Un amore scritto sull’acqua. Undine dall’opera romantica al cinema

Undine is a creature torn between mortal and immortal nature, a primordial and elemental being, a spirit that abandons its natural habitat to live— albeit briefly and unhappily—a human life as a woman. Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué turned this myth into a fairy tale. E.T.A. Hoffmann adapted it for the subject of his opera of the same name, considered the first Romantic musical work, a true Gesamtkunstwerk, thanks to the interweaving of words, music, and scenography—the latter entrusted to the genius of Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Christian Petzold’s 2019 film Undine, on the other hand, translates the myth of the aquatic nymph into contemporary Berlin, immersing the viewer in a Romantic atmosphere where the marvelous, the magical, and the unsettling break into the 21st century. The intent of both Hoffmann and Petzold is the same: to reveal the presence of invisible forces within everyday reality, to emphasize the weight of the past in both individual and collective history, and to affirm the supernatural power and eternity of love. For both the Romantic author and the filmmaker, Undine becomes a counterfigure of the artist, embodying their emotions and passions, their fundamental estrangement from reality.