Swedish experimental film mixing real video footage from the 1990s, a fictional contemporary story and fantasy sequences in the 18th century? "100 Seasons" is a lot of things, but probably nothing you've seen before. Multi-talented Giovanni Bucchieri has made a movie so personal and intimate that you almost feel intrusive when watching it.
He plays a version of himself - a washed-up ballet dancer struggling with bipolar disorder and living on welfare. He spends his days dreaming of better times and watching old videos of himself and his former love Louise (Louise Peterhoff, also playing a heightened version of her real self).
She, on the other hand, is a successful theater director whose new, modern production of "Romeo and Juliet" leaves both the theater director and the actors puzzled. Both her dating life and her relationship with her teenage daughter are faltering at best, and despite her stable existence, she, like Giovanni, resembles a lost artist's soul that no one understands.
It is brave, daring, strange, pretentious and fascinating. To say it won't appeal to everyone is an understatement, but in the Swedish film industry it's a breath of fresh air that stands out. You don't need to be familiar with any of the main characters' backgrounds to be drawn into the story - it's all served up on a silver platter of laughter, tears and pitch-black agony.
It certainly helps to have a relatively good knowledge of the theater world. There is a kind of meta-humor here as names like Lia Boysen, Stina Ekblad and even Peterhoff's own husband Alexander Mørk-Eidem play themselves. But regardless, you can relate to the ruminations on the meaning of life, the fear of death and looking back to better times in the past.
The heaviness is lightened by a playful cinematic style and joyful storytelling. It jumps in time between the real video clips of the 1990s and contemporary history. The young characters are mirrored in Giovanni and Louise today, the former a soft, warm optimist at the bottom of society and the latter a cold career woman. But both are lost souls whose relationship exists only in the past and imagination.
"100 Seasons" is something unique, especially in Swedish cinema. It can be somewhat heavy and difficult to digest for those who might appreciate more conventional movies. But a movie of this type that dares to do something different should always be welcomed and applauded.
Rating: 4/5
