Undine

Movies to See Right Now

by
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is undine-1024x614.jpg
Photo caption: Paula Beer in UNDINE. Courtesy of MVFF.

This week, a mythical tragic romance, a preacher becomes an institution and the most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE.

IN THEATERS

Undine: Christian Petzold takes a mythical story and sets it in contemporary Germany. resulting in a romance that is operatic and supernatural and finally very tragic. But too slowly paced for me.

ON VIDEO

Billy Graham: This insightful biodoc explores how Billy Graham took evangelism out of backwoods revival tents and brought it to big city stadiums and television, becoming an institution in the process. And his fatal flaw – the need to pray with Presidents. Streaming at American Experience.

Drunk Bus: In this light and appealing coming of age comedy, a lovelorn slacker wallows in malaise until he meets a 300-pound Samoan security guy with facial tattoos. Laemmle.

My Memorial Day pick was We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company, the oral histories of regular men plunged into the most traumatic experiences of WW II and what they endured. Streaming on HBO Max.

Ed Harris and Annette Bening in THE FACE OF LOVE

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • The Dry: a mystery as psychological as it is procedural. In theaters and also streaming on AppleTV, YouTube and Google Play
  • Brewmance: barley, hops, yeast and underdogs. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play .
  • Hamlet/Horatio: More tragedy, less angst. Streaming widely.
  • Louder Than Bombs: An intricately constructed family drama. Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu and YouTube.
  • That Guy Dick Miller: Putting the “character” in “character actor:” Amazon (included with Prime).
  • Sword of Trust: comedy and so, so much more. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Run Lola Run: you’ll never see a more kinetic movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • The Times of Harvey Milk: my favorite political documentary. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play, HBO Max and Criterion Channel..
  • Tab Hunter Confidential: heartthrob in the closet. Amazon.
  • Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street: the origin story of an institution. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play.
  • The Face of Love: Who is she really in love with? Amazon.
  • Augustine: obsession, passion and the birth of a science. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • The Brainwashing of My Dad: some insight into our national madness. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

ON TV

This is not a great week for Turner Classic Movies, so I have no television recommendations.

UNDINE: a slow burn, barely flickering

by
Paula Beer in UNDINE. Courtesy of MVFF.

In Christian Petzold’s German tragic romance Undine, Paula Beer plays the title character, a young woman of passion and unproven emotional stability. One morning, she experiences a heartbreaking breakup and rebounds into a profound love story. The course of that love affair becomes operatic and supernatural, and very tragic.

In mythology, Undine was a water nymph, and Petzold maintains the story framework of the original legend, but sets it in contemporary times.  Undine meets Christoph (Franz Rogowski). I often roll my eyes at a “meet cute”, and I sure didn’t expect one from Euro art film director Petzold, but this one really works.  Christoph is capitated by Undine and persists in courting her.  He becomes obsessed, she less so, and a tragic romance ensues.

Undine strives for the operatic but is too much of a slow burn (as in barely flickering at times).

I was thrilled by Petzold’s Barbara and then his Phoenix.  I was much less satisfied by his Transit (also with Rogowski and Beer). I’m becoming less of a Petzold enthusiast after these last two disappointments.

Beer, as she was in Transit, is exceptionally expressive and captivating. Rogowski (whose supporting character in Victoria was the most memorable turn in that film) excels when he plays a haunted man – as he does here and in Transit.

I saw Undine at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October, and it opens in Bay Area theaters this weekend.