Head in the Clouds, directed by John Duigan, deals with the fate of a love triangle during a time of war in which politics ultimately trumps sex. Soon after the film begins, Cambridge University student Guy (played by Stuart Townsend) unexpectedly meets fellow student Gilda Bessé (played by Charlize Theron). Gilda, a student who has just had a love spat with a university professor, has been thrown out in the rain, so to dry off she enters the first open door in the dormitory, which happens to be that of Guy. Although Guy supplies voiceovers throughout the film, about an hour is devoted to developing each character. More attention goes to Gilda, who is from a rich if broken family, a millionaire Frenchman and an American socialite mother. After the two develop a close relationship, Gilda goes to Paris and becomes a successful art photographer. A few years later, in 1936, Guy moves to Paris to be Gilda's photography assistant and presumably her lover, but he must share the flat with her favorite model, Mia (played by Penélope Cruz), with whom she has already formed a liaison. Guy's arrival transforms the Lesbian love nest into a love triangle. With the dawn of fascism in Europe, Gilda keeps her head in the sand politically, whereas Guy and Mia are eager to do whatever they can to stop fascism. Since Mia is from Spain, she decides to return home to support the Popular Front government against fascist civil war insurgents by practicing her profession as a nurse. With the triangle collapsed to two in Paris, Guy asks Gilda to marry, but she turns him down. Accordingly, Guy goes to Spain to join Mia, who in time is killed. Guy then returns to Paris, but Gilda rejects him. Soon, the Nazis occupy Paris, and Guy joins the French Underground. When Guy sees Gilda fraternizing with a German officer, Major Franz Bietrich (played by Thomas Kretschmann), he is obsessed with reconnecting with her regardless of the consequences to the Underground or to himself. Gilda, for her part, does not mind the dirty looks from neighbors as they call her "slut" for sleeping with the enemy; everyone believes that she is giving aid and comfort to the enemy by staying sexually active. Although Gilda and Guy may appear to be double agents, one of the two becomes a hero, while the other meets a tragic fate. MH
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