Eight Miles High | |
---|---|
Directed by | Achim Bornhak |
Written by | Dagmar Benke Achim Bornhak C. P. Hant Olaf Kraemer |
Produced by | Ralph Brosche |
Starring | Natalia Avelon |
Cinematography | Benjamin Dernbecher |
Edited by | Peter Przygodda |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 114 minutes |
Country | Germany |
Language | German |
Box office | $957,744 [1] |
Eight Miles High (original title: Das wilde Leben, lit. The Wild Life) is a 2007 German biographical motion picture, set in the 1960s and depicting the "wild life" of Uschi Obermaier, a West German sex symbol and icon of the era.
Obermaier enjoyed sexual freedom at the legendary Kommune 1 in Berlin after being with the krautrock band Bröselpilze. In the Kommune, she becomes friendly with Rainer Langhans. The young woman from Munich gains employment as a model, and becomes a sex symbol and youth icon. Now a cover girl in Playboy magazine, she meets rock stars such as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, while Italian film producer, Carlo Ponti, offers her a ten-year contract, but she declines: her freedom is more important than a contract.
During her intensive relationship with Keith Richards, she begins to recognize the dark side of the shiny glamour world she lives in: the isolation of the stars, and the groupie-populated milieux of anonymous hotel rooms — this is not her idea of life.
She finds new freedom in a relationship with the adventurer Dieter Bockhorn (David Scheller). They fall in love and go on a six-year road trip around the world. Later, Bockhorn dies in a motorcycle accident in Mexico.
Ville Valo and Natalia Avelon recorded a cover version of the Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazlewood song Summer Wine for the soundtrack. A music video was also shot, featuring Valo and Avelon with the real Uschi Obermaier.
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pioneered the gritty, rhythmically driven sound that came to define hard rock. Their first stable line-up consisted of vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarist Keith Richards, multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, bassist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts. During their early years, Jones was the primary leader. Andrew Loog Oldham became their manager in 1963 and encouraged them to write their own songs. The Jagger–Richards partnership soon became the band's primary songwriting and creative force.
Sir Michael Philip Jagger is an English musician. He is best known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of the Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; their songwriting partnership is one of the most successful in rock music history. His career has spanned over six decades, and he has been widely described as one of the most popular and influential front men in the history of rock music. His distinctive voice and energetic live performances, along with Richards' guitar style, have been the Rolling Stones' trademark throughout the band's career. Early in his career, Jagger gained notoriety for his romantic involvements and illicit drug use, and has often been portrayed as a countercultural figure.
Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones was an English musician and founder of the Rolling Stones. Initially a slide guitarist, he went on to sing backing vocals and played a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones recordings and in concerts.
Ville Hermanni Valo is a Finnish singer, songwriter and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the gothic rock band HIM.
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who is an original member, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones. His songwriting partnership with the band's lead vocalist Mick Jagger is one of the most successful in history. His career spans over six decades, and his guitar playing style has been a trademark of the Rolling Stones throughout the band's career. Richards gained press notoriety for his romantic involvements and illicit drug use, and he was often portrayed as a countercultural figure. First professionally known as Keith Richard, by the early 1970s he had fully asserted his family name.
Anita Pallenberg was an Italian-German film actress, artist, and model. A style icon and "It Girl" of the 1960s and 1970s, Pallenberg was credited as the muse of the Rolling Stones: she was the romantic partner of the Rolling Stones founder, multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, and later, from 1967 to 1980, the partner of Stones guitarist Keith Richards, with whom she had three children.
"Brown Sugar" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. Written primarily by Mick Jagger, it is the opening track and lead single from their ninth studio album, Sticky Fingers (1971). It became a number one hit in both the United States and Canada. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it charted at number two. In the United States, Billboard ranked it as the number 16 song for 1971.
Kommune 1 or K1 was a politically motivated commune in Germany. It was created on 12 January 1967, in West Berlin and finally dissolved in November 1969. Kommune 1 developed from the extraparliamentary opposition of the German student movement of the 1960s. It was intended as a counter-model against the small middle-class family, as a reaction against a society that the commune thought was very conservative.
"As Tears Go By" is a song written by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham. Marianne Faithfull recorded and released it as a single in the United Kingdom in 1964. Her song peaked at number nine on both the UK and Irish singles charts. Later, the Rolling Stones recorded their own version, which was included on the American album December's Children . London Records released it as a single, which reached number six in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
"Beast of Burden" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, featured on their 1978 album Some Girls. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song No. 435 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Ursula "Uschi" Obermaier is a former fashion model and actress associated with the 1968 left-wing movement in Germany. She is considered an iconic sex symbol of the so-called "1968 generation" and the protests of 1968.
"Heart of Stone" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, credited to the songwriting partnership of Jagger/Richards. London Records first issued it as a single in the United States in December 1964. The song was subsequently included on The Rolling Stones, Now! and Out of Our Heads.
"Respectable" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones from their 1978 album Some Girls. It was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. In the liner notes to the 1993 compilation album Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones, Jagger said, "It's important to be somewhat influenced by what's going on around you and on the Some Girls album, I think we definitely became more aggressive because of the punk thing..."
Natalia Avelon is a German actress and singer of Polish birth.
"Memory Motel" is a ballad song from English rock band the Rolling Stones' 1976 album Black and Blue. The song is credited to singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. It's one of the few which feature both members sharing lead vocals. The song is more than seven minutes long, one of the longest by the Rolling Stones.
"Stupid Girl" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the song featured on the band's 1966 album Aftermath. It was also issued as the B-side of the U.S. "Paint It Black" single.
David Scheller is a German actor.
Anna Werner is a German photographer. She is, in particular, known for her membership of Der Harem - described variously as a "virtual commune" or a "self-discovery group" - around Rainer Langhans.
Brigitte Streubel is a German former photo-model, sometime actress and author. She is, in particular, known for her membership of Der Harem - described variously as a "virtual commune" or a "self-discovery group" - around Rainer Langhans.
The Big Apple was a nightclub in Munich's Schwabing district from 1963 to 1975 and, together with the PN hit-house, formed the center of the southern German beat and rock music culture during the Swinging Sixties.