Forever Now | A Couple do MDMA on the Night they're Supposed to Break-up

After several years together, William and Cecilie break up. The same night, to treat the sorrow with love, they decide to do the drug MDMA together. For better or worse, this results in an emotional rollercoaster ride over a whole weekend as the two are isolated together in their apartment. A selection of Short of the Week, the web's leading curators of quality short films. SUBMIT A FILM: https://www.shortoftheweek.com/submit/ JOIN US ON SHORTVERSE: https://www.shortverse.com/ FULL REVIEW: https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2018/0... Subscribe to S/W on YouTube! Website: http://www.shortoftheweek.com Shortverse: https://www.shortverse.com/ Instagram:   / shortoftheweek   Facebook:   / shortoftheweek   Twitter:   / shortoftheweek   💔 Forever Now Dir: Kristian Håskjold   / kristianhaskjold   https://www.kristianhaskjold.com/ An uncomfortably intimate breakup film, the film’s originality and power springs from it’s premise. William and Cecillie, played by Ferdinand Falsen Hiis and Frederikke Dahl Hansen, agree to break-up, and subsequently decide to dose themselves with MDMA (commonly referred to as Ecstasy) in order to treat the situation “with love”. If you’re familiar with MDMA, you know that it is very effective at dissolving the boundaries of self and encouraging intense emotional connection. Cocooned in the safety of their high, the couple are able to open up about themselves, and each other, in revealing ways. We like to think of ourselves as evolved, emotionally intelligent partners, but what we see in on-screen breakups is heavy on histrionics—performative anger, recrimination, and naked grief. Attempting to depict the alternative on-screen by imaging a respectful or tender conversation can ring equally false though—it can often be pedantic, a writerly exercise that betrays a calm and self-knowledge on behalf of its characters that few possess in these charged moments. The addition of drugs to the mix of Forever Now cleverly sidesteps these competing dilemmas. William and Cecillie achieve a level of intimacy that is painfully raw, but not through eloquent declarations. Instead it is through loving hints and references to feelings known, but not spoken. There is devastating power to the couple’s initial conversation once high, where the pair speak of whether William has ever been unfaithful. Through humor and the kind of pointed teasing that is common in relationships but looks monstrous from the outside, William thumbs the insecurity at the core of Cecillie’s identity (calling her a dwarf) while still trying to soothe her. Cecillie jokes of self-abasement that lies in her future, a kind of manipulative guilting that is shared with levity, but communicates grief and anger, while eliciting the reassurance of pain from one’s partner. Forever Now traffics in these kind of shared truths, revealing so much about the characters in sideways and oblique fashion. You can feel the longing to share and reveal on the characters parts, but these admissions touch upon aspects so personal, so fraught with past conflict, that they need to be danced around. Yet the enormity of the circumstance and the prompting of the MDMA, let these admissions slip out around protective walls in a delicate, coded, pas de deux. - S/W Curator Jason Sondhi Cast + Crew William - Ferdinand Falsen Hiis Cecilie - Frederikke Dahl Hansen Cecilie's dad: Henning Valin Director: Kristian Håskjold Written by: Kristian Håskjold, Trille Cecilie Uldall-Spanner Producer: Siri Bøge Dynesen Director of Photography: Christian Houge Laursen Production Designer: Kristina Kiss Kovacs Editor: Kristian Håskjold Sound Design: Christian Scheuer Music Composer: Jesper Ankarfeldt Sound recordists: Johannes Rose, Mads Bramstoft Kostumier & Make-up: Emillie Galsgaard Dinesen B foto: Brian René Egeberg, Kasper Bundvad B editor: Noa Vedde Colorist & Online: Nurali Kushkov, Cameo VFX: Freddie Smith Artwork/Graphics: Anne Sofie Nordlund Hansen Poster – retouch: Martin Bo Kristensen Equipment: Filmværkstedet, Red Rental, Kameraudlejningen Sound facilities: Lydkilden Post production facilities: Flying Films, Cameo Locations: Niels Uldall-Spanner, Emilie Galsgaard Dinesen, Oliver Tonning Catering: Helle Bøge Dynesen Editing consultant: Frederik Strunk Consultant at Filmværkstedet: Mille Haynes Reproduced on this channel with the permission of the filmmakers.