“You wanna do MDMA now?” is not typically the response one expects when breaking up with their partner. For Danish and Norwegian filmmaker Kristian Håskjold, it was, however, the response given and what later inspired today’s Staff Pick Premiere. Written by both Håskjold and his ex-girlfriend Trille Cecilie Uldall-Spanner, with whom he shared the real-life experience, “Forever Now” beautifully and authentically captures the swirling emotions that make up a mutual ending of a relationship. The film, which was produced by the Danish company Flying Films with funding from Filmworkshop, had a successful festival run in 2017, winning the narrative prize at SXSW Film Festival and leaving us at Vimeo reflecting on our own breakups whenever we saw it on the screen.
While Håskjold does not recommend taking MDMA in the midst of a breakup, he does admit that the spontaneity of the act and the influence of the drug allowed him and Uldall-Spanner to honestly examine the vulnerable aspects of their relationship, and talk about what wasn’t working in a constructive way that offered closure. This shared understanding provided the space for the two to write an incredibly balanced film, told from both sides. Håskjold translated this balanced perspective to the visual aspects of the film by giving each character the same amount of on-screen time, allowing the audience to feel equally empathetic for both. The result is an affecting film that prompts self-reflection for the viewer, as it’s very easy to identify with the realistic performances from either side of the split.
To get these great performances from actors Ferdinand Falsen Hiis and Frederikke Dahl Hansen, Håskjold provided plenty of room for improvisation during long, 10 to 20-minute takes with director of photography Christian Laursen. These performances, colored by rose-tinted flashbacks, convey a feeling of realism that is normally hard to achieve. We see the relationship not working in the present, but we also see the good times that the two shared in the past and how they used to connect. As these flashbacks occur, the sound from the present is still there — an idea that Håskjold credits to music composer Jesper Ankarfeldt and sound designer Christian Scheuer. The sound design mimics the way the brain acts during a breakup as it constantly tries to grasp for the good times and plays devil’s advocate, even as the relationship is crumbling all around. With this combination of technical considerations and the unique source material from his own life, Håskjold creates one of the most honest depictions of a breakup that we’ve seen in the short film medium. So grab a tissue box, press play, and feel the nostalgia and self-reflection wash over you.
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