'Everlasting Moments': Abused wife finds beauty in life through camera’s eye
There is a wonderfully peculiar renaissance happening among — how to put this — filmmakers of a certain age. Those certain ages? Over 70, and well into their 80s.
Sidney Lumet, age 84, recently made the dark-hearted “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” to great acclaim, 69-year-old George Romero still churns out a new zombie epic every couple years, Woody Allen churns out a film a year at 73, and 78-year-old Claude Chabrol’s latest film, “A Girl Cut in Two,” has just received American release.
Jan Troell is 77, and his latest film, “Everlasting Moments,” is a masterpiece of slow-building, romantic longing — and the often-stifled glories of artistic expression.
The early 1900s world of “Everlasting Moments” is recognizable to us — it’s a time of social and political change in Sweden, not antithetical to early 20th century North America. But Troell is smart enough to explore it in unique fashion, through a young, good-natured woman, Maria (a perfectly cast Maria Heiskanen), who, stuck in an abusive marriage to an alcoholic, finds a tool to personal growth: the camera.
Maria’s husband had won the camera in a lottery. Years later, following a particularly violent row, she finds it, and discovers that it allows her to capture the heretofore unseen beauty in her life and world.
Soon, Maria meets a kind photographer, Pedersen (a subtle and likable Jesper Christensen of “Casino Royale”), who is impressed with her work. She gains confidence, and a new friend, in Pedersen. But then Troell makes a bold jump in time that confounds our expectations. What transpires until film’s end is at once surprising, but also, inherently appropriate. While Troell does not give us the ending we might expect, he gives us a hopeful one — an ending that feels well-earned for all the film’s characters. (The story, apparently, is based on a true tale found by Troell’s wife, Agneta.)
The concept of the camera as window to another world, and an escape from one’s own life, is nothing new. But it’s nice to see a film so flat-out in love with images and the ability to capture them. The opening credits are accompanied by long, extreme close-ups of the camera, and it reminds us of the inherent power and beauty of the still. “A miracle,” Maria cries upon developing her first shot.
This was my first Troell film, but his filmography is eye-opening — his resume is fascinating in its highs and lows. The Swedish director is probably best known for his two Max Von Sydow-Liv Ullmann-starring epics, “The Emigrants” and “The New Land.” Released in 1971 and 1972, respectively, they garnered him best director nominations at the Academy Awards. (“Emigrants” was even a best-picture nominee.)
As is often the case for European filmmakers in America (see Paul Verhoeven, Wolfgang Peterson and Lasse Hallstrom), Troell ended up taking several odd missteps, including a forgotten Gene Hackman-starrer, “Zandy’s Bride,” and the disaster-film disaster that was “Hurricane.” Troell decamped back to Sweden and rebounded. It is clear from this film’s visual mastery — a snowy walk ahead of a trolley car stands out — that he is a titan of his craft and, like Maria, a preservationist of memory.
Somehow, “Everlasting,” which was actually released in Sweden in 2008, was not selected as one of five Academy Award nominees for best foreign language film. I suppose it lacked the timely, cross-cultural oomph of “The Class” and the bold stylization of “Waltz With Bashir,” but Troell’s work deserved to make that list.
“Everlasting Moments” is a heartbreakingly bittersweet treat, all the more so for arriving as the bombastic, brash summer movie season begins. Think of it as a dusty, sepia-toned photograph next to a 3-D monster. As Pedersen tells Maria, “Not everyone is endowed with the gift of seeing.” Thankfully, Jan Troell still is.•
EVERLASTING MOMENTS
Four stars
STARRING: Maria Heiskanen, Mikael Persbrandt and Jesper Christensen
DIRECTOR: Jan Troell
RUNNING TIME: 131 minutes
RATING: Not rated
THE LOWDOWN: Stuck in an abusive marriage, a young woman finds an artistic outlet through a camera in this drama set in 1900s Sweden. In Swedish with subtitles.
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments