Miroirs No. 3

Despite feeling gloomy, aspiring pianist Laura (Christian Petzold’s regular muse Paula Beer) joins her obnoxious boyfriend on a road trip out of Berlin for the weekend, but soon begs to head home. Cue the Petzoldian car crash, a red convertible upside down, wheels spinning, which Laura survives. She is taken in by Betty (Barbara Auer), a woman stuck in an unresolvable trauma of her own. As Laura wilfully adopts a life in limbo, she is gradually made over into a member of Betty’s fractured family, alongside a father and son involved in the sort of shifty business that also peppers the director’s work. Yet the days of this precariously idyllic situation are as numbered as the movements in the titular Ravel composition. “Miroirs No. 3” is performed in F Minor, and one could be forgiven for calling the film “minor Petzold” if one cared about such designations. Yes, he’s remaking VERTIGO (1958) once again, but in the context of an internal family dynamic he hasn’t explored since DIE INNERE SICHERHEIT (2000)—coincidentally, his only other film to screen in Cannes, also featuring Auer. MIROIRS NO. 3 is economical, masterful filmmaking that studies trauma and grief with a surprisingly light hand...let’s call it the Petzold touch. (Mark Peranson)

In the presence of Christian Petzold.
With VIENNALE-TRAILER 2025.

No tickets for the opening gala at Gartenbaukino on October 16th at 7.00 pm!

AUDIO DESCRIPTION FOR BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE
Audio description will be provided for the screenings. More info here.

Christian Petzold (selection): DIE INNERE SICHERHEIT (2000), GESPENSTER (2005), YELLA (2007), JERICHOW (2008), BARBARA (2012), PHOENIX (2014), TRANSIT (2018), UNDINE (2020), ROTER HIMMEL (2023)