Review of Everlasting Moments (2008)
– previously
Seen in 2023.
Maria wins a still-picture camera in the late 1800s and gets married shortly thereafter. Her husband, a dockworker in 1907 Malmö, is opposed to the autonomy Maria gains through her slowly growing acquaintance with the new technology.
Like the same director’s version of The Emigrants (1971), it’s a big international co-production with all sorts of unexpected accents turning up. Here they’re in Malmö, Troell’s home turf. Mikael Persbrandt, whose character is nicknamed “Stockholmarn” because he’s from the capital, plays a physically imposing, charismatic mook. That is Persbrandt’s type, and he’s boring in the role. On my first viewing, on TV, Persbrandt left me with the impression that Everlasting Moments is a drama about domestic violence. That’s true, but by weaving in political and aesthetic dimensions, and by keeping the timeline realistic, Troell sells it. It works very well in a theatre, where I saw it at GIFF 2023 with Troell in the audience. The ending tastes as sweet as Antonia’s Line (1995), though the way there is long and hard.