"Die Wolke" or "The Cloud" is a German 105-minute movie from 2006, so this one had its 10th anniversary last year. The director is Gregor Schnitzler and it is certainly one of his best efforts. This is also true about the writer duo here, Ainscough and Kreuzpaintner, who have done worse during their careers, especially the former. These two adapted the novel by Gudrun Pausewang here. This is the story of a teenage girl and what happens when her first love happens at the very same time like a nuclear catastrophe that has an impact on her and all her beloved ones and actually on thousands of people in Germany. This film is not really about telling us that nuclear reactors are bad (even if it still gets the message across), but it is about the fate of individuals concerned by the disaster and the film works very well without big action sequences or (not so) special effects trying to hide the lack of substance as it has been done so so many times in catastrophe movies here in Germany.
I may be a bit biased as I have always liked Paula Kalenberg, but for me she is the heart and soul of the movie. It is very easy to cheer for her and her happiness and well-being because of the approach P.K. gives to her character. The script, however, is really good too and works nicely for the most part. They weren't afraid of taking risks like the boy's death that may shock the audience or depict Kalenberg with a bald head that shows however that lack of hair cannot destroy love in a nice metaphorical way. The best (and equally most devastating scene) of the film, however, is the toxic rain sequence. Heartbreaking stuff there. This one was also an 8/10 at least and i would have been way more effective on the big screen too I am sure. I would not say that this is a perfect film and my liking for Kalenberg (especially her face expression in the kissing scenes) may cloud (no pun intended!) my vision a bit here, but I think that eventually it is a very rewarding watch. And even if the future may not be as bright as I want it to be, I am somewhat glad the film ends on a positive, almost uplifting, note. But even besides that, like I already said, this one here shows all the horribly untalented filmmakers when it comes to disaster movies (especially the way mass panic is put on display here) worldwide how it is to be done. Initially, you may think this film is mostly for audiences that are roughly the same age as the central characters, i.e. teenagers, but this would be a very short-minded assumption. It is for everybody who likes quality movies and certainly considerably closer to "great" than to "mediocre". I very much recommend checking it out.
I may be a bit biased as I have always liked Paula Kalenberg, but for me she is the heart and soul of the movie. It is very easy to cheer for her and her happiness and well-being because of the approach P.K. gives to her character. The script, however, is really good too and works nicely for the most part. They weren't afraid of taking risks like the boy's death that may shock the audience or depict Kalenberg with a bald head that shows however that lack of hair cannot destroy love in a nice metaphorical way. The best (and equally most devastating scene) of the film, however, is the toxic rain sequence. Heartbreaking stuff there. This one was also an 8/10 at least and i would have been way more effective on the big screen too I am sure. I would not say that this is a perfect film and my liking for Kalenberg (especially her face expression in the kissing scenes) may cloud (no pun intended!) my vision a bit here, but I think that eventually it is a very rewarding watch. And even if the future may not be as bright as I want it to be, I am somewhat glad the film ends on a positive, almost uplifting, note. But even besides that, like I already said, this one here shows all the horribly untalented filmmakers when it comes to disaster movies (especially the way mass panic is put on display here) worldwide how it is to be done. Initially, you may think this film is mostly for audiences that are roughly the same age as the central characters, i.e. teenagers, but this would be a very short-minded assumption. It is for everybody who likes quality movies and certainly considerably closer to "great" than to "mediocre". I very much recommend checking it out.