Jan Troell's Everlasting Moments. Man oh man, see this one if you have the chance. Maybe the most beautifully shot film I've ever had the pleasure of seeing in a cinema. So many unforgettable images.
Great acting and a heartbreaking story which teeters on the edge of schmaltz, but the director has such a light touch he never lets it go there.
I'd love to hear Martin's take on this one as it takes place primarily in Malmo.
I had some problems with it, nothing major - the best/worst thing I can say about it is that it's "worthy"; serene and beautiful, but also sometimes dull, overlong and kind of repetetive (how many times do we need to see the father of the family come home drunk and beat up a random member of the family?). That said, Troell is a master, and his attention to detail is superb, he really has an eye for catching the everlasting moments, as it were (he shot the film too).
Definitely "CINEMA" of the old school variety - need to be seen in a theatre, for sure. Too bad he didn't have a bigger budget, you can definitely see the restrictions he had to put on the production, as far as sets and so on is concerned. Because of this we almost never get to see (for example) crane shots of an entire neighborhood - there just wasn't enough money to dress up an entire street to make it look like the early 1900's.
Malmö is well-presented in the film, although ironically, most of the working class hoods in the film are long gone - demolished in a big clean-up of the city in the 60s - so most of it had to be shot in other cities.
