Das wilde Leben

As I said earlier, we met Uschi and Dieter in Aspen, Colorado in 1982. I got a letter from her from Northern California in September of '82 prior to their trip to Mexico. I'm looking at it right now. She was excited that they were going to have a friend make a tepee for them and spend the winter living in it on the beach in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The Uschi and Dieter that we spent an evening with gave no hint of being the type of people this movie portrays. They did not seem to be the dark and tortured souls that this movie shows them to be. They were happy, outgoing, talkative, generous and excited about the future. Dieter loved to fish. They loved Colorado. They enjoyed crossing the USA and had been all around it, but the movie make no mention of that time at all. The movie also gives no mention of her artistic talents. Uschi made scrimshaw, and as an artist I can tell you it was excellently done. She was going to have an exhibition of her scrimshaw in LA but I do not know if she ever did. I can't say they were friends of mine, exactly, having only spent one evening together but they were acquaintances and I have very fond memories of them. I'd always hoped one day I'd see their bus on the highway so I could say hello again. I don't know if this movie was authorized by Uschi as an accurate portrayal of their lives, but I do know it made me sad for them. My wish is for her happiness and hope that these last 30 years or so have been as happy as they could be.

Uschi, if you ever read this, blessings and happiness to you.

I'm disappointed about the low rating that this movie has. It's one of my favorites and I've watched it several times. I've read other reviews to see why it has such a low rating, and I notice that people expect from it something that it's not. They expect it to be about the "Kommune", they expect it to be about an extraordinary girl, and they expect expensive set designs.

This movie is not about all that. The way I see it, Das Wilde Leben is about a journey, it's about a girl who is free and is not afraid to break boundaries, it's about a girl who uses her beauty to have the adventure of her life. She falls in love with powerful men, she lives wildly, she sees the world. And, above all, this movie is about a powerful woman.

Is the movie true to the historical facts? Is it true to Uschi's life? That's not what's important. It's a movie, not a documentary. Beyond the cheap sets and the historical inaccuracies (if there are any) lays a beautiful and inspiring story.

A wonderful rendering of the 60s. If you grew up like me with the 1968 revolution as a mythical era, this film will make you jubilate. Sex, drugs, rock and roll, radical thinking, revolutionaries, and the research of freedom, pleasure and new horizons. Freeing of the mind, freeing of the body… In her small town in Bavaria, Obermaier feels the revolution pounding in her bones and can't stay in place in her confined, old-fashioned home. Listening to rock music is her escape but it simply is not enough. She takes off and lives in an activist commune for some time before becoming a lover of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and marrying a rich adventurer and traveling the world with him. A lively portrait of strong-willed Obermaier, her rebelliousness and search for unbound freedom. "Don't dream your life, live your dream" is a motto that appears in the film and could not apply better. Uschi appears unstoppable, ready to conquer the world, explore the confines of freedom. Inspiring.

Saw this on Netflix streaming movies. Much of the movie is in German with English subtitles, but some of it is in English.

Uschi Obermaier was (is?) apparently a real person who joined in with what we would call the hippie free-love movement in 1960s Germany. But she was also a model and a very successful one. Much of her modeling was nude or semi-nude, graphically depicted in the film, and the actress certainly has a Playboy-worthy beauty.

German actress Natalia Avelon plays Uschi Obermaier . While she is the central character her life and travels take her many places and with many famous people. The beginning and the end of the film are the same, she is standing nude on the beach, watching a raft burn, symbolic of her relationships that had died and the men with them. In between is her story.

The critic Ebert has a very good and accurate review. Interesting film, but I lived through the 1960s and 1970s, I remember those days, and watching this one didn't do much for me.

(2007) Eight Miles High (In German with English subtitles) DRAMA/ BIOGRAPHY

Love it or hate it, all it is, is basically a true account (shown in stages) of a supposedly attractive female German model who got by as a result of her looks which anyone can find from every person you can possibly meet. The only difference with this one is that she made-out with 2 members of "The Rolling Stones" during the late 60's and 70's and she made a once wealthy tycoon to waste a lot of money on her by using most of it on an expensive bus for the purpose of traveling. I've only turned it off once upon watching through this, sometimes wondering aimlessly when she's going to disrobe again and make out with someone else since she's often nude throughout along with a few tiny dicks.