stopjen Full of noise with very little substance. On the background: with so much exciting material in the 60s and 70s this film only takes a meagre glimpse of the politics, history, youth, music, and media. On the foreground: our protagonist has no purposes or goals or beliefs beyond open sexual relationships (when they suit her, one might add). It also leaves no room for the supporting characters as they shy away next to the heroine's frequent and stunning nakedness. Where the film fails miserably is that pieces of Uschi's memories do not invite audiences to be emotionally involved. They were mere events, things she had done, most of the time simply for spontaneous fun. There are a few failed attempts to portray her wildness, but they instead display her stupidity (e.g., she insists on smuggling drugs yet it's her partner who meets and wins the confrontation). By the end of the film - of moving from one group to another, mingling with the "high society" of the rock 'n' roll, travelling in a caravan around half of the world, having a prince- like wedding in India, pregnancy, etc. - both the heroine and the audience are still none the wiser. The odd narratives only provides abrupt and surprising statements like when she muses about "the two men I loved most". Huh? Which two? Since when???Her happiness is built on drugs and sexual pleasure. Her tears are shallow and unmoving. There seems to be no connection between her and any other characters except for the one she's currently sleeping with. (I don't even know what her best friend looks like as she speaks hardly 3 words.) Even then the connection is vague and confusing. Undeniably other characters display stronger personality at times, but it's largely undermined by their inconsistent and implausible behaviour.The light is on but nobody's home - very much like our main character; perhaps in that sense this film isn't a total failure after all: it mirrors the character in itself.

Robert Pullman I will catch this film when it plays here in Chicago in August. I was in Kommune 1 for a couple of weeks in March of 1969. There were two residences - Rainer Langhans, Uschi Obermaier, Dieter Kunzelmann stayed in the larger of the two, a factory loft sort of place. I stayed in the other residence, a dozen or so people in one large room. I went there with a friend from Frankfurt who wanted to reconcile with his girlfriend, who had left him for Dieter Kunzelmann. His girlfriend was unreceptive and he split right away. I was welcome to stay on for a while and did. It was easy living. Everyone was nice, except grouchy Dieter. No star attitudes or pretensions. Both Rainer and Uschi were very grounded, not at all affected by their notoriety. I think that set the tone. I'll give this film a 10 just on its subject matter.

acat13 Have you ever dreamed of being completely free? Traveling the world, living without rules, and hooking up with anyone you wanted (including celebrities)? Sure, it sounds like the premise for a new MTV reality show. But according to Achim Bornhak's new film "Eight Miles High!," this lifestyle wasn't a fantasy at all for German model Uschi Obermaier, who he portrays as the epitome of this born-to-be-wild brand of freedom.As the biopic opens, Obermaier rebels against her conservative parents by posing nude and then runs away to become the It Girl of Munich's club scene. There, she meets Rainer Langhans, leader of the controversial politically-motivated commune in Berlin, "Kommune 1", embraces free love, but lacks interest in following her new boyfriend's leftist ideals. Girls just want to have fun, and Obermaier does just that—modeling, touring the country as a Rolling Stones groupie, and traveling the world in a luxury tour bus with her Red Light District bar owner lover. With her freebird lifestyle unlike any other female of her time, Obermaier became an icon and the embodiment of 1968 Germany.Of course, there can't be all happy endings in a life without guidelines. Natalia Avelon is successful at portraying Obermaier because she doesn't glamorize her one bit—instead, we see how others viewed her, in many cases as not political or smart enough to be the face of a movement. But that's not what she wanted anyway. For this It Girl, the good life was all about sex, drugs and rock n' roll, and "Eight Miles High" makes it all look so beautiful that ultimately you'll find yourself wishing it was still 1968.Check out genartpulse.com

skinmeister Just saw this entertaining little flick and can't help but disagree with the first review by Andreas Jacke (which quite frankly doesn't make much sense anyway). Directed by Achim Bornhak, who already proved to be an expert at creating an authentic atmosphere with his feature length debut "Die Nacht der Nächte – School's Out", "Das wilde Leben" most definitely won't go down in the annals of cinematic history as a masterpiece, but still provides 120 minutes of well acted, lovingly decorated and beautifully photographed entertainment. Based on the biography of legendary German starlet Uschi Obermaier who set out to see as much of the world and have as much fun as possible the movie covers a period of approximately 15 years starting with Uschi's arrival in the Kommune 1 in Berlin in the late 60's and ending with the death of her lover and traveling companion Bockhorn in Mexico in 1983.There has been some criticism about "Das wilde Leben" changing its tone quite rapidly after an hour with the beginning of their journey across the world but that's not entirely true. Throughout the first 90 minutes it actually functions neatly as an ironic comedy filled with memorable characters that may mostly not seem particularly likable at first, but that you end up enjoy watching nonetheless. Being able to speak German, however, is a necessity to fully appreciate this movie, since a considerable portion of the humor relies on the variety of dialects that are spoken. Although the cast almost exclusively consists of newcomers they all do an admirable job at bringing their characters to life without ever making the mistake of taking them too seriously. Especially Natalia Avelon shows that she is destined to be one of the new stars of German cinema. Born in Poland and raised in Baden-Württemberg, Germany she also succeeds at handling the specific Bavarian dialect the young Uschi Obermaier used to speak with. Similarly flawless performances come from Matthias Schweighöfer and David Scheller (a very underrated actor) whereas Georg Friedrich and Alexander Scheer provide some occasional comic relief. Starting with Uschi's and Bockhorn's wedding the movie then indeed takes a couple of dramatic turns for its final reels which however didn't distract me in any way. Others are of course free to have a different opinion about that.Tech credits are pro, especially the beautifully designed sets and costumes further enhance the movie's authenticity. For a rather small German production that didn't go the easy way by relying on big stars they obviously had a more than decent budget. That it wasn't enough to obtain the rights for some of the more famous hits of that time gets rather obvious early on, but at least in my opinion it wouldn't be fair to blame the movie for this little shortcoming. Anyone who knows a bit about this kind of stuff is most likely aware of the absurd amounts of money that filmmakers have to pay for every snippet of a song they may or may not want to use. Plus: Both, the songs they ended up with and Alexander Hacke's versatile score support the action excellently. I particularly dig the piece he composed for the demonstration sequence. Natalia Avelon's and Ville Valo's cover version of "Summer Wine" of course isn't half bad, either.Much has also been talked and written about the numerous nude scenes featuring the beautiful Natalia Avelon, although the most explicit and lengthy one actually is provided by Matthias Schweighöfer early in the movie. There also is some quick but pretty damn real looking oral sex featuring Valerie Lasserre and David Scheller but due to the way it's shot they may as well have used a prosthetic. Still, considering that "Das wilde Leben" has been given a FSK12 (the German equivalent of the American PG-13) both males and females definitely get their money's worth in this department.Obviously "Das wilde Leben" isn't a movie for everyone. Although extremely well performed most of the characters don't really have much depth, a storyline in the actual sense of the word doesn't exist and the vast amount of nudity may turn more uptight people off. Still, if you can get past all that you most likely may end up enjoying the ride. I sure did! In fact the entire cinema seemed to have a ball on that evening, especially throughout the first 90 minutes.