HEAVEN

Germany, 2002, 98 minutes, Colour.
Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Stefania Rocca.
Directed by Tom Tykwer.

One of the main questions many audiences will have on leaving this film will be why it is actually called Heaven. There are plenty of symbolic hints in the second half but the question is whether the symbolism is too strong for the slightness of the plot and the final drama. The first part is more interesting as Cate Blanchett, as a desperate teacher who resents the drug barons of Turin destroying her students, plants a bomb to kill the industrial chief who is in league with the carabinieri for the drug trade. He is not killed. Four innocent victims die. In the main, the early part of the film shows her interrogation, the sympathy of a cherubic looking young policeman acting as translator who falls in love with her and assists in her escape. However, she is willing to accept justice for what she has done.

With the escape, symbolically presented in a train emerging into Tuscan sunlight from a long, dark tunnel, the film throws the couple (who shave their heads and look like twins - and whose names are Philippa and Filippo) into dependence, love and a helicopter escape that looks like an ascension into heaven.

Since the screenplay is by the late Krisztof Kieslowski and his writing associate, Krisztof Pieciewicz, and intended as the first part of an eschatological trilogy, Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, we might expect a film to compare with the Three Colours films. But it is too slight. Since it is directed by Tom Tykwer (Run, Lola, Run) we might have expected it to be more gritty, but the film looks often very genteel and beautiful. Whatever the enthusiasms for and against, there will be a lot of arguments about it in the name of Kieslowski.

1. The work of Kieslowski and his moral fables, questioning parables? The quality of the screenplay, in relation to his other films? The screenplay interpreted by Tom Tykwer?

2. The title, its aspirations, ironies? No heaven on earth? Aspiring to heaven or not?

3. The Italian locations, Turin, the police precincts, the streets and homes, the attics? The Italian countryside and its beauty, the village and the wedding? The house and the hills? The musical score, dramatic, the piano notes?

4. The audience and the emotional effect of watching Philippa and her planting the bomb, the build-up to its explosion, the father with his two children, the cleaner, the lawyer? The deaths? The revelation of the story, her motivation for doing it? The interrogations, the police corruption? Filippo and his helping her? The moral issues, morality and emotion? Law and justice?

5. The opening with the helicopter, the simulator, going high - and the question, "How high can you go?" The finale with the helicopter? Its rising above the earth, the police shooting at it, its going higher and higher, an ascension, disappearing into the clouds?

6. Philippa and her preparation of the bomb, her going to the building, putting it in the basket, hoping to kill the executive? The ironies of the cleaner coming, taking the bomb away, having it in her bucket? The phone call to the secretary to save her life because of the car horn? Philippa waiting, ringing the police, their not doing anything? The disaster of the explosion and the deaths, the little girl lingering?

7. Philippa and the arrest, the treatment by the Italian police? The interrogation, the interrogator and his viciousness towards her? The main questioner and her demanding to speak in English, as her right? Filippo offering to be translator?

8. The development of the interrogation, her explanation of herself, her marriage, the divorce proceedings, her husband's overdoes and his death? His friendship with Vendice, companions in their schooling? The drug deals, Vendice building up an empire? Philippa and her stories of children and the ruining of their lives, the girl hanging? Her own students in rehab? Her letters to the police, the phone calls and their being ignored? Her finding the bomb with her husband's things, her deciding then to kill Vendice?

9. Her being distraught at discovering the truth that he was alive and that she had caused four innocent people to die, her collapse?

10. Filippo and his translation, his infatuation with her, going home, talking with his brother about her being a teacher at school, his wetting the bed, washing, telling his father that he was in love? His decision to help her?

11. The tape recording, the means of helping her, her agreement? The police playing the tapes and knowing the plot, intending to kill them? The complicity of the police, the major and his being in league with Vendice?

12. The elaborate plot, Filippo getting his brother to help, dressing like Philippa, misleading the police? Her escape, the toilet, the phone call, going to the attic? The shower - and the cleaner's having discovered the body?

13. Her reason for escaping, wanting to kill Vendice, Filippo with the gun, the phone call, Vendice's coming, the confrontation and his death? Philippa saying that in justice she wanted to atone for the killings?

14. The escape, going in the milk truck, the driver and the girl and their sexual encounter, escaping at the train station, the trip, the countryside, shaving their heads, eating the ice-cream in the square, the wedding? Philippa's friend and her slapping her and then embracing her, offering to help?

15. Their going to the house, their being received, hiding, eating the meal? The night passing (and their lying together as they did in the attic)? Their going out into the hills, naked, the camera withdrawing? The culmination of their love?
16. The next morning, the police arriving, taking the dwellers in the house? Philippa and Filippo going to the helicopter, taking it, rising - to death, to life?

17. The portrait of Philippa, understanding her, her motivations, her sense of justice, her disgust at the drug industry and the deaths? The shared birthday, her memories of her First Communion? The importance of her saying she had ceased to believe? What does one do after ceasing to believe? Where is right, where is justice? Filippo as young, able to believe in her and his love for her? His explanations to his father, the father coming to help, giving the money? Their going away together?

18. A contemporary moral parable?