Everlasting Moments
2008 ‘Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick’ Directed by Jan Troell
Synopsis
In a time of social change and unrest, war and poverty, a young working class woman, Maria, wins a camera in a lottery. The decision to keep it alters her whole life.
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Troell is an uber-auteur: story, photography, editing, direction. Kind of a Berlin Alexanderplatz with rounded Swedish edges.
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In Sweden a Finnish housewife sacrifices her self-identity in order to take care of her alcoholic dockworker husband and children. When she wins a camera and learns how to use it she realizes her true calling. A beautiful looking film with good acting that is also very safe, conventional and predictable.
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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Gripping drama
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Everlasting Moments is a film that tells the autobiographical tale of Maria Larsson who in the early 1900's is struggling with poverty and an abusive drunk of a husband. Maria Heiskanen gives a wonderful performance as Maria showing the grace and courage of a women who is weathering various hardships, but not letting it compromise who she is. Maria stumbles upon a camera and through it she develops an intimate bond with the owner of the local photography store and with his encouragement discovers a love and talent in photography. When Maria is taking pictures there is a poeticness and life to the film with it's cinematography and composition that really shines. In these scenes Jan Troell shows how her…
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This was a good film. So very much content yet it wasn't overwhelming. It seemed very realistic in nit's treatment of things, and overall flowed nicely.
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If you're looking for a foreign drama, everything you'd expect will be found here: hardship, arguments, abuse, adultery, liquor, secrets, perseverance, contemplation, sentimentality, and art. This is all to say that Everlasting Moments is a very good film and certainly worth your evening.
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This was a really beautiful film. It is tender and realistic in its treatment, not melodramatic. Told largely from the perspective of the daughter of the main character, she describes the brutality of her mother’s marriage to, and love of, an alcoholic abusive man. Her mother discovers photography, and it becomes an outlet in many ways.