MIROIRS NO. 3 – Review by Diane Carson
Miroirs No. 3 Follows a Grieving Family’s Struggle to Reconnect
A tragedy lies at the heart of German writer/director Christian Petzold’s Miroirs No. 3. Surviving a catastrophic car crash in a rural area, Laura (Paula Beer) accepts the support and comfort provided by Betty (Barbara Auer), a nearby resident who struggles to reclaim her own emotional health as much as she helps Laura cope with her languor. That is to say that the recent death of Betty’s daughter has left her as uninterested in life as Laura seems to be. Both experience an omnipresent ennui.
Shaken from the accident, distraught, Laura asks to stay with Betty, who agrees. Thus begins a psychological drama of initially mystifying bonds and haunted memories. Impacting her involvement with and increasing her devotion to Paula, Betty tolerates a tense relationship with her estranged husband Richard (Matthias Brandt) and son Max (Enno Trebs), auto mechanics living nearby who illegally disable automobile GPS tracking devices. The question is whether the fabricated mother-daughter relationship will provide needed healing and reintegration into life or derail progress in their comparable grief. Throughout their evolving arrangement, a disturbing, melancholic quality characterizes their subdued, almost dreamlike interaction, Paula a surrogate daughter.
Setting the scene for their riveting rapport, in their first contact, Betty’s stunned gaze captivates Laura as she and her boyfriend Jakob (Philip Froissant) drive past Betty all in black busily painting her yard’s fence a brilliant white (metaphors abound). Laura and Betty clearly share an immediate, uncanny connection. Their future association lies in acceptance of exactly such enigmatic, fleeting encounters, though Betty’s potentially unanticipated link with Laura will gradually, tenderly develop into something much more impactful. In press notes, writer/director Petzold explains the curious opening scene as Laura’s first perception of death, though the accident occurs entirely off screen with only loud sound heard. Petzold further describes the idea for the film occurring to him while shooting Afire. He happened, fortuitously, to notice a city gate with “individual stones that want to fall but, in that act, hold each other up.” Enter Paula and Betty.
Adding ironic symbolism, Richard and Max fix cars but, as Petzold notes, they can’t repair what is broken in their family. Moreover, only a two-lane road connects the father and son’s place with Betty’s house, one accessed more often than not by bicycle with “everyone riding on their own track,” as Petzold directed them to do. The understated, superb performances and, especially, the eloquent, quiet nonverbal interaction between Laura and Betty establish a steadily intensifying drama of cautious emotional investment. As Laura, Paula Beer employs a restrained, minimalist performance matched by Barbara Auer’s implosive Betty. Wisely, cinematographer Hanns Fromm prioritizes their and others’ nonverbal reactions more than their physical action. This film is about character definition, a fairy tale of regaining energy and acceptance of life’s challenges.
The title Miroirs No. 3, Une Barque Sur L’ocean (A Barge on the Ocean) comes from Maurice Ravel’s 1905 five movement piano suite, Miroirs. A masterpiece with technical challenges, Miroirs No. 3’s diverse rhythms and alternating tempos suggest unsettling waves of emotion along with physical volatility, a fitting musical commentary on the loss vexing the family. Storms toss and threaten to destroy the Boat on the Ocean, the survivors “trying to build a life raft out of the debris. That’s the story of the film. The castaways swim towards each other and try to . . . form a life raft and reach the shore. That’s the metaphor,” declares Petzold. Appropriately heard at the film’s close, pianist Adriana von Franqué recorded Ravel’s suite specifically for the Miroirs No. 3 soundtrack. In addition, Laura, a piano student before the automobile accident, plays Chopin near the perfect conclusion. A poignant pairing of distress and recovery, in German with English subtitles, Miroirs No. 3 is available for streaming now.
