|
|
 |
Eight Miles High
R1 - America - MPI Home Video Review written by and copyright: James Teitelbaum (30th November 2008). |
|
The Film
 This is a biopic about the life of Uschi Obermaier (played by an almost continually naked Natalia Avelon), who is a former model from Munich, Germany. Uschi made headlines in the 1960's and 1970's for her affiliations with political movements, rock musicians, and racy German fashion magazines. The film picks up her life at age 23, in 1968. Uschi is living in Munich. She is frustrated with her conservative upbringing, and has been inspired by the students rioting in France, the hippies in San Francisco, and the music scene in London. After being discovered by a photographer while dancing in a nightclub, Uschi is soon on the cover of national magazines. Munich is too small a town for her, and her prudent parents don't approve of her topless modelling (which of course is not considered nearly as shocking in Europe as it is in the U. S. A.). She takes off for Berlin, and falls in with Commune 1, a short-lived group of radical leftists who have also been inspired by hippies and by communism. One of the commune's leaders resents her vanity and her career. He and some of the other communards don't believe that she is enough of a thinker, enough of a radical, or that she truly embodies their ideals. However the other commune leader (Matthias Schweighöfer as Rainer Langhans), falls for her. When the members of Commune 1 are framed by the government - who use a mole to implicate the commune in a bomb plot - their political message and their vindication is completely obscured by the presence of the beautiful Uschi. After her rocky relationship with Rainer falls apart, she leaves the commune, goes back to modelling full time, and starts sleeping with a few of The Rolling Stones. A bit less than halfway through the film - after the coverage of the events of 1968 - Uschi Obermaier's story flashes forward to 1973, the year she met Hamburg impressario Dieter Bockhorn (David Scheller) and his pet ape. Uschi acted in a few movies, toured with the Stones, spent a lot more time naked, did a lot of drugs, and developed a particularly unpleasant personality. Then, she and Deiter travelled the world in a van, got married, and were together until 1984, when he died. Uschi now lives in Los Angeles, where she makes jewelry. As Obermaier, the impossibly beautiful Natalia Avelon is present in virtually every shot of this film, but she really doesn't have much to do, other than to sleepwalk through the situations she finds herself in. What we are left with is a shallow and vain woman who would rather have her picture taken and be a playmate to rockers than someone who might be interested in contributing to a peaceful (if slightly stinky) political movement, or to share any sort of meaningful insight about her travel experiences. So be it. But if Uschi had no depth or motivation in her life, then how are we expected to find ture meaning in a film about this life? This is a pretty film about a pretty girl. There is nothing else to it. One would not have much more empathy for Uschi Obermaier than one would have for her equally worthless contemporary, Edie Sedgwick (who in turn was the subject of her own biopic, "Factory Girl", in 2006). Well, actually Edie was probably worse: Uschi wasn't quite the spoiled brat that Edie was, and is a far less reprehensible person. But what both people had in common, if their biopics are to be believed, is that they were essentially pretty girls who had basically nothing to offer the world, but who both ended up smack in the middle of several important cultural events during the late 1960's and early 1970's. Therefore, to study Uschi and Edie is to study the radical times they lived in, and the important people they consorted with, all from the perspective of a meaningless insider who didn't need to be there. Neither Commune 1, Warhol's Factory, or The Rolling Stones, as entities, would have suffered for the absence of Uschi or Edie. Looking at "Eight Miles High" or "Factory Girl", we see two very pretty girls frolicing around with artists, radicals, rock stars, and playboys. But these people were all more interesting figures in their own right, and were perhaps more deserving of biography than Uschi or Edie (and to be fair, some of these people have been the subject of their own biopics and documentaries). There have been many women who have been both strong and beautiful, both intelligent and adventurous, but whose own stories involve being an integral part of history, not just a witness to it. If someone wants to make a companion movie to the films about Uschi and Edie, but this time about a model who participated in several key moments in history, then where is the Lee Miller biopic? That is one movie I'd love to see. Props are due to the casting director - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1039576/>Uwe Bünker et al., - who found a group of actors who perform competently (particularly David Scheller as Bockhorn), and who also look uncannily like the people they're playing, more so than in most biopics. The costumes look contemporary to their time period, but I did have a small quibble with Avelon's makeup, which is hopelessly 2007, to the point where it draws attention to itself: it will damage the period believability of the film when viewed fifteen years from now.
Video
Aspect ratio is 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. The cinematography of Benjamin Dernbecher is captured well on this disc. His camera is occasionally a bit jerky for my tastes, but it loves Avelon and never lingers far from her always flatteringly lit body. The print is clean and free of undue artifacts. Contrast could be bumped up half a notch, but I wasn't bothered by it. Running time is 1:53:30, divided into 23 chapters.
Audio
The film is presented in the original German Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, with an English dubbed version (also in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo) available. English subtitles are also provided. As is always the case, the original languge track is definitley recommended; the dubbed track sounds a bit lifeless and is annoying in its lack of room ambience.
Extras
Extras are perfunctory on this DVD: a still gallery, the film's original U.S. theatrical trailer which runs for 1 minute 51 seconds, and a brief "making-of" featurette which runs for 12 minutes 57 seconds that offers few surprises: the usual cast and crew interviews, etc. The most interesting bit is that the producers did enjoy the paricipation of the real Uschi Obermaier, who is interviewed here and who seems happy with the casting of her virtual doppelganger, Avelon.
Overall
|
|||||
|