Christian Petzold's latest film “Mirrors No. 3” was actually my second most anticipated film of 2025, but you may have noticed that when MIFF came around that the film was not my most anticipated of the festival, with that now going to Lucile Hadžihalilović’s “The Ice Tower” (which I ultimately loved). The reason for my tempered excitement for Petzold's new film had to do with the muted response the film received after playing at this year's Cannes Film Festival. No one was talking about “Mirrors No. 3” at all, which is very rare whenever Christian Petzold releases a new film, as he is currently riding a hot streak greater than almost any other international director working today. I figured that “Mirrors No.3” was either a total dud, or just a much smaller film than we are used to from this super talented German director. I was still anticipating and looking forward to seeing “Mirrors No. 3”, it was just I was a lot more cautious with my expectations.
It turned out that it was a case of the latter, and “Mirrors No. 3” was still a good film, but a very, very minor one from Christian Petzold, who was coming off the very major “Afire” from 2023. The lack of buzz coming out of Cannes makes sense because whilst “Mirrors No. 3” (god, that is such an awkward title) is a nice film that has been very well made, it contains no surprises at all, and is very obvious. It is essentially a family drama, that has been told like a mystery, although the truth of the mystery is revealed almost immediately when one of the characters makes a casual slip of the tongue, calling Paula Beer's Laura a completely different name. It is so easy to work out exactly what is going on, that at times it is baffling to think that Laura, herself, has no idea. This makes you question Laura and just what she is getting out of this new living arrangement. It is interesting that the way Petzold has structured his story, it all revolves around the “reveal”, and yet when Max (the family's son) says “I have something to tell you” to Laura, there is no suspense because the audience has been well ahead of the story by about half an hour.
As I have said, this is a very minor film for Petzold, and his direction in “Mirrors No. 3” is some of the most economical of his entire career. He has stripped his story right back to it's bare essentials and his direction matches this. To explain what I mean, I will talk about the main car accident that sets the whole story in motion. Instead of us following the couple in the car speeding down the road, signalling danger, and ending in a car, flipping three or four times, Petzold shows this moment with a minimal amount of fuss. The car drives past Betty, she looks away, hears the sound of a crash in the distance, decides to check the scene and finds the car sitting on its side, with Laura's boyfriend obviously dead laying on a rock, whilst Laura herself has been thrown from the car with just a minor scratch on her back. It is all done in a couple of basic shots, sound design and editing. It is so simple, yet effective. Another example is when Laura asks Betty if she can have a shower; instead of us seeing her showering and getting changed, Petzold just has Laura come out of the house in the following scene with wet hair and different clothes. It gets the point across quickly and efficiently. As usual Hans Fromm is on cinematography duties for “Mirrors No. 3” and as you would expect, the film looks very handsome but, like the rest of the film, with limited fuss. There are no complex camera moves or stylised lighting in the film, just what is needed to tell the story efficiently.
This is Paula Beer's fourth consecutive film with Christian Petzold, and out of the four, it is definitely the least of them, even though she is still quite good in the film. She gives a warmth to Laura so we are drawn to her, but creates an enigma out of her as she never truly betrays what her character is thinking or feeling. Whilst she may be the main character in “Mirrors No. 3”, she is the one we know the least about, and it stays that way for the entirety of the film. When the story begins, she is staring at a lake that indicates suicide is on her mind, and her behaviour with her boyfriend suggests that something isn't right with her at all, but we never know why she feels this way, and even through the healing process when she is staying with Betty and her family, we don't understand how this has helped Laura, we just know that it has. Normally characters like this feel cold to the audience because we cannot get a handle on them, but as I said, Beer is still able to imbue a warmth in Laura so we ultimately do care about her, if not understand her.
The rest of the cast is filled with past Petzold collaborators, and they are all wonderful and believable in their roles. Barbara Auer (also in her fourth Petzold film) plays Betty with a sense of deep hurt and tragedy within, with a heaviness the past has left on her. As she starts to heal, thanks to Laura's stay at her house, Auer shows Betty starting to come to life again, and a lightness emerges from her and a willingness to have fun once more is revealed. Of all the characters in “Mirrors No. 3”, Betty is the one with the biggest arc, and Auer does a terrific job of portraying a woman coming to life once more. Her husband and son are played by Matthias Brandt (who was very memorable as the publisher in Petzold's previous film, “Afire”) and Enno Trebs respectively, and both are great at portraying damaged men who, initially sceptical of Laura and her purpose in their house, learn to cherish her presence as they witness how much it is helping the woman they love so much, and thought they had lost forever.
The very, very awkward title “Mirrors No. 3” is actually the name of a Maurice Ravel piano composition that Laura plays during the film, that seems to begin a healing process in Betty. Laura is a music student, but hasn't played the piano in a very long time, the reason for this though we never find out. When she initially sees the piano in Betty's house, she is immediately drawn to it, and after pressing a few keys knows that the instrument is out of tune. As the film is essentially about trauma and the healing process to find the will to live once more, the piano and Laura playing it become a key factor in the film's lovely ending. It is interesting though that this is the second Christian Petzold film to end on a character playing a piece on the piano, with a similar scene occurring in his 2014 masterpiece, “Phoenix”, although the dramatic repercussions after the music has been played could not be more different in the two films.
Overall, I found “Mirrors No. 3” to be a lovely but very minor film from Christian Petzold. As you would expect, it has been expertly made, and wonderfully acted by it's cast, it is just a film that holds no surprises. The audience is well ahead of the film very early on, that when the big reveal happens, no one is shocked except for poor Laura herself. As a film about the effects of trauma and the struggle to move on and live for life once more, it is a nice, well made film, but nothing more than that.
3 Stars.
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