IMDb RATING
6.4/10
6.2K
YOUR RATING
Four stories about short or long relationships between men and women in Italy and France.Four stories about short or long relationships between men and women in Italy and France.Four stories about short or long relationships between men and women in Italy and France.
- Awards
- 3 wins & 6 nominations
Kim Rossi Stuart
- Silvano
- (as Kim Rossi-Stuart)
Inés Sastre
- Carmen
- (as Ines Sastre)
- Directors
- Michelangelo Antonioni
- Wim Wenders(prologue, intermissions & epilogue)
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn the original edited footage (which was more than two hours long) the sex scene between Peter Weller and Chiara Caselli was longer and showed the actor performing an explicit cunnilingus to the actress. It was Wim Wenders who asked Michelangelo Antonioni to cut that part. "The scene starts off well, but becomes unbearable when it doesn't end and at the end it heavily touches the limit of pornography," he said.
In the Peter Weller's diary of working with Michelangelo Antonioni (included in Projections 12 book), the actor recalled that in this scene the director ordered Caselli to be 'Tutta nuda' (Totally naked), allowing him to take off only his shirt, and then he ordered him to kiss all Caselli's body. Weller then asked Antonioni: "Cosa vuoi? Che io mangio la sua fica?" (What do you want? Have I to eat her pussy?). At that moment assistant director Beatrice Banfi and Antonioni's wife intervened to prevent the sexual act from happening, but Antonioni sent them off the set and asked Weller to continue. So only after Weller put his head between Caselli's legs and started actually licking her vagina for a while, Antonioni called the scene to a close.
Caselli confirmed to have suffered for that scene and asked if Peter Weller was embarrassed too, she answered: "Not at all: on the contrary...".
- Alternate versionsThere are two slightly different versions of the movie, the difference ocurring at the end. The US version of 'Beyond The Clouds' (Al di là delle nuvole, 1995) lacks the complete voice-over narration by John Malkovich's character at the end of the movie, from the moment he enters the hotel until the last image, before going to credits. The only line heard is: 'The director's profession is very peculiar...'; whereas the European cut of the movie contains a longer narration, also starting with the same line, but expanding until the last image before fading to credits. The voice-over talks about how the director's profession is to find images, only to discover another image beneath the previous one which is more faithful to the truth, and then another, and another, until you reach the one which equals reality, the one no one will ever see. Both versions are equally powerful in their own right, though it's interesting to note such a minor difference was made in the first place. Both versions are available, the US version was released in DVD, and the European version is available in VHS only.
- ConnectionsFeatured in To Make a Film Is to Be Alive (1995)
- SoundtracksUnknown Love
Written by Lucio Dalla and Robert Sidoli
Performed by Giuseppe D'Onghia (as Beppe Donghia) (piano) and Lucio Dalla (clarin)
Featured review
The Twelve Stabs: Story in the Viewing
This is a special film if you know the context. Antonioni, in his eighties, had been crippled by a stroke. Mute and half paralyzed, his friends -- who incidentally are the best the film world has -- arranged for him to 'direct' a last significant film. The idea is that he can conjure a story into being by just looking at it. So we have a film: about a director who conjures stories by simple observation. And the matter of the (four) stories is about how the visual imagination defines love.
The film emerges by giving us the tools to bring it into being through our own imagination. The result is pure movie-world: every person (except the director) is lovely in aspect or movement. Some of these women are ultralovely, and they exist in a dreamy misty world of sensual encounter. There is no nuance, no hint that anything exists but what we see; no desire is at work other than what we create.
I know of no other film that so successfully manipulates our own visual yearning to have us create the world we see. He understands something about not touching. No one understands Van Morrison visually like he does. Morrison's Celtic space music is predicated on precisely the same notion: the sensual touch that implies but doesn't physically touch.
Antonioni's redhead wife appears, appropriately as the shopkeeper and she also directs a lackluster 'making of' film that is on the DVD.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 4: Worth watching.
The film emerges by giving us the tools to bring it into being through our own imagination. The result is pure movie-world: every person (except the director) is lovely in aspect or movement. Some of these women are ultralovely, and they exist in a dreamy misty world of sensual encounter. There is no nuance, no hint that anything exists but what we see; no desire is at work other than what we create.
I know of no other film that so successfully manipulates our own visual yearning to have us create the world we see. He understands something about not touching. No one understands Van Morrison visually like he does. Morrison's Celtic space music is predicated on precisely the same notion: the sensual touch that implies but doesn't physically touch.
Antonioni's redhead wife appears, appropriately as the shopkeeper and she also directs a lackluster 'making of' film that is on the DVD.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 4: Worth watching.
helpful•3511
- tedg
- Jan 20, 2003
- How long is Beyond the Clouds?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $31,738
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $12,596
- Dec 5, 1999
- Gross worldwide
- $31,738
- Runtime1 hour 50 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1
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