Undine

“If you leave me, I’ll have to kill you,” Undine tells Johannes (Jacob Matschenz), who has beckoned her to their usual café, across the street from the Berlin City Museum, where she works as a historian. This is the part in water sprite folklore when things typically turn dark. To our eyes, Undine looks human (Beer is big-eyed and lovely, and she plays the scene with surprising subtlety, considering that an operatic reaction would have been reasonable for one whose lover has doomed them both). Though the film doesn’t explain it explicitly, Undine was a water sprite by origin, and as such, she was only able to achieve her present form by falling in love with a man — one who must remain faithful to her or else forfeit his life.