TIME OF ROSES: Art And Class Conflict In A Prescient Tale Of The Future

The stark and eclectic use of black-and-white in Risto Jarva’s minimalist sci-fi film Time of Roses creates more of a pop-art sensation than one of the cold and dead sterility or overcrowded decay that most science fiction films tend to predict. It’s perhaps because Jarva’s future is one of utopian optimism with specks of destabilization within. It speaks on one hand, to a correct assertion that a global neoliberal world order would lead to the exact end of history that Francis Fukuyama supposed would happen. But Jarva also believes that this future is filled with free artistic expression. That’s perhaps the most unbelievable thing about the film.

Fissures of the Past

Time of Roses takes place in 2012 but has its eyes on the 60s the decade in which the film was actually made. A film director named Raimo Lappalainen (Arto Tuominen) seeks to tell a historical tale of the 1960s Finland, particularly the class conflicts that arose across Europe during the time and wants to do so through the life of a nude model of the time named Saara Tarunen (Ritva Vespä).

As the film goes on the serene political surface of the film’s present fissures to show the politics of the 1960s had not gone away forever. It’s perhaps not a coincidence that such a film has re-emerged in popularity in film circles in recent years and was chosen for a major restoration.

A Futuristic Design

The film’s visual template is one that takes hints from films like Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville (1965) for its acute and specific behavioral and home décor choices that inform its “futurism”. Clear bubble-like sofas, weird curved lamps, lots of reflective mirrors that distort dimensionality, and strange hand dances that people do, all design the harmonious and carefree future that Jarva envisions. The use of the word ‘progress’ is another eerie marker that feels too close to home. The brewing class conflicts within the movie are the same sort of revelations that were stamped out and flattened during the Reagan/Thatcher eras of the 80s.

Conclusion:

If there is a flaw to the film is that it seems too at comfort with its own ease and artistic liberation. As its characters meander through the movie, often not noticing the brewing of contempt underneath, so too does the movie not provide any urgency of its clear political motives. Instead, it allows them to flow lackadaisically as metaphors throughout. Nevertheless, Time of Roses has a keen eye for design and tells a prescient tale of the lie that hides within “The End of History”.

Have you seen Time of Roses? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below!

Time of Roses is available to purchase on 4K via Vinegar Syndrome.

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