Maria Larsson (Maria Heiskanen) discovers a whole new life once she steps behind the camera in EVERLASTING MOMENTS
EVERLASTING MOMENTS (MARIA LARSSONS EVIGA ÖGONBLICK) (Jan Troell, 2008)
Cabaret Cinema, Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday, August 24, free with $7 bar minimum, 9:30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org
Inspired by a book written by his wife, Agneta Ulfsäter-Troell, based on part of her family history, Jan Troell’s Everlasting Moments captures a pivotal time of change in Sweden. In a small town in 1907, Maria Larsson (Maria Heiskanen) is struggling to keep her growing family together as her brutish oaf of a husband, Sigge (Mikael Persbrandt), regularly comes home drunk, cheats on her, and goes on strike with the rest of the local dockworkers. Maria scrubs floors and sews for extra money, but she dreams of her own independence and freedom. When she enters Mr. Pedersen’s (Jesper Christensen) photography studio one day, she has every intention of selling a camera that she had won in a lottery years before. But Pedersen instead convinces her to try out the camera first, and she is soon documenting the world around her. As Sigge becomes more and more ornery — and more and more dangerous, threatening the future of the family — Maria has discovered a whole new way of looking at things, both literally and figuratively, but still needs to find the inner strength to improve her lot. Seen through the eyes of eldest daughter Maja (first played by Nellie Almgren, then by Callin Öhrvall), Everlasting Moments is a beautiful, bittersweet personal tale told by one of Sweden’s greatest filmmakers. In his late seventies at the time, director Troell (The Emigrants, Hamsun) also cowrote the script with his wife and Niklas Rådström and served as cinematographer with Mischa Gavrjusjov; the film was nominated for a Golden Globe and won five Guldbagge (Golden Beetle) Awards from the Swedish Film Institute, including Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Special Achievement (composer Matti Bye). Everlasting Moments is screening August 24 at 9:30 as part of the Rubin Museum series “Women and Their Cameras,” in conjunction with the exhibition “Candid,” and will be introduced by photographer Victoria Sambunaris. Admission to the Rubin is free on Friday nights, so you should also check out such other exhibitions as “Illuminated,” “Modernist Art from India,” and the outstanding “Casting the Divine.” The series concludes August 31 with Philip Kaufman’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, introduced by Sophie Elgort.
In conjunction with the eightieth anniversary of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Ron Honsa has made Never Stand Still, a documentary that celebrates the long history of the national historic landmark dedicated to the art of movement. Narrated by 
The closing-night selection of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Christophe Honoré’s Beloved attempts to be a sweeping romantic epic, but it works best when it when it keeps it simple. In 1964 Paris, Madeleine (Ludivine Sagnier) decides that making a little extra money by selling her body is a better way to afford fancier things than by stealing them, until she falls for Czech doctor Jaromil (Rasha Bukvic). But after they have a child, Soviet tanks invade Prague, and Jaromil takes a lover, they separate. Over the years, as Madeleine (later played by Catherine Deneuve) tries to make a new life for her and Vera (Deneuve’s real-life daughter, Chiara Mastroianni), Jaromil (Czech director Milos Forman) keeps reappearing in their lives, but while Madeleine seems comfortable being with her former husband again, displaying a free and open sexuality, Vera seems unable to sustain a real relationship, adored by a younger teacher (Louis Garrel) while chasing after a gay American musician (Paul Schneider). A sort of mash-up of Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour and Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Beloved features characters calmly turning to song to contemplate their inner dilemmas as they walk through the streets, singing such numbers as “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” (adapted from the Smiths’ original), then proceeding on. When Honoré (Love Songs, Dans Paris) keeps to the central plotlines, Beloved is an engaging, intimate look at sex, love, and family over a forty-five-year period. Unfortunately, he injects unnecessary sociopolitical elements that sidetrack the story and feel forced. At 135 minutes, the film is also at least a half hour too long. Had Honoré stopped earlier, he would have had quite a film, but instead it seems to go on interminably, passing up what could have been fine endings for additional scenes that quickly become tiresome and repetitive. Beloved does have its moments, but it sadly falls short of what it could have been. The director will be on hand at the IFC Center to discuss the film at the 6:55 screenings on Friday and Saturday night of opening weekend.
