Settimo cielo

Ursula Werner deserved her German Oscar for her performance in this film and so do her two male co-stars as well. This is a classic character portrait of film at it's best. It's not for children. It's mature viewing. Despite the subtitles, it's easy to follow the story. She plays a seamstress who takes on extra jobs to earn money. She lives with her husband of 30 years, Werner. She has an adult daughter, Petra, and grandchildren. Suddenly, she finds herself exploring her sexuality and falls in love with an older man. She's 67 years old. The film proves that older people like Inge are still sexually active. It's hard to imagine our grandparents being so sexual but this film helps us to dispel the notion that older people aren't sexually active anymore and have problems in their relationships as well. The film's message is that women may get to be grandmothers but they are still capable of sexuality and the need to be loved and affectionate in their years. Anyway, the film is quiet, understated but I'm not used to German films.

"Wolke 9" German film title for 'Cloud 9'. The subject may not be so novel, it's about love and marriage, or you might say relationship 101 revisited. Yet the aspect of falling in love afresh for a woman at 67, discovering her erogenous zones and feelings with a new beau of 76 and thereafter certainly made us open our eyes and care for the persons involved. What does one do back at home with the husband of 30 years of marriage? What is the husband like? She tries to fight it as social norm expects, but this falling in love again feeling is irresistible. It's enchanting passion. It's an opportunity to take a look at what's really happening to one's stage in life at hand. And is the 76-year old lover worth the 'trouble' - what is he like? And we are also introduced to the daughter - what does she thinks of her mother's secret?

Director Andreas Dresen, who co-wrote the screenplay with three other writers, has given us a natural happenstance of love affairs, exceptional in the sense that the story exclusively revolves around 'older' maturing-age people - a theme seldom seen on screen. It's heartening to be able to appreciate the straightforward approach to the love-making scenes that are intimately explicit, accepting the anatomy of matured bodies, wrinkled or soft. Any nudity scenario is not at all gratuitous but simply befitting to what's happening at the particular moment of the 'storyline'.

Inge, our 67 year old heroine of the story, is portrayed with impressive naturalness and emotional depth by Ursula Werner - best actress awards well-deserved. Karl, the refreshing energy source for Inge, is remarkably played with vitality by Horst Westphal - yes, we want to go cycling, swimming, attend racing events and run in the rain with him. Werner, the husband, is played restrainedly effective by Horst Rehlberg, demonstrating how listless his life has become, in spite of occasional cuddling affection in bed with Inge, spending time with grandchildren, visiting his father at convalescent home, even listening to 'choo-choo' train are just dull routines that raise no smile. He does seem so tired - of life? Inge's affair probably makes his head hurt - does he have to make extra effort to enjoy life?

The story centrally revolves around Inge, hence besides the emotional ups and downs, we get to follow her going about with daily activities, including the added touch of belonging to a women's church choir, participating in rehearsals and singing songs together - comfortable camaraderie detected. (In the press kit - available on Cannes 2008 online under "Cloud 9" page* - director Dresen's comments are included, and he mentioned that it was Ursula Werner who suggested the 'choir' aspect of Inge's life.) 'Cloud 9' is worthwhile viewing and highly recommended.

Films by association: I recall the Brazilian film by Marcos Bernstein, "The Other Side of the Street" 2004, contains a tender exchange scene between two older persons making love (Fernanda Montenegro as Regina and Raul Cortez as Camargo) which was sensitively delivered unabashed. Paul Cox's film "Innocence" 2000, with Julia Blake as Claire and Charles Tingwell as Andreas, also marvelously depicts a married woman falling in love again in her 'later years' - not an impossible or improbable scenario at all.

* Cannes Festival - Festival Archives - 2008 - Selections - 'Un Certain Regard' - Wolke 9

CLOUD 9 is a touching, yet disconcerting look at the romantic longings, and sexual desires of people in the late Autumn of their lives. Inge, a woman in her 60's, who has been married to Werner for over 30 years, has a spontaneous affair with Karl, who is 76. Their sexual encounters are portrayed in graphic detail, and I can't think of a film which has depicted such explicit sexuality between elderly characters. Although Inge feels a certain comfortability with Werner, she is slowly realizing that their life together is nothing more than marking time until death. Inge is awakening to the fact that she just might be entitled to a bit more, and Karl seems to provide the change for which she has been yearning. Andreas Dresen, the director, has provided a plot, however all of the dialog was improvised by the actors while filming. Little background is given, and the film explores the intensity of the sexual encounters, and the ramifications of these interactions. In depth narrative detail is sacrificed for the vividness and drama of the emotional consequences. CLOUD 9 clearly targets a mature audience, and for a small budget film which addresses a rather taboo subject, it is quite heartfelt and poignant.

I was disappointed by this movie. The meaning in German Wolke 9 or Cloud nine means that a person is full of happiness through being in love and passion with another person, hence sailing on Cloud 9. I don't argue that this could not happen to a well mature couple, but it was lacking in this movie. From an aesthete point of view it was not necessary to show closes ups of the aged bodies. I remember the movie Cocoon, which had a lot more sense, action and humor, also relating to older couples that enjoy or rediscover love and passion. Even the few spoken dialogs were motionless. I believe that the story had more potential than it showed. Well, just my opinion.

This may be a good film. I have not the faintest idea in terms of how it develops beyond the first half hour, as that is all I could take before I feared that terminal boredom would get me for sure and I put on my recording of "Destry rides again" (James Stewart/Marlene Dietrich) to bring me back to life! I have heard that watching paint dry can be tiresome, but I found this, with its interminable panning shots and mumbled dialogue, the equivalent of listening to someone watching paint dry! No thanks/life's too short (as I presume was "the message" of this rambling cinematic outing????)Why DO so many German films have to be such stodgy, indigestible, s - l - o - w affairs? "Run, Lola, run" proves beyond the slightest doubt that they do not have to be!