Logline

Where does love go
when forever dies?

Two star-crossed lovers trapped in a kingdom of shadows
fight to keep their love alive as they gradually fall in hate.

About the film

Unseen cinema reveals
a battle of the sexes

Director Peet Gelderblom:

“As I dived into the
archive, the archive
also dived into me”

BEFF21_laurel_WinAudAw_w
5/5

“The most universal human story I've ever seen”

“This amazing film was our festival’s closing presencial event and a beautiful experience… When Forever Dies might be the most universal human story I've ever seen.”

Óscar Pico
Bogotá Experimental Film Festival

“Cinema produces more cinema... Fantastico!”

“The compilation films by Nico Naldini, Peet Gelderblom and Bill Morrison (masters are not only from the past) demonstrate how cinema produces more cinema, but also how the art of reuse depends on an immense amount of research, selection and reconstruction.”

Gian Luca Farinelli
Cineteca di Bologna

“Reverent and irreverent in the blink of an eye”

“When Forever Dies repurposes, and thereby revitalizes, a vast selection of material from aproximately 125 years of film history. Throughout his colorful juxtaposition, which is seemingly reverent and irreverent in the blink of an eye, Gelderblom crafts a tragicomic romance between shape-shifting characters.”

Joshua Wille
Found Footage Magazine

“One of the world's best audiovisual experiences”

“Epic... Extraordinary... A complete critical and philosophical audiovisual experience. The best I have seen in recent years.”

Carlos Cruz Martínez
Fisura International Festival of Experimental Film & Video

“Miraculous... A mesmerizing cinematic collage”

“This kaleidoscopic mosaic of archival images miraculously weaves a narrative that unfolds a tale of amour fou sliding into abysmal hatred. A mesmerizing cinematic collage that pays tribute to the power of imagery, mirroring the perpetual flow of time.”

Thessaloniki International Film Festival

“Fantasmagorical… Exhilarating… Kaleidoscopic”

“Gelderblom molds a wealth of images in a refreshing shape, with an exhilarating soundtrack, an abundance of split-screens and editing tricks, and a cheeky sense of humor. He also doesn’t shy away from big themes… Not only is When Forever Dies kaleidoscopic, it’s a Rorschach test.”

Theodoor Steen
Cine.nl

“Over-the-top, beautiful and different... It's wonderful!”

“An amazing movie. It’s so Technicolor, crazy, surreal, over-the-top, beautiful and different... It’s wonderful!”

Berend Dubbe
It's Sooo Different

“A 1000 films in one... Fizzing with energy and creative pleasure”

“From a truck load of forgotten snippets spanning a century of film history, director Peet Gelderblom forged a new collage film filled with goosebump-enducing moments... Very smartly composed… A timeless and universal romance, without spoken dialogue, confidently cruising on the power of montage.”

Kevin Toma
De Volkskrant

“Compellingly entertaining... Almost mythic in its ambition”

“Thousands of metaphors cut into a single dynamic narrative... Compellingly entertaining, at times laugh out-loud funny, arousing, scary and never less than stimulating... Sublime connections to be gleaned everywhere... I urge you, if you can, to catch it on a big screen.”

Camus
Cine Outsider

“Pure magic... An instant classic”

“A spellbinding display of the Eye Filmmuseum archive makes When Forever Dies an instant classic. Pure magic.”

Michael Ramos-Araizaga
ULTRAcinema

“A wild mix... Bewildering and hypnotizing... Very, very funny”

“A wild mix of footage famous and unknown... often bewildering and hypnotizing, and sometimes very, very funny... All in all I was intrigued and entertained.”

Ard Vijn
ScreenAnarchy

“Unparalleled... Old film fragments sing again”

“Peet Gelderblom makes old film fragments sing again in When Forever Dies, a dazzling supercut for which he drew from the Eye collection. Hopping from slapstick to serious drama to full-blown horror, the film is all over the place.”

Joost Broeren-Huitenga
De Filmkrant

“A formidable work... Rich, Engaging, Magical”

“I run out of words. What a formidable work. All images collected invoke a vivid curiosity. When Forever Dies is rich, engaging, magical... A Sisyphus work excavating cinema’s memory.”

César Ustarroz
Found Footage Magazine

“Exhilarating, near-hallucinatory... Unforgettable”

“Gelderblom is a master of creative editing, bringing together Dutch peasant drama's from the '20s, commercials from the '60s, puppet animation and forgotten B-movies to tell one exhilarating, near-hallucinatory story. An unforgettable cinematic trip!”

Jan Doense
Film by the Sea

“Elevates the art of editing to a higher plane”

“This virtuoso collage of film fragments from the vast Eye Filmmuseum archive is an epic ode to the classic film melodrama. Gelderblom elevates the art of editing to a higher plane to forge a unique viewing experience.”

Chris Oosterom
Imagine Film Festival

“Idiosyncratic... Impressive... Inventive... Absolutely worth your time and attention.”

“Watching old fragments come alive on the big screen is impressive, especially when they enter into a dialogue in such a fluent, inventive way... A cinephilic exploration of (imagined) love... Absolutely worth your time and attention.”

Tim Bouwhuis
Cine.nl
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When Forever Dies Chronology

Cinematic Timeline

  1. 1878: The Horse in Motion

    By many considered the oldest piece of cinema, even if it’s actually "chronophotography": an early method to photographically record the passage of time.

    Lean more
  2. 1895: The birth of cinema

    Cinema was truly born when the Lumière brothers held the first commercial screening at the Grand Café in Paris, where they unveiled 10 short films they filmed earlier that year, using a camera-projector they invented called the Cinématographe.

    Learn more
  3. 1900: Jeanne D'Arc

    Painstakingly hand-colored and staged in Méliès's usual theatrical style, this was the first of his films to surpass 200 meters in length, and the second to use changes of scene (11 to be exact).

    Learn more
  4. 1912: The Mills In Joy And Sorrow

    A silent Dutch film that features stencil-coloring as well as tints and tones, showing the whole gamut of applied colors in the pre-WWI era. Original title: "De Molens Die Juichen en Weenen"

    Learn more
  5. 1932: Terra Nova

    Considered lost for sixty years, Gerard Rutten's "Terra Nova" was to have been the first Dutch sound film, but it never found its way to the big screen. By the time the talkies were taking over, tinting and toning had fallen out of favor. Cinema became synonymous with black and white.

    Learn more
  6. 1956: Prince Electron

    This little-seen miniature operette in glorious Technicolor is one of many undeservedly forgotten puppet animations produced by Joop Geesink’s Dollywood.

    Learn more
  7. 1973: À La Votre

    Quirky arthouse cinema meets feminist fantasy in Monique Renault’s surrealistic take on the sexual revolution.

    Learn more
  8. 2002: Skelehellavision

    The remix culture that started in the 1990s gave rise to wild found-footage experiments like this rotoscoped pornography by Martha Colburn.

    Learn more
  9. 2020: When Forever Dies

    All foregoing and much more is woven into the fabric of When Forever Dies.

    Learn more

MEET THE MAKERS

Eye Filmmuseum

Archive

Tangerine Tree

Producer

Pieter Straatman

Lead Composer

Peet Gelderblom

Writer/Director

Streaming now

INFO

Title: When Forever Dies
Running Time: 109 min
Genre: Drama, Archival Fiction
Country of Production: The Netherlands
Language: English

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INQUIRIES

Tangerine Tree
Gouvernestraat 133-1
3014 PM Rotterdam
The Netherlands

Email: Nienke Korthof (producer)