Mirrors No. 3

• they are not especially alike in their filmmaking but I've come to compare Petzold to Soderbergh, in a sense: reliable, artful, curious, just funny enough, never wasting my time. I like just about every Petzold I've seen, some more than others - this one maybe the most since Transit. there's a great comfort for me in his cinema, even when it's dark, but how nice it is that this one is bathed in late summer light

• Paula Beer is, as always, magnificent as a troubled young woman who is missing something in her life. So are Petzold regulars Barbara Auer and Mathias Brandt in their roles as parents who have been deeply scarred by the death of their child. As usual, Miroirs No. 3 is a compact, masterful film, with affecting performances. It is one of the year's best.

• MIROIRS NO. 3 may not be the best Christian Petzold film but his minimalist, aching examination of complex emotions and distilling them in extremely humanistic ways remains a as powerful as ever. I spent most of the film thinking something terrible was going to happen, only to realize it already had and what I was watching was far more profound and moving. Paula Beer and Petzold remain a match made in heaven and I hope they continue to make films together forever.

• The words “minor Petzold” have been tossed around as though the film depends on such a distinction, when really its unassuming exterior is not merely charming, but a vital part of how this film grieves its characters—quietly and incessantly, like a nervous tic. Whereas Petzold’s Ghosts (2005) moved with a kind of obscurity, Miroirs No. 3 is comparatively lucid, with its moral affectionately plucked from a children’s story.

• The music, evocative and subtle, sustains this phantasmal dimension: it is the key to a parallel reality that is ultimately cinema itself—a privileged space where time can be rewound, grief symbolically processed, and absences filled by an ephemeral presence.

1 / 5