Head in the Clouds

Plot synopsis:
In a prologue set in Paris in the year 1921, a young 14-year-old Gilda Bessé (Charlize Theron), the daughter of a French aristocrat and an emotionally unstable American mother, reluctantly is told by a fortune teller that the life line on her palm doesn't extend past the age of 34. Fast forward to a rainy night in 1933, when Gilda stumbles into the room of Guy Malyon, an Irishman who is a first-year scholarship student at Cambridge University. She has had a lover's quarrel with one of the dons, and rather than turn her out into the storm, Guy gallantly allows her to spend the night. Later, they become lovers, but the two are separated when Gilda's mother dies and she opts to leave England. A few years later, Guy sees her as an extra in a Hollywood film, and shortly after he coincidentally receives a letter from her inviting him to visit her in Paris, where she's working as a photographer.
Guy discovers that Gilda is living with the Spanish-born nursing student/model Mia and has a lover, whom she quickly discards when Guy moves in. The trio are enjoying their unusual living arrangement, but world events are beginning to affect their existence. It is the height of the Spanish Civil War, and idealistic Guy, a long-time supporter of the army of the Second Spanish Republic, is determined to do what he can to help them as Francisco Franco's fascists gain strength. Mia, too, is anxious to come to the aid of her native land. Gilda, however, has no interest in politics or anything else that might disrupt her life of luxury, and pleads with the two to ignore the conflict, but they feel compelled to act and depart for Spain.
By January 1938, Guy becomes a soldier, while Mia becomes a nurse and tends to the wounded. They cross paths one night and, before sleeping with Guy, Mia confesses she was Gilda's lover. In the morning, her ambulance is destroyed by a land mine resulting in Mia's death as well as the ambulance driver. A few months later in July 1938, Guy returns to Paris, where he is ignored by Gilda, who feels his abandonment of her was a form of betrayal.
Six years later, Guy is working as a spy with the underground in occupied Paris under the auspices of British intelligence. He learns that Gilda has taken Nazi Major Franz Bietrich as a lover and visits her in their old apartment, where the two make love. The following morning she tells him their affair is over and the two can never see each other again. D-Day is approaching, and Guy throws himself into his work. One day he arrives at a café to meet a contact, but instead is approached by Gilda, who has overheard her German lover plotting a trap and has come to help him escape in cleric's clothing she has concealed in the restaurant's washroom. That night, he and his associates destroy a rail station, but only Guy manages to elude the German soldiers.
Guy returns to London, where he discovers Gilda joined the Resistance a few years earlier. With the occupation of Paris having come to an end, he realizes that the locals, who had long regarded Gilda as a Nazi sympathizer and traitor, will seek revenge. As he returns to Paris to find her, Guy is unaware that Bietrich has been killed in Gilda's apartment and that she has been taken captive by a mob intent on avenging the deaths of their loved ones. She is finally killed, off-camera, by a local youth to avenge the death of his sister. The movie ends with Guy in Gilda's ransacked apartment reading the last letter written by her to him.

Tags: boring, murder, sadist, flashback

Review:
Writer and Director John Duigan has added to his cinematic stature with this recent film about the interrelated responses of three countries - England, France, Spain - to the early phases of WW II and in doing so gives some inadvertent insight into how the continent was so endangered by the little known bad boy Hitler in the years leading up to the horror of a second World War.The title seems very appropriate - taken from the quip of 'Head in the clouds, Feet on the ground' - as the lead character Gilda (a radiantly beautiful Charlize Theron) seems to float above all of the reality of warring struggles in 1933, focusing her life on paramours, expensive clothes, and 'dangerous liaisons' with a varied assortment of men, all the while keeping a firm stance on needs of her strangely disjointed life.
Indeed, the opening of the film finds Gilda in need of shelter from a night's fling with a Cambridge lover and she knocks on the door of a poor struggling Irish student Guy (Stuart Townsend), thus beginning a lasting affair that coasts through the entire story.Guy eventually follows Gilda to Paris where she is a popular photographer living with her gallerist, but also living with her lesbian lover Mia (Penelope Cruz).
Gilda, Guy, and Mia become a triptych and it is only the impact of the rise of fascism in Spain (Mia's home) that separates the ménage a trois: idealistic Guy and compassionate Mia are off to fight Franco while Gilda is left behind to admit to the encroaching threat of Nazis in France and enter into her own version of involvement.How these three weather the war and resolve their varied degrees of complicity provides the film's finale.
Townsend triumphs in subtlety and his character narrates some of the story.Penelope Cruz was perfect as Mia, who had been physically injured by Fascists in Spain when they came to take her brother away, presumably to be executed given that the time immediately preceded the Spanish Civil War of the 1930's.Thomas Kretschmann is brilliant as Frans Bietrich, the personification of Nazi evil: educated, urbane, thoughtful, and completely ruthless when torturing and murdering.The repartee among the three friends, Gilda, Mia, and Guy, during the prewar period is very realistic.
The story starts well before WWII and we are shown the good life of a wealthy young woman and her friends in Paris.
For all I know the story is factual even though there is the usual statement at the end about it all being fiction.More about Kretschmann: Toward the end of the movie there is a scene in which his character is supervising the torture of a young woman member of the French Resistance.
This is a movie that really could have hit the audience hard, but it just kind of laid there instead.We go through a long, long development of the relationship between the two main characters Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend.
Early on, we are introduced to Penelope Cruz who is a good friend to Theron's character.
Themes of sexuality, expanded definitions of relationships between lovers, loyalty, duty to humanity, futility of war, art, decadence...The big question it poses is when is it time for an individual recognize the horror taking place in their world and to put aside their personal comfort and sacrifice themselves in resistance to a greater evil?
This part provides a needed relief from the part that she had in "Monster" and shows her to be a truly beautiful woman.Personally, I feel that Stuart Townsend is in over his head in trying to be the man that captivates the debutante of France as played by Miss Theron.
She provides a excellent performance as the stereotypical cripple with a golden heart as she uses her earnings as a model to become a nurse.The story provides little, if any, inspiration and needs a stronger hand at the screen writing duties.I was well entertained by this movie and thought the total effect was to keep me interested although it did become predictable in some spots.
World war 2 is coming at the start and ends with the movie.
Yeah, well, I'm not going to look for negative stuff just to have it in.In the end, this movie left me with a feeling I like.
A young, impoverished, passionate left-wing Irish student at Cambridge University, Guy Malyon (Stuart Townsend) falls in love with a happy-go-lucky, American-born socialite Gilda Bessé (Charlize Theron).
Inflamed by the injustice of the fascist Falange in the Spanish War, Mia and Maylon leave Paris to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Maylon eventually returns to Paris; he later fights in World War II; and he constantly longs for Bessé.Somewhere, someone commented that this film could have had the tagline, "How world events can mess with your love life." That pretty much sums it up.
The centerpiece of the trio and the film is Theron as an independent, capricious, liberal and free spirited women who is in love with both her male and female part-time companions (Townsend & Cruz) who, in turn, both love her.
The film follows the ebb and flow of the trio's relationships from their good times before the Spanish civil war through their bad times during WWII.
I was more interested in seeing how the chemistry between Charlize and Stuart works as they are lovers in real life too.The movie is a melodramatic love story that takes place in the years that preceded WW II and during the war.
And if something makes this movie special, is Stuart Townsend that gives a certain feeling to his character.In the end, I liked the movie as I ignored some of its flaws (like most of the movies I see)and appreciated the overall atmosphere created, a couple of moving a memorable scenes and the beautiful chemistry between Charlize and Stuart.
Second, a wooden performance by Stuart Townsend who is actually the lead of the film as he is afforded by far the most screen time and through whose eyes we see the film (just watch is non-reaction at the death of a friend during the Spanish civil war scenes).
When Charlize Theron's poor little rich girl Gilda had to choose between the Gestapo Officer and the nice, idealistic Irish boy fighting for the partisans in the Spanish Civil War, I was willing her to go for the sexy German.
Finally, Penelope Cruz, who'd borrowed her limp from Audrey Tautou's character in Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles, looked like she was waiting for Almodovar to pop by any minute and whisk her off to a far more interesting film set.
Not afraid to plunge in blindly to follow his fantasies but no matter how much reality slaps him in the face (through two wars) he tenaciously clings to the fantasies which drive him.All of these are dumb in their own way and the reason  the film implies  that thugs rule the world."Dogtown and the Z-Boys" was a bad movie, but perfect in a way, just exactly the sort of thing that would have been made by one of the characters in the thing.
For a person looking for a movie just about war this would be a bore but for anyone looking for a story about love from different aspects and how true love affects people to even risk their lives this movie is good.
However, once we got over that section and moved to France it picked up.Charlize Theron and Penelope Cruz carried the film as far as I was concerned and I always found their characters believable.
It is glossy but generic.Too much of the story is dependant on a romance between Stuart Townsend and Charlize Theron which lacks credibility and chemistry.
Charlize Theron after the Oscar performance in "Monster" doesn't define her character at all, as well as Penelope Cruz.
So, when the mind and feelings come, they lose their bond and they can leave each other.With the years passing, this truth gets less powerful but in the tragic era of World War Two, every second can be decisive.I found the cast wonderful: I just like Penelope Cruz's accent and it's an evidence that Charlize Theron is a damned good actress!
One rainy night, wild dilettante Gilda Bessé (Charlize Theron) sneaks into sincere student Guy Malyon (Stuart Townsend)'s room.
Charlize Theron is great as Gilda, a character i will always remember.Some scenes really effected me and the end is just so tearful and the last scene is excellent.It's an underrated movie.
I think this movie is a good film although the end of film wasn't perfect.
In this film also Penelope Cruz and Stuart Townsend Had very good match with their character.Three Lives....One Destiny..
Charlize Theron puts in a good performance and Penelope Cruz is acceptable but the whole thing feels more like a made-for-TV potboiler and the ending leaves much to be desired.
She (the Charlize character) represents just that in what she takes from her two great loves and applies it to her own life and deeds amidst in a world awash in the chaos of war.
The big thing in the story is that the main character Gilda believes strongly in her predestination or in her fate so to speak and that determines the rest of her life.
charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend together in this film is going to be magic!.
I really liked the movie "Trapped" with Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend,seeing them together in another film as lovers- I believe,will be wonderful.
Put Charlize Theron, Penelope Cruz, Stuart Townsend and director John Duigan of Sirens and you get a very cloudy mix romance/war drama set in WW2.The romance/war drama seems to look good in the first place, just like any other romantic historical war drama such as English Patient, Cold Mountain or even Malena.
However, the whole movie ends up a cloudy head for the audience with the bad editing and poor presentation, without letting us know what is the cause of misfortunes when we are being presented a scene of someone who just died.
Mabey it's time Duigan should take a look at the correct usage of French words at the right time.In all, the movie live to the title: Head in the Clouds..
Indeed, "Empty heads" would have been even better, but alas one cannot ask for too many details in the title alone.Basically this movie is only a showcase for beautiful Ms. Theron, who struts around always impeccably made up, and wearing a variety of sexy gowns and hairstyles, just like in a fashion show.If you are a boy, this may be reason enough to have a movie made, but in any other case it is most definitely not enough.Ms. Cruz is also shown in a most favorable light, but it is clear that the only character that really matters is the blonde model, who spends her life sleeping around and changing clothes.
Not a chance anybody can really buy the fact that Ms. Theron's character (named Gilda) is a famous photographer or that she in the least care about anybody around her.On these premises, the story falls flat on its face, especially in the last third, which is supposed to be dramatic and where we learn a surprising truth about the allegedly empty-headed Gilda.
Unfortunately, if character study means something, it is just plain impossible to believe that Gilda is something else than a self-absorbed, empty-headed, sluttish and opportunistic brat.And so much for the incredibly shallow romance and the lesbian dance  if you enjoy seeing two women flirting with each other on the dance floor go and see "Frida" which is a much better movie..
Paris, the time frame and the costume itself are perfect for a classic film.Charlize Theron, Penelope Cruz and Stuart Townsend are just not enough to make this cultural rich period exciting.
This is the most unhappy story of one couple which meet each other at collage, and ended a lot years latter, when they are not young, full of life like on start.
I saw this movie at the World Film Festival in Montreal and I was quite interested in a story of a socialite in a era where a country, then the world was in conflict (the Spanish Civil War and World War II)This is the story of a freelance socialite Gilda Bessé (Theron) whose life in Paris is so carefree, working in art photography.
Guy goes back in Paris, only to discover Gilda is in love with a Nazi officer, which might get her in trouble at the end of the War. However, she will save his life to prove her true love to him.Though we heard this kind of story before (a melodrama), it is nicely photographed and well told at a slow pace, without much to say.
This movie is an "epoch drama" about the romance story between the two main characters, Guy (Stuart Townseed) and Gilda (Charlize Theron).
If one scene is in England, sooner the other will be in Paris The costumes and the scenario's production are excellent, which makes this movie a good one if we relate it to the history's genre.
Something more intense about the three characters, and not that this love triangle was just a "part" of the story/movie, as it is..
I usually like the movies that Charlize Theron, Stuart Townsend, and Penelope Cruz are in.
There are some lovely touches: the inclusion of the Spanish civil war in the plot, when to modern audiences it is overshadowed by WWII, the treatment of Gilda by the ordinary French civilians and particularly the ending, but the dialogue and the actions of Gilda and occasionally Guy just subvert every positive.
And just like some movies try so hard for laughs if their comedies, this one was trying so so hard for the audience to believe in Theron and Townsend's characters so that it could be this tragic love story.
The acting was great I think and I will comment on Townsend who I thought, was very very good and interestingly I thought both Theron and Townsend both had more chemistry with Penelope Cruz then with each other.
The very banal Brit Guy (Stuart Townsend) gets involved with the fabulous half-French half-American socializing Gilda played by Charlize Theron whose relationship with the Spanish refugee Mia (Peneloppe Cruz) fills in the triangle.
Eventually war happens, and the relationship between Guy and Gilda apparently over re-ignites again for a tragic finale.The story is quite fluently told, and nicely filmed, but the main problem is in the lack of balance between the feminine and masculine sides of the triangle.
The story of the relationship between Charlize Theron (ok, every time you see her your jaws drop...), Penelope Cruz and an inexpressive Stuart Townsend during the second world war has no deepness and no meaning, because the characters don't seem to know what they are doing.
Gilda Bessé has so much vitality and is so charming that she seems to get out of the screen and interfere in your daily life and principles.Although the end is quite unexpected, in my opinion, and sad, this is really a movie that is worth seeing.It is a love story, but all in all it communicates about life's little joys and obstacles, about appearances.
When I say pretty I don't mean just the actors Charlize (Gilda)Penelope Cruz and Stuart Townsend(Guy).
When Gilda ends up in Paris as an avant garde photographer playing to the gallery and along the way having picked up Mia, a sultry refugee from the Spanish Civil war, Guy rushes to her side.
Guy then meets Gilda in Paris at the end of WWII where she is still playing her games with men to the hatred of the resistance.We watched the film, then read the reviews and were very surprised by how poorly some people rated it.
Perhaps it's living in Europe and having connections with many of the places and recognising many of the European characteristics of the characters, but we found it to be a very good film, worth watching several times.
In between we see Gilda meeting Guy (Stuart Townsend) and Mia (Penelope Cruz), and the main of the story is of the relationship that develop among the three of them.
Directly after watching Theron's highly acclaimed movie "the Monster", I immediately turned to her next, namely the subject here "Head in the clouds".
Her tragic end of life is heartbreaking, without letting people know what good she had done during the war.
It was just a more than good romantic war-spy movie, and as war often does, it ends sad, but why not just leave it at that?
Story here takes place in the 1930's where a young Oxford undergraduate named Guy (Stuart Townsend) meets the infamous Gilda Besse (Charlize Theron) who's a known socialite and she takes a liking to him and a few years later she invites him to stay with her in Paris.
After finding this out Guy has a difficult time performing his duties undercover but he learns that Gilda is actually working undercover also but everyone around her thinks that she's just a selfish woman looking out only for herself.This film is directed by John Duigan who has made some pretty good little gems (Sirens, Flirting) and he's shown a good ability at making interesting character studies.
I wasn't convinced about their love, about their strong bond that they supposed to have, so the story was rolling in a way that the actors were like puppets doing things just to do them...As for Penelope, i don't know which part of the film and role was appealing to her.
I don't know who reads these things, but we, who buy movies, still love a happy ending.
I didn't really like the ending because I feel like whoever wrote this movie punished Gilda for living life to the fullest and making herself happy.
It tries to be a war epic and a love story, but ends up being neither.