Paula Beer on Cannes Film ‘Mirrors No. 3,’ Director Christian Petzold

Mirrors No. 3 (Miroirs No. 3), the brand new function from German director Christian Petzold that world premieres in the Administrators’ Fortnight, an unbiased sidebar of the Cannes Movie Pageant, on Saturday, Might 17, marks his fourth collaboration with German star Paula Beer after Transit (2018), Undine (2020), and Afire (2023).

The Match Manufacturing unit closed a number of worldwide offers for the film simply earlier than Cannes.

Beer, who has additionally made a reputation for herself with the likes of François Ozon’s Frantz (2016), Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s By no means Look Away (2018), gained the Silver Bear for finest actress on the Berlin Worldwide Movie Pageant and the European Movie Award for finest actress for her position in Undine.

In Mirrors No. 3, Beer performs piano pupil Laura. “On a weekend journey to the countryside, Laura miraculously survives a automotive crash,” reads a synopsis of the movie. “Bodily unharmed however deeply shaken, she is taken in by an area girl who witnessed the accident and now cares for Laura with motherly devotion. When her husband and grownup son additionally quit their preliminary resistance to Laura’s presence, the 4 of them slowly construct up a family-like routine. However quickly they’ll now not ignore their previous.”

Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt, and Enno Trebs are additionally a part of the ensemble solid.

Forward of the movie’s premiere, the 30-year-old Beer talked to THR‘s Georg Szalai about her newest team-up with Petzold, why she likes working with him, her method to performing, and why she dislikes motion pictures with open endings.

You’ve labored with Christian Petzold a number of occasions now and still have expertise with the opposite actors in Mirrors No. 3 since they’re additionally Petzold regulars. What do you want about his method and his units?

The very particular factor about working with Christian is that we’re working like an ensemble. the folks you’re going to work with, and never solely the solid members. It’s additionally the crew who’re at all times the identical, or a minimum of the top of is at all times the identical. So you actually come into a really acquainted state of affairs, and that, in fact, helps loads in opening up and having a sense of belief throughout your work. More often than not, while you go to a shoot, there are such a lot of folks, typically a whole bunch of individuals, and it is advisable get to know them. If you happen to already know them and don’t … must construct belief, in fact, that helps you as an actor to be extra comfy.

Christian is at all times doing, or more often than not solely doing, one take. Most administrators, as a result of we’re capturing with digital cameras and you are able to do as many takes as you need, they do extra, which doesn’t essentially price extra. So he’s actually into one take, and it’s actually concentrated and exact. However in fact, that places loads of strain on you, since you solely have this one shot.

So on the primary shoot for Transit, I used to be nonetheless asking myself: “Is that getting into the precise path, or do I actually really feel snug on this fashion of working, or does Christian actually like what I’m doing?” And now that we have now accomplished 4 movies collectively, I don’t have these questions anymore. Our relationship has developed loads. I believe we have now an excellent relationship the place we belief one another, and on the similar time, we will make jokes about one another, and it’s not too critical. So typically I’m going to Christian saying, “Nicely, I believe we must always do a second take. For me, it wasn’t the most effective take.” After which he’s like: “Yeah, okay, you’ll be able to have a second one.” After which more often than not he says: “Okay, you had been proper. It’s good. We’ll take the second.”

So, for me, it feels extra like a collaboration. More often than not throughout capturing, I do really feel that as an actor, I’m on this chain of the place the story comes from. There’s a head in entrance of me who has the story in thoughts, and I’m serving to make this imaginative and prescient come alive, however I’m a part of making it come alive.

Do you continue to learn scripts he sends you or simply go for any position he has in thoughts for you?

Simply because we have now accomplished 4 motion pictures already doesn’t imply I will probably be within the subsequent one, as a result of I’m afraid that that might result in an enormous disappointment. So I at all times say to him, I must learn the script. And usually, he begins speaking about his subsequent tasks in the course of the capturing of the final one. So he at all times has an concept of what he’s going to do subsequent. After which we at all times have this little second when he says: “I’m enthusiastic about this concept for my subsequent film.” After which he sums up the story in 5 minutes and provides me a mini pitch. After which he’s like: “What do you assume? Do you prefer it?” After which I say: “Yeah, I imply, these 5 minutes sound good. So he’s actually letting me in and sharing his ideas and his course of.

However then, in fact, he writes it on his personal and sends me this ebook when it’s prepared. Christian’s scripts are actually particular as a result of they really feel extra like literature. Usually, scripts are fairly technical. I actually love studying his scripts. You sit down and also you learn the novel, however I nonetheless want to know it, or [see] if I understood accurately what you wish to inform with that story, as a result of I can have my interpretation. So I would like this check-up to know should you’re on the identical web page to inform the story.

It was the identical with Mirrors No. 3. I had some questions or concepts or enter for some scenes, after which we talked about it, and he adopted it – not 100% however we met within the center.

Laura appears filled with trauma and vacancy, like she is possibly lacking true connections or one thing else in her life. And your portrayal evoked fairly contradictory feelings. You allow viewers with loads of advanced emotions. How did you method Laura?

I believe it begins with the best way Christian writes his books. I at all times really feel that it’s a narrative a few human being, and human beings are tremendous advanced and never simple to know. And that’s at all times the problem. Once I begin getting ready for Christian’s motion pictures, it looks like a narrative about somebody, and it’s not a fictional character. It’s actually extra a few human being, and [I try] to seize and perceive this human being to construct a personality. You possibly can’t perceive all components. The characters Christian is writing are at all times “she’s one way or the other like this, however then she’s like that,” and I’ve to construct a bridge between them.

Evaluating after I first shot with Christian to [later work together], I noticed my performing was altering, as a result of I actually really feel comfy, and I’m trusting him loads. I really feel actually secure capturing these motion pictures, and there’s by no means strain, otherwise you by no means have this second of “we have to proceed, as a result of we don’t have sufficient time.” I believe that how Christian writes his books, and the way he begins capturing, how the manufacturing organizes the shoots, impacts loads how the flicks are in the long run. And I believe that helps to create characters that aren’t flat.

We actually have the time to develop that on set. I believe earlier than working with Christian, I used to be actually exact and sort of a perfectionist when it got here to my preparation for my characters. And now working with Christian, I noticed that it’s not all about being completely ready, but in addition about being courageous sufficient to open up utterly on set and possibly do one thing that you’d have by no means anticipated, or that wasn’t your concept for the scene for that very day.

Capturing with Christian can be about reacting very spontaneously to what occurs in that very second. And I believe that helps loads to create a posh human setup, as a result of on daily basis is completely different. And should you’re not attempting to faux that it isn’t like that, however you simply settle for that on daily basis is completely different, I believe it influences the character. So, I don’t have a grasp plan to have a super-complex character. However there are such a lot of subjects within Christian’s scripts, akin to, as you mentioned, trauma and vacancy and grief or lack of grief or not having the ability to settle for emotions or emotions misplaced.

Once I noticed the film title Mirrors No. 3 (Mirrors No. 3), I assumed: “Wait, isn’t this the title of a musical piece?” However I needed to lookup particulars and located that it’s a part of a five-movement suite for solo piano by French composer Maurice Ravel. (Entitled “A Boat on the Ocean,” it was written to evoke a ship crusing on the ocean.) Do you know something about music or be taught something about it for this position? And does th

I do play the piano, and began having classes after I was six. It could have been completely different for me if [my character] performed the flute or one thing. I’d have been: “I don’t even know easy methods to maintain it.” And I do know Ravel, however I’ve by no means performed Ravel as a result of that’s fairly above my league. I’m not capable of play Ravel as a result of it’s a masterpiece. However I’ve realized the start, so what I’m taking part in in a scene, I’m really taking part in. However for me, it was actually vital to have this connection to the piano, as a result of Laura, in fact, is learning the piano. I believe individuals who these days examine a classical instrument have a sure factor in widespread, and that you could’t ignore.

I had an important trainer for my preparation. She completed her grasp’s and performed Ravel as nicely. It helped loads seeing her play, and I needed to watch piano gamers loads, as a result of I believe the way you play your instrument says loads about your relationship to the instrument. In a single film, I performed a ballet dancer. Now a piano pupil, and typically it does really feel like a burden, since you’re an actor, and my job is to faux to be somebody who’s good at doing that. I wished to create the picture of a piano pupil, however that comes with the strain of fulfilling what piano college students are capable of do, and I can by no means try this. However getting a sense for what their love for this instrument, or their ardour, or their frustration, is like, I believe that’s my job. So I focus totally on the emotional half, as a result of I don’t wish to create an excessive amount of strain for myself, as a result of in the long run, it’s a film, and we’re creating photos, and, in fact, emotions via these photos.

You talked about strain. I keep in mind that French auteur Francois Ozon as soon as described you as “the subsequent Romy Schneider,” which is a large praise, particularly within the French- and German-speaking worlds. Was that pleasure or strain? How did you expertise that comparability?

I believe they mentioned that loads in France, and I simply took it as a praise. I believe should you do comparisons, it’s at all times since you wish to make one thing unusual extra acquainted. I don’t assume I seem like her. I make various things. However I’m German. She was German. And he or she went to France, in order that’s what we have now in widespread. In the event that they take a look at my [acting] and so they really feel reminded of her, in fact, that’s an enormous praise. Possibly it’s as a result of I began capturing after I was actually younger that I didn’t take this as strain.

I had one shoot, and some days earlier than the primary day, I assumed: “I don’t know why they picked me, and I completely don’t really feel able to play this, and I don’t know if it’s going to be good.” After which I assumed: “Nicely, they determined to take me. I didn’t ask them to make me play the position. So if I’m going to fuck it up, it’s really their drawback and mistaken determination.” And I sort of stored that [perspective].

However for me, strain comes on set as a result of you realize that you just solely have a sure period of time, and you realize that everybody expects you to be good inside this time-frame. You solely have these two or three hours, and with the angle or [type of shot], possibly 20 minutes. And should you’re not good in these 20 minutes, then your shot gained’t be. So, I really feel making motion pictures is about being prepared on the proper time. And naturally, that’s strain, and you’ve got to have the ability to cope with that.

Christian Petzold’s motion pictures have a tendency to not finish in a means that places a bow on issues however leaves issues extra open for interpretation. How do you are feeling concerning the endings of films?

Personally, I hate open endings. I’ve gotten higher, however I had a time after I by no means completed novels and at all times left 50 to 70 pages on the finish, as a result of I don’t like when a narrative involves an finish and also you don’t just like the ending. I choose to remain within the vibe. Truly, the ending to Mirrors No. 3 is completely different from the [original] script. I keep in mind we had been assembly Christian earlier than the shoot and speaking concerning the ending.

I mentioned possibly it’s a bit too pathetic [or dramatic] and doesn’t actually match the vibe of the tragedy of this character. In the course of the edit, Christian realized that the ending isn’t working. So we shot the brand new ending in January of this 12 months.

Has he already pitched you in your fifth film collectively?

I do know Christian’s subsequent concept. Possibly he’s considering of me for it, however I’m unsure if it’s clear to him. I actually just like the story, so who is aware of?! For now, nothing is about.