Undine Movie Storyline. A man named Johannes (Jacob Matschenz) and a woman named Undine (Paula Beer) sit at a café. He’s met someone else. After wiping a tear from her face, she tells him that he has no choice—he can’t leave her. If he refuses, she’ll have to kill him. This threat is taken surprisingly well—the first sign that things may not be exactly what they seem. She goes off to give a presentation on Urban Development in Berlin, particularly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which is approaching its 30th anniversary, and tells Johannes that he will be there when she returns. He’s not.
As Undine begins to panic, her eyes fall on an aquarium in the coffee shop just as a young man named Christoph (Franz Rogowski) comes into the room. He saw her presentation and wants to spend time with her. As her eyes focus on the figure of an underwater diver in the aquarium, Christoph’s awkwardness knocks him into the shelf and the glass breaks, sending shards, water, and fish all over the two of them. You won’t see a stranger meet-cute all year. And yet Beer and Rogowski’s chemistry is instantly palpable. As they lie on the floor, they look into each other’s eyes and you believe they are instantly connected. It’s a reminder of how increasingly rare on-screen chemistry is in modern film as these two have something you just don’t see that often anymore.
Undine is a 2020 German-French romantic fantasy drama film directed by Christian Petzold. It had its world premiere on 23 February 2020 at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, where it was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the competition section. Paula Beer won the Silver Bear for Best Actress. It was released in theaters starting in Germany on June 11, 2020.
About the Story
Undine Wibeau (Paula Beer), a historian who lectures on the urban development of Berlin, is broken up with by a married man with whom she is having an affair, Johannes. She tells him that if he leaves her she will have to kill him, a reference to the myth of undine, and asks him to wait at a café for her while she delivers a lecture. After the lecture, she returns to the café to find he has left. While looking for him, a man who attended her lecture, Christoph, introduces himself to her, telling her that he is an industrial diver and asking her to have a coffee. Christoph accidentally breaks the aquarium in the café and the two are ejected. The two begin a long-distance relationship.
Christoph is fixing a turbine in the Lingese when he sees a giant catfish that he and his colleagues affectionally refer to as Big Gunther. Later, he and Undine meet up and he takes her diving. Undine floats away and almost drowns, but Christoph is able to drag her to shore and revive her. Before she returns to Berlin, he gifts her a small statue of a diver. He visits her at her apartment in Berlin, and while the two are out walking they pass Johannes and his partner Nora, with Undine and Johannes sharing a knowing look at one another.
After Christoph leaves, Johannes asks to meet with Undine, telling her he has made a mistake and should not have ended their relationship, but she rejects him. In the evening, Undine receives a call from Christoph asking about Johannes. He asks her if she was in love with him, but does not believe her when she denies it and hangs up. Undine leaves him a voicemail, but after receiving no response by the morning decides to visit him.
Arriving at the Lingese, she discovers that an accident left Christoph trapped underwater without air for 12 minutes and he has been hospitalized in a braindead state. She tells Christoph’s colleague, Monika, about the phone call, but Monika tells her that Christoph’s accident happened the previous afternoon and accuses her of lying.
Undine visits Johannes at his home, where he is swimming with Nora. After Nora heads inside, Undine enters the pool with Johannes and drowns him, before submerging herself in a body of water. At the same moment, Christoph wakes up yelling her name. Christoph travels to Berlin to look for Undine, but visiting her apartment he finds a couple he does not recognize, who tell him that the apartments are for short-term leases and Undine must have left already. He visits her work, where one of her co-workers tells him that Undine was a freelancer and she has not seen her in months.
Undine (2021)
Directed by: Christian Petzold
Starring: Paula Beer, Franz Rogowski, Maryam Zaree, Jacob Matschenz, Anne Ratte-Polle, Rafael Stachowiak, José Barros, Julia Franz Richter, Gloria Endres de Oliveira, Enno Trebs
Screenplay by: Christian Petzold
Production Design by: Merlin Ortner
Cinematography by: Hans Fromm
Film Editing by: Bettina Böhler
Costume Design by: Katharina Ost
Set Decoration by: Tom Hecker
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: IFC Films
Release Date: July 2, 2020 (Germany), June 4, 2021 (United States)
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