On Netflix you can currently watch one of the most unusual science fiction films of the 2010s. It is the three-hour epic Cloud Atlas by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis.
When the Wachowski siblings make a new film, it can be assumed that it is an extremely ambitious project. From Matrix to Speed Racer to the Netflix series Sense8: here, the most diverse genres are combined, conventions are broken and the boundaries of filmmaking are explored.
Together with German director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), the Wachowskis have realised what is probably their most ambitious project: Cloud Atlas – Everything is Connected. The film adaptation of the novel of the same name by David Mitchell (published in this country under the title The Cloud Atlas) was released in 2012 and is currently streaming on Netflix.
Sci-fi epic on Netflix: Cloud Atlas is set simultaneously in the past, present and future
When Cloud Atlas was announced, there was a lot of scepticism. Mitchell’s story tells of six different characters who repeatedly encounter each other in a variety of constellations over the course of several centuries. The literary novel explores a total of six time levels in over 670 pages.
The gigantic 5-minute trailer for Cloud Atlas:
In other words, it’s complicated to film the story of Cloud Atlas. Together with Tykwer, the Wachowskis have nevertheless created a remarkable film that makes all the characters, places and times tangible and experiential – for example through music, emotions and the clear colour concepts of the individual worlds.
It becomes particularly exciting when the individual stories merge directly into one another thanks to the possibilities of cinema. Cloud Atlas is like a three-hour montage that makes it more than clear that editing is one of the most valuable tools in filmmaking. As meaningless as the German additional title may seem at first glance: Everything is actually connected here.
