Stockholm My Love is a city symphony, a love letter to Stockholm, the fiction debut of director Mark Cousins and the acting debut of musician Neneh Cherry. It follows one woman's footsteps through the streets of her native city, on a journey of recovery from a bad thing that happened to her exactly one year before. It's an exploration of grief, identity and the power of architecture and urbanism to shape lives, and a celebration of the power of walking and looking to make us all feel just a little bit better. With new music by Neneh Cherry, old music by Benny Andersson (of ABBA) and Franz Berwald, and images by Christopher Doyle and Mark Cousins.
Mark Cousins' Stockholm is a contradictory space of both perdition and redemption ... where time does not pass but is layered with memory and experience.
At times, it feels like an upmarket municipal tourist video, shot in the style of Chris Marker or Patrick Keiller. It's a soothing experience, though, and one that certainly highlights the beauty of the city it is showcasing.
Stockholm, My Love is an interesting experiment for Cousins' and Cherry. However, it does a far better job of demonstrating the talents of the latter and highlights the limits of the former.
Cherry's sultry, resonant voice helps along the otherwise wafty narration, which skirts themes of personal trauma before opening out to broader reflections on both the city and the soul.
