The Force That Through the Green Fire Fuels the Flower

Otto Kylmälä: The Force That Through the Green Fire Fuels the Flower (GB 2011) starring Michael Eden as Ian.

Voima
    GB 2011. PC: Fargone Films.
    D+SC: Otto Kylmälä. DP: Joni Juutilainen. M: Stephen Horne. AD: Saule Norkute. Ass. Director: Jonas Trukanas. Hair & Make-Up: Monica Rossi. Camera Assistants: Ruby Kobayashi & James Chegwyn. Storyboard and Poster Artist: Marga Doek.
    Cast: Michael Eden (Ian), Carolyn Lyster (Maggie), Edward French (young man), Sarah Wolff (young girl), Emma Packer (karaoke lady), Nick Hoad (bartender), Alan Smith (doctor).
    7.52 min
    A silent film (no dialogue or sound effects). Black and white.
    Watched on Vimeo at the summer cottage in Punkaharju, 27 July 2011.

Vimeo introduction: "The Force That Through the Green Fire Fuels the Flower is a contemporary silent film, which follows a man through a journey of memories in the course of one night."

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"Finnish / National premiere at the 26th Midnight Sun Film Festival in Lapland in 2011. International premiere at the 30th Le Giornate Del Cinema Muto in Italy in 2011 with Stephen Horne's live accompaniment."

"The work has its own mesmerizing tone; it really rewards the eye and ear. It's smart and moving. A thoroughly accomplished work." - Guy Maddin

"It takes '21st Century Silents' to a new level - going far beyond the usual pastiche, to use the silent medium on its own terms and in a fresh and creative way". - David Robinson

“You couldn't imagine the film with dialogue; it's about words unspoken. Stands head and shoulders above most of the modern silent shorts”. - Luke McKernan / The Bioscope.

A lyrical film about an old widowed man whose wife has died in the hospital. He has a glass of beer at a karaoke bar, and the texts of the coasters under the beer ("come closer", "one is not enough") set off chains of memories of awakening love and dying love. Direct, elemental images in a setting of a nocturnal city. The mood is also like in Salvatore Quasimodo's poem "Ed è subito sera".

Ognuno sta solo sul cuor della terra
trafitto da un raggio di sole:
ed è subito sera

Beyond the jump break: "The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower" by Dylan Thomas

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.

The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.

The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.

And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.