Everlasting

Date: 2010.03.06 | Category: Movies, Sweden | Tags:

Swedish comedies exist. I’ve seen them; I own a few on DVD. However, the Swedish films that make it to our shores are almost uniformly downers, ranging from a certain tone of wistful melancholy (”Let the Right One In”) to “I hope you have the suicide prevention hotline on speed dial” (“Lilja 4-Ever”).

“Everlasting Moments” probably falls somewhere between the two — I’d rank it with Ingmar Bergman’s “Fanny & Alexander,” another brilliant Swedish movie that will never be called “the feel-good picture of the year,” but they both seem appropriately sad, depicting a world where bad things happen to good people, but isn’t that just like life?

Jan Troell is, since Bergman’s death, probably the most venerable Swedish director working today. His 1971 film “The Emigrants” is one of the few non-English-language movies ever nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award. He was in the San Francisco area during the past week for a retrospective of his films in San Rafael, and he made an appearance at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley for a Q&A after a screening of “Everlasting Moments.”

I had somehow managed to miss “Everlasting Moments” during its March 2009 theatrical run, and I’m very grateful that I got a second chance to see it, because this is a stunningly beautiful, extremely moving film. The movie, which is set in the early part of the 20th century, is about Maria Larsson, who lives in southern Sweden with her husband, Sigfrid. He is a pretty decent, hard-working guy when he’s sober, but if he’s had a few drinks, he turns into an abusive monster who frequently cheats on her. When a dockworker’s strike sidelines Sigfrid, money becomes tighter, which is especially tough considering that Maria keeps popping out kids (any 21st century woman who sees this film will no doubt be grateful that for the invention of reliable birth control). Maria’s life seems pretty miserable, but one day she rediscovers a fancy camera that she won a few years before in a lottery. She figures she can sell it to make some money, but a kindly camera store owner looks at the one photo she took and becomes convinced that she has an artist’s eye, and he provides her with some plates and chemicals free of charge.

In this era of ubiquitous digital cameras, it’s hard to think back on a time when the taking of a photograph was still something of a miracle. Maria is amazed at the “magic” of being able to capture a picture of her children, or of the cat perched on a windowsill. The camera helps take her away from the drudgery of everyday life and the often violent and stormy relationship she has with her husband. She also becomes friends with the camera store owner, which drives Sigfrid into a jealous rage when he finds out about it.

Since this is a Swedish movie, you can probably guess that Maria doesn’t leave her husband, marry the kindly shopkeeper and become a successful photographer. However, one of the most remarkable things about this film is that it is a true story, based on a book by Troell’s wife Agneta. One of her father’s cousins was the daughter of the real-life Maria, and told Agneta the story of her mother’s life. Agneta did a brief slide presentation after the screening and showed the audience a selection of photos taken by Maria Larsson; some of them had been recreated for the movie. The crowd gasped when they saw how much Finnish actress Maria Heiskanen, who plays the title role, resembled her real-life counterpart.

Agneta said that her first instinct had been to do a documentary based on the material she had accumulated for her book, but her husband thought it would make be better as a feature film. And when your husband is Jan Troell, you’re not going to disagree. He has brought her family story to life in a masterful way.