Rating: 
Summary: BEYOND THE CLODS . . .
Review: ...some of us, I bet, are getting a little tired of the childish Antonioni bashing that seems to go on. Antonioni bashing not just here, but all over the place...... I resonate completely with the Amazon.com reviewer who asserted about one other Antonioni film, that it's no surprise that in the age of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), there is little appreciation for the subtleties, delicacies, and
savoir faire of the patient, conscientious, understanding, intuitive, unpretentious, careful, and wise efforts of Michelangelo Antonioni. . . ... the truth is Antonioni's subtle work is TOO good. By some sort of all-too-common common flip-flop neanderthal logic, jewels like BEYOND THE CLOUDS run afoul of lesser minds who are be predisposed to insist it isn't good ENOUGH ... . . .I think people are afraid of being thought of as thoughtful, and therefore "dangerous," in this day and age. Hence they bash quiet films like BEYOND THE CLOUDS. ...well, I've seen BEYOND THE CLOUDS six times before I bought my copy the other day. It is fit to stand beside Antonioni's RED DESERT as one of the most beautiful color films ever made. Without a Monica Vitti to "guide" us through the film, perhaps the four subtle tales of love, loss, trauma, and reflection that make up BEYOND THE CLOUDS take a few viewings to truly appreciate. But that's what many serious critics say of ALL Antonioni's films... ...sip like a fine wine. Smile at the adult children who look down on BEYOND THE CLOUDS. Rest in the hope they all come across the experiences they need to come around to an appreciation of Antonioni, via intelligence and a newfound understanding... ... I've watched my recently acquired VHS copy of BEYOND THE CLOUDS six times already in the past few days. It is divinely worth it, and my love for it grows with each viewing... ...get your own copy, and do the same... ... the flower, unmolested, blooms and shows all its colors.
Rating: 
Summary: A beautifully photographed wisp of romantic pretentions
Review: As an avid fan of foreign cinema, I had hoped for far more from this film. While I enjoy savoring slow, brooding, elliptical films (Kieslowski's films largely populate my favorites list), "Nuages" simply didn't deliver. The European locales (and various actresses) in the film are frequently gorgeous and beautifully filmed, but precious little is done with this promising milieu. Not only do the stories lack depth and interest, the characters/actors are unengaging and even obtrusive. Everyone floats about with this detached, deer-in-the-headlights gaze, mouthing deliberately obscure, overwrought lines that might have come from the pen of some turtleneck-clad, undergraduate philosophy major. There were several moments of unintended humor, when the wearing-my-angst-on-my-sleeve bit crossed the ridiculousness threshold, and left my wife and I laughing aloud. Where Kieslowski's films indirectly but insistently pull you into the urgencies of his protagonists lives, this film opts for the unsubtle; some of these characters might as well be carrying placards noting "I'm Complex!" "I'm emotionally haunted!" and the like. The one near-exception to this observation was the final vignette, featuring the understated but luminous Irene Jacob. I found myself wishing that the characters would leave me alone to explore the beguiling backdrops against which these pallid vignettes unfold. I don't think that was the director's intent.
Rating: 
Summary: Visual Glory, Boring Stories.
Review: Director Michelangelo Antonioni has authored many outstanding films as "Blowup" (1966) and "Zabriskie Point" (1970) or more controversial ones as "The Night" (1961) and "Eclipse" (1962). All of them are refined aesthetical "oeuvres d'art" and at the same time they delivered some "message".
Director Wim Wenders has produced also some interesting film pieces as "Paris, Texas" (1984) and "Wings of Desire" Aka "The Sky over Berlin" (1987).
From the combined efforts of both of them I was expecting a "major". Unfortunately is not the case here.
The movie tries to depict the "creation process" of a film director. It presents four short stories of male-female encounters. Possibly they occur in the Directors imagination and are triggered by surrounding environment. They are unrelated among them and, at least to my perception, they do not have any strong coherence.
The sights are great: misty roads in amazing Italian towns; shops bordering a gorgeous lake; seaside views; light and shadows combined in exquisite photogram. Almost every bit of the film may be considered a visual joy.
For males delight nude scenes of Sophie Marceau, Ines Sastre and Chiara Caselli are shown gracefully. Alas for the ladies, only John Malkovitch "derriere" is shown.
Original music score by Bono and Adam Clayton as U2 is also very good.
It is a film that brings to memory more successful examples of "intellectual `60es" filmography, without reaching their deepness.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.
Rating:
Summary: Antonioni paradox: Ultra-slow films I can't get enough of
Review: Here's another Antonioni masterpiece (assisted and with a few connecting scenes directed by Wim Wenders) that will be rediscovered again and again as soon as enough people see it on DVD. I saw it a few months ago when it ran for the first time (even in metropolitan movie capital L.A.!) for a couple of weeks and then disappeared (art house audiences seem to have opted for their own special territory, where older favorites like Antonioni and Resnais are only welcome as occasional curiosities).
At first I was disappointed, thought the pace unbearably boring (how can anyone sit through this thing more than once?), and that the man had lost a chance (for years Antonioni had found it difficult to find financing) at an advanced age to add another masterpiece to his canon. But, remembering how I had reacted negatively to "Blow-Up" and "The Passenger" and later completely reversed my opinion, I refused to pass judgment until I had seen it again.
I went back th!e next day and I SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SURPRISED that the film kept pulling me in, making me aware of things I had thought about and lost track of throughout my life. These were the same truths exposed for the first time some forty years ago in 'L'Aventurra,''La Notte,' 'L'Eclisse,' and 'Red Desert,' transposed to a contemporary setting, and they were just as fascinating as ever! The slow, drawn-out meditative moods, the famous "alienated tone," and above all, the subtle comedic subtext underlying everything-I just couldn't get enough.
The (Wenders directed but deeply Antonioni influenced)scene with Malkovich sitting on the fancy colored swings on the windswept beach, sand swirling by, with the weather so beautifully silver-skied, and the Eno/U2 track in the background flowing through at just the shot's rhythm--this had been my favorite on first viewing: it still was, but now the whole film was almost as great. What a strange phenomenon, that special brand of 'complex s!implicity' or 'invisible complex' which Antonioni's eye alone seems to be able to pick up and communicate (and influence Wenders to do like-wise when collaborating).
"Beyond the Clouds" looks at first glance like a soft-core porno of some kind and it does feature plenty of sex (the maddeningly gorgeous Sophie Marceau alone should be enough to distract the males in the audience), but make no mistake about it, its sensibility is timeless and unmistakably Antonioni's to its core; however, you will not sense to what a profound extent, until you have seen the film a few times and got used to its rhythm (I saw it 4 times before they pulled it and would've gone back for more). If this film had been promoted right and people guided to a certain extent as to how to approach it, I have no doubt it would have succeeded on the art house circuit like most of Antonioni's '60s films. But the '60s are no more and the film will have to find its audience on letterboxed DVD (I'll never f!orgive the morons who released those cut-up versions of 'Zabriskie Point' and 'The Passenger' on video) some 5 years after its initial release. I urge all film nuts general or esoteric to see 'Beyond the Clouds' and add a touch of magic to the tragic.
Rating:
Summary: Tschuess to Philadelphia
Review: I believe elmoderno saw some forein films, but it was obviously useless for him. He didn't understand a word in the film. This is the reason why most of Russians laughing at Americans adolescence maximalism and inability to think about and understand really deep and serious European films. They can't even hide their narrow-mindedness, as we can see. Every person can read the texts (it can be texts in the books and in the films and anywhere else as well - all our world is the text for reading and understanding) using some interpretative codes, which he has by force of his education and his environment. So this is not the question of Wim Wenders absolute Genius - this is the problem of personal ability for reading and understanding the meanings which contain the text (the film in this case)!
Rating: 
Summary: A bit strange but enjoyable!
Review: I just watched this for the second time & It's still a little hard to follow because actually it's 4 stories in one. But the first is the best IMHO but here again the man is hard to understand. A beautiful girl waits all night for him in a lovely nightdress and he stays in his room? Then when they meet again and she lies (...)--he hardly touches her--is this guy nuts?
Rating:
Summary: romantic stories in beautiful places
Review: I love this movie so much that I will be the first one in line to buy the DVD. For those of you who love well-designed plots, like those of Manon of the Spring or Sixth Sense, you may be disappointed by the stories in this movie. All four stories were not linked in any meaningful way. The first story was about a young man, who secretly fell in love with a beautiful young woman (Inès Sastre) that he met in a street. It was the kind of Platonic love in which he loved her spiritually but feared that physical attachment would destroy this relationship. It reminds me of John Cage and Nelle Porter in the Ally McBeal show. Only they were more innocent. The second story was a bizarre one. John Malkovich and Sophie Marceau were two mysterious strangers who met in a small shop on the shore of a beautiful lake (or sea?). They felt connected in some way that was not easily understandable to the audience. The third story was about a love triangle in a big city. This story was all so familiar and boring too. In the last story, a beautiful girl (Irene Jacob) was walking to a church. A young man volunteered to walk with her in the rain. They talked about life and love. When the girl got back home, she told the boy that she was going to enter a convention the day after. The boy left in despair. Obviously, the girl was kind of lost too. What I love most about this movie is the beautiful places. I love the foggy street and cozy hotel of Ferrara, the beach shops and ivy-covered walls of Portofino, and the streets of Paris in rainy days. These places look so beautiful and lovely that I just want to jump in the screen like the waitress in The Purple Rose of Cairo. Sastre, Marceau and Jacob look phenomenal in this movie. Reno (well known as Leon in The Professional) and Malkovich have good performance too. When Malkovich plays a serious movie director and observes people's life, it's more funny than serious. People may feel lost in the clouds after seeing this movie. Actually, this is not a down-to-earth or sci-fi Hollywood movie at all. These stories happen everyday in the world, when I was watching it, I felt I knew these characters all along. Antonioni did not intend to teach you about the meaning of life, love, desire, and betrayal, on the contrary, he tried to help you to experience or to understand your experience through the eyes of the camera. It works fine with me.
Rating:
Summary: Whole Lotta Brooding Goin' On
Review: I think a more apt title for this film would be "Who is John Malkovich and why is he following me?" Leaving that mystery aside, BYC has obvious merits. It's visually evocative and pleasing, as all Antonioni is (though not on the richly symbolic order of L'Avventura or the other films in the "tetralogy"); and from the standpoint of a heterosexual male, you can't beat the triple whammy of Sastre, Marceau and Jacob. Beyond that, however, I found it to be pretentious and overly-ponderous, as if it were a parody of all things bad in foreign films, in the same way that a parody of an American movie would be overproduced with scant character development and an excess of car chases, gunplay, and explosions.
Rating:
Summary: Whole Lotta Brooding Goin' On
Review: I think a more apt title for this film would be "Who is John Malkovich and why is he following me?" Leaving that mystery aside, BYC has obvious merits. It's visually evocative and pleasing, as all Antonioni is (though not on the richly symbolic order of L'Avventura or the other films in the "tetralogy"); and from the standpoint of a heterosexual male, you can't beat the triple whammy of Sastre, Marceau and Jacob. Beyond that, however, I found it to be pretentious and overly-ponderous, as if it were a parody of all things bad in foreign films, in the same way that a parody of an American movie would be overproduced with scant character development and an excess of car chases, gunplay, and explosions.
Rating:
Summary: What's the point?
Review: Okay, I watch lotsa foreign films, and love letterbox and subtitles and MEANING in my videos and DVDs. But this film is the reason why MOST AMERICANS HATE FOREIGN FILMS. It's pointless, boring, full of sex without substance, and "dreamy" if your dreams lack substance. I didn't enjoy it AT ALL. And I think Wim Wenders is an absolute Genius. Oh, well. That's all. Maybe it's one of those 'it's the sort of thing you'll like if you like this sort of thing.' I DON'T.
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