Undine (2020) review

The title historian (Paula Beer) ends her relationship with married Johannes (Jacob Matschenz) and moves onto her next lover, underwater welder Christoph (Franz Rogowski) - it goes well, at first, but then she happens to pass by Johannes one day and things get really bad for her again.  Petzold based it on the imaginary story about a female water elemental that needs to marry a human being to acquire a soul, except I'm not sure he has the right temperament to make the material work: the two leads are just fine, but it required a lighter and more whimsical approach (he couldn't resist trying to attach some sort of message about post-War Berlin and the reconstruction of Germany in there).  Neil Jordan's 2009 version - with Colin Farrell as a fisherman - had a better idea as to how to approach a fairy tale in 'modern times.'