Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l'an 2000 (1976)
Directed by Alain Tanner

Film Review

The events on May 1968 were but a dim echo by 1976, by some clung to the ideals which this period threw up.  This film is a fascinating study of eight such individuals who try to find an alternative to the trashy corrupt materialistic world.  Although their struggle is largely in vain, they each seem to gain from their attempts to follow an alternative life style and the film's theme is as relevant today as it was in 1976.

When it was released, Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l'an 2000 as the most successful Swiss film ever made, with over two million viewers world wide.  It is certainly one of Alain Tanner's most memorable films and is has strong similarities with the works of another well-known Swiss director, Jean-Luc Godard.  Although the message is similar, with typically Godardesque Maoist references (is it a coincidence that the eight principle characters each has a name starting Ma…?), Tanner's style is much less aggressive than Godard's.  As a result, his film is more accessible, focusing more on the human side of the equation than the underlying politics.

Jonas himself only gets to appear right at the end of the film.  This provided Tanner with the incentive to make a sequel for the year 2000, Jonas et Lila, à demain , in which he tackles similar themes.

Film Synopsis

In Geneva in the mid-1970s, Mathieu struggles to find work to support himself and his pregnant wife Mathilde.  Another couple, Marcel and Marguerite, come to their rescue, offering them a place to live and work on their farm.  When his son is born, in the year 1975, Mathieu intends to christen him Jonas.  He and his wife soon strike up a close friendship with Max, a disillusioned political activist who earns a pittance as a proof-reader, and Marco, a history teacher whose unusual teaching methods have brought him into conflict with his superiors.

As Marco succumbs to the charms of Marie, a pretty supermarket cashier who resorts to stealing for the benefit of a friend, Max finds himself inexplicably drawn to Madeleine, a banker's secretary who has become fascinated by Indian mysticism.  When Marcel and Marguerite's small-scale market garden business is threatened by a larger agricultural concern, their friends rally round to offer support and help.  With the world changing so fast, Jonas's parents have cause to wonder what kind of world he will be living in, twenty-five years from now...