In 1995, Michelangelo Antonioni joined a select fraternity of film directors: men who have continued to direct in their eighties. The only other directors that I know who continued to direct at that age were George Cukor, John Huston, and Akira Kurosawa. In fact, prior to 1995, Antonioni last directed in 1982, and the film was "Identification Of A Woman." In the intervening years, he had suffered a stroke, so it was in itself an accomplishment that he was able to return to directing.

"Beyond The Clouds" is a film based on stories Antonioni had written. It deals with a familiar subject in Antonioni films - people who are drawn to one another, yet are afraid to share intimacy. John Malkovich heads the ensemble cast as a character known only as The Director. He's a photographer who observes relationships, including his own, then shares his views with us.

Most of the characters in "Beyond The Clouds" do not have names. One by one, The Director presents their tales. One of the main tales involve a young man and woman, who meet three years apart, find themselves fond of one another, yet never really act upon it. Another involves a man who is forced to choose between his wife and his mistress. The third involves a young man pursuing a woman, only to discover she's about to enter a convent. Other accounts include an elderly man who enjoys creating copies of classic art, and The Director's encounter with shop clerk.

I admire the Everyman approach Antonioni used in this film, but I didn't feel any empathy toward the characters. The pace of the movie was far too slow. In fact, at least one moviegoer at the theater where I went to see "Beyond The Clouds" fell asleep on this movie. The tales have no real conflict, so instead of being stories, they are merely vignettes. Lack of storytelling not only hurt Antonioni here, but the absence of conflict would hurt any director, from Antonioni to the director of an Adam Sandler film. I wish Wim Wenders, a noteworthy German director who served as the producer of this film, had seen this and taken over the directing chores himself. Perhaps he could have made the film more of a story of Antonioni did.

In addition to Malkovich, the talented cast includes Sophie Marceau, Peter Weller, Fanny Ardent, Jean Reno, and Marcello Mastroianni. They do their best with the material provided, but the material fails to provide them with anything truly compelling. I wish I had seen more of Antonioni's films to recommend more from his body of work, but I will highly recommend the one other movie of his I have seen - the 1960 classic "L'Avventura." He also directed the English language films "Blowup" and "Zabriskie Point." "Beyond The Clouds" presented good ideas, but failed to provide the ideas with a good story.



Recommended: No