Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l'an 2000

This movie may seem an essay on political realities of 70's, but in fact it's so much more. It's like a flower blooming, I enjoyed every moment of it - because it's about life, and eternal questions, and existence. Seventies were a golden age of cinema, I believe - not as naive as sixties already, not yet too commercialised as eighties. Directors had an opportunity of discussing profound questions, and taking their time to do it. The movie is not a bit outdated, and it never will. Tanner is a genius of drawing a picture of ordinary people everyday lives, through which an eternal light shines. It's true to the core - a real art. A movie that makes you better.

This movie elegantly captures the zeitgeist of ca 1975, seen through individual lives of some Genevans who in minor ways attempt to keep the sparkle of rebellion alive while their dreams from 1968 fade away, facing the reality of the 1970s. Its blend of tongue-in-cheek comedy and melancholy sadness makes it impossible to forget once you've seen it.

For a French-speaking American younger than Jonas would now be, I couldn't always easily connect with the collection of colorful individuals (among others, an unorthodox high school teacher, a couple of organic vegetable farmers, a laid-off type-setter, a disillusioned journalist, an eccentric cashier with a compassionate bent, and a redhead captivated by tantric sex) that got together in this film, post Paris manifestations of May '68, to share their frustrations, their ruminations and their fantasies. But the film chewed on heaps of intriguing controversial issues of the time - many lines taken directly from Octavio Paz and Pablo Neruda - which continue to stir emotion in any thinking, feeling individual. The film is also personal, full of heart and full of intellectual stimulation. It's melancholic and nostalgic, yet wistfully optimistic. Recommended to anyone interested in the provocative issues that fomented the famous student demonstrations around the world just a few years before this film was conceived.

"Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000" may be the only Swiss movie that I know about, but it's a great one. It focuses on several aging radicals and their realization that maybe the world couldn't eventually be like they had one day hoped for. They had participated in the 1968 uprising in Paris - and everything surrounding that - but are now trying to figure out where exactly they belong in this changing world of the 1970s.

Alain Tanner really created something impressive here. We see how, although they understand that their goals were probably unattainable, they have not abandoned their political views. "JWWB25ITY2000" is what great film-making is all about.

I first saw this film when it was new. When I saw the title in a local video store, I couldn't resist the chance to see it again on the eve of Jonah's 25th birthday. Some of the political rhetoric is dated, but in some ways it's amazing how little has changed. The film is in some ways about taking stock of one's life. And seeing it twice, almost 25 years apart, certainly helped me to do that.