Slow Reveal of a Myth
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): I may be running out of rationalized-excuses to keep avoiding movie theaters I could go to in my San Francisco East Bay-vicinity, although except for Undine (which I can rent much cheaper than paying even afternoon matinee prices for myself and my wife) there’s truly nothing playing at any of them that I really want to see anyway, so for now I remain in streaming mode where even there Undine was my only mostly-interested-choice; maybe you’ll want to watch it as well if I can give you enough reasons to do so with several platforms renting it for you to pick from (I used Amazon Prime). Although the trailer below wouldn’t clarify the key aspect of this film enough to fully know about it before watching, the main woman—named Undine—is actually a water sprite (from a long-lived-European-legend-tradition; see Related Links for the director’s comments on this crucial—as well as traditionally-sexist—aspect of his current work, which he wants to explore, as well as undermine) who can become human if she shares love with a man; however, the complication is he must remain faithful or else she has to kill him, then return to her liquid home rather than remain on dry land. If you know that going in (which is why I hope you’ll accept I haven’t truly dumped a spoiler on you right from the start) rather than having to piece it together as the story unfolds I think you can better appreciate the events of this interpersonal-driven-narrative, soothing at times in the romantic scenes, tensely-disturbing at others when relationships are in trouble, as they are here even in the opening minutes when Undine’s shocked to find her current guy’s on the way out (in more meanings of that timely-phrase than he could have imagined).
Given this is a German film you’ll either have to be fluent in that language or read subtitles so do keep that in mind regarding rental, but I don’t think they provide enough distraction to pull you away from the emotional development of these characters, even as some logical confusion (for me, at least) about certain plot points may leave you a bit more flustered than you’d prefer, keeping my rating at a restrained-3½ stars (a bit of a rut for me in that I’ve given it to the last 5 films I’ve reviewed: all interesting in their own ways but nothing special, as with almost every 2021 release I’ve seen so far). Also, in the Short Takes section I’ll offer suggestions for some choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, that tedious software!) plus my always-standard-dose of industry-related-trivia.
Here’s the trailer for Undine:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate
that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $. To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid those important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters like this:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: Undine Wibeau (Paula Beer) is at an outdoor café in Berlin with her lover, Johannes (Jacob Matschenz), as we’re thrown right into their relationship-tension because he says he’s going to leave her to be with Nora (Julia Franz Richter) which shocks Undine because it’s so unexpected, then she shocks us by telling him if they break up she’ll have to kill him (!)—which might be a desperation attempt at sick-humor by someone who doesn’t want to get dumped, but it’s clear from her calm demeanor she’s “deadly” serious. Undine asks Johannes to wait there for her for half an hour as she needs to run next door to a state museum where her job as an historian is to provide tours for local/international visitors, talking about the history of the city while showing them a huge model of Berlin flanked by even larger photographs on the walls of this showroom. When she returns from her assignment Johannes is gone so she walks into the café’s inner section, to see if she can find him there, where she immediately finds herself in a conversation with Christoph (Franz Rogowski), who was just part of her tour group, when we hear a muffled-voice (calling to her?). Suddenly a large aquarium above them breaks; she pushes him out of the way, takes the brunt of the water surge so he immediately helps get her stabilized, pulling small pieces of glass from her slightly-bleeding-body. He’s an industrial diver (as a “souvenir” of this event she keeps a little diver-doll that had been in the fishtank), they bond quickly even as the café owner’s furious with them, assuming they’re somehow responsible for the damage. Next, we see Christoph at work underwater in a lake where a huge catfish, Gunther, swims by, but when he’s pulled back to the surface by co-worker Monika (Maryam Zaree) neither she nor others believe this fabled fish is real until he shows them video of it taken by his underwater body-cam. When we see him with Undine again they’ve quickly moved into a sexual relationship (at this point we don’t know what’s become of Johannes), then she joins him on a dive where Christoph’s puzzled by a stone structure carrying Undine’s name.
Suddenly, Gunther swims by again so she strips off her gear to swim with the human-sized-fish, after which Christoph brings her to the surface, revives her as he provides resuscitation to the rhythm of the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” (an actual recommendation for such a crucial act as the beat’s correct for restarting the heart; to get a sense of that, take a listen). After more sex later, they’re walking along when they pass Johannes and Nora, Undine looks back at them. Next day they’re off to their separate jobs when Johannes shows up, says he made a mistake to choose Nora, wants to be back with Undine. She’s not interested, goes home, gets a call from Christoph who’s upset with her as he suddenly senses the previous (returning?) connection with Johannes, hangs up.
⇒She calls back several times but only gets his message machine so the next day she goes to his workplace where distraught Monica tells her Christoph got caught under the water, was without oxygen for 12 minutes, is now at the hospital where he’s ruled as brain-dead; when Undine asks Monica if he said anything about her—given she’s still upset from the previous-night’s-phone call—Monica gets furious, telling Undine the accident happened yesterday, he couldn’t have called when she says he did. Undine then goes to where Johannes and Nora live, slips in while he’s swimming in a pool at night; Undine enters the pool, drowns him, then she goes underwater back at the lake where Christoph’s accident occurred. Simultaneously, at the hospital Christoph comes back to consciousness, calling for Undine, later finds she’s no longer at her job or apartment. Two years later, we find Christoph involved with Monika (she’s pregnant), but when he's on a dive he briefly encounters Undine as some sort of water creature (still looks completely human, although ghost-like; yet she doesn’t show up on his video), goes back to the lake that night, dives in without gear, briefly connects with her again (she gives him the little diver-doll), then he resurfaces, returns to Monika.⇐
So What? I’ll admit that had I been better informed about the multinational-European mythology developed over centuries in various artforms about entities such as Undine—either as an individual (usually a female given the ancient connection between women and water) or a group of humanoid-water-dwellers, traced back to the classical Greek stories of the Nereids, attendants of sea-king-Poseidon, giving rise over the centuries to tales of mermaids and other types of human-like-sea-creatures*—I’d have been able to more fully understand/appreciate what goes on in Undine without having to piece together what I could from watching elements of the film, enhancing them with some after-the-fact-Internet-searches (while noting in the process a few marginal similarities to Splash [Ron Howard, 1984; Daryl Hannah as a mermaid, Tom Hanks as her landlubber-love-interest] and The Shape of Water [Guillermo del Toro—Oscar’s Best Director for 2017; Doug Jones as a humanoid amphibian, Sally Hawkins as his deaf, terrestrial lover; review in our January 4, 2018 posting], although we find in both of those romantic aquatic-connections-to-land-dweller-tales the fully-human of the lover-pair is granted undersea-abilities by the water-creature so they can live their newfound-lives in the depths whereas in Undine there’s seemingly no hope of such union between our star-crossed-couple because in this continuation of an ancient tale she’s the one who must accommodate to land so long as the man continues as faithful, dire consequences should he stray).
*More details on this topic can be found at this site and this one, with implications the attraction to the human begins with the Undine; if so, that would help explain how this particular Undine might have started the connection with Johannes, although it’s also clear here Christoph is the one immediately smitten with her. How she establishes her new identity, gains museum credentials, keeps her past from Johannes isn't explained, although her affair with Christoph moves so quickly she never has time nor any need to hide anything about her life from him before all hell breaks loose.
Thus, any unawareness on your part about this Undine’s background in her specific manifestation (as with my limitations) may make following the events of this narrative a bit confusing, especially around topics such as: (1) How do these land-water-relationships begin in the first place? It would seem she’d have to see, initially pursue Johannes as he’d be unlikely to believe she’s just swimming around underwater.), or (2) why didn’t Undine have to immediately respond to Johannes’ rejection? (Yes, she was immediately swept away by Christoph, but did that negate—at least for awhile—her required-termination of Johannes?). If such continuity questions trouble you as they do me, you might easily understand why I feel compelled to keep this otherwise-intriguing-story at the 3½ stars level. ⇒Further, I have to assume Christoph’s near-death-accident is somehow in response to his apparent rejection of Undine—although if we strictly follow the film’s chronology his almost-fatal-event occurred before he called her with a seeming-breakup, not to mention we never learn how he could have made this call if he was already in a brain-dead-coma—with his release from this “punishment” (although not the actual death the myth says he’d deserve) occurring when she finally kills Johannes, although if he’s willing to come back to her does her first lover still need to die? Or does she realize that killing Johannes will release Christoph from his likely-worse-than-actual-death-fate?⇐ There’s a lot to ponder here, requiring a viewer’s decision as to whether this cluster of ambiguity just makes the story all the more compelling or does it undermine the film’s internal logic enough to almost derail it? I’m trying to lean toward the former, but the latter keeps nagging at me.
Bottom Line Final Comments: While Undine’s played in Germany for about a year now and in a few other European countries since late 2020 for a total of just under $1 million in box-office receipts, it’s only recently (last weekend) come to 56 domestic (U.S.-Canada) theaters, taking in a mere $27,500 so far, so if you’re interested your best bet is likely to follow me into streamingland where a visit to JustWatch will yield several rental options in the $5.99-$7.99 range, which I think could be well worth your time if you mostly focus on it as a somewhat-tortured-relationship-drama that only hints at its mythological aspects until enough clues are revealed by the end for you to understand, then contemplate, the deeper (so to speak) aspects of this most-unusual-film. As noted in the review section just above there are some fundamental narrative aspects I’m not all that comfortable with, but I guess if we’re dealing with mythologies we can’t expect pure rationality and either have to accept what’s given as supportive of this offbeat film or be bothered enough to keep saying, “Yeah, but …?” Once more, I’ll opt for the former, just barely, because there are a lot of interesting aspects here—including a marvelous performance by Beer, frequently cited as a main attraction by the CCAL (Rotten Tomatoes critics are quite supportive with 88% positive reviews, those at Metacritic equally so with a 75% average score)—but if you’re looking for something you can totally justify, even as you can easily comprehend the broad outlines of this plot including its resolution, Undine could prove to be a bit more frustrating than you’d prefer to see when it’s all done.
However, if you can “swim” past such obstacles, I think you’d find Undine to be well worth your time (nevertheless, just as I found successful elements of The Woman at the Window [Joe Wright; review in our May 20, 2021 posting] but don’t think it holds a very strong candle to Rear Window [Alfred Hitchcock, 1954—just watched it again this week via Netflix DVD], I’d have to say if you’re making a rental choice of this kind of fantasy-material I’d easily go with The Shape of Water [again, check JustWatch to consider several options of free streaming/$3.99 rentals]). Before I drown you in recommendations-laced-with-hesitations, though, why don’t I bring this cluster of commentary to a close with my usual wrap-up tactic of a Musical Metaphor? I suppose I could just paddle back to “Stayin’ Alive,” because that’s what most of these primary characters are trying to accomplish in their various ways ⇒(excluding Johannes, through no grievous fault of his own, who has little control of his ultimate fate)⇐ although Undine has nothing to do with navigating the tough streets of NYC, but instead I’ll turn to Undine’s specific situation where all she tried to accomplish was lost (although she does provide a selfless salvation for Christoph) so she finds herself essentially at “The End of the World” (composer Arthur Kent, lyricist Sylvia Dee; don’t confuse it with a totally different song of the same name by Billie Eilish), first made a hit by Skeeter Davis in 1963 (on the album cleverly titled Skeeter Davis Sings The End of the World) which I’ll use here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGLPvnbryGU (a 1965 live performance) because with her hairdo and solemnly speaking some of the lyrics it’s just odd enough today to enhance the aquatic-oddness of Undine (sure, the song’s melodramatic—“Why does the sea rush to shore? Don’t they know it’s the end of the world? ‘Cause you don’t love me anymore”—but certain aspects of this film are as well). If you’d like a more-refined-rendition here are The Carpenters (from 1974, song on their 1975 Live in Japan album), but I’ll actually end here with the version by Herman's Hermits (date unknown, must be mid-1960s [I probably saw them perform this at the 1969 Ohio State Fair]) with atrocious video but, then again, it looks like it was shot underwater so we've come full circle back to what Undine’s ultimately all about.
Suggestions for TCM cablecasts
At least until the pandemic subsides Two Guys also want to encourage you to consider movies you might be interested in that don’t require subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, similar Internet platforms (we may well be stuck inside for longer than those 30-day-free-initial-offers), or premium-tier-cable-TV-fees. While there are a good number of video networks offering movies of various sorts (mostly broken up by commercials), one dependable source of fine cinematic programming is Turner Classic Movies (available in lots of basic-cable-packages) so I’ll be offering suggestions of possible choices for you running from Thursday afternoon of the current week (I usually get this blog posted by early Thursday mornings) on through Thursday morning of the following week. All times are for U.S. Pacific zone so if you see something of interest please verify actual show time in your area for the day listed. These recommendations are my particular favorites (no matter when they’re on, although some of those early-day-ones might need to be recorded, watched later), but there’s considerably more to pick from you might like even better; feel free to explore their entire schedule here. You can also click the down arrow at the right of each listing for additional, useful info.
I’ll bet if you checked that entire schedule link just above you’d find other options of interest, but these are the only ones grabbing my attention at present. Please dig in further for other possibilities.
Thursday June 10, 2021
2:00 PM A Star Is Born (George Cukor, 1954) First musical version of this story (original drama in 1937, William A. Wellman); James Mason as movie star Norman Maine, Judy Garland as protégé Esther Blodgett (later Vicki Lester/“Mrs. Norman Maine”), since retold twice as musicals with the basic plot of an up-and-comer taking the spotlight from an established-but-fading-star. For me, the best of these 4 versions, especially because of Garland’s rendition of “The Man Who Got Away.”
Friday June 11, 2021
3:00 PM The Blue Angel (Josef Von Sternberg, 1930) An essential film in your knowledge of world cinema where strict high school teacher Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings, possibly the greatest of silent/early sound film actors) suddenly falls in love with lusty cabaret singer Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich) which costs him his job so he marries her, joins the theatre troupe only to be come the latest of her discarded conquests. Film’s success led to noted careers for director and Dietrich. Hopefully this is the original German version (with subtitles) rather than the atrocious English-language version made at the same time with the same cast but comes across as terribly clumsy.
Monday June 14, 2021
8:00 PM Limelight (Charlie Chaplin, 1952) The last of Chaplin’s notable films (although he did direct a couple of later ones) in which he revisits his own career as a stage clown in a story set in London, 1914, just before WW II. At this point in his life the once-famous entertainer is now an alcoholic has-been but he saves a young dancer from suicide, then steps aside from her admiration so she can pursue romance with a more-appropriate, younger partner. The finale features the only on-screen appearance of Chaplin and Buster Keaton as they perform a marvelously-choreographed routine.
Wednesday June 16, 2021
1:30 AM Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1952) Beloved-musical (a standard for achievement in its genre) starring Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Jean Hagen, and Cyd Charisse about Hollywood’s clumsy transition into sound movies, plus romance between a male star and a female newcomer with great potential; features the fabulous “Broadway Melody” sequence, one of the grandest of all MGM spectaculars, along with many songs from previous MGM musicals.
5:00 PM A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951) From Tennessee Williams’ equally-searing play (it’s more cruel, as Hays Code-dominated films had to conform to “decency” standards), this masterpiece of interpersonal-brutality stars Marlon Brando at maybe his best but acting Oscars went to Vivien Leigh (Actress), Karl Malden (Supporting Actor), Kim Hunter (Supporting Actress), plus one for B&W Art Direction and 7 other noms including Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay (Williams). “Stella!”—what more can I say? Even with the censorship, an all-time filmic triumph.
Thursday June 17, 2021
11:00 AM His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940) Adapted from Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur play, The Front Page, this turns a sensationalistic-journalism-story into something with those aspects but also becomes a screwball comedy where now-divorced newspaper editor Walter Burns (Gary Grant) conspires to get ex-wife Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) back (and on the payroll to cover a big story) despite her upcoming marriage to mild-mannered Ralph Bellamy. Famous rapid-fire dialogue.
If you’d like your own PDF of the rating/summary of this week's review, suggestions for TCM cablecasts, links to Two Guys info click this link to access then save, print, or whatever you need.
Other Cinema-Related Stuff: (1) New to Netflix in June 2021; (2) New to Amazon Prime in June 2021; (3) New to Hulu in June 2021; (4) New to Disney + in June 2021; (5) New to HBO/HBO Max in June 2021. As usual I’ll close out this section with Joni Mitchell’s "Big Yellow Taxi" (from her 1970 Ladies of the Canyon album)—because “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”—and a reminder that you can search streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
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Here’s more information about Undine:
https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/undine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nsE6gnKLB8 (27:19 interview with director-screenwriter Christian Petzold)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/undine_2020
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/undine
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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work. (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews-academic-articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)
If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world. I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.
By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check-out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile (quite an eternal while, in fact). Ken
P.S. Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker. But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion, lover, and wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"
—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest,
a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes and wanes over the months/years to come. But, just as we can raunchy at times (in private of course) Neil and his backing band, Promise of the Real, on that same night also did a lengthy, fantastic version of "Cowgirl in the Sand"
(19:06) which I’d also like to commit to this blog’s always-ending-tunes; I never tire of listening to it, then and now (one of my idle dreams is to play guitar even half this good).
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