Gripping story with well-crafted characters

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This is a beautiful and engaging story about Maria Larsonn. Her life, her passions and her family. It is a biography and though I loved it, I am not sure everybody will because it lacks the contrived dramatic moments and a big climax associated with such stories. Instead it is like life itself, stuff happens, more stuff happens and then you die. Well I hope I am not putting people off from watching this film because it is lovely film and deserves to be seen. I just wanted to remark and it is a little unconventional.Though it seems that photography will become an important part in Maria's life, don't expect it to. It is just there in the background.The plot itself is nothing much too talk about. It is more about the characters rather the plot here. Acting is certainly amazing which brings the characters to life.

My ten stars go to the full-length version I saw at an art house last year. I loved it so much I got the DVD (from the UK) -- for which, watch out! It clips about 25 minutes off! The deleted scenes flesh out the male lead's character and the dangerously dark mood of his place and time and thus make him, his marriage, and, thus, Maria, decidedly more complex; they thus make the film more challenging. This regrettable decision dampens down the film's energy and thus, paradoxically, makes it seem slower and longer. As stensson correctly said above, "Not a second too much in any scene" -- so no need for this bad move. Still I'd give even the short version 8 or 9 stars.

The debate over whether photography can be considered an art form has been going on since the early 19th century, yet one thing is certain – to be successful, a photograph must combine both technical excellence and inspiration. Like most artistic endeavors, taking quality pictures can be a transforming experience. As photographer Jan Phillips stated, "There is something about this work, something healing about this search for the light." This was definitely the case for Maria (Maria Heiskanen), a beleaguered housewife in Jan Troell's lovely Everlasting Moments, who uses her camera as a means of saving her soul and probably her sanity.The film, Sweden's submission for an Oscar in 2008 for Best Foreign Film, was adapted by Troell from a novel written by his wife Agneta that was based on the life of a member of her family, Maria Larsson. Set in Sweden in the early 1900s, the real Maria's life story and photographs are shown in the film which is brimming with period detail and strong characterizations. Maria must scrape out a living sewing and cleaning to support a family of seven children while putting up with philandering and abusive husband Sigfrid (Mikael Persbrandt), who works sporadically as a laborer when he is sober. Though he joins the local Temperance Society, his will is not very strong and he repeatedly falls off the wagon.Up against repeated financial problems, Maria offers to sell the camera that she won in a lottery but is persuaded by the camera shop owner Sebastian Pedersen (Jesper Christensen) to first try and use it herself, though he agrees to purchase it in the future. Buoyed by Sebastian telling her that, "not everyone is endowed with the gift of seeing," Maria begins to take photos under Sebastian's guidance and is astonished at the wonders it performs. She begins to capture some of the everlasting moments of the film's title, using her gift of "seeing" to supplement the family income. Slowly she develops her art while having to constantly fend off Sigge's jealous tantrums.Maria takes portraits of her neighbors at Christmas, a stunning image of a recently deceased young girl lying on a table, a parade of Socialists seen from her window, a street puppeteer, and an image of the shadow of a zeppelin flying overhead. Sebastian encourages Maria to develop her skills and is ecstatic when one of her photographs is used by the local newspaper. He offers her a job in the studio but she turns it down because of her family obligations. Troell even implies that the photographer has fallen in love with her but conventions at the time do not permit its expression.The drama depicts Maria's courageous struggle to stay afloat financially when her husband is either not working or is sent to prison for drunkenness or threatening behavior towards his family. Daughter Maja (Callin Ohrvall), the film's narrator, helps the family considerably by taking care of her younger siblings and by working as a maid for a wealthy family until she is assaulted by the woman's brother. In spite of all logic and seeming common sense, she stays with Siegfried, influenced by her father's reminder of her sacred oath made during the wedding ceremony to stay together, "till death do us part." Everlasting Moments is rich in the quality of the performances, especially that of Maria Heiskanen as the courageous woman who breaks through her limitations of gender and class to experience life in a new way. Jesper Christiansen is equally strong as the devoted friend who encourages her to keep going when she wants to quit. Though Maria does not become famous or wealthy from taking pictures, her art allows her to keep up her spirits during her most difficult periods. Kudos are due to the immense talent of 78 year-old director Jan Troell, noted for The New Land and Hamsun, who, in Everlasting Moments, infuses the dark shadows of a troubled life with ineffable beauty.

What a gorgeous poster, and frankly a gorgeous film despite its hard look at love conquering abuse, alcoholism, and the shattering of dreams. Sometimes two people find themselves forgiving each other, not out of weakness, but out of the underlying powerful love bonding them. Academy Award nominee Jan Troell's new film Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick, or Everlasting Moments here in the states, is a slow unveiling of what it was like to live in Sweden as a below Middle Class citizen, striving to feed your seven children and attempting to survive. It pulls no punches and shows life in all its dirty ways, engrained in the memories of all involved and displayed on film for our viewing, much like the photographs taken by Maria Heiskanen's Maria Larsson. These photos prove to her she is worth something in this world, showing her a talent that is unappreciated by her cheating husband, but viewed as magnificence from her tutor and friend Sebastian Pederson, (Jesper Christensen), and those in the town she lives, even helping to support them when times are tough.Sometimes that admiration trickles down and changes people like her brutish husband, played by Mikael Persbrandt, and sometimes that change happens too late. So much occurs to make you angry with Maria for not leaving Sigge after any of the numerous chances he gives her. Following his drunken verbal lashes, his jealous rages forcing himself on her, or even his threats of murder with a knife against her neck, she always looks at him and finds that love she fell for years ago. When he comes back from jail sober and rested, he is a different man, but each time temptation ruins his redemption. Whether her father's declaration, upon Maria asking permission to divorce him, of "you will be together until death do you part" lingers at the back of her head or not, she always finds forgiveness. Her children grow up to realize what is happening between the two, even questioning her reasons for staying as well. It is a different time and having so many mouths to feed in a poor neighborhood negates some options. It is only in her camera, a fine Contessa, is she able to escape into a frozen reality where a smile stays forever. She wishes one day her life can remain static in that state as well, never falling back into the violence her Sigge is so capable of providing.One may argue that the film portrays a weak woman staying with an abusive man, but I believe the story is more complicated than that. Sure Sigge is a horrible specimen of a human, without fail, but there is goodness inside of him. The pressures and stress of the times weighs heavy on everyone, yet manifest into anger when he can't quite handle it. Everlasting Moments becomes a study of love bonding together two people despite every worldly attempt to separate them forever. You almost begin to root for the Larsson family to survive it all, because you begin to see what could be.What really works above all else is the style. What at first seems very straightforward soon becomes seen as a very specifically shot film. With muted tones you begin to feel as though you are spying on photographs from the start of the 20th century. I also loved the moments when we get to see the photos that Maria and Pedersen take, even at times looking through the viewfinder at the upside-down image being sent through the camera. Even a throwaway moment of Pedersen showing Maria a moth/butterfly through the lens of the camera against his hand becomes a moment of beauty. Every detail is meticulously placed and included, all becoming a part of a fully fleshed world once the characters begin to move around in it. Heiskanen is fantastic as Maria, coping with the troubles of her husband, expressing the happiness she feels behind her camera or with Pedersen, and embodying the maternal love for her children. Persbrandt is a revelation as well, playing Sigge. The children nail it correctly when saying he reminds them of the bad guy in Charlie Chaplin's film, but his ability to navigate the emotional parts, to have that tear roll down his cheek or to hold his dead friend in his arm, even the jubilance of seeing his horse still in its place once he returns from jail one last time, really show the man he is deep inside, beneath the hard exterior.Jesper Christensen is my favorite, though—an enigma to the proceedings. Is he a wishful suitor for Maria or just a man who desires talent? How much of his helping her pay for supplies stems from his feelings towards her or his eye in seeing the skill and potential to be a professional photographer? It's a wonderful scene at the end, one after we see the two of them in an exchange that hints at burgeoning love, where the unwritten and impossible love between them is shown. The camera bonds them forever; it was just bad timing that won't allow them to ever be together. This relationship is an important affair of the mind; one she needs to cope with the affairs of the flesh Sigge has behind her back. Their stolen moments together in the darkroom developing photos can almost be seen as more romantic than any she shares with another during the course of the film. They become her own everlasting moments, imbedded in her mind like the images held still on her developed stock. Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick may be long and trying at times, but for all the filler, the moments that work make it a worthwhile journey to take, watching the many forms of love and how when it seems all but lost, it rekindles and burns once more.