Beyond The Clouds (Al di là delle nuvole) poster & wallpaper
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John Malkovich, Kim Rossi Stuart, Inés Sastre, Sophie Marceau, Fanny Ardant ... see more see more... , Peter Weller , Chiara Caselli , Irène Jacob , Veronica Lazar , Marcello Mastroianni , Vincent Perez , Jean Reno , Jeanne Moreau , Giula Urso , Enrica Antonioni , Carine Angeli , Alessandra Bonarota , Laurence Calabrese , Tracey Caligiuri , Herve Decalion , John-Emmanuel Gartmann , Sherman Green , Suzy Lorraine , Cesare Luciani , Muriel Mottais , Bertrand Peillard , Sara Ricci , Sophie Semin , Sabry Tchal Gadjieff , Jean-Philippe Revel , Frere Daniel Bourgeois

The many ways in which men are fascinated, compelled, and confused by their attraction to women are explored in this four part drama. As a filmmaker (John Malkovich) tries to sort out his plans for hi... read more read more...s next film, he considers several stories about women and the men who love them. Silvano (Kim Rossi Stuart) meets Carmen (Ines Sastre) and immediately asks her for a date, but despite his attraction, he can't follow through on his feelings for her. The director spies a woman on the streets (Sophie Marceau) and follows her obsessively, but when he finally meets her, he's disappointed, despite their mutual physical attraction. Roberto (Peter Weller) and his wife Patricia (Fanny Ardant) have to deal with their anger about each other's infidelities, as well as their problems with their lovers, Olga (Chiara Caselli) and Carlo (Jean Reno). And Niccolo (Vincent Perez) falls in love at first sight with a young woman (Irene Jacob), unaware that she is studying to become a nun. Par-Dela Les Nuages was Michelangelo Antonioni's first film after a massive stroke derailed his directorial career in 1985; Wim Wenders served as his collaborator on the project. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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20 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 53 min.

Directed by: Michelangelo Antonioni, Wim Wenders

Release Date: October 27, 1995

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DVD Release Date: August 22, 2000

Stats: 118 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (118)

  • fb1142797643
    May 18, 2010
    fb1142797643
    At best, "Beyond the Clouds" is a multi-angled look at the delicacy of romance. At worst, it's like Antonioni channeling Zalman King. Just another made-for-cable softcore flick. The corny use of mood music -- including poor Van Morrison -- doesn't help, and is truly appalling at ... read moretimes.

    In what may be his most embarrassing role since "Making Mr. Right," John Malkovich plays an American director wandering the rustic streets of Italy, seeking inspiration for his next film. He doesn't have many lines, and mostly just looks vacantly inquiring. This simple premise provides the framework for observing various romantic vignettes -- five central ones, plus a short, sentimental scene with old pros Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau. Typically for Antonioni, none of the segments except the last one (starring Irene Jacob as a pious woman being pursued by an oily suitor) have any real payoff. The stories just drift into view, then fade away again. Peter Weller and Jean Reno add further star charisma, but not much else.

    In this artificial world, sexual chemistry between strangers is a given, mainly based on heavy breathing, solemn walks, ponderous gazes and stilted philosophical musings such as "Voices never become part of you like other sounds" and "It's strange -- we always want to live in someone's imagination." Otherwise, the motivations for hopping into bed can be hard to understand, particularly in the case of world-class beauty Sophie Marceau being immediately drawn to pale, wormy Malkovich. Marceau's sequence is the lamest of all, but its gratuitous nudity will please...well, just about anyone who enjoys looking at naked women. In particular, there is one needless, lingering shot of a full-frontal Marceau which is pure cheesecake. Thank you, Signore Antonioni!

    At least two other slim beauties parade their physical charms, but it's minor compensation. Arguably, the film's best (and most "Antonioni-esque") moment is a solitary scene with Malkovich reflecting at an overcast beach, where ocean waves and wind-swept sand magically blend into one eerie landscape. Gorgeous.

    Eventually, Malkovich's character wraps up the action by noting "The director's profession is a very particular one." It's hard to think of a movie with a worse final tag line.
  • catlyst
    July 5, 2008
    catlyst
    the mist is surreal, and casts a spell, a sleeping spell that is. largely a disappointment, given that it was Antonioni's last

View All Beyond The Clouds (Al di là delle nuvole) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Stephen Holden
November 19, 2002
Stephen Holden, New York Times

There are moments of such astounding visual power in Michelangelo Antonioni's film Beyond the Clouds that you are all but transported through the screen to a place where the physical and emotional wea... Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum
November 19, 2002
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

There are a lot of beautiful things in Beyond the Clouds: the style, the settings, the bodies of young men and women-many of them beautiful in the vaguely blank way that models are. Full Review

Edward Guthmann
January 1, 2000
Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle

It's [the] compelling sense of mystery, of the endless search and its undercurrent of loneliness, that sets this great filmmaker apart. Full Review

Michael Atkinson
January 1, 2000
Michael Atkinson, Village Voice

Antonioni's dreamy, pretentious fickle-finger-of-fate mini-tales struggle to wrestle with love and desire, but truck in adolescent ideas and delight in nothing so much as undressing their many young a... Full Review

Emanuel Levy
July 31, 2007
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Though not vintage Antonioni, this later work (supervised by Wim Wenders), a meditation on eros, love, and desire, features some of the most beautiful actresses working today: Fanny Ardant, Irene Jaco... Full Review

Peter Henne
March 1, 2007
Peter Henne, Film Journal International

Antonioni seems to be using his absence from the scene as an opportunity to restate his vision, perhaps having a new generation of filmgoers in mind. Full Review

August 29, 2006
TV Guide's Movie Guide

One of Fanny Ardant's lines sums up the rest of Beyond the Clouds: 'Everything seems ridiculous.' Full Review

Michael E. Grost
August 22, 2006
Michael E. Grost, Classic Film and Television

Delightful recent film showing Antonioni's visual style. Full Review

February 9, 2006
Time Out

It makes for entrancing cinema. Full Review

Christopher Null
March 13, 2005
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com

We find we're lucky enough if we can just get one story out of this two-hour ordeal, which wanders aimlessly in art-house hell as often as it enchants. Full Review

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