Drama

Romance

Head in the Clouds

Remstar Productions

Dakota Films

Spice Factory

Movision

Canada

United Kingdom

English

Français

Deutsch

Español

Charlize Theron

Penélope Cruz

Stuart Townsend

Thomas Kretschmann

Peter Cockett

Gabriel Hogan

Karine Vanasse

David La Haye

Steven Berkoff

John Robinson

Élisabeth Chouvalidzé

Jolyane Langlois

Sophie Desmarais

Éloïsa Cervantes

Ivan Vukov

Sebastian Bailey

Rachelle Lefevre

Daniel Murphy

Linda Tomassone

Julian Casey

Lisa Bronwyn Moore

Frank Fontaine

Vanya Rose

Amy Sloan

Sven Eriksson

Michèle Châtelet

Arthur Holden

Paule Ducharme

Jérôme Tiberghien

Lenie Scoffié

Sarah Gravel

Benjamin Chouinard

Émilie Carrier

John Jorgenson

Eric Speed

Andrew MacKenzie

François Rousseau

André Faleiros

Élisa Sergent

Cécile Cassel

Michel Albert Côté

Christopher Freeman

Sonia Auger-Guimont

Jan Oliver Schroeder

Paul-Antoine Taillefer

Allen Altman

Mark Antony Krupa

Judith Baribeau

Armand Laroche

Elizabeth Marleau

Elizabeth Whitmere

Charles Lelaure

Vincent Leclerc

Stéphane Boutet

Annick D'Amours

Vera Miller

Patrick Schmitt

Dominique Fortin

Jonathan Lee

Marina Morris

John Duigan

Gilles Aird

Rosina Bucci

Michael Kelm

Mario Davignon

Frances Calder

Gérard Marcireau

Paul Sarossy

Peter James

Jim Erickson

Catherine Lavoie

Charmaine Fuller

Shane Paish

Lydia Pujols

Marie-France Thibault

Michel Descombes

Belinda Hodgson

Kay Georgiou

Philippe Mercier

Chris Navarro

Pierre Laberge

Alain Pancrazi

Julien Remillard

Guillaume Moulin

Luis de Val

Pete Maggio

Michael Cowan

Nigel Goldsack

Maxime Rémillard

Jason Piette

James Simpson

Xavier Catafal

Jonathan Olsberg

Julia Palau

Matthew Payne

André Rouleau

Bertil Ohlsson

Antoine Morin

Terry Frewer

Gavin Fernandes

Guy Pelletier

Jo Caron

Pierre Blain

Filipe Manuel Neto

**A film about idealisms, utopias and harsh realities, which could be much better than it is, but is still good enough to be worth it.**

There are many movies about romance and love in times of war. John Duigan gives us a film about love, but also about hopes for the future, utopias and the way war and human cruelty end it all in an instant. That old story of idealism versus reality. The film is good, but as a drama it is a little inconsistent and does not work from a romantic point of view.

The script begins with the unusual meeting between a young Irish student named Guy and a beautiful and liberal French heiress, Gilda Bessé. They have an affair that, years later, they will resume in Paris, including the young Spanish Mia. The ménage-a-trois ends up when Guy and Mia go to Spain to help the republicans in the Civil War. The defeat in the war and the German invasion of France will later condemn Gilda to a difficult survival, as the lover of an officer of the invading troops... and I really don't want to say more because it would spoil the pleasure of watching the film.

As I said, the movie is good, and it has a good story. The problem is that there's a lot here, and there are several sub-plots that come out of nowhere and end up not resulting in anything: it's the case of the tense relationship between Gilda and her rich father, or what happens to Mia's brother. Very little consistency and dramatic solidity, in a script that seems fragile at various times. I'm even willing to forgive that... but it's hard to ignore the way the film confuses love with sexual horniness. Gilda Bessé seems to be anything but a romantic or passionate young woman, and the relationship between her and her partners is very sexual, but not exactly rosy.

Despite having a pretty good cast, there are only three actors who really deserve a note and highlight. Penélope Cruz is quite believable in her character, but the director doesn't give her anything that really allows the actress to do something really memorable. Her character is cold, a little shy, and the actress has the ability to impress us more. Stuart Townsend does what he can in his character, but he's not "nerdy" enough for the character he's been given. He's elegant, he's handsome, but that's about it. He's not even an actor who seems capable of combining beauty and intellect in the same character. This makes me think that he was only cast in the film because he is the husband of the remarkable Charlize Theron who, in fact, is the soul of the film and gives us an extraordinary performance, where beauty, sexuality, drama and suffering are perfectly matched.

Technically, it's a restrained film, standard Hollywood at the time. There are some aspects that were very well-used, such as the original footage of the war, in black and white, and the way in which the sets and costumes were designed and recreated, managing to show the passage of years and the evolution of the characters very well. The soundtrack, however, could be better, while the cinematography seems a little disconnected from the rest of the work.

Head in the Clouds - Original trailer

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Head in the Clouds

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Cast

Charlize Theron

Penélope Cruz

Stuart Townsend

Thomas Kretschmann

Peter Cockett

Gabriel Hogan

Karine Vanasse

David La Haye

Steven Berkoff

John Robinson

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