Cloud 9

"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

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!

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.

An old lady falls in love with an old man, not her husband. She and the old man have wonderful sex, and she finds herself compelled to continue against her wishes "I didn't want this" she will say again and again. It is a bit alarming, this portrayal of a mature woman in a good relationship, with a daughter, grandchildren, a good an settled life when she finds herself acting methodically but out of control... she is filled with desire for this new man's company, and out of a sense of honesty she is compelled to tell her husband and indeed, leave him. "I didn't want this" she will say... This is not a young thing, inexperienced, taken away by some mad youthful forbidden fling, This is an adult, a mature and capable woman who is nonetheless taken up as if she were just that young thing, bereft of responsibility, consumed and driven to pursue that new love, wonderfully fresh. How can this not destroy her family? "I didn't want this." It is a little bit frightening, that for all she has, her emotions can pull her away and out of her family, surely able to know the damage that must be done but unable to experience that created pain against the overwhelming passion she has incautiously stumbled into. A lovely, revealing, cautionary tale. The audience itself seems similarly drawn in, enjoying the romance but unwilling to accept what would clearly be an expected outcome: pain.

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.