‘Mirrors No. 3’ review: Rich study of trauma and grief unfolds in the German countryside

Dir/scr: Christian Petzold. Germany. 2025. 86 minutes.

Having survived a country-road automotive crash that killed her boyfriend, Berlin music scholar Laura (Paula Beer) is bodily unhurt however mentally shaken. At Laura’s surprising request, Betty (Barbara Auer), the native lady who witnessed the incident, affords her a spot to remain and recuperate, in Christian Petzold’s deft psychological drama in regards to the unorthodox methods by which broken individuals discover to restore themselves following trauma.

Pleasingly textured and interesting characters

This fourth collaboration between Petzold and Beer is an train in economic system, pared again to the barest of bones. Though it’s a wisp of a factor, it delivers wealthy rewards. Mirrors No. 3 (which takes its title from the third motion of a Ravel piano suite) is a sublime demonstration of what will be achieved with restricted substances within the palms of an ingenious inventive crew and a first-rate solid. The modest scale of the movie maybe explains its premiere in Cannes’ Administrators’ Fortnight reasonably than the primary Competitors, however the image’s low-key strategy and intimacy is unlikely to dent its arthouse enchantment. The Match Manufacturing facility has already closed a number of offers for the title, together with Metrograph Footage for North America.

The themes of loss and grief counsel a return to extra brooding and pensive territory for Petzold, following the astringent humour of his most up-to-date image, Afire. However Miroirs carries its emotional weight evenly. And whereas this enigmatic puzzle of an image will not be a comedy as such, there’s light humour to be glimpsed between the collected baggage of Betty and her household, and their new home visitor. 

Beer excels because the self-possessed however troubled Laura, whom we first meet staring distractedly at a river in a manner that means that she is perhaps about to throw herself into it. Her private magnetism, along with the suggestion of a knotty inside life, makes the character a fascinatingly unknowable presence – an individual onto whom others mission their wants. Of all the important thing figures within the story, we all know the least about what pains Laura. However Beer persuasively conveys a suggestion of one thing profoundly amiss from the beginning, even earlier than the crash that kills her companion.

A part of this seeding of Laura’s psychological well being disaster is expressed by way of the movie’s sound design, by Petzold’s common collaborator Dominik Schleier. Within the preliminary scenes, by which Laura floats, disconnected and adrift, by way of the streets of Berlin, the sounds of town are punchy and jagged, an awesome assault on a younger lady who’s discovering the world a bit an excessive amount of to cope with. Later, at Betty’s residence, the ambient sounds tackle a reassuring melodic high quality – hen music is foregrounded, together with the light play of the breeze within the leaves.

Refreshingly, the movie refuses to spell out the precise nature of Laura’s malaise. However Betty’s ache is extra clearly signposted. There’s an aching want in her eyes from the second she first catches sight of Laura. And a slip of the tongue – she calls her Yelena by mistake – provides a reputation to the loss in her life. The tongue-tied reactions of Betty’s husband Richard (Matthias Brandt) and son Max (Enno Trebs) after they first encounter Laura give some indication of the enormity of the disaster that the household has been processing up till this level.

Laura’s serene, sphinx-like presence in the home acts as a catalyst. Richard and Max, each of whom have been residing away from the household residence, grow to be common guests as soon as once more. And the damaged issues of their lives – a dripping faucet, a dishwasher, an out-of-tune piano, a bicycle, Betty and Richard’s marriage – are progressively mended. However this oasis of home concord is precariously balanced. Lastly, Max feels compelled to disclose a painful fact to Laura. It’s following this revelation that Petzold’s minimal strategy to the movie’s storytelling begins to really feel evasive – that is a type of uncommon photos which may have benefited from being a couple of minutes longer, if solely to present us an opportunity to spend a bit extra time within the firm of those pleasingly textured and interesting characters.