a dash of mystery. It isn't difficult to see where Petzold's film is heading, but the filmmaker's breezy touch and endearing, relatable cast keep us on board for the journey. (The film's title refers to the third in a five-part piano piece by Maurice Ravel and Laura will play 'Une barque sur l'océan,' evoking the film's reflective water imagery, in the last act.)
The very first image, that of Laura looking over the side of a bridge, is alarming, more so when she wanders beneath it, gazing upon the river running underneath. This is a woman who appears to be contemplating suicide, perhaps dissuaded in the moment by the serenity of an upright figure poling a flat boat along the water. Back home, she appears disoriented, telling Jakob that she thinks she's lost her bag, but he's intent on leaving, the producer and his partner waiting downstairs. As Debbi (Victoire Laly) zips down rural roads in a little red convertible, Laura locks eyes with an older woman standing alongside the road, each appearing to be jolted by recognition. Later, as Jakob drives back, he'll come to a screeching halt in front of the same woman. Petzold's constant cinematographer Hans Fromm's camera stays on that woman, Betty (Barbara Auer, "The Book Thief"), as we hear a crash a moment later. Betty runs towards the accident, finding Jakob dead and Laura shaken but relatively unharmed. She brings the young woman to her house, where Laura asks to stay.
That seems like a strange request, one that could be put down to shock, but Betty is happy to accommodate it and soon the two women are running the household together, Betty, who just once mistakenly called Laura 'Yeleni,' having found clothes for her that fit. When Betty tells Laura she's going into town for groceries, Laura asks to come along, wishing to contribute to the cooking. And Laura's specialty, Königsberger Klopse, surprises them both - Betty because it is her 'men's' favorite, Laura because she didn't realize Betty had a husband and son. The semi-estranged men, who have an auto repair business, are invited for dinner.
If it wasn't already quite clear Laura had become a stand-in for someone missing in Betty's life, we'll see that suspicion confirmed when her husband, Richard (Matthias Brandt, "Afire"), reacts poorly to the fourth place setting at her table, but both he and Max (Enno Trebs, "Afire") are taken aback when Laura enters the room carrying steaming pots. Dinner is awkward, but things begin to change, Richard and Betty's relationship healing, Max fixing things around the house, including the bicycle seat on what was once Yeleni's bike. But something is amiss, people stopping on the road to stare at the family on Betty's porch and Max, slower to warm up to the changes taking place, has a sudden, violent reaction to Laura which changes everything.
Petzold's film is full of little oddities, like the fact that that red sports car and Richard and Max's truck are both American and a sweatshirt given to Laura is a souvenir from Texas, or that half the family of an auto body shop uses bicycles for transportation while the newest addition arrived because of a fatal crash. Laura appears to have been pulled back from the same fate that took Yeleni and while Max's action breaks the dual spell, both Laura and his family have been transformed because it was cast. And if both Laura and Betty's behavior at the onset seems strange, Beer and Auer share such an immediate, warm comfort with each other, it is easy to accept. Trebs manages perhaps the most difficult role deftly, straddling both sides of the equation's emotions.
The filmmaker saves a moment both heartfelt and hilarious for his penultimate scene, identities camouflaged once again as Laura plays a piece evoking the serenity of water. "Miroirs No. 3" may have a light touch, but its psychology digs deep.
Robin's Review: B
Laura (Paula Beer), a Berlin music student and pianist, is visiting the German countryside when she is in a tragic accident. Shaken, but unhurt, she learns that her boyfriend is dead. A local lady, who witnessed the accident, kindly takes the young woman into her home to recuperate in "Miroirs No. 3."
Director Christian Petzold tells a simple story about a young woman who seems at odds with her life. When she, her boyfriend, Jakob (Philip Froissant), and another couple go on a boating trip, she changes her mind at the last minute and demands that Jacob take her back to the ferry.
Angry at the sudden change of plans, he drives recklessly and has a horrible accident. He is killed instantly but she is thrown clear with just minor injuries. The local woman who witnessed the accident, Betty (Barbara Auer), at the request of the EMT, offers to give Laura a place to recover. The offer is gladly accepted.
Life takes on a quiet normalcy as Laura fits in to the quiet solitude of the country. She and Betty fall into a pleasant day-to-day routine with Laura offering to cook for her host. When the older woman asks what she cooks, the response is "Koenigsberg dumplings." Betty is impressed as she cannot make the dish.
Things take a turn when Betty decides to invite her husband, Richard (Matthias Brandt), and son, Max (Enno Trebs), to dinner with Laura. They reluctantly agree. Things go well enough but Richard and Max mutter to each other about Betty's "meds." Prior to that, Betty called Laura, "Yelena," but nothing is said.
The"Yelena" moment tells volumes, at least to me, so the big reveal later is not a really a big revelation. I saw it coming. Still, the quiet life is a catharsis for Laura and she heals from the tragedy. How the story plays out does not have any twists as the psychology of the relationship between Betty and Laura is, early on, that of mother/daughter. Both women have their own needs and the actors play well off of each other.
The ending, which has a "life goes on" feel, seems fitting for me as Laura gets her life on track and Betty has the daughter, however vicariously, that she has missed for so long. It is a story of feelings and emotions and the two ladies own the film. The men have their place, too, but the ladies prevail.
1-2 Special releases "Miroirs No. 3" in select theaters on 3/20/26, expanding in subsequent weeks. Click here for theaters and showtimes.
