크리스티안 페촐트의 <운디네(2020)>에 나타난 신화의 현실적 재현

Abstract

This study examines the ways in which mythology is modernized and reproduced in the cinematic aesthetics of Christian Petzold's <Undine(2020)>, a film based on the Undine myth. Despite being a film based on extreme realism, mythicism is implemented according to the principles of narrative ‘repetition’, ‘conflict’, and ‘exchange’. First, the repetition of certain scenes creates a symmetrical narrative that induces the illusion of coincidence. There is the ‘repetition of the gaze’ as Undine checks Johannes, and the three ‘repetitions of brokenness’ between Christoph and Undine. Next, we captured a narrative in which the real and the unreal ‘collide’ with the appearance of transcendent phenomena and beings. The appearance of an extrinsic voice calling Undine and the catfish are typical signs of the invasion of unreality. Lastly, we focused on the ‘model’, a prop in the film, as a metaphor for the reductive relationship between reality and myth, and define the reciprocal meaning of the model and reality as ‘exchange’. The ‘Berlin City Model’ to which the history of Berlin and Undine's fate are reduced, and the ‘Industrial Submarine Model’, as a sign and doll of Undine's relationship with Christoph, are interpreted as objects that transcend the boundaries between myth and reality. Through this method of representation, Petzold transforms a classic myth into a historical film about Berlin and a modern romance between three people. This study reveals various cinematic languages and subtexts that express mythicity, or the ‘realistic representation of myth’, as Petzold's cinematic style and method of revealing the existential meaning of reality.