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CLOUD 9 (WOLKE 9) Send This Review to a Friend
There is a tendency, especially by young people, to overlook the possibility that older folk, whether good looking or very ordinary, can fall in love, enjoy sex and get themselves into difficult romantic complications. The German import “Cloud 9” (“Wolke 9”), directed by Andreas Dresen in an understated, no-nonsense style, is just such a love story and unfolds with integrity.
Excellent actress Ursula Werner plays Inge, a dowdy woman of 67 who has been married 30 years and earns money doing tailoring work at home in East Berlin. It isn’t that she is miserable with her husband Werner (Horst Rehberg), but when she takes on a pants alteration job from Karl (Horst Westphal), a 76-year-old man with a measure of charm, girlhood romantic feelings are stirred and alterations beyond trousers occur in both their lives. They fall in love and the film shows them getting joy out of their sexual bonding despite the effort it takes in maneuvering their wrinkled bodies.
Against the advice of Inge’s daughter Petra (Steffi Kühnert), Inge confesses the unfaithfulness to her husband, who becomes distraught, bitter and deeply saddened. Inge explains that she didn’t mean for it to happen and tries to remain friendly even while scooting off to see her new lover. She assumes the right to do so, and even though she doesn’t mean to be hurtful, the situation is very painful for her husband, who still loves her. And she still has feelings for him based on their years together. But the dullness of their marriage is no match for the new sexual and romantic warmth she has toward Karl.
Where can this volatile situation lead? The film inches toward a potentially devastating climax, but always with the focus on the view that even among the elderly there can be deep passions stirred, whether by newly discovered attraction or desperate reaction to rejection. As with the maturity of the characters involved, “Cloud 9” is a mature work of art. A Music Box Films release.
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