“Eight Miles High” is a provocative, colorful, and somewhat enjoyable biopic which delves into the life of a seminal German ‘60s icon, the model/groupie, Uschi Obermaier (well played by Natalia Avelon who spends much of her screen time on screen either nude or pouting like Bridget Bardot in the film).  

Avelon bears a strong resemblance to the real Uschi, and she stayed with her for a whole week in LA—studying her walk, facial expressions, and vocal mannerisms.  Although, you would never mistake the two, it’s a startlingly effective impersonation. 

The film is based on the memoirs of the sexually liberated and very impulsive Uschi Obermaier, who changed her life trajectory as often as the wind changes direction. The film suggests that the sexual revolution was sometimes used as an excuse for exploiting women. 

Uschi starts out as a typical rebellious school girl in Germany. She does risqué for its time modeling, and runs away to escape the wrath of her well meaning but puritanical mom.  In the beginning, there was nothing to differentiate her story from any other wild child’s. 

The film gets more interesting when she joins the Berlin based, Kommune 1, a filthy revolutionary collective. Uschi doesn’t exactly fit in, and her presence causes conflict in the group. 

Many of the men in the group desire her, and some of the women either envy or hate her for her rare beauty. Also, her love for glamour and trendy clothes goes against the commune’s anti-materialistic credo.  

On one hand, the commune exploits her celebrity status for publicity, and at the same time, they look down at her for her consumerist lifestyle. Her open relationship with a group leader, Rainer Langhans was supposedly a model for John and Yoko’s relationship, but we don’t really find out why in the film.  

The group tries to use Uschi to get pop icons and celebrities to do benefits for the group, and she has affairs with many celebrities including Jimi Hendrix and Keith Richards, but of course she eventually drifts away from the commune’s revolutionary ideals.  

The Rolling Stones sequences were among the most enjoyable in the film. The sets and period detail are convincing, and the actors that play Keith Richards and Mick Jagger have an eerie resemblance to the real musicians in their youth. The film captures their carpe-diem attitude and free spirited milieu perfectly, and viewers may feel like they really spent time with the decadent rock stars after seeing this film.

Uschi shows some acting potential. She is offered a long range acting contract, but her desire for freedom, and her irrational love for a spendthrift bar owner makes her hesitant to make any long term commitments.  

In hindsight, it’s easy to predict the various stages of her rise and fall, and the tragedy in the end of the film. Although, I had never heard of Uschi, I knew where the film was ultimately headed from the beginning. 

While Uschi lead a fairly exciting life, there are probably at least a dozen female ‘60s icons (including as Margaret Trudeau, Jane Fonda, Nico, Edie Sedgwick, and Mary Woronov) that were probably more important or had more interesting life stories. Of course, as an American, it’s hard for me to judge or fully appreciate the impact she had on German culture. 

As you would expect the music on the soundtrack is terrific,  and the film makes great use of such under rated classics as The Electric Prunes’ immortal “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night,” The MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams,” and of course the Byrds song that the film takes its name from. I would’ve liked to hear more German pop music though. 

“Eight Miles High” does a good job at capturing the vitality, flamboyance, and rebelliousness of the ‘60s counterculture, but it doesn’t offer nearly enough psychological insight into Uschi. For this reason, “Eight Miles High” is a near miss. 

 Viva

“Viva” is a lovingly done homage, but it is an ultimately disappointing attempt to recapture the excitement and anarchic spirit of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s sexploitation films.  It ends up teasing the audience, but it doesn’t fully deliver. It’s not nearly as campy or untamed as “Beyond the Valley of the Ultra Vixens” or “Vixen.” 

The film plays at the Gene Siskel Center on 8 pm on September 5, 6 and 9 (Friday, Saturday and Tuesday), and at 8:15 on Thursday, September 11. 

“Viva” is colorful and visually sumptuous--with marvelous period set designs, so it should surprise no one since its star; director/star Anna Biller has a background in painting.  

The plot (or what passes for it) is about a California housewife named Barbi, who spends much of her time pouting, cooking and taking bubble baths. When her husband neglects her, she starts to sow her oats and joins the sexual revolution.  

She rechristens her self “Viva”, and at one point she explains “I want to be called Viva, which in Italy means to live because that’s what I want to do now—to live.”! 

She samples numerous partners (both male and female), but no one can make her completely forget her absent husband. After a nasty rape scene, she (or at least the audience) begins to suspect that the new sexual liberation is just a new way that men have found to exploit women. “Viva” ends up with the main character moving back to a more conservative lifestyle after being traumatized by the dark side of sexual experimentation. 

The film has a corrupt gay swinger character that could have come straight out of “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.” But what might have been seen as amusing in ’70, comes off as stereotypical and offensive, today. 

One big problem is that the films that “Viva” is paying homage to (such as “Emmanuelle”) weren’t all that good to begin with. When they worked, they didn’t seem to be aware of how bad they were.  

The film also lacks the hyperkinetic editing style of Russ Meyer’s film. Also, at 120 minutes, the film seems overlong and flabby. A good 80 minute film could have been culled from this footage.  

But Anna Biller definitely has screen presence plus potential, and I would like to see her in a more ambitious or original project.