Eight Miles High (film)
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.
| Eight Miles High | |
|---|---|
 DVD box | |
| Directed by | Achim Bornhak |
| Produced by | Ralph Brosche |
| Written by | Dagmar Benke, Achim Bornhak, C. P. Hant, Olaf Kraemer |
| Starring | Natalia Avelon |
| Cinematography | Benjamin Dernbecher |
| Edited by | Peter Przygodda |
Production company | Warner Bros. |
Release date | 1 February 2007 |
Running time | 114 min. |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German |
Film Synopsis
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.
Cast
- Natalia Avelon as Uschi Obermaier
- Matthias Schweighöfer as Rainer Langhans
- Victor Norén (singer of the Swedish band Sugarplum Fairy) as Mick Jagger
- Alexander Scheer as Keith Richards
- David Scheller as Dieter Bockhorn.
- Urs Rechn as "the knocker" Norbert Grupe
Production crew
- Directed by Achim Bornhak.
- Written by Achim Bornhak and Olaf Kraemer.
- Based on a work by C. P. Hant, Dagmar Benke and Olaf Kraemer
Filming locations
- Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Bavaria in Germany
- Goa, Jaipur, and Rajasthan in India
Soundtrack
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.