THE STORY – On a weekend trip, Laura survives a car crash. Unhurt but shaken, Laura is taken in by a local women who witnessed the accident, and cares for her. Despite her families resistance, they enter into a routine.
THE CAST – Paula Beer, Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt & Enno Trebs
THE TEAM – Christian Petzold (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 86 Minutes
Christian Petzold loves trilogies. Fans of the great German filmmaker’s oeuvre might already be familiar with his notable three-film sagas. Upon the release of his first theatrical feature, “The State I Am In” (2000), Petzold quickly wrapped his Ghosts trilogy with the homonymously titled “Ghosts” (2005) and “Yella” (2007). After a brief detour at the Venice Film Festival with his Postman Always Rings Twice-riff “Jerichow” (2008), Petzold quickly started production on his next thematic tapestry. “The Love in Times of Oppressive Systems” trilogy embodies the best aspects of Petzold’s auteurism, as “Barbara” (2012), “Phoenix” (2014), and “Transit” (2018) amplify their tales of desperation and identity through their thematic similarities. While the first two entries are unabashed period pieces set in different decades of German history, the trilogy concludes with a heartbreaking contemporary masterpiece commenting on our slow descent toward present-day fascism. Petzold’s series is urgent, emanating from his empathetic tales of resilience, identity, and camaraderie.
With his latest feature, Petzold might have just completed another notable trilogy. While the trio of films remains unofficial, his final addition to his car-crash symphony is a delightfully minimalist story of reinvention. In “Wolfsburg” (2003), “Yella” (2007), and his latest, “Mirrors No. 3,” Petzold utilizes the brutality of a car crash as the inciting spark to examine his character’s interiority. After a cowardly hit-and-run, “Wolfsburg” utilizes the plot device to commentate on the persistence of guilt that consumes his protagonist’s psyche. With “Yella,” Petzold borrows narrative beats from “Carnival of Souls” (1962) to speak on the pressures of late-stage capitalism. The film magnifies its cinematic car crash to literally submerge its titular heroine into the depths of dissociative white-collar society.
In many ways, the car crash cacophony mimics Lewis Carroll’s rabbit hole to Wonderland. The crash is a form of literal rebirth for his characters, as their autonomy drastically changes in the fallout of their wreckage. “Mirrors No. 3” begins no differently from “Wolfsburg” and “Yella.” Before the crashes occur, Petzold places his audience in his protagonists’ shoes just minutes before their tragedies unfold. He notably establishes their discontent through passing conversation and irritable silence. With “Mirrors No.3,” Petzold’s close collaborator Paula Beer expertly embodies her protagonist’s sorrow through the absence of the spoken word. Her dissociative turn as Laura only amplifies the lack of love that permeates her exhaustive social routines. Her character’s malaise speaks at a universal volume.
As the film progresses into an unconventional found-family parable, Laura’s introverted mannerisms slowly soften in the aftermath of her death-defying incident. Beer finds subtlety and beauty in her character’s quotidian satisfactions. The film embraces the simplicity of rural living as the supporting cast slowly finds consolidation and closure in the most unlikely of places. “Mirrors No.3” is one of Petzold’s most reserved works, largely keeping its narrative in one centralized location. What could have easily evolved into an expositional saccharine slog, the simplicity of Petzold’s storytelling provides more room for authenticity in his directorial methodology. “Mirrors No.3” moves briskly, telling its tale of personal growth through a minimalist lens. Petzold embraces subtext as the film’s primary drive, telling his story with healthy dosages of ambiguity. The film begins as a compelling mystery and ends with a warm gesture of hope for his grief-stricken characters.
Instead of finding grandeur in his usual Hitchockian inspirations, Petzold largely borrows from the minimalism of great American short stories as his primary artistic ethos. While it doesn’t replicate the same urgency or emotional heights of his “Love in Times of Oppressive Systems” trilogy, “Mirrors No.3” manages to break the mold by keeping things simple. Thus, through the blossoming resurrection found within his characters’ revelations, Petzold concludes his unofficial car-crash saga with a more optimistic view of our changing world. While the morally ambiguous melodrama of “Wolfsburg” and “Yella” offers rich subjectivity, “Mirrors No 3” survives its crash with a compelling tale of compassion.
