Heaven's Tears (1994)

Director:

Lloyd A. Simandl

Writer:

Chris Hyde (writer)

Release Date:

21 November 1995 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot Keywords:

Female Nudity | Nazi Officer | Female Masturbation | Nudity | Forbidden Love

Cast

Stephen Nichols	...	Peter Steiner
Beata Pozniak	...	Ingrid Steiner
Lisha Snelgrove	...	Celandine
Borivoj Navrátil	...	Rudolf Steiner
Michael Rogers	...	Markle
Lucie Vondrácková	...	Jenna (as Lucie Vondracek)
Roman Hemala	...	Grandpa Tarnovasky (as Roman Hemata)
Zdenek Pechácek	...	Gestapo Officer #1
Jaroslav Zebek	...	Gestapo Officer #2
Stanislav Lehky	...	Railway Officer
Barbora Lukesová	...	Young Girl in Apartment
Karel Sebesta	...	Old Peter
Nina Jiránková	...	Old Celandine
Martina Moravcová	...	Young Girl in Cemetary
Katerina Matousková	...	Maid #1

Also Known As:

Love and War (USA)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | USA:Unrated

Company:

North American Pictures

A pathetic movie

There are times when, less than halfway through a movie, I start to wonder what the creators were thinking that made them decide not to burn every reel of footage and instead release a movie that has no real merit of any kind. And I mean any kind. This movie doesn't even hold up as made-for-cable porn. In fact, Heaven's Tears is completely and utterly boring, and at times a bit disturbing in its naivete. The girl, who is, as I recall, eighteen, masturbates while thinking of an older Nazi who hit her with a car--the "bumping into her in the hall as a way of introducing ourselves" syndrome from sitcoms and Robert Zemekis films. Then, on their second or third meeting--get this--he is the shy one, the one who is resistant to the girl's sexual advances, and yet, all she has to say is, "I'm old enough. I'm want to," and he takes her to bed. Then, after sleeping with this girl he hardly knows, he feels completed, as if he could die right there in the bed with her and he'd have lived a full life. It's like "Lolita" without a shred of social and personal commentary.

The cinematography is the most boring part of the movie. No interesting angles or originality at all, not even for the sex scenes, which are supposed to be the main draw for these kinds of movies. The masturbation scene is just a camera circling the girl's bed (very fake looking, as if it's on a stage), and it's interspliced with her fantasy of the man taking a shower in a waterfall. The "I am completed" scene is just a close-up of the girl's right side (head down to her breasts) with the guy on top of her, and it's the same shot for the whole time, even though there are repetitious cuts to a fairly unrelated scene of the Nazi's older sister, who has some kind of incestuous crush on him (she's ridiculous and silly, so it doesn't matter). I think the whole thing lasts five to ten minutes, and it's neither enlightening nor arousing.