Everlasting Moments

I don’t know whether to express profound gratitude to the Criterion Collection for promptly issuing Jan Troell’s recent Academy Award nominee for best foreign film -- which immediately becomes my pick for best of the year -- or sputtering rage at the lack of any dvd release of his diptych from the early 70s, The Emigrants and The New Land, by which I could confirm their ranking among my top ten of all-time.  Under the current spell of Everlasting Moments, however, gratitude reigns supreme.  What a lovely masterpiece!  What a summation of the work of a master!  Some may find it old-fashioned, slow-paced and quaintly pictorial, but I was breathlessly engaged from start to finish.  It’s really a love letter to the camera and the power of seeing, both in its story and its execution.  It’s all about light, as perceived by the eye of the lens and of the soul.  Within a naturalistic, almost Zola-like, portrayal of a poor urban family in Sweden during the first part of the 20^th century, we are offered a celebration of the imaginative power of photography and cinematography.  Like Séraphine in its portrait of an historically real poor woman transfigured by the power of visual creation, Everlasting Moments chronicles the efforts of a struggling wife and mother to find her powers of expression while overwhelmed with the care of her ever-growing brood and brutish husband.  Maria Heiskanen plays her namesake character with profundity, passion, and humor.  The original Maria Larsson was a relative of Troell’s wife, who contributes to the screenplay.  In every respect this film is an expression of family love and the power of seeing.  I strongly advise you to see for yourself.  (2009, dvd)  *9*  (MC-80)