Al di là delle nuvole (1995)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Directors:

Michelangelo Antonioni
Wim Wenders

Writers:

Michelangelo Antonioni (book)
Michelangelo Antonioni (screenplay)

Release Date:

27 October 1995 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Made of four short tales, linked by a story filmed by Wim Wenders. Taking place in Ferrara, Portofino...

Plot Keywords:

Infidelity | Divorce | Nudity | Female Nudity | Based On Book

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Fanny Ardant	...	Patricia
Chiara Caselli	...	Mistress
Irène Jacob	...	The Girl
John Malkovich	...	The Director
Sophie Marceau	...	The Girl
Vincent Perez	...	Niccolo
Jean Reno	...	Carlo
Kim Rossi Stuart	...	Silvano (as Kim Rossi-Stuart)
Inés Sastre	...	Carmen (as Ines Sastre)
Peter Weller	...	Husband
Marcello Mastroianni	...	The Man of All Vices
Jeanne Moreau	...	Friend
Enrica Antonioni	...	Boutique Manager
Carine Angeli
Alessandra Bonarotta		(as Alessandra Bonarota)

Also Known As:

Al di là delle nuvole (Italy)
Beyond the Clouds (USA)
Jenseits der Wolken (Germany)
Par-delà les nuages (France)

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

Italy | France | Germany

Language:

French | English | Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Germany:12 (DVD rating) | USA:R (DVD rating) | South Korea:18 | Singapore:R21 | Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Portugal:M/16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:18 | Peru:14

Filming Locations:

Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, France

Company:

Canal+

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Back to Room 666 (2008)

Soundtrack:

Beach Sequence

The Twelve Stabs: Story in the Viewing

This is a special film if you know the context. Antonioni, in his eighties, had been crippled by a stroke. Mute and half paralyzed, his friends -- who incidentally are the best the film world has -- arranged for him to 'direct' a last significant film. The idea is that he can conjure a story into being by just looking at it. So we have a film: about a director who conjures stories by simple observation. And the matter of the (four) stories is about how the visual imagination defines love.

The film emerges by giving us the tools to bring it into being through our own imagination. The result is pure movie-world: every person (except the director) is lovely in aspect or movement. Some of these women are ultralovely, and they exist in a dreamy misty world of sensual encounter. There is no nuance, no hint that anything exists but what we see; no desire is at work other than what we create.

I know of no other film that so successfully manipulates our own visual yearning to have us create the world we see. He understands something about not touching. No one understands Van Morrison visually like he does. Morrison's Celtic space music is predicated on precisely the same notion: the sensual touch that implies but doesn't physically touch.

Antonioni's redhead wife appears, appropriately as the shopkeeper and she also directs a lackluster 'making of' film that is on the DVD.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 4: Worth watching.