Jonas que Terá Vinte e Cinco Anos no Ano 2000

While Jonah is generally referred to as a comedy, it is not. It does have some, perhaps many, funny moments. Comedy is certainly a part of it. But the film is a serious and almost perfect meditation on the post-revolutionary era and what's in store for the future. It is also a document on the passage of time, the ways in which the world changes around us, the ways in which we as individuals evolve, or devolve. The different characters negotiate their existences in different ways, with different philosophies. The mood of the film is very sad, but in the gentlest way possible. There's a hope for the future, but it's not a big one. It's quite pessimistic. The musical score, by Jean-Marie Senia, is exquisite, one of the best ever written for the cinema. The camera moves beautifully. 10/10.

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 The movie is not a bit outdated, and it never will.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.

"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.

John Berger is perhaps my favorite novelist and clearly this script is another of his fine works. The cinematography is exquisite. We should all be thankful for (and watch more) films such as this one that manage to avoid the all too familiar and successful models from which Hollywood refuses to deviate.

How was this film ever made? It presents many aspects of the left wing of politics genuinely, as they see themselves; not as reinterpreted through a capitalist middle-class filter or stereotype. Film has been such a capital intensive medium that it seems none ever get made without the approval of some millionaire or corporate backer, and that all structure themselves, and the worldviews they express, to win this approval; consequently people on the left get used to caricature or demonization as their only screen presence. Not so in "Jonas...". In a way the characters are archetypes, representing: sexual freedom, generosity and social consideration, intellectual expansiveness instead of reductionism, atheism, naturalistic identification, communality in spirit, stoicism etc; but I find identification with the characters easy. But it is not Utopian; the consequences for generosity of spirit in a greedy context are dramatized in the story of imprisonment and persecution. As with all good politics, the underlying message is not a mere power squabble; but a reflection on cosmic order, what the right tends to call "spiritual" concerns. The inflowing of people into the energy of the birth of Jonas and the disintegration of that unity after the event has transpired makes "Jonas..." a profoundly philosophic and satisfying story. After 30 years this is still one of my favourite movies.