Writer-director Christian Petzold‘s fourth collaboration with actor Paula Beer is another enriching tale of the many ways in which human beings co-exist and continue to transform each other’s lives. It is a film of small wonders, one where the frame stays still and carefully considers the suggestions without overstepping it. It is again the trust in Beer’s presence which holds the film together.
The premise
Mirrors No 3 begins with Laura (Paula Beer) standing on the road, looking over the bridge. What’s troubling her? There’s something she doesn’t want to share, and Petzold lets her be without demanding any answers. She’s here but somehow absent-minded, unable to hide her disconnect. But tragedy awaits her.
Linda’s boyfriend dies in a car accident, but she miraculously emerges unscathed. It is an older woman by the road who helps Linda get up and takes her home. Her name is Betty (Barbara Auer). Soon, we will learn that Betty lives alone while her husband (Matthias Brandt) and son (Enno Trebs) work at the local car garage. Linda is a stranger, but Betty doesn’t mind her in the house, and to no surprise, they get along like a team. In Petzold’s world, women are no strangers to pain and loss; there’s a gentleness in the way their lives interconnect so randomly and yet so deeply.
Paula Beer’s presence is crucial
Linda wakes up to her coffee lying by the table, wears the clothes that even fit her perfectly, and accepts the silent assurance of a motherly figure in Betty. It somehow heals her, and Beer’s face- so profoundly alive and opaque- is used wonderfully to suggest the many little joys in Linda’s newfound connections. There’s a lot of warmth and generosity in the way Petzold uses her frame and steely presence.
As Laura gets too close, the film starts to unravel, as carefully as ever. The lush and gorgeous German countryside offers a fable-like quality in cinematographer Hans Fromm, as Petzold moves ahead with masterful economy and pace. Even if there’s an inevitable suspense that guards the tone of this story, Petzold connects the dots of this psychological drama about grief and the way we process trauma, without diminishing any of its emotional complexities.
Mirrors No 3 is a film that grows inside the mind and reveals itself like a magic trick. Like the life-force of a Mary Oliver poem, this film suggests that the world might be a cruel and unfair place, but there are ways in which it can be generously transformative too. Life’s smallest interconnectedness gives it meaning, even gently replenishes it. Here is a filmmaker who merely suggests, whose characters exist just as they are, who places an enormous amount of trust in the viewer to fill the spaces. Minor in scope yet so vast in its approach to life’s little secrets and lessons, Mirrors No 3 is one film to savour.
Mirrors No 3 premiered at the International Film Festival of Kerala.
