Arquivo

Director Marion Hänsel has always been fascinated by clouds that she has gazed at, photographed, and also filmed. This dream material gave her a very simple, daring idea - to devote a feature to her obsession. The film maker has always believed that these masses of water that trace their intriguing choreography between heaven (the “largest canvas in the world”) and Earth are sufficiently abstract to lead spectators to a world of delirium. She filmed images of clouds in twelve countries - from France to Senegal, through Scotland, Namibia and South Africa - against skies painted by René Magritte, William Turner, Eugène Delacroix and other masters. The lead throughout consists of letters written by Marion to her son, sensitive descriptions of anguish and expectation of the mother and film maker that went together with pregnancy, birth, uncertainties of childhood, separation of the parents, and the imminent independence of the boy (today he is 18). In the version in French, the letters are read by Catherine Deneuve; in Spanish, by Carmen Maura, and in English, by Charlotte Rampling.