Settimo cielo

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!

When I saw the summary of the movie with a bright, strong image of the characters, I thought it would be quite exciting to see a movie about a (kind of) love triangle of elder people.

I mean, feelings constituted on pity, gratitude, humanity or any other cliché about age really bored... Thus, the possibility of seeing a story about elder people which doesn't care about age itself was exciting.

Additionally the strong sex images in the movie made me think the director will open up some provocative conflicts...

However, the script was so conventional and straight... Maybe the word shallow can fit here, I don't know... The problem for me was, without the detail of the characters age, there's nothing special in the movie. On the other hand, the concept of age should be totally discarded (so we should be looking for something else?) or discussed... Neither of them was there, so there was just a lack I guess...

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.

A beautifully acted film that captures intimate feelings between people without unnecessary noise or clutter. Precise in its execution of scenes, the story takes the viewer through intimate moments between people and how aging can strengthen the passions, rather that diminish them as popular culture would have us believe. Whilst on the outside, the characters are "your average pensioners", on the inside they harbor deep, unfulfilled wells of desire which aging can only enhance. As one character Karl says: "I don't how long I have left" and at 76, he's making the most of it. And why not? We see in detail the attachments and separations unfolding between the three main characters in the excellent acting of the cast.

This film gives hope to us all as we age, that we will still be loved and desired, that sex can be in some ways more fulfilling and relationships less angst-ridden. But also that the cost of these things may well be higher as we have to let go of long-term habits and beliefs that have given us security and predictability. And that is the hardest thing to do in the seventh decade of life, an intense dilemma indeed which this film beautifully portrays.

Andreas Dresen has given us the most memorable movie in a long time. Great actors in front of a patient camera that either stands still to let action evolve or focuses on the faces. There is hardly any dialog in the first half of the film, character development occurs through the camera. It's the cinematic language that brings to mind Mike Leigh's films. As to the buzz about "old sex" - it's true, Mr. Dresen has broken into new realms showing elderly people making love good and proper, with lots of detail but never once overstepping limits of good taste. This movie concerns every one of us. Especially those over 60 will come out of the show and not be able to stop talking about it for hours, as it happened in Buenos Aires when strangers started lively discussions while walking out into the bright late afternoon. Don't miss it! It will shake you, but not break you, and certainly stay with you for a long time.