Heiskanen is a revelation as the put-upon wife, and the cinematography (some by Troell) effortlessly transports us back 100 years.
Everlasting Moments (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:89
Fresh:79
Rotten:10
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: Elegant and intimate, Everlasting Moments moves at the deliberate and gentle pace of a classical European period drama.
Theatrical Release:Mar 6, 2009 Limited
Box Office: $367,276
Synopsis: In this breathtaking film from renowned Swedish director Jan Troell, a woman experiences an artistic awakening after being introduced to photography. Based on real-life events, the story opens at... In this breathtaking film from renowned Swedish director Jan Troell, a woman experiences an artistic awakening after being introduced to photography. Based on real-life events, the story opens at the start of the 20th century and centers around Finnish housewife Maria Larrson (Maria Heiskanen). Maria spends her days struggling to care for her large brood of children and trying to manage her abusive, alcoholic husband, Sigge (Mikael Persbrandt). Sigge is a dockworker, and when he isn’t dabbling in Socialist politics, he’s parading around town with various women, then returning home in a drunken stupor to beat Maria and the children. Maria suffers many harsh indignities, but her world is changed forever the day she tries to pawn an old camera she won in a lottery. The owner of the camera shop is a kindly gentleman named Sebastian (Jesper Christensen), and instead of buying the camera, he insists Maria try it first. Maria takes his advice, and the effect is instantaneous: she is hooked on the power of the pictures. She begins to take portraits of the townspeople and the harsh world around her, and her newfound talent suddenly infuses her with confidence and awakens an inner passion. Sigge rails against this bold new change in her and becomes more abusive, threatening to kill her and destroy her camera. But Maria defies him and continues to take pictures, eventually developing an intimate friendship with Sebastian. Troell does a magnificent job re-creating the time period, and while many of the film’s images are rather harsh and painful to take in, they are also fascinating and beautiful in their realism. Persbrandt delivers an excellent performance, and Heiskanen is phenomenal as the unstoppable Maria. Despite the bleak world the characters inhabit, the film is ultimately a moving affirmation of life’s beauty and the strength of the human spirit. [More]
Starring: Maria Heiskanen, Jesper Christensen, Mikael Persbrandt, Ghita Norby
Starring: Maria Heiskanen, Jesper Christensen, Mikael Persbrandt, Ghita Norby, Amanda Ooms
Director: Jan Troell
Director: Jan Troell
Screenwriter: Niklas Radstrom, Jan Troell, Agneta Ulfsater Troell
Story: Agneta Ulfsater Troell
Producer: Thomas Stenderup
Composer: Matti Bye
Studio: IFC Films
Reviews for Everlasting Moments
This film lovingly celebrates the wonders of technology that we now take for granted.
Jan Troell’s Everlasting Moments is a film whose title gives a clue about the kind of mood it wants to create.
Told with delicacy and feeling Everlasting Moments slowly builds into a memorable salute to a remarkable life.
Mischa Gavrjusjov keys the camera work to the characters' moods, inky blacks portending a thunderous alcoholic outburst, golden washes signaling the heroine's late blooming.
Shot in atmospheric sepia tones, this is a modest film with gentle, pleasing sentiments at its heart.
Superficially interesting in many ways but this doesn't really engage on a deeper level.
It's a mark of Troell's mastery that we could happily have borne another half-hour of his mesmerising yarn.
It’s through Troell’s sense of the landscape and seasons and his attention to gender sensibilities that Everlasting Moments represents the height of filmmaking technology and emotional sophistication.
A profoundly moving, tender and engrossing drama filled with beautiful cinematography and stellar performances.
Troell's profound insistence that life -- even in its most miserable chapters -- is an occasion for rejoicing, goes beyond gender politics to a place of transcendent sublimity.
Places its bets on illuminating the imperfect ways in which love, economics and artistry rule lives -- back then and, probably not much differently, now.
A haunting, beautiful movie about small, emotional movements set against a backdrop of national change.
The film is exquisitely shot. Yet something’s missing. The figures in Maria’s photographs are uncannily substantial. The characters in the film, by comparison, seem like fragrant ghosts.
Everlasting Moments skillfully showcases the power of artistic expression.
An art-house collector's item that will reward the patient and the sensitive.
The film's naturalistic performances and rough-hewn style carry it into a range of unfettered human emotion and experience appropriate to its evocative title.
Let's come out and admit it: This is a square, conventional movie where every shot means what it means, with scant ambiguity or artistic license. Surrender to its conservative technique, though, and you'll be moved as well as entertained.
Everlasting Moments is simultaneously epic and poetic, mostly predictable but punctuated by breathtaking images.
Latest News for Everlasting Moments
February 15, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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January 13, 2009:
Academy Names Nine Foreign Film Finalists
The Academy has narrowed its choices for this year's recipient of the Best Foreign Language Film Award, choosing its favorite nine releases from a field of 65. More...
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| 90% 90% | The White Ribbon | 12/30 |
| 100% 100% | Daybreakers | 1/8 |
| | Leap Year | 1/8 |
| 83% 83% | Youth in Revolt | 1/8 |
| | The Book of Eli | 1/15 |
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