Midnight Ramble

Midnight Ramble: Oscar Micheaux and the Story of Race Movies. US © 1994 Northern Lights Productions / WGBH Productions. P: Pam A. Thomas, Bestor Cam. COORD. P: Beth Deare. D: Pearl Bowser, Bestor Cam. SC: Clyde Taylor. DP: Bestor Cam, Bruce Johnson. COMMENTARY: James Avery. FEATURING: author Toni Cade Bambara, historian Robert Hall, illustrator Elton Fox, archivist Pearl Bowser, film director Carlton Moss, actress Frances Williams, actress Shingzie Howard McClane, journalist St. Claire Bourne, Sr., actress Edna Mae Harris. Original format: video. 58 min. Dvd 54 min. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Black History Month), 9 Feb 2010.

Revisited Pearl Bowser and Bestor Cam's excellent survey into the birth of the African-American cinema. In the early days, audiences were segregated, and black people had to watch films after midnight. The terrible insult of The Birth of a Nation. The rise of the independent African-American cinema and its story from the 1910s till the 1930s. Noble Johnson. The story of Oscar Micheaux, the top African-American director of his time.

Black and Tan

US 1929. D: Dudley Murphy. 19 min. Viewed on 9 Feb 2010 at Cinema Orion (Black History Month), Helsinki.

Revisited: Duke Ellington is dignified composing Black and Tan Fantasy. Fredi Washington is the dancer who performes the dance of death. Duke Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra play Black and Tan as her requiem.

With Barney Bigard (clarinet), Wellman Braud (bass), Joe 'Tricky Sam' Nanton (trombone).

St. Louis Blues

US 1929. D: Dudley Murphy. 16 min. Viewed on 9 Feb 2010 at Cinema Orion (Black History Month), Helsinki.

Revisited the definitive Bessie Smith film record. Bessie Smith is cheated by Jimmie the Pimp (Jimmy Mordecai) and sings the blues from the bottom of her heart.

Baadasssss (in the presence of Mario Van Peebles)

US 2003. EX: Michael Mann, etc. P: Mario Van Peebles, etc. D: Mario Van Peebles. Based on the book by Melvin Van Peebles: Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song: A Guerrilla Filmmaking Manifesto. Starring Mario Van Peebles (Melvin Van Peebles). Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Black History Month), 6 Feb 2010.

In the presence of Mario Van Peebles, who gave a rousing presentation of the story behind the film. Having spent a week in Finland (Helsinki, Tampere, and Oulu), with great media coverage (newspapers, radio, tv) this was the last public appearance of Mario's tour. I followed Mario's presentation only.

In his presentations Mario Van Peebles emphasized the meaning of images projecting role models. In the 1980s, two of the most popular tv series were The Cosby Show, with a positive image of a black family, and Miami Vice, created by Michael Mann, pairing a white cop and a black cop. A generation later, nobody has trouble accepting a black president for the U.S.A.

Nikolai Gogol: Taras Bulba (novel)

 

Тарас Бульба. First version: RU 1835. Second, revised version: 1842. (First translated into Finnish in 1878, Samuli S.). This translation, based on the revised version of 1842: Juhani Konkka 1940, second edition 1941. Helsinki: WSOY.

Having watched the film Taras Bulba starring Yul Brynner (great in the title role) and with a magnificent epic account of the siege of Dubno I realized I had never read Nikolai Gogol's novel. It was one of Ernest Hemingway's ten favourite books, and it is the book that the young Alyosha reads aloud to the boatmen in Maxim Gorky's My Childhood. After Pushkin, this novel was the second most important inspiration to the great Russian writers. It echoes clearly in the work of Gorky and in Leo Tolstoy's magisterial Hadzhi Murat.

It is a tale of terror in the steppes of Ukraine, starring Zaporozhian Cossacks in the 16th Century. It is written vigorously, with gusto, unflinching about the terrible deeds the Cossacks are able to commit.

The book is, among other things, also atrociously anti-semitic. The Jew Yankel became the anti-semitic stereotype in Russian literature (greedy, cowardly, ridiculous, repulsive). It was disquieting to notice that this edition was published in Finnish in 1940 and in 1941. In the Yul Brynner film the Jewish theme has been completely omitted. The film is also otherwise sanitized: the terror of the Cossacks is generally toned down.

The novel is a half-way masterpiece with a disgusting aspect. The impact can be compared with D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, which can be screened today with apologies only.

The Love Goddesses (lecture)

Antti Alanen: Valkokankaan seksipommit. My lecture in the Cinema and Sexuality lecture series arranged by the Film Society of the Helsinki Students' Association. Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 5 Feb 2010.

The views of Edgar Morin, Richard Dyer, and Richard deCordova.
The birth of the star system, its development, and the end of the classical star system in the 1960s.
Edgar Morin's view of from gods to mortals: from the divine stars to profane ones.
A new age of celebrity culture and a new level of star power.
The feminist criticism: the stereotyping of women, Molly Haskell's From Reverence to Rape view.
The sex star as object and subject.
There have been no magnificent new sex stars of the cinema since the 1960s, of the caliber of Garbo, Dietrich, and Monroe.
The great legendary stars of today are pop stars. No film star's death would be world news in the same way as Michael Jackson's. No film star galvanizes global audiences like Madonna.
With the legalization of hard core pornography since 1969 mainstream cinema lost much sexual steam. There are also stars in pornography, thousands of them, but they are less unique, more expendable.
Ten profiles: Asta Nielsen, Louise Brooks, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, Sophia Loren, Sharon Stone.
Sharon Stone created only one mythic sex role (in Basic Instinct), but there are no directors in Hollywood today who like Stiller and Sternberg could have directed her in further films of equal charismatic power.

Followed by a screening of The Love Goddesses (1965), by Saul Turell and Graeme Ferguson, with William K. Everson, Paul Killiam and Gideon Bachmann among the contributors, one of the all-time most wonderful compilation films, with fascinating clips from films some of which are very hard to see (A Woman of the World, The Loves of Sunya... ).

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

US 1971. D: Melvin Van Peebles. Print: The Museum of Modern Art, the restored version, with funding provided by The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation. Cinema Orion (Black History Month), Helsinki, 2 Feb 2010.

It was a special pleasure to screen this landmark film with an introduction by Mario Van Peebles. This time I just listened to Mario's introduction.

Classified X

Melvin Van Peebles' Classified X. FR / US / GB 1998. TV documentary. PC: Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) / Channel 4 Television Corporation / Ecoutez Voir / La Sept-Arte / Les Films d'Ici / Procirep / TP / Yeah, Inc. EX: Melvin Van Peebles, Patrick Dumez, Yves Jeanneau. P: Yves Jeanneau, Christine Le Goff. D+DP: Mark Daniels – original format: video – has been also available on 35 mm. SC: Melvin Van Peebles. S: Olivier Schwob. ED: Janince Jones, Catherine Mabilat. NARRATOR: Melvin Van Peebles. PERFORMERS IN ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE: Margaret Barker, Joanna Barnes, Ethel Barrymore, Harry Belafonte, Ingrid Bergman, David Brian, Lloyd Bridges, Steve Brodie, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, James Burke, Jeff Corey, Lou Costello, Jeanne Crain, Tony Curtis, Dorothy Dandridge, Gloria DeHaven, Douglas Dick, Tamara Dobson, Kirk Douglas, James Edwards, Mel Ferrer, Errol Flynn, Nina Foch, Ava Gardner, Will Geer, Mel Gibson, Lillian Gish, Danny Glover, Cary Grant, Kathryn Grayson, Pam Grier, Juano Hernandez, Lena Horne, Katharine Houghton, John Hud-kins, Richard Hylton, Rex Ingram, Claude Jarman, Jr., Al Jolson, Martin Luther King, Kevin Kline, Burt Lancaster, Canada Lee, Vivien Leigh, Frank Love-joy, Lee Marvin, Harpo Marx, May McAvoy, Hattie McDaniel, Nina Mae McKinney, Adolphe Menjou, Zakes Mokae, Barry Nelson, Laurence Olivier, Frederick O'Neal, Ron O'Neal, Maureen O'Sullivan, Beatrice Pearson, Sidney Poitier, Dick Powell, Mickey Rooney, Richard Roundtree, Robert Ryan, George Siegmann, Kenneth Spencer, James Stewart, Woody Strode, Shirley Temple, Peter Ustinov, Ethel Waters, Johnny Weissmuller, Richard Widmark, Martin Wilkins, Dooley Wilson, Penelope Wilton, Malcolm X. 53 min. Dvd screened in Cinema Orion (Black History Month), 1 Feb 2010.

An excellent survey of representations of African-Americans in the cinema as seen by Melvin Van Peebles. It starts with Edison (the watermelon contests) and the montages of racial stereotypes make quite shocking viewing. Black people as clowns, cowards, victims of lynchings, figures of shame. - New images in Pinky, Lost Boundaries, Intruder in the Dust. - Control of the media: black independent cinema, Oscar Micheaux. - African-American stereotypes were so pervasive that African-Americans accepted them themselves. - Carry the plate figures. - Entertainment: black musicals, Lena Horne. - The disappearance of black independent cinema for 30 years. - White fantasies on what black people would like to see. - Omnipresent marginalization. - Blaxploitation. - The colour of money is not black or white but green. - A great and worthy compilation essay.

Special guest: Mario Van Peebles

Mario Van Peebles, film and tv director, actor, producer, and writer, tours Finland this week honouring our Black History Month dedicated to the representations of African-Americans in the cinema. Mario is not only a talented artist but also a serious thinker in world affairs, a nice guy and a devoted father of five children. He gave an inspired speech to launch our historical retrospective of African-American cinema. Also Pirkka Kivenheimo, the leading Finnish expert on the topic, gave a solid introduction. The cinema was packed. Organized by the U.S. Embassy. Cinema Orion, 1 Feb 2010.

The Jussi Awards for 2009

The Finnish cinema awards for films premiered in 2009.

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
Kuulustelu [The Interrogation] - P: Misha Jaari, Mark Lwoff
* Postia pappi Jaakobille [Letters to Father Jacob] - P: Lasse Saarinen, Rimbo Salomaa
Täällä Pohjantähden alla [Under the North Star] - P: Timo Koivusalo

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
* Kielletty hedelmä [Forbidden Fruit] - Dome Karukoski
Muukalainen [The Stranger] - Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää
Postia pappi Jaakobille [Letters to Father Jacob] - Klaus Härö

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Haarautuvan rakkauden talo [The House of Forking Love] - Hannu-Pekka Björkman
* Postia pappi Jaakobille [Letters to Father Jacob] - Heikki Nousiainen
Väärät juuret [Wrong Roots] - Pertti Sveholm

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Haarautuvan rakkauden talo [The House of Forking Love] - Elina Knihtilä
* Kuulustelu [The Interrogation] - Minna Haapkylä
Postia pappi Jaakobille [Letters to Father Jacob] - Kaarina Hazard

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
* Rööperi [The Red Hill] - Peter Franzén
Täällä Pohjantähden alla [Under the North Star] - Heikki Nousiainen
Täällä Pohjantähden alla [Under the North Star] - Esko Roine

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
* Kielletty hedelmä [Forbidden Fruit] - Amanda Pilke
Maata meren alla [Earth Under the Sea] - Marja Packalén
Täällä Pohjantähden alla [Under the North Star] - Miia Selin

SCREENPLAY
Kuulustelu [The Interrogation] – Olli Soinio
* Skavabölen pojat [The Boys from Skavaböle] - Antti Raivio, Jan Forsström, Zaida Bergroth
Postia pappi Jaakobille [Letters to Father Jacob] - Klaus Härö, Jaana Makkonen

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Kuulustelu [The Interrogation] - Pirjo Honkasalo
* Muukalainen [The Stranger] - Tuomo Hutri
Postia pappi Jaakobille [Letters to Father Jacob] - Tuomo Hutri

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC
Liikkumavara [The Leeway]– Ville Riippa
Muukalainen [The Stranger] - Helena Tulve
* Postia pappi Jaakobille [Letters to Father Jacob] – Dani Strömbäck

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND DESIGN
Muukalainen [The Stranger] - Micke Nyström
* Skavabölen pojat [The Boys from Skavaböle] - Janne Laine
Postia pappi Jaakobille [Letters to Father Jacob]– Kirka Sainio

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
Haarautuvan rakkauden talo [The House of Forking Love] - Jukka Nykänen
* Muukalainen [The Stranger] - Mervi Junkkonen
Postia pappi Jaakobille [Letters to Father Jacob] – Samu Heikkilä

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
Kuulustelu [The Interrogation] - Pentti Valkeasuo
Muukalainen [The Stranger] - Kaisa Mäkinen
* Rööperi [The Red Hill] – Pirjo Rossi

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
Kuulustelu [The Interrogation] - Auli Turtiainen
* Rööperi [The Red Hill] – Tiina Kaukanen
Täällä Pohjantähden alla [Under the North Star] – Leila Jäntti

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM
* Kansakunnan olohuone [The Living-Room of the Nation] - Jukka Kärkkäinen
Liikkumavara [The Leeway] – Annika Grof
Magneettimies [The Magnetic Man] - Arto Halonen

LIFE AWARD
Lasse Pöysti, actor, director, since 70 years, still active

The Jussi Gala for 2009

The Jussi Gala took place at the Merikaapelihalli of the Kaapelitehdas on 31 Jan 2010. The place was packed with film professionals. Before the beginning I had the pleasure to meet Lasse Pöysti, with a film career of 70 years, and counting. He was maybe the only one present who had attended already the first Jussi Gala in 1944. He reminisced old greats of the Swedish theatre and cinema such as Lars Hanson, Victor Sjöström, and Ingmar Bergman. I was co-hosting Mario Van Peebles, who had arrived from Los Angeles, and was often gloriously bored, as all the talk was in Finnish only. There were two standing ovations. For Heikki Nousiainen, who after retirement is at the top of his game with four film roles last year, including two Jussi nominations, both in the supporting role of tailor Halme in Under the North Star, and in the leading role of Letters to Father Jacob. And for Lasse Pöysti, of whom every Finn has fond memories, including as a favourite teller of children's fairy-tales.

Marilyn: The Last Sessions

FR (c) 2008 Les Films d'Ici. D: Patrick Jeudy. Based on the book Michel Schneider (2006). "I'm Sorry" sung by Brenda Lee. A tv documentary. 91 min. Viewed on dvd at home, 30 Jan 2010.

There is a lot of rare authentic footage in this film, as well as fabrications and simulations.

The main source of Michel Schneider's book is John Miner, who claims to have heard tapes made by Marilyn Monroe at home free-associating for Ralph Greenson in 1962, the year she died. Miner, then deputy district attorney of Los Angeles County, says he listened to the tapes with Greenson on 6 Aug 1962. Miner claims to have made transcriptions of them later.

John Miner, now ca 90 years old, is the only witness to the claim that such tapes have existed. His transcriptions, first published in Los Angeles Times (5 Aug 2005), and subsequently in the world press, do not feel credible. They would only make sense if MM would have taped interviews for publication. It is highly improbable she would have made tapes anyway. If she had, their publication would be macabre and tasteless and against the principles of the confidentiality of the medical profession. John Miner is reportedly a decent man who wants to protect Greenson's reputation, but unfortunately his transcriptions sound like fabrications. He says that he believes that Greenson, who died in 1979, destroyed the tapes.

Although the film does not claim to present the tapes, there are illustrations of a magnetic tape, and a simulated woman's voice. There is also the MM lookalike Arline Hunter's The Apple, Knockers and the Coke nude film; Jeudy hints that it might be MM, herself.

My personal comment to this: the truth of Marilyn's last sessions we'll never know, but one can guess that it was much more terrible than is generally known, and certainly no entertainment.

MM's diagnosis confirmed by her two psychiatrists in 1962 was of a grave borderline psychic disorder that was beyond the domain of psychoanalysis. Her desperate doctors were aware that it was a matter of life and death and did their best to save her life. They were not able to follow the rules of their profession, and they jeopardized their careers to rescue a woman.

Aho & Soldan 3: The Nation

Aho & Soldan 3: Kansakunta. Compiled by Ilkka Kippola, Jari Sedergren, Erkko Lyytinen, and Jarmo Nyman. 93 min. One 35 mm print and a Digibeta. Introduced by Jari Sedergren. Viewed at Cinema Orion (DocPoint), Helsinki, 30 Jan 2010.

35 mm:
Finland kallar / Suomi kutsuu / Finland Calling. FI (1932, 1936, 1937) 1940. Ministry for Foreign Affairs. PC: Aho & Soldan. M: compiled from 22 compositions by Jean Sibelius, arr. Jussi Blomstedt, perf. Helsingin Teatteriorkesteri. 22 min. - Swedish version. - A good definition of light in a used print. - The forest, the winter, the spring, the lumberjacks, the lumber industry. - Explosions, the mining industry. - The metal industry. - Pottery, ceramic industry. - Sailing, the lakes, the sea. - Helsinki, Torni, the market square. - Beach life. - Addendum: the Winter War.

Digibeta:
Finland försvarar Nordens frihet [Finland Defends Nordic Freedom]. SE/FI 1940. Commentary read by Ella Eronen. 9 min. - In Swedish. - The Winter War.
Tasavallan presidentti puhuu 26.6.41 [The Address of the President of the Republic on 26 June 1941]. FI 1941. PC: Puolustusvoimat (Finnish Defence Forces). M: selections from Jean Sibelius. 5 min. - President Risto Ryti's address for the war between Finland and the Soviet Union that started on 25 June 1941. He talks about the arch-enemy which Finland has fought for centuries. "This is our second battle of defense. Now we have a better chance than ever for a final victory".
Sireenien kukkiessa 1941 [Lilac Time 1941]. FI 1941. PC: Valtion tiedoituslaitos [The State Information Centre]. D: Hannu Leminen. Commentary read by Hilkka Helinä and Turo Kartto. M: The Jäger March by Sibelius, etc. 10 min. - The weeks before the start of the war on 25 June 1941. - The Soviet Embassy evicted. - The German General Erfurt pays a visit to the graves of the brothers in arms. "That brotherhood is still going strong". - Midsummer at the Observatory Hill. - The war breaks.
"Elämä alkaa taas Karjalassa". Kuvaus sotilashallintoalueelta. Puolustusvoimien katsaus 42 ["Life Begins in Karelia Again". An Account from the Military Command District. Finnish Defence Forces Newsreel 42]. FI 1942. D: Björn Soldan. ED: Heikki Aho. M: Jussi Blomstedt. Commentary read by Kaarlo Marjanen. 19 min. - Devastation in Karelia: ruins, refugees, reconstruction. Noble music, a calm tone in the commentary.
Lappi rakentaa 1-3 [The Reconstruction of Lapland 1-3]. FI 1946. Maatalousministeriö / Asutusasiain osasto; Lapin Maakuntaliitto. PC: Aho & Soldan. M: selections from Jean Sibelius. Featuring Kaarlo Hillilä, Emil Luokka, Veikko Vennamo, Alvar Aalto. 21 min. - Devastation in Lapland. The retreating Wehrmacht burned and destroyed everything they could in the Lapland War that started in September 1944. - Ruins. -  Roads, railways, and railway stations destroyed, mines everywhere. - The faces of children. - 90.000 people had been evacuated, 48.000 into Sweden. Reconstruction is much more difficult. - Life below the hunger limit. - Alvar Aalto plans the new Rovaniemi. - Veikko Vennamo on settlement. - Dams and power plants need to be re-built. - This film was for me the discovery of this programme, an important Finnish entry to the Germania anno zero theme.
Kaikkien aikojen vappu [The All-Time First of May]. FI 1946. PC: Aho & Soldan. SC and reader of his commentary: Arijoutsi. 8 min. - Incorporating vintage Oscar Lindelöf footage, reportedly from 1917, 1913, and 1906 (ending with the oldest images of great partying).

An excellent and deeply moving programme of great historical value.