Eight Miles High | |
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DVD box
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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.
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Release date
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February 1, 2007 |
Running time
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114 min. |
Country | Germany |
Language | German |
Eight Miles High (original title: Das wilde Leben, lit. The Wild Life) is a German biographical motion picture, set in the 1960s and depicting the "wild life" of Uschi Obermaier, a West German groupie.
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.