A Thousand Clouds of Peace

A Thousand Peace Clouds Encircle the Sky/ Mil nubes de paz cercan el cielo, amor, jamas acabaras de ser amor (2003)Filmed in black & white. Not Rated. Running Time: One hour, 23 mins.Directed and written by Julian Hernandez. Strand Releasing.Movie will start automatically when you click on English subtitles on or off. Movie in Spanish language.The images in this movie may have confused me of what is flashback and what is the present story continuing, but this is how i saw the movie.Gerardo is a 17 year old Mexican in Mexico City. He likes having sex with Bruno. Gerardo buy an old album with his favorite song on there, I think he may have heard it on his date with Bruno in the cafe. He waits for Bruno at the bridge, but he never came. He didn't call. Later, at the poll house where he works, the manager gives Gerardo a letter left by someone to give to him. It is from Bruno. He won't be able to see him. Gerardo doesn't know where to find him. He doesn't have his phone number. Gerardo still waits by the bridge and goes to the railroad. He has other sexual experiences with males, but he is not as satisfied with them. He won't get close. He continues to think of Bruno.Also in the cast: Martha Gomez, Rosa Maria Gomez, Salvador Hernandez, Miguel Loaiza, Pablo Molina, Mario Oliver, Salvador Alverez, Perla, D La Rosa, Clarissa Rendon, Pilar Ruiz.Includes male frontal nudity, simulated sex.Movies by Julian Hernandez:Long Sleepless Night (2000).Broken Sky (2006).Raging Sun, Raging Sky (2009).I Am Happiness on Earth (2014).Rencar tatuado (2018).

Not worth a dime!

this is one of the most beautiful films that I have watch. the directors skill is exceptional. The actor does excellent and believable work. He has become his character. One can feel the frustration, the love the sadness and the hurt that he is going trough.Shot totally in black and white. It is not a distraction, but emphasises more the character, his surroundings and his life. It helps emphasise the character and his eventually loss of reality.Would I recommend this film? Definitely! Yes, I own it and consider it one of my most important films. It will be in my library, til I am no more.

An extraordinary film, rife with grim beauty, but not for the impatient or anyone looking for a feel-good gay film, despite its (ironic) title. If anything, this is one of the most understated gay tragedies one could imagine, with barely a page of dialogue to diffuse it. I've spent the past couple years exploring Spanish-language gay cinema, and this is one of the more memorable (and there are many good films to chose from, somewhat surprisingly). But it could hardly be less optimistic or more tinged with soul-sucking sadness. All I wanted to do was take the lead in my arms and assure him that there is love out there for him. Depicting one clumsy encounter after another, this lovely, love-lorn teenager is treated by all as a common hustler, though it is painfully obvious that what he is looking for is someone to love and be loved by in return. The over-the-top ending (which I won't spoil), whether symbolic or brutal realism, is crushing. Not for everybody, a masochistic pleasure at best, but a film that succeeds in capturing a seldom-explored despair, treating it with such sensitivity, that it approaches a masterwork. Where it falls short, if indeed it does, is in the lack of any reprieve from the slow, down-spiraling trajectory in a loveless world of poverty & heartbreak, where human contact is one-sided & mercenary, and hope is crushed out like a cigarette butt.

Gerardo, a high school dropout, wanders around Mexico City mooning over his ex-lover Bruno, the one happiness he seems to have ever had in life until Bruno abandoned him. Having run away from home and without a steady job, Gerardo goes in search of his lost love and instead finds casual sex encounters and a random love letter sifted from the trash that he decides was written for him by his ex-boyfriend. He then sees old school friends, visits his mother, masturbates a few times, and even gets beat up by a tough cholo he thought was an appropriate sex partner, all with very little dialogue and much meandering in between. Shot in high-contrast black and white, the film is slow and sometimes quite pretentious, focusing on long, silent takes that allow you to soak in a melancholy atmosphere that isn't quite rich enough to justify the pacing. A more appropriate title would have been A Thousand Hours Of Peace. It's nice to see people paying tribute to the likes of Antonioni, but you should make sure you have the story and characters to back it up before you commit to the stylistic choices involved. It isn't a terrible movie, just not a particularly interesting one: it's the cinematic equivalent of reading metaphysical poetry, which is admirably arty and very intellectual, but why the hell would I want to sit around and read poetry? Even the most devoted art film lovers will have their patience challenged by this one.