Cloud Nine

While the sex scenes are admirably frank and matter of fact, what impresses most in Andreas Dresen’s quietly remarkable film is the honesty with which it treats both the emotional and the ethical dimensions of an increasingly complicated situation.

For Inge (Ursula Werner), her growing passion for Karl coincides with a belated discovery of self-determination; for Karl (Horst Westphal), their relationship offers a last chance of happiness; but the pair’s joy inevitably also affects Inge’s husband Werner (Horst Rehberg)…
Combining great discretion with lucid insights, this tender, witty, compassionate film – another example of German cinema’s recent renaissance – proceeds to a conclusion that is at once utterly plausible and extremely moving.