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Cloud 9 (2008)

Director: Andreas Dresen

Time Out rating

Average user rating

2 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

It’s that old story of boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl falls for another boy, girl has illicit sexual relationship with other boy, original boy finds out and goes berserk, girl is then forced to choose between her heart, head and groin. That’s Andreas Dresen’s poignant, lightly philosophical and beautifully performed ‘Cloud 9’ in a nutshell, though it should be noted that all the ‘boys and girl’ are of pensionable age. And while the intricate sex lives of elderly, working-class German suburbanites may not get box-office bells ringing, there’s as much moral intrigue, erotic tension and heart-wrenching passion here as in any cheap romance populated by lithe, hormonal teenagers.

Ursula Werner plays Inge, a prudent, sixtysomething hausfrau living in a dreary flat with her train-fancying partner of 30 years, Werner (Horst Rehberg). The spark of their relationship has definitely expired, which is why Inge has been secretly bedding down with Karl, a sunnier local man ten years her senior. Though it’s Inge’s choices that are central to the film, the emotions of all three are dealt with in depth. Yet Inge’s journey from guilt-free bed-hopping to shattering existential meltdown does take precedence. This film about the resilience and adaptability of the human body will inevitably draw comparisons between this and Fassbinder’s harrowing ‘Fear Eats the Soul’. But where that film explored the social context of an amour fou, ‘Cloud 9’ tells of an enclosed tragedy, one in which human contact is scarce and older people are expected to shuffle gracefully, sensibly and sexlessly to the grave.

Author: David Jenkins

Time Out London Issue 2029, July 9 - 15, 2009

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User reviews of this film

Phil Ince said...

Posted on Jul 16 2009 12:46 A disappointment, I thought. Ursual Werner is a terrific choice for the part of a woman in late middle-age developing a crush on a handsome, elderly man. Her gentle, older prettiness is appealing. However, this is a 'cheap romance' story with a sensationalised ending. The lover is a one-note character, with a constant carefree twinkle. Quite a bit of the dialogue is unconvincing and somehow the scene where the 76 year old man spots his amour at a a race track - from a distance, through a crowd, without his glasses - is a prominently truthless moment. Given how painfully and bleakly the film ends, Time Out's summarised assertion that this is "life affirming" seems not untypically incorrect. This is a film which - if it's about anything - seems to me to be about the agony and burden of desire.

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Francesca said...

Posted on Jul 13 2009 02:39 great minimalist movie!
if you liked Intimacy by Chereau you will probably enjoy this one as well.

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