Wolke 9

Germany

Synopsis

She didn't ask for it. It just happened. There were stealing glances, attraction. But this was never supposed to happen.
Inge is in her mid-60s. She has been married for 30 years and loves her husband. But Inge is drawn to this older man Karl, already 76. It's passion. It's sex. And she suddenly feels like a young girl again...

Director's Statement

As If They Were Young
I wanted to tell this love story as if they were young people, because I was under the impression that this simply didn't exist in film. I had always wondered why the aged in film and TV are allowed at most a sentimental look an life or halfway romantic and mild-mannered stories of yet another half-hearted awakening to a specific feeling. This kind of sleazy and slimy kitsch where no one is actually really looking, but rather where everything is constantly blocked out or blurred, totally bored me. Normal old people, those who have wrinkled and aged with dignity but no longer conform to the image of beautiful and joyful youth simply are not seen or represented. They are not granted any great emotions, and no sexuality whatsoever.

This Kind of Awakening
Women of this age are allowed this kind of awakening much less than men are and we wanted this woman to make a strong non-compromising decision. In addition, the woman leaves her husband for an even older man and decides for this love under a great amount of pain. The common clichds are turned upside down in this story. In the end, Cloud 9 is a film not only about love and sexuality between old-aged people, but it is also a very normal story about love and pain and how difficult it is to withstand the terror of love. On the other hand, old age represents a very decisive difference. It is one thing to abandon someone or be abandoned by someone at the age of 40. It is quite another if it's happening alter 30 years of marriage at the age of 70. This bears consequences that are far more drastic for all those involved, because they carry more experience and more life lived together. You don't have the seif-confidence to start something new or even to find someone. You don't have so much time anymore.

Life Doesn't Stop
Even before we gave the go to get started with the project, I told producer Peter Rommel let's see whether we can get any actors that would be willing to do this. I spoke to four actors and three finally did it. It was quite crazy: I met first with Horst Westphal who is 78, which is quite older than in the film, and who has a 16-year-old son. He told me many stories and it was just as I had thought - that it doesn't stop, that life doesn't stop, and when you experience all our actors in the film, you feel how extremely alive they are. We also did a lot of research: there is an incredibly tremendous amount of literature about this subject, and several first-hand reports by old people. Unlike in film, many images exist in literature - stories of people in their mid-seventies or even 80-year-olds who have suddenly fallen in love again. When we discussed the subject with friends, suddenly many such stories came up.
Nudity and Sex
I told them right from the start: there will be nudity; I don't want any bashful sex scenes. We then watched different Films, such as "Intimacy" by Patrice Chdreau. This of course demands from everyone and especially from the actors a great amount of openness. I quickly discovered it to be very relaxed and normal. I had no doubt that we could teil the story in this way, even though at the time I had still no idea what the sex scenes would look like in detail. We were clear right from the start; let's deal with this in the first five minutes and have it behind so we can focus on the essential.

My Inhibitions
I, of course, had my inhibitions about the sex scenes. I mean we were dealing here with another generation. That's why I told the actors to rehearse the scenes fully-clothed. However, already in the very first run, the actors took their clothes off, because they also just wanted to have it behind them. I also had to learn to strike a very objective, realistic and concrete tone. I hate sex scenes that are so general, somehow all puffed up. I always wanted to see exactly what is happening in the moment and, as a director, you have to say this very clearly. I myself as a viewer want to have the feeling that I know what is happening here and that I'm not looking at some generic form of sex. Then I just don't need to show it.

Non-Verbal Expression
Interestingly enough, at different stages of a relationship words are not needed. If you've been married for 30 years, you can express almost everything non-verbally and when the love is very young, it also doesn't need many words. In the first half hour of the film, there's only one page of dialogue. Later, when the conflict breaks out, the words begin to appear but they unfortunately don't help to support or clarify the situation in any way; on the contrary they only create more havoc.

Hardly Any Frills
The story is so simple; everyone knows it, a story that can be effortlessly summarized in two sentences. In this respect, you can give the viewers' Imagination a tremendous amount of space to be involved using his/her own associations and experiences. I believe I've never told a story in such a minimalist way before. There are hardly any frills or anything superfluous, both dramaturgically and with regards to the aesthetics and the content.

The Choir
Ursula Werner brought this in. A friend of hers sang in the choir and Ursula suggested that the main character be a part of it. I liked this idea because when you teil a story about old people, there is no work life. I usually include work life in all my stories.In this situation suddenly the question arose, "what do you do all day long?" We began to observe the choir rehearsals like in a documentaryfilm and gradually I thought the choir can be a kind of measure in the film: the life of this woman changes but this one constant remains and all these women around her create a sort of generalization of the story. On the other hand, one can't conceal that the choir had a somewhat commenting role, much like in a Greek or antic choir. Later in the postproduction, we assigned the choir songs according to Inge's story, so that they create a direct or ironic link to her various moods. We shot other scenes with the choir, for example a discussion round: I had asked Ursula Werner to confront the women with her situation in the film and to ask them for advice. What these enchanting women then said carried such pragmatism and such an unsentimental humorous sharpness, following the motto: if you're going to do it then go for a younger guy, with that old man, you'll just be a nurse.
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Cast & Crew

Directed by: Andreas Dresen

Written by: Andreas Dresen, Laila Stieler, Cooky Ziesche, Jörg Hauschild

Produced by: Peter Rommel

Cinematography: Michael Hammon

Cast: Ursula Werner (Inge), Horst Westphal (Karl), Horst Rehberg (Werner)

Nominations and Awards

  • European Actress 2008
  • European Director 2008
  • Feature Film Selection 2008