ABSTRACT
Christian Petzold’s recent film Undine is the first in a trilogy that transposes myth to show how it echoes and reflects contemporary life. The film contains and critiques plurality, fluidity and literal streaming in its form and content. Undine, as both the filmic title and main character, comes from nowhere and leaves to nowhere, problematizing imaginary distinctions between life and death. It shows the dangers of small screen engagement without limits, a condition that proliferated after modern technology changed during the pandemic. We now live in a “small screen society” that facilitates solitary connections to a virtual ocean of people, which promotes the feeling of invulnerability and is the antithesis of the castration necessary for a social link. As a water sprite and mythic figure, Undine marks the amniotic unity that must be sacrificed for symbolic life. Ultimately, the film underlines that life requires a loss and that loss is a mythic, like Lacan’s Lamella. While the film reveals the allures of the small limitless screens, it also shows how a recovery of lack and vulnerability in relation to the mirror, water, and online screens is necessary for a more humane society.
