The Adventures of Woody Woodpecker 4

Pistol Packin' Woodpecker (1960), D: Paul J. Smith
Southern Fried Hospitality (1960), D: Jack Hannah
The Bird Who Came to Dinner (1961), D: Paul J. Smith
Franken-Stymied (1961), D: Jack Hannah
Poop Deck Pirate (1961), D: Jack Hannah
Sufferin' Cats (1961), D: Paul J. Smith
Woody's Kook-Out (1961), D: Jack Hannah
Home Sweet Home Wrecker (1962), D: Paul J. Smith
Rock-a Bye Gator (1962), D: Jack Hannah
Room and Bored (1962), D: Paul J. Smith
(c) Universal, PC: Walter Lantz Productions, P: Walter Lantz.
Vintage prints, perfect Technicolor, 1,2:1, viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 25 Dec 2008.
No sign of tiredness in the continuing Woody Woodpecker saga. My favourite of these was Franken-Stymied. Seen in programmes like these the repetitiveness of the mutual destruction formula becomes grating.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Painajainen ennen joulua / Mardröm före jul. US (c) 1993 Touchstone Pictures. P: Tim Burton, Denise Di Novi. D: Henry Selick. SC: Caroline Thompson - based on the subject and characters by Tim Burton. DP: Pete Kozachik - Technicolor - 1,66:1. Digital effects: Ariel Velasco Shaw. AN: Eric Leighton. Characters: Bonita De Carlo. M: Danny Elfman. ED: Stan Webb. Characters: Jack Skellington, Sally / Shock, Dr. Finkelstein, Oogie Boogie, Santa Claus. 76 min. A vintage print with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Timo Porri / Eirik Udd. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 25 Dec 2008. - A beautiful print with good, full colour. Interestingly there are a lot of warm, soft hues. - Revisited: the puppet animation masterpiece based on the concept of Tim Burton and directed by Henry Selick. - It is in verse form. - When Shrek was released, it was seen as Anti-Disney, but Disney, themselves, did it better here. - I liked the film even more this time.

Batman [1989]

Batman. US 1989. PC: Warner Bros. D: Tim Burton. SC: Sam Hamm, Warren Skaaren - based on the characters created by Bob Kane. DP: Roger Pratt. M: Danny Elfman. Songs: Prince. Cast: Michael Keaton (Bruce Wayne / Batman), Jack Nicholson (Jack Napier / Joker), Kim Basinger (Vicki Vale), Michael Gough (Alfred), Billy Dee Williams (Harvey Dent). 122 min. A print with Finnish / Swedish subtitles viewed at Cinema Orion, 19 Dec 2008. - Print clean but not bright. - Revisited: the first movie of the current Batman cycle, interesting to compare with The Dark Night. - Jack Nicholson is great as the Joker, but Heath Ledger is more profoundly shocking. Billy Dee Williams is Harvey Dent but without the Two-Face aspect of Aaron Eckhardt. Kim Basinger is charming and sensitive, but she is denied the opportunity to be active and important; this was corrected in Burton's next Batman film, in the way Michelle Pfeiffer took over the Catwoman character. - Great Tim Burton touches all through the picture.

Tilinteko

Uppgörelse / The Final Arrangement / [Un règlement de comptes] / [The Final Account]. FI (c) 1987 Villealfa. P: Aki Kaurismäki. D: Veikko Aaltonen. SC: Veikko Aaltonen, Aki Kaurismäki. DP: Timo Salminen - Eastmancolor - 1:1,85.
Live performance: Markus Allan: "Syyspihlajan alla".
Oldies records: "Rattaanpyörä" perf. Ilkka Rinne and Rytmi-yhtye. "Harmaat silmät" perf. Henry Theel. "Pieni kukkanen" perf. Laila Kinnunen. "You Are My Thrill" perf. Billie Holiday. "Pojat" perf. Laila and Ritva Kinnunen.
Jussi Björling tracks: "Du är min hela värld", "Tra voi belle".
Hymn at the church: Hymn 440 "Jo vääryys vallan saapi".
Filming locations: Suodenniemi, Kankaanpää, Lavia (in the middle between Tampere and Pori).
Cast: Juhani Niemelä (Kalervo Mäkinen, "Nieminen"), Esko Nikkari (Timo Varjola, mayor), Kaija Pakarinen (Leena Palo), Seppo Mäki (Reidar). 72 min. An excellent vintage print with perfect colour. At Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 17 Dec 2008. - Two men commit grand burglary. Varjola murders the two drivers of the mail bus and tries to kill his companion, Nieminen. Seven years after, Nieminen, on leave from the prison, returns to the town where Varjola is now mayor, a father, and a pillar of society (church, Lions Club, etc.). - An interesting film in the Villealfa canon. Veikko Aaltonen has a good grip on the ironic, laconic, antirealistic Melville style of the crime movie. There is a good steady cinematic drive all through the picture. The collaboration with the cinematographer Timo Salminen is perfect and functional. There are also affinities and touches common to the Villealfa school, such as 1) the terse, telegraph-style dialogue, 2) the almost autistic passivity of the male protagonist, 3) the man is also passive towards the woman, 4) the imagery and the colour scale are strong and recognizably like Salminen's work with Aki Kaurismäki, 5) the importance of music records and the jukebox, 6) Kekkonen, 7) the final insane act of violence of the passive protagonist. - The most lively figures are Esko Nikkari as the former robber and murderer, now a pillar of the society, soon promised a career as a minister of justice, and Kaija Pakarinen as the hairdresser who needs to take the initiative in seeking male company. - Veikko Aaltonen, himself, has stated that the screenplay was unfinished. The film was shot in ten days. - Well made but does not finally quite make enough sense.

CHI MI FRENA IN TAL MOMENTO (DONIZETTI: LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR)

Jean Renoir: Madame Bovary (FR 1934). Léon Dupuis (Daniel Lecourtois) and Emma Bovary (Valentine Tessier) at the opera: Photo: Gaumont / CNC.

"Chi mi frena in tal momento" is the great sextet in Gaetano Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), based on the novel by Walter Scott: Parte seconda (Il contratto nuziale). Atto primo, quadro secondo - Arturo attende trepidante la promessa sposa all'altare. Lucia viene, e la cerimonia nuziale è sconvolta dall'inattesa irruzione di Edgardo ("Chi mi frena in tal momento").
During the first half of the 20th century it became the symbol of opera and culture in popular cinema, also in cartoon parody.
- Georges Mendel: Film artistique chantant: Lucia di Lammermoor (FR 1908) - magnificent early sound film in widescreen - the grand sextet - Chanté par Enrico Caruso - Messieurs Journet, Scotti, Daddi - Mesdames Sembrich et Severina - avec accompagnement d'orchestre.
- Howard Hawks: Scarface (1932) - Scarface's murder anthem
- Jean Renoir: Madame Bovary (1934) - Madame Bovary's encounter with culture
- George Cukor: Little Women (1933) - Jo's cultural awakening
- Tex Avery: I Love to Singa (1936) - Owl Jolson is taught to sing opera
- Walt Disney: Willie the Operatic Whale (1946) - a signature tune at the Met
- Tex Avery: Little 'Tinker (1948) - proof of the singing skunk's refinement

Scarface

Arpinaama / Scarface - Chicagos siste gangster. US (c) 1932 The Caddo Company. Presented by Howard Hughes. D: Howard Hawks. SC: Ben Hecht (screen story); Seton I. Miller, John Lee Mahin, W. R. Burnett (continuity and dialogue) - based on the novel Scarface (1930) by Armitage Trail. DP: Lee Garmes, L.W. O'Connell. AD: Harry Oliver. M Directors: Adolph Tandler, Gus Arnheim. "Chi mi frena in tal momento" from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor: Scarface's whistled theme song before murder. "Some Of These Days" and "A Mighty Rough Road" pres. by Ann Dvorak. S: William Snyder. ED: Edward Curtiss. Cast: Paul Muni (Tony [Antonio Camonte]), Ann Dvorak (Cesca [Camonte]), Karen Morley (Poppy), Osgood Perkins ([Johnny] Lovo), C. Henry Gordon (Guarino), George Raft ([Guino] Rinaldo), Vince Barnett (Angelo), Boris Karloff (Gaffney), Tully Marshall (Managing editor), [Gus Arnheim and his Cocoanut Grove orchestra].
Versions: 90, 95 or 99 min. The shortest is definitive - without the police introduction, the moralistic newsroom scene and the ending with trial and hanging - thank you for this information, Todd McCarthy, your mail 13 June 2008.
The Universal 2003 dvd release includes the police introduction and the moralistic newsroom scene but has the street shooting ending, 90 min at 25 fps plus as an extra the alternative ending (henchman instead of Scarface shot on the street, trial and execution of Scarface by hanging, 10 min)
BFINA print of the Universal 1980 reconstruction with the police introduction and the original ending (maybe not with the moralistic newsroom scene, but my mind may have wandered), duration 93 min
Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 14 Dec 2008.
This was the best print I have ever seen of this film. The print was without splices and scratches and apparently in good condition. However, there was a slightly dark veil over the image, as if the print had been painstakingly struck from a challenging master.
THE WORLD IS YOURS - COOK'S TOURS. Revisited: the gangster classic clearly inspired by Sternberg, as can be seen from the Lee Garmes footage in the beginning.

Young and Innocent

Nuori ja viaton / Ung och oskyldig. GB 1937. PC: Gaumont British Picture Corporation. P: Edward Black. D: Alfred Hitchcock. SC: Charles Bennett, Edwin Greenwood, Anthony Armstrong - dialogue: Gerald Savory - based on the novel A Shilling for Candles (1936) by Josephine Tey. DP: Bernard Knowles. AD: Alfred Junge. M: Louis Levy. ED: Charles Frend. CAST: Nova Pilbeam (Erica Burgoyne), Derrick De Marney (Robert Tisdall), Percy Marmont (Col. Burgoyne), Edward Rigby (Old Will), Mary Clare (Erica's Aunt), John Longden (Det. Insp. Kent), George Curzon (Guy), Basil Radford (Erica's Uncle). 80 min. A fine 1989 print viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 10 Dec 2008. - Fine definition. - Revisited the first half an hour of a delicious less-known Alfred Hitchcock movie. - The quarrel of the married couple. The jealousy of the husband to his star actress wife. The thunderstorm at the coast. The blinking of the eye. The woman's corpse thrown by the waves to the beach. The scream of the women and the seagulls. The headlines. - The innocently suspected man gets an incompetent lawyer and escapes to defend himself, and reluctantly the police chief's daughter comes to help him. - Relaxed humoristic observations in a film that is not too tightly strung. This was an age when hurry was not ubiquitous, and there were still personalities around. - Heikki Nyman asks whether this film is a thriller at all, and prefers Lesley Brill's characterization of a "comic romance of false accusation". - I like the setpieces (the mine, the mill, the children's party) of this rambling film.

MP – minä pelkään

Pekka Hyytiäinen: MP – minä pelkään (FI 1982).

MP – jag är rädd / [MP – I Live in Fear].
    FI 1982. PC: Lähikuva Oy. D+SC: Pekka Hyytiäinen. DP: Petteri Kotilainen – shot on 16 mm – colour and b&w – released on 35 mm – the director's last will: the 16 mm print is definitive.
    C: Liisa Halonen (mother), Pekka Valkeejärvi (father), Heta Hyytiäinen (Mari, their young daughter), Matti Kanerva (soldier).
    83 min.
    A 16 mm print viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 10 Dec 2008

Pekka Hyytiäinen in memoriam (he died in January 2008). He directed three totally original feature films, of which this is the last.

This film got only 302 spectators during its term of release, so we, though not many, were a significant part of the total audience of the film which has never been telecast or released on home formats.

The print has a soft quality and the colour looks faded, but this seems to have been the case already at the release.

It begins and ends without an image, with a male voice.

It's a poet's vision of the fear of war. A family retreats at their country house, incessant sounds of military exercises are heard day and night.

Nightmares and visions of warfare are intercut with the story of the family's stay.

There is a lone soldier in the wood nearby, and he makes an attempt to rape the mother, interrupted, as he cannot sustain erection.

A cinematic stream of consciousness.

There is some affinity with Ingmar Bergman's Skammen.

The film would deserve to be much wider known, with friends of experimental film, to begin with. It is marred by its substandard technical and visual quality (in a Jack Smith kind of way).

Häät (1986)

Bröllopen / The Wedding. FI (c) 1986 TTK / ETL1. D+SC: Esa Illi. DP: Eero Könönen. Lights: Perttu Leppä, Mauno Haapala. S: Jaska Ojala, Jaakko Virtanen. ED: Outi Hyytinen. CAST: Tarja Heinula (bride), Martti Suosalo (groom), Konsta Mäkelä ( Markku), Jori Halttunen (Janne), Jaakko Virtanen (the man leaning on a cab). 7 min. The comic story of a failed wedding on an army leave.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure

Pee-ween suuri seikkailu / Pee-wee's stora äventyr. US 1985. PC: Aspen Film Society / Warner Bros. Pictures. D: Tim Burton. SC: Phil Hartman, Paul Reubens, Michael Varhol. M: Danny Elfman. CAST: Paul Reubens (Pee-wee Herman). 91 min. A print avec sous-titres francais viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 9 Dec 2008. - Ok print, slightly worn, colour slightly diluted, we screened it at 1,37:1. - Revisited: the beginning of Tim Burton's first feature film, already mad, stylish, absolutely crazy, about Pee-wee's quest of his lost bicycle.

Frankenweenie (1984)

Tim Burton: Frankenweenie (US 1984), his 30 min short with Barret Oliver as Victor Frankenstein.

US 1984. PC: Walt Disney Productions. P: Rick Heinrichs, Julie Hickson. D: Tim Burton. SC: Lenny Ripp. DP: Thomas E. Ackerman – b&w – 1,66:1. M: Michael Covertino, David Newman.
    C: Barret Oliver (Victor Frankenstein), Shelley Duvall (Mother Frankenstein), Daniel Stern (Father Frankenstein), Paul Bartel (Mr. Walsh).
    30 min.
    A Walt Disney Company print screened once with special permission at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 9 Dec 2008.

A slightly dark and soft print, a slight unintended tint in b&w. We screened it at 1,37:1, but then twice mikes were briefly visible. – Revisited: the wonderful short, already a perfect Tim Burton movie. – The IMDB synopsis: "When young Victor's pet dog Sparky (who stars in Victor's home-made monster movies) is hit by a car, Victor decides to bring him back to life the only way he knows how. But when the bolt-necked "monster" wreaks havoc and terror in the hearts of Victor's neighbors, he has to convince them (and his parents) that despite his appearance, Sparky's still the good loyal friend he's always been. Written by Kathy Li". – A delicious variation on the Frankenstein theme. There is a new twist after the conflagration at the mill: the "monster dog" saves the boy, and the whole neighbourhood joins forces to jump-start the dog with the power from their car engines. Attractive music.

Vincent

US 1982. PC: Walt Disney Productions. D+SC: Tim Burton. B&w, 1,37:1. AN: Stephen Chiodo. AD+puppets: Rich Heinrichs. Narrator: Vincent Price. Animation. 6 min. A Walt Disney Company print by special permission screened once at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 9 Dec 2008. - A slightly dark and soft print. - Revisited: the perfect prelude to Tim Burton's oeuvre. - IMDB plot synopsis: "Young Vincent Malloy dreams of being just like Vincent Price and loses himself in macabre daydreams which annoys his mother." - High contrast visual style, angular shapes, Vincent Price reciting Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" in his regal voice.

Hitlerjunge Quex

Hans Steinhoff: Hitlerjunge Quex (DE 1933) starring Jürgen Ohlsen. "A film about the spirit of sacrifice of the German youth".

DE 1933. PC: Ufa. P: Karl Ritter. 

    D: Hans Steinhoff. SC: K. A. Schenzinger; Bobby E. Lüthge – based on the novel by Schenzinger. DP: Konstantin Irmen-Tschet. AD: Artur Günther. M: Hans-Otto Borgmann. Theme song written for this film "Unsere Fahne", lyrics : Baldur von Schirach (it became the official HJ song). S: Walter Tjaden. ED: Milo Harbich. 

    Loc: Berlin-Müggelsee, Seddinsee bei Berlin, Anhalter Bahnhof.
    C: Heinrich George (Father Völker), Berta Drews (Mother Völker), Jürgen Ohlsen (Heini Völker), Claus Clausen (Bannführer Kass), Ramspott (Kameradschaftsführer Fritz Doerries), Helga Bodemer (Ulla Doerries), Hermann Speelmans (Communist Agitator Stoppel), Rotraut Richter (Gerda), Karl Meixner (Fanatical Communist Wilde), Hans Richter (Franz), Ernst Behmer (Kowalski), Hans-Joachim Büttner (Doctor), Franziska Kinz (Nurse). 92 min.
    This film has been banned in Germany since 1945. It was never released in Finland and has been screened in our country only at the film archive screening 13 Feb 1976 at Cinema Bristol (thank you, Leena Suvanto, for this info).
    A Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung print screened by special permission of Auswärtiges Amt with e-subtitles in Finnish by AA and and introduction by Pasi Nyyssönen in Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 9 Dec 2008.

AA: A beautiful print.

The Hitler-Jugend film supervised (n.c.) by Baldur von Schirach.

There were three Nazi propaganda feature films produced in the "Kampfzeit", the period of the struggle. This, the third, portrays Nazis as the ideal for the young. They defend themselves against Communist violence with self-discipline and in a spirit of sacrifice. There is no racism in this picture.

Although this was the only of the three that was unreservedly approved by the Nazi leaders, it was reportedly in active circulation only for one year. Already by the end 1934 its line was old-fashioned.

Steinhoff (1882–1945), a talented and experienced director, advanced to the top of the industry on the basis of this film. Let's first state that this is a film to legitimize the brutal, anti-democratic, militaristic, and racist coup of the Nazi movement.

For an explicit propaganda film, the film has interesting features.

1) Visually it is strongly linked to the great tradition of the Weimar cinema, although Nazis fought Weimar culture as decadent.

2) One of the main locations is the Rummelplatz, the pleasure garden, so important in German since Caligari and before. It is portrayed in an inventive and original way.

3) The role of the Moritatensänger is interesting as a social commentator and the popular poet of dark deeds.

4) The lucrative Swiss army knife has an interesting symbolic role. It is a recurrent motif, always with a different meaning.

5) Heinrich George is at his best as the Communist father, a complex and powerful role. He's seen as a figure of elemental power, with a capacity to tenderness and empathy but also to brutality, misled by the Communists. The classic scene is when he hears his son sing the HJ song and teaches him the Internationale manually, slapping his face to the rhythm of the song! There is a direct link to his Franz Biberkopf in Piel Jutzi's version of Berlin-Alexanderplatz.

6) Berta Drews is very moving as the mother. The double suicide sequence is the film's most forceful, three minutes without dialogue, with powerful music theme by Hans-Otto Borgmann in the otherwise non-stop talking movie. It brings to mind Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück, also by Piel Jutzi.

7) Stoppel (Hermann Speelmans) the Communist agitator is an interesting fellow, with lucrative and humoristic characteristics.

8) Rotraut Richter is attractive and believable as the Communist seductress Gerda.

9) And Jürgen Ohlsen (1917–1994) as Quex, a difficult role, is perfect. This was his first film in a film career of only two feature films.

10) All other Nazis are bland.

11) The "Unsere Fahne" theme song sounds more engaging here than in Triumph des Willens.

A remarkable work in the history of German cinema justifiedly banned as the legitimation of a murderous movement.

Oliver Twist (Roman Polanski 2005)

Oliver Twist / Oliver Twist. FR/GB/CZ (c) 2005 Oliver Twist Productions LLP. P: Robert Benmussa, Alain Sarde, Roman Polanski. D: Roman Polanski. SC: Ronald Harwood - based on the novel by Charles Dickens (1838). DP: Pawel Edelman - shot on Super 35mm - digital intermediate - 35mm print 2,35:1. PD: Allan Starski. M: Rachel Portman. ED: Hervé de Luze. Studio: Barrandov (Prague). CAST: Barney Clark (Oliver Twist), Ben Kingsley (Fagin), Jamie Foreman (Bill Sykes), Harry Eden (Artful Dodger), Leanne Rowe (Nancy), Edward Hardwicke (Mr. Brownlow), Ian McNeice (Mr. Limbkins), Mark Strong (Toby Crackit), Jeremy Swift (Mr. Bumble). 130 min. The NFI / Columbia Norway release print with Norwegian subtitles by Harald Ohrvik viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 7 Dec 2008. - A print without signs of wear, the image slightly too dark and soft. - Film Indexes Online synopsis: "Adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel. Young orphan Oliver Twist escapes from the workhouse and working for an undertaker and runs away to London. There he is taken under the wing of Fagin, who operates a gang of young thieves, and is taught to steal." - In Polanski's oeuvre, this can be seen as a companion piece to The Pianist: the ordeal of the protagonist, the survival against all odds. - In Ronald Harwood's oeuvre, this can be seen as a part of a trilogy with Ivan Denisovich, and The Pianist; all share similarities of imagery and situations of humiliation and terror. - Charles Dickens' second novel has been filmed some 20 times. David Lean's version (1948) is still superior. - Both Lean and Polanski were inspired visually by Gustave Doré's London: A Pilgrimage (1872). - The lush Romantic score by Rachel Portman can be compared with the composers of Hollywood's Golden Era. - Polanski's special emphasis is on the terror of the 10-year old protagonist, with which he could identify, having been a Holocaust fugitive in Nazi-occupied Poland at the same age. - Another special emphasis is Fagin's death row agony. No clue to Fagin's Jewishness.

The Fall

The Fall / The Fall. IN/GB/US (c) 2006 Googly Films. Presented by: David Fincher, Spike Jonze. D: Tarsem - based on Yo Ho Ho (BG 1981, D: Zako Heskija). DP: Colin Watkinson - shot on 35mm film in Super35 - Laboratoire LTC (Paris) - 4K digital intermediate - released on 35mm at 1,85:1. Duboi effects. M: Beethoven: 7. Symphony, etc. LOCATIONS: Agra Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India; Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India; Andaman Islands, South Pacific, Pacific Ocean; Argentina; Bali, Indonesia; Brazil; Cambodia; Cape Town, South Africa (hospital scenes); Charles Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic (Blue bandit jumps from bridge); Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; Chile; China; Egypt; Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India; Fiji; Himalayas, Nepal; Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA; Italy; Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India (blue city); Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, India; Maldives; Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India; Namibia; Paris, France; Prague, Czech Republic; Romania; Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia; South Africa; Turkey; Valkenberg Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa (Hospital). CAST: Catinca Untaru (Alexandria), Justine Waddell (Nurse Evelyn / Sister Evelyn), Lee Pace (Roy Walker / Blue Bandit), Kim Uylenbroek (Doctor / Alexander the Great), Aiden Lithgow (Alexander's Messenger), Sean Gilder (Walt Purdy), Ronald France (Otto). 122 min. Released by Scanbox Entertainment Finland with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Jaana Wiik / Saliven Gustavson. Viewed at Kinopalatsi 5, Helsinki, 6 Dec 2008.

Brilliant visual look does not betray its digital intermediate. - Four years in the making, in 28 countries, without CG effects, financed by Tarsem, himself. - A 1915 Hollywood stuntman has broken his legs and needs morphine. He tells a fairy-tale to a little girl. It's wild and weird and a framework to some of the most breathtaking locations around the world, such as the Blue City in Jodhpur. - Cinema of attractions, indeed. Tarsem has been for 20 years a master of music videos and commercials. He made The Cell (2000), and this is his second feature. His strength is imagery, colour and music. His is not narrative cinema. But with his next feature films, one might hope, not traditional storytelling, but more structure or continuity or symphonic drive. And as with Paradjanov's Sayat Nova, shorter is better if one builds on separate, brief, stunning visual units.

The Great Flamarion (Finnkino 2008 dvd)

Anthony Mann: The Great Flamarion (US 1945) starring Erich von Stroheim (The Great Flamarion), Mary Beth Hughes (Connie Wallace) and Dan Duryea (Al Wallace).

Antti Alanen

Suuri Flamarion

Helsingin Sanomat: Dvd-klassikko

The Great Flamarion. USA 1945. O: Anthony Mann. N: Erich von Stroheim, Mary Beth Hughes, Dan Duryea. Mustavalkoinen, 1,33:1, mono, 78 min. Finnkino (The Great Hollywood Classics) 5.12.2008.

Kaksi mestaria, Erich von Stroheim ja Anthony Mann, kohtasi toisensa pienen budjetin elokuvassa Suuri Flamarion. Sen tuotti Billy Wilderin veli W. Lee Wilder Republic-yhtiön levitykseen, ja se on joutunut sittemmin public domain -asemaan, minkä vuoksi sitä voi levittää jokainen, jolla on hallussaan kopio. Kopioiden laatu vaihtelee, ja tällä kertaa taso ei ole huono eikä hyvä. Stroheim oli uransa loppusuoralla ja joutui ottamaan vastaan Hollywoodissa hullujen mestarien rooleja. Aina hän toi silti liukuhihnaelokuviinkin persoonallista kosketusta ja arvokkuutta. Mann oli uransa alkusuoralla, eikä hän ollut vielä löytänyt vahvoja lajejaan (film noir, western, eepos). Niinpä käsillä oleva elokuva on melko rutiinimainen triangelidraama sirkusartistien maailmasta. Stroheim esittää mustasukkaista mestariampujaa, joka vajoaa mestaruuden huipulta rähjäiseksi maankiertäjäksi. Vicki Baumin novelliin perustuva elokuva on nöyryytyksen johtavan yksipuolisen rakkauden tarina, joka tuo mieleen elokuvaklassikot Varietee ja Sininen Enkeli. Kilpakosijaa esitti Dan Duryea, vaikuttava film noir -kasvo. Elokuvassa on joitakin visuaalisesti vaikuttavia jaksoja, kuten se, missä Stroheim harjoittelee tähtäilyä hohtaviin heilurimaaleihin. Elokuva ei tullut aikoinaan teatterilevitykseen Suomessa, mutta se on lähetetty muutaman kerran YLE:n TV2-kanavalla.

AILA MERILUOTO: LAURI VIITA, LEGENDA JO ELÄESSÄÄN (A MEMOIR)

Helsinki: WSOY 1974. Third edition, pocket book, 2008, with cover photographs from the motion picture Putoavia enkeleitä. - I'm grateful for the film for the inspiration to read this wonderful book. One of my favourite books of all times, in any language, is L. Onerva: Eino Leino (1932). Both are written by a female poet on a male poet. Neither avoids the terrible issues of madness and alcoholism. Both give insight to the inspiration of the genius. Both are labours of love.
I have been impressed by the short film Lauri Viita - rakentaja (1962), where Lauri Viita unforgettably recites his poem "Alfhild". The short film tells more about him than Putoavia enkeleitä.
Meriluoto reports that in his later years Viita recorded poems in a mannerist way, which was unlike his original, fresh way. It would be interesting to know to which period the short film's recital belongs.

Putoavia enkeleitä / Falling Angels

Heikki Kujanpää: Putoavia enkeleitä / Falling Angels (2008) with Elena Leeve (Helena the daughter) and Tommi Korpela (Lauri Viita).

Fallande änglar
    FI © 2008 Blind Spot Pictures. P: Petri Jokiranta, Tero Kaukomaa.
    D: Heikki Kujanpää. SC: Sami Parkkinen, Heikki Kujanpää, Heikki Huttu-Hiltunen – based on Aila Meriluoto's memoir book Lauri Viita – legenda jo eläessään (1974). DP: Harri Räty – digital intermediate DFF.
    C: Elena Leeve (Helena), Tommi Korpela (Lauri), Elina Knihtilä (Aila), Oiva Lohtander (Lars Djupsjöbacka), Juhani Niemelä (Hermanni), Hannu Kivioja (Juha Mannerkorpi), Erica Pitkänen (Helena at 5-6), Tiina Pirhonen (Svea), Antti Litja (the publisher), Taisto Oksanen (the publisher's son), Taneli Mäkelä (Aila's father), Jaana Pesonen (Aila's mother).
    102 min.
    Released by Sandrew Metronome Distribution Finland with Swedish subtitles by Joanna Erkkilä.
    Viewed at Kinopalatsi 2, Helsinki, 5 Dec 2008.

A shoddy digital intermediate look, unpleasant colour gamut dominated by a dull brown.

"When you create, create a world" (Lauri Viita). Motto of the film.

I loved Pieni pyhiinvaellus / The Little Pilgrimage (1999), Heikki Kujanpää's cinema debut feature, one of my favourite Finnish films of the last ten years, and one of my favourite Pohjanmaa films of all times.

Lauri Viita and Aila Meriluoto are two great and widely loved poets of the post-WWII era in Finland.  Kujanpää's theatre production of Falling Angels was acclaimed in Q Theatre in Helsinki in spring 2005, and my wife Laila confirms that it was a powerful production full of poetry. Now there is the cinema film of the same subject and based on the same cast (TK, EK). But unfortunately there is something wrong now. Poetry is missing.

The Digital Chain of the Movie from the Shooting to the Screen (2008 Seminar at the Finnish Film Foundation)

Andrew Stanton: WALL·E (US 2008).

At the Auditorium of the Finnish Film Foundation, a great seminar organized by Mr. Harri Ahokas.

MODERATOR IN THE MORNING: MR. PETRI SIITONEN
The Digital Convergence / Mr. Pekka Korpela, Talvi Digital
Digital Shooting from the Viewpoint of the Cinematographer / Mr. Rauno Ronkainen, FSC
Digital Shooting: The Equipment, the Opticals, the Media / Mr. Artturi Mutanen, Elokuvakonepaja
The Processing of the Image in Post-Production / Mr. Olli Leppänen, Digital Film Finland
Digital Cinema: Colour Definition / Mr. Marko Terävä, Generator Post
RED Workflow / Mr. Petri Siitonen, Talvi Cinema
Sound in the Digital Production Chain / Mr. Pekka Karjalainen, Meguru
Direct Digital Prints / Mr. Nils Jörgen Kittilsen, Nordisk Film Post Production (Oslo)

MODERATOR IN THE AFTERNOON: MR. HARRI AHOKAS
Digital Viewing Copy: Mastering and Manufacture / Mr. Mihkel Mäemets, Digital Cinema
Digital Projection and 3-D Presentations in the Cinema / Mr. Ari Saarinen, Finnkino
The Requirements for a Digital Cinema / Mr. Marko Röhr, Bio Rex Cinemas
The Digital Process of a Finnish Movie from the Viewpoint of the Producer / Mr. Lasse Saarinen, Kinotar
Finnish Digital Copies from the Viewpoint of the Distributor / Mr. Petri Viljanen, Nordisk Film
The Viewpoint of the Cinema Projectionist / Ms. Riitta Haapiainen, SES Auditorium
Digital Cinema from the Viewpoint of the Spectator / AA
Conclusion / Harri Ahokas

Nära livet / So Close to Life (D-Cinema)

Photo: Stiftelsen Ingmar Bergman.

Elämän kynnyksellä.
    SE 1958. PC: Nordisk Tonefilm. D: Ingmar Bergman. SC: Ulla Isaksson – based on her short stories. DP: Max Wilén. Starring: Eva Dahlbeck (Stina Andersson), Ingrid Thulin (Cecilia Ellius), Bibi Andersson (Hjördis Pettersson). With: Barbro Hiort af Ornäs (Brita, nurse), Erland Josephson (Anders Ellius, Cecilia's husband), Inga Landgré (Greta Ellius, Anders' sister), Gunnar Sjöberg (Nordlander, chief physician), Max von Sydow (Harry Andersson, Stina's husband), Ann-Marie Gyllenspetz (Gran, curator). 84 min.
    D-Cinema released by Europe's Finest, in Finland with Bio Rex Distribution and Pirkanmaan Elokuvakeskus, with English subtitles.
    Viewed in Bio Rex 3, Sello, Espoo, 3 Dec 2008.

The first D-Cinema release of a classic film in Finland. First screened in Finland on 2 and 3 Dec, 2008. I was the only spectator in the second screening of the film that was screened without advertising.

The D-Cinema presentation was good, very close to a 35 mm screening. There was a real black, the picture was ultra-sharp. Better than 16 mm, better than Blu-Ray. The presentation did justice to the film.

This is a film shot completely in interiors, with few people, with many medium shots and close-ups. Last summer I saw many vintage Bergman prints which looked like they have been struck from the negative. It would be interesting to compare a good 35 mm presentation with D-Cinema of The Seventh Seal.

Maciste all'inferno

Maciste helvetissä / Den ondes besegrare. IT 1925. PC: Fert-Pittaluga (Torino). D: Guido Brignone. SF: Segundo de Chomón. Starring Bartolomeo Pagano (Maciste). The restored edition with Desmet colour by The Lumière Project (1993): Cineteca del Comune di Bologna / Det Danske Filmmuseum with materials from Cinemateca Brasileira. 2450 m /20 fps/ 107 min. A DFI print with e-subtitles in Finnish by Lena Talvio viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 2 Dec 2008. - A great print and a great job of restoration with apparently very challenging materials, but it looks consistent. The Desmet method makes the tinting look too heavy and overbearing to my taste. The speed could at least here and there be even slower than 20 fps, probably sometimes 16 fps. But for the total rhythm and duration 20 fps might be best. - Not one of the best Maciste films, this looks older (even 15 years older) than it is with its exaggerated gestures. - Maciste is a farmer who defends his neighbour, the single mother Graziella, from the attack of the devils. The devils suggest a pact with Maciste. But his curse banishes him to Hell. There the kiss of a woman turns a man into a devil, himself. Maciste becomes a devil in chains, but the Christmas prayer of Graziella's son releases him back to Earth. - Fellini's early favourite enchants with its childish naivety and grandiose visions of spectacle.

Ei kukaan ole saari / No Man Is an Island (dvd)

No Man Is an Island. FI (c) 2006 Screenday Films. P+D: Sonja Lindén. DP: Peter Flinckenberg - shot on 16mm - screening materials digital. M: Mahler, jazz. LOC: Saimaa. 40 min. Dvd (available also in English) watched at home, Helsinki, 1 Dec 2008. - A masterpiece. - Four seasons during the last year of an old man's life. He lives alone with the cat Eino on an island at lake Saimaa, fully equipped, in daily telephone contact with his wife who is at hospital. He prepares to die, leaving humoristic instructions about everything, even preparing his coffin. In the last image he rows away into the lake and vanishes into the mist. - Beautifully shot, with full command of the natural light, fine scenes of nature, interesting close-ups, nothing fancy, just the mastery of simplicity. - Fine views of nature are challenging in this digital transitional age, but here they look good even on dvd and did on Digibeta projection in Cinema Orion, where I saw half of this two weeks ago.

Un conte de Noël

Eräs joulutarina / En julberättelse. FR (c) 2008 Why Not Productions + three other companies. D: Arnaud Desplechin. SC: AD, Emmanuel Bourdieu. DP: Eric Gautier - a 35mm colour film print at 2,35:1 from a digital intermediate. LOC: ?Rouen?. CAST: Catherine Deneuve (Junon), Mathieu Amalric (Henri), Jean-Paul Roussillon (Abel), Anne Consigny (Elizabeth), Emmanuelle Devos (Faunia), Chiara Mastroianni (Sylvia). 155 min. A Cinema Mondo release with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Outi Kainulainen / Joanna Erkkilä. Viewed at Maxim 2, Helsinki, 28 Nov 2008. - A beautiful transfer with no annoying digital limitations, warm and vibrant colour, a fine softness of texture. - The compilation on the soundtrack a pleasant mix of classical and jazz. - A big, original and tough story of a dysfunctional family which faces issues including cancer and sibling feud of the severest kind. There are the several generations and the many lifestyles that are impossible to reconcile, yet an attempt is made at Christmas time. The prodigal son (Henri) is needed for his bone marrow to save his mother (Junon). - The actors are very good, and the director's grip is assured in this story of love and war within the dysfunctional family. - I admired the warmth of Eric Gautier's cinematography in the big ensemble scenes.

Kolme viisasta miestä

Tre visa män / Three Wise Men. FI (c) 2008 Marianna Films. D: Mika Kaurismäki. SC: MK and Petri Karra with dialogue written by the actors, themselves. DP: Rauno Ronkainen - 35mm print from digital intermediate. The men: Kari Heiskanen (Erkki, a photographer with terminal cancer), Pertti Sveholm (Matti, a policeman whose Russian wife gives birth to a baby), Timo Torikka (Rauno, an actor working in France). With: Elena Spirina (Taina, Matti's wife), Tommi Eronen (Tero, Rauno's son), Irina Björklund (Magdaleena, convalescent of depression), Pirkko Hämäläinen (Tiina, the mother of Erkki's son), Riitta Havukainen (Riitta), Aake Kalliala (the karaoke host), Peter Franzén (Santa Claus), Heikki Orama (opera singer). 105 min. Released by FS Film without subtitles. Viewed at Kinopalatsi 6, Helsinki, 28 Nov 2008. - The film is a homage to John Cassavetes. - A digital video look. - Inspired by Husbands by John Cassavetes, a Christmas story of three men's midlife crisis, which mostly takes place in an empty karaoke bar with karaoke songs by each (fun: "Kuka mitä häh"). They face their emptiness, self-deception and livsløgnen [Henrik Ibsen's term, life lie, the foundation lie]. - Interesting stuff but with a quickie touch.

Låt den rätte komma in

Ystävät hämärän jälkeen / Let the Right One In. SE (c) 2008 EFTI. D: Tomas Alfredson. SC: John Ajvide Lindqvist from his novel (2004). DP: Hoyte Van Hoytema - shot on Super 35 - digital intermediate - processed back to 35 mm print. Kåre Hedebrant (Oskar), Lina Leandersson (Eli). 114 min. A Sandrew Metronome Distribution release with Finnish subtitles by Anitra Paukkunen. Viewed at Tennispalatsi 12, 28 Nov 2008.

A bleak, cold digital intermediate look.

An original vampire film set in everyday Sweden in a suburb of Stockholm ?in ca 1982?. There are two stories. The permanently 12-year-old girl Eli who can only subsist on human blood. She can only live in the dark, she does not feel cold, her bite is contagious if the victim survives, she can climb the wall of a tenement building. The 12-year-old boy Oskar is the victim of school bullying, which he starts to resist violently.

The film is well made, the angle is original, the actors are convincing, the school and the suburb milieux realistically detailed, the visual composition interesting, and I liked to soundtrack selection of pop music (but not the original score).

But there is a grave confusion in the moral foundation of the story. The film seems to defend vampirism and justify revenge instead of real justice. It is a portrait of solitude which seems to embrace the ethos of grade Z action cinema.

Körkarlen

Ajomies / The Phantom Carriage / La Charrette fantôme. SE 1920. PC: Svensk Filmindustri. D: Victor Sjöström. Based on the novel by Selma Lagerlöf (1912). DP: Julius Jaenzon. Revisited in a Cinemateket / Svenska Filminstitutet pre-Desmet print, with beautiful toned effects, with e-subtitles in Finnish by Lena Talvio. 1937 m /16 fps/ 106 min. Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 27 Nov 2008. - I revisited the first 30 min. The pre-Desmet print looks better in Orion. The magic light and the vivid expressions become visible. - The deathbed of the Salvation Army nurse. The utter despair of the drunkard's wife. The desolation of the poor home. The three drunkards in the graveyard. The lit clockface. The pain, the sorrow, the horror. The two vignettes illustrating the driver's work: the nobleman putting the bullet through his brain, the victim of the boatwreck being collected from the bottom of the sea. The restless sea. I often include this film in the best horror films, but sometimes they strike it, as it is not a genre picture. But for me, horror means the encounter with personified death and personified evil, and this film has both. Victor Sjöström bravely and convincingly personifies bottomless evil, him who can even infect his own children with the lethal cough.

Quo Vadis (1951)

Mervyn LeRoy: Quo Vadis (US 1951).

Antti Alanen: Dvd-klassikko, Helsingin Sanomat 26.11.2008

Quo Vadis (1951) 2-dvd

Suurteos ensi kertaa dvd:llä

Quo Vadis. USA 1951. O: Mervyn LeRoy, N: Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov. 1,33:1, DD 1.0 mono, 167 min Teräväpiirtomasteroitu laitos pitkään työn alla olleesta fotokemiallisesti restauroidusta kuva- ja äänimateriaalista. Historioitsija F. X. Feeneyn kommenttiraita (2008). Liitedokumentti: In the Beginning: Quo Vadis and the Genesis of the Biblical Epic (2008, 44 min, haastateltavina Maria Wyke, David Franzoni, F. X. Feeney, Drew Casper, Patricia King Hanson, Richard Schickel, Richard B. Jewell, Christopher Frayling, Harrison Ellenshaw, Rudy Behlmer, Gary Smith). Restauroitu alku- ja loppumusiikki. Trailereita. Mukana 20-sivuinen jäljennös alkuperäisestä ohjelmalehtisestä, 16 mainoskuvakorttia, 6 julistepienennöstä, 10 valokuvaa kuvauspaikalta. Elokuvan dvd-ensijulkaisu 2008, Japanissa myös blu-ray 2008. Warner Bros. Entertainment Finland, 26.11.2008

"Olen tie, totuus ja elämä". 

Loppulause korostaa kristillistä sanomaa suurteoksessa, joka oli valmistusaikanaan myös allegoria päättyneen maailmansodan vainoista ja hirmuvaltiaista. Se julisti ajankohtaista viestiä: "autuaita ovat rauhantekijät". Quo Vadis, puolalaisen Nobel-kirjailija Henryk Sienkiewiczin romaani (1895), on filmattu monta kertaa, mutta tämä MGM:n oikeilla tapahtumapaikoilla Roomassa tuottama kolmituntinen Technicolor-spektaakkeli (1951) on tulkinnoista pidetyin. Roomalainen sotapäällikkö (Robert Taylor) rakastuu kristittyyn, sotavankina Roomaan tuotuun prinsessaan (Deborah Kerr). Keisari Nero on vallassa, Pietari ja Paavali julistavat uutta uskoa, kristittyjä vainotaan, orgiat kuvataan lapsille sallitulla tavalla, ja Rooma palaa. Peter Ustinov ottaa kaiken irti roolistaan hulluna keisarina, joka polttaa Rooman rakentaakseen tilalle Neropoliksen ja laulaa kornia tuholaulua itseään harpulla säestäen katsellessaan kaupunkinsa katastrofia. Katakombeissa lymyilleet kristityt valitaan syntipukkeinamarttyyreiksi ja heitetään sirkushuvina areenalla nälkäisille leijonille Neron ja Poppean nauttiessa viinirypäleitä katsomossa. Neron paras ystävä Gaius Petronius, Satyriconin kirjoittaja, tekee itsemurhan säästyäkseen keisarin huonolta musiikilta. Fotokemiallisesti restauroitu ja teräväpiirtomasteroitu elokuva hivelee silmää. Kuvallinen loisto tekee oikeutta mahtitulkinnalle, jossa esiintyy 30.000 statistia ja jota varten valmistettiin vastaava määrä pukuja. Näin elokuvan ensi kertaa, ja se on sisällöltäänkin mielenkiintoista katsottavaa, vaikkakaan ei samaa luokkaa kuin Kymmenen käskyä, Ben-Hur ja Spartacus. Liitedokumentti on runsassisältöinen, mutta näytteet muista filmatisoinneista (Enrico Guazzoni, 1912, Gabriellino d'Annunzio & Georg Jacoby, 1925) ovat huonoa vhs-tasoa. Ilmi käy MGM-hankkeen pitkä valmistelu 1930-luvulta alkaen. Hauska rinnastus on löydetty ohjaaja Mervyn LeRoyn kahdesta kuolinkohtauksesta elokuvissa Pikku Caesar ja Quo Vadis ("iso Caesar")!  Amerikkalaisella elokuvalla oli tärkeä rooli roomalaisen Cinecittàn studion uudelleenrakentamisessa. Areenakohtauksessa käytettiin myös maalattuja mattetehosteita. Cecil B. DeMillen Simson ja Delila oli aloittanut raamattueeposten uuden suosion, ja Quo Vadis lisäsi nostetta mahtavalla tuotannollaan ja suosiollaan.

CHARLES BAUDELAIRE: L'INVITATION AU VOYAGE (POEME)

Mon enfant, ma soeur,
Songe à la douceur
D'aller là-bas vivre ensemble!
Aimer à loisir,
Aimer et mourir
Au pays qui te resemble!
Les soleils mouillés
De ces ciels brouillés
Pour mon esprit ont les charmes
Si mystérieux
De tes traîtres yeux,
Brillant à travers leurs larmes.

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.

Des meubles luisants,
Polis par les ans,
Décoreraient notre chambre;
Les plus rares fleurs
Mêlant leurs odeurs
Aux vagues senteurs de l'ambre,
Les riches plafonds,
Les miroirs profonds,
La splendeur orientale,
Tout y parlerait
A l'âme en secret
Sa douce langue natale.

Là, tout n'est qu'order et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.

Vois sur ces canaux
Dormir ces vaisseaux
Dont l'humeur est vagabonde;
C'est pour assouvir
Ton moindre désir
Qu'ils viennent du bout du monde.
- Les soleils couchants
Revêtent les champs,
Les canaux, la ville entière,
D'hyacinthe et d'or;
Le monde s'endort
Dans une chaude lumière.

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.

(Les Fleurs du mal, LIII, 1861)

FILMS BY GERMAINE DULAC

NFM (Amsterdam) prints with e-subtitles in Finnish by Lena Talvio, at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 25 Nov 2008.
La souriante Madame Beudet / Hymyilevä rouva Beudet. FR 1923. D: Germaine Dulac. SC: André Obey based on his play. Cast: Germaine Dermoz (Madame Beudet), Arquillière (Monsieur Beudet). A print originating from La Cinémathèque Suisse, the Swiss edition with French / German intertitles. 773 m /18 fps/ 38 min
L'Invitation au voyage / Matkaankutsu. FR 1927. P+D+SC: Germaine Dulac - inspired by the poem by Baudelaire (1861). With: Emma Gynt (Woman), Raymond Dubreuil (Naval Officer). 797 m /18 fps/ 39 min
La Coquille et le clergyman / Pappi ja näkinkenkä. FR 1928. P+D: Germaine Dulac. SC: Antoine Artaud. With: Alexander Allin (the clergyman), Genica Athanasiou (the girl), Lucien Bataille (officer). The 2004 restoration. 816 m /18 fps/ 40 min
Seminal experimental films revisited. The best existing prints, L'Invitation au voyage especially fine with colour, and La Coquille et le clergyman the definitive restoration. - See my Dulac comments in my Bologna notes, Il Cinema Ritrovato 2006, 1 July 2006.

FILM-MAKING AS A SMALL ENTERPRISE (SEMINAR)

Elokuvan pienyrittäjyys -seminaari. Organized by the cultural cooperative Kronoptikon / Martti-Tapio Kuuskoski. At Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 22 Nov 2008.
Mr. Martti-Tapio Kuuskoski, moderator
Mr. Anssi Mänttäri, film director and producer
Mr. Rostislav Aalto, film director and producer
Ms. Sonja Lindén, film director and producer
Mr. Aku Alanen, economist, researcher
An interesting three and a half hours on film-making as a small enterprise. 95% of the Finnish film companies are small enterprises. Mr. Aalto commented that until the 1990s Finnish documentaries were internationally highly regarded, but now since the financers no longer support 35mm, the visual quality is down, except Pirjo Honkasalo. Excerpts included:
Mongolialainen iltapäivä [A Mongolian Afternoon]. FI 2008. D: Rostislav Aalto. The sequence of the slaughter of a lamb.
Ei kukaan ole saari [No Man Is an Island]. FI 2006. D: Sonja Lindén. Shot on S-16mm, projected on Digibeta. The last 20 min of the 40 min film. My first encounter with the work of Sonja Lindén, I was impressed by the feeling for nature (Saimaa?) and the theme of the old man (her father) facing imminent death.

Cleaning Up!

Cleaning Up! / Cleaning Up! FI 2001. PC: Cube Oy, Zen Media. P: Heikki Niinimäki. D+SC+DP: Rostislav Aalto - shot on DV-CAM - distributed on 35mm film prints. ASS-D: Mikko Keinonen. M: Cleaning Women. S-ED on tour: Jari Laakkonen, Teemu Kotila, Svetlana Terentjev. ED: Kimmo Kohtamäki. S: Rostislav Aalto. S-DES: Timo Kinnunen (also S-postprod). Photographs: Inka Kovanen. FEAT: Cleaning Women: Risto Puurunen, Timo Kinnunen, Tero Vänttinen = CW 01, CW02, CW03. Manager: Mikko Keinonen. 79 min. A SES print with English subtitles (print number one) at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 21 Nov 2008. Introduced by Rostislav Aalto, presented by Martti-Tapio Kuuskoski. - The print looks good, considering that it was shot on DV-CAM. - A tour documentary of the Finnish band Cleaning Women, who play with special instruments built from cleaning equipment, the guys dressed as ladies. - The music is good, and the film sounds good. - The strange encounters of the band touring in Petersburg, Moscow, Tartu, the Baltic countries, and Poland. - I saw the first 45 min, having to move to the Filmihullu magazine 40th / Risto Jarva society 30th annivarsary party at Dubrovnik.

Toto

Toto / Toto. FI 1982. PC: Filmiauer Oy / Anssi Mänttäri. Ohjaus: Suvi-Marja Korvenheimo (= Anssi Mänttäri). SC: Suvi-Marja Korvenheimo, Tuovi Mäkipää-Hakola. DP: Heikki Katajisto - filmed on 16mm - prints blown up to 35mm. S-ED: Tuomo Kattilakoski. M: Asko Mänttäri. Lyrics to the theme song: Jukka Virtanen. ED: Marjatta Niiranen. S: Jouko Lumme, Paul Jyrälä. CAST: Juha Hyppönen (Eki), Paavo Piskonen (Pena), Mikko Hänninen (Reiska), Eeva Eloranta (Hanna, Eki's wife), Helena Haavisto (Pena's mother-in-law), Veronika Mattson (Krisse, Pena's wife), Virve Kauste (Mirkku), Sanna Fransman (Päivi), Liisa Halonen (Marja, Reiska's ex-wife), Pentti Auer (Kurt), Tuija Ahvonen (saleswoman), Pauli Virtanen (Lievonen), Paavo Liski, Kai Honkanen, Olli Tuominen (policemen), Susanna Haavisto (waitress), Tadaaki Kawata (Mr. Tokoshi), Masaaki Hashimoto (Mr. Iwasaki), Ilkka Kylävaara (writer), Reima Kekäläinen (artist), Henri Kapulainen (2. writer), Katriina Rinne, Kaisa Karikoski (women in the pub), Kai Salminen (director Vornanen), Heidi Kari (secretary), Annette Arlander, Ulla-Maija Tamminen (girls in the pub), Ilkka Vanne (foreign businessman), Hannele Laaksonen (callgirl), Kalevi Immonen (violinist), Heidi Blom (Pena's daughter), Taina Saikkonen (Taina), Tiina Bergström (Tiina). 82 min. A vintage print with Swedish subtitles screened at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 21 Nov 2008. Introduced by Anssi Mänttäri hosted by Martti-Tapio Kuuskoski. Also Paavo Piskonen was present in the screening. - Good print with a pleasant, successful 16mm blowup look. - The trio of grown-up men on the loose has been compared with Cassavetes' Husbands. Pena has become a father (again), he hangs out with his car salesman colleague Eki, and they join with their drifter friend Reiska. Reiska wins big time in the horse races, and they go on a binge, planning a trip. They try to pick up women, but only Eki has any success. - The images of the race track in the beginning and in the end bring the story into ironic relief. - The theme song of Asko Mänttäri and Jukka Virtanen would deserve publication in its own right. - It's a film about alcohol and alcoholism. - There is a good solid drive in this tale of the absurd alcoholic binge.

Bo Procopé

FI (c) 1982 Taideteollinen Korkeakoulu / Elokuva- ja TV-linja ETV. D: Alvaro Pardo & Ville Mäkelä. With Alvaro Pardo, Tapio Tapiovaara. 16mm, colour, 15 min. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 21 Nov 2008. - Print has beautiful colour. - A funny pseudo-documentary.

Die Büchse der Pandora

Pandoran lipas / Pandoras box / Pandora's Box. DE 1928. D: G.W. Pabst based on the plays by Wedekind, dp: Günther Krampf, starring Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner. Print: Münchner Filmmuseum 3018 m /20 fps/ 132 min screened with electronic subtitles by AA/Anja Lempinen at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 20 Nov 2008. - This best existing print can still be admired also because of its visual quality, unlike (almost) all the other prints, which have been duped one or more generations too often. I revisited the first half an hour, the magic of Louise Brooks, the radiation, the hidden tragedy deep beneath.

The Adventures of Woody Woodpecker 3

Woody Woodpecker : Kiddie League (US 1959), P: Walter Lantz, D: Paul J. Smith.

Nakke Nakuttajan seikkailuja 3 / Hacke Hackspätt på äventyr 3
    Original copyright: Universal. PC: Walter Lantz Productions. P: Walter Lantz. Technicolor. Special aspect ratio 1:1,2.
    Voice Talent: Grace Stafford (Woody), Mel Blanc (Woody's ha-ha-ha-HAA-ha laughter).
    Duration à ca 6 min
    Total duration 59 min.
    Curated by Matti Ahava.
    Vintage prints viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 20 Nov 2008.

Half Empty Saddles. US 1958. D: Paul J. Smith. Absurd Western parody.
Watch the Birdie. USA 1958. D: Alex Lowy. Woody drives a bird-watcher crazy.
Billion-Dollar Boner. US 1959. D: Alex Lowy. Woody harasses a pompous guy who believes himself a billionaire having received a big rubber check.
Heap Big Hepcat. US 1960. D: Paul J. Smith. A softie Hollywood Indian has to prove himself a true brave, but meets Woody.
Kiddie League. US 1959. D: Paul J. Smith. Baseball parody.
Romp in a Swamp. US 1959. D: Paul J. Smith. Freerider Woody flies with the geese, gets into fight with a hunter-alligator.
Woodpecker in the Moon. US 1959. D: Alex Lowy.
Fowled up Falcon. US 1960. D: Paul J. Smith.
How to Stuff a Woodpecker. US 1960. D: Paul J. Smith.
Ozark Lark. US 1960. D: Paul J. Smith. A violent Kentucky feud (McCoys vs. Martins) parody.

The colour is brilliant and intact.
I'm puzzled by the obsession with violence, being more a Disney / Miler guy.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Ystävykset / Det började i Berlin. GB 1943. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, with Anton Walbrook, Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 19 Nov 2008. - Accidentally we had received a 126 min print of the film originally 163 min (but the Finnish premiere print was only 90 min). - Good Technicolor. - I revisited just briefly this touching and surprising film about friendship between Germans (Walbrook) and Brits (Livesey), and everlasting love (Deborah).

IN THE CORE OF THE DOCUMENTARY 45: HYY (THE HELSINKI UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION) 140TH ANNIVERSARY

Dokumentin ytimessä 45: HYY 140 vuotta / I dokumentärens kärna 25: HUS 140 år
Finnish documentary films and excerpts compiled by Ilkka Kippola and Jari Sedergren. Video edit: Jarmo Nyman. Presented by Jari Sedergren. In the presence of Ville Suhonen.
Vappu Helsingissä vuonna 1917. FI 1917. DigiBeta, 1'.
Leo Mechelinin hautajaiset. FI 1914. DigiBeta, 2'15''
Iso Paraati Helsingissä 16/5 1918. FI 1918.DigiBeta, 4'
Snellmanin päivän juhlallisuudet. FI 1926. DigiBeta, 3'
Suomi-Filmin uutiskuvia 3 / 1935. FI 1935. DigiBeta, 3'
Akateeminen romukasa. FI 1939. DigiBeta, 2'45''.
Finlandia-katsaus 100. FI 1949. DigiBeta, 1 '.
Suomen Marsalkan viimeinen matka. FI 1951. DigiBeta, 3'.
Finlandia-katsaus 88. FI 1948. DigiBeta, 3'.
Finlandia-katsaus 187. FI 1952. D-giBeta, 1' .
Lippusemme kohouupi… FI 1953. DigiBeta, 2'33''.
Itsenäisyytemme 40-v. juhlallisuudet. FI 1957. DigiBeta, 2'41''.
Finlandia-katsaus 439. FI 1959. DigiBeta, 2,41''.
Finlandia-katsaus 514. FI 1961. DigiBeta, 23''
Drink Piss Freak. FI 1969. D: Erik Uddström. DigiBeta, 2'.
Työtä Ylioppilasteatterissa. FI 1961. PC: Montaasi. D: Risto Jarva. 35mm. 8 min
Showreel Lapualaismorsian. FI 1967. D: Mikko Niskanen. With Vesa-Matti Loiri, Lars Svedberg, Kari Franck, Kaisa Korhonen, Pekka Laiho, Jukka Sipilä, Soila Komi, Tuula Nyman, Kristiina Halkola, Heikki Kinnunen, Kirsti Wallasvaara, Maria Wolska, Markku Lahtela. DigiBeta, 3'.
Vanhan valtaus. FI 1968. Digibeta, 8'.
28. marraskuuta. FI 1973. PC: Palokärki. Digibeta, 17'.
On elo ylioppilaan… FI 1947. D: Holger Harrivirta. SC: Vilho Helanen. Digibeta, 12'. Excerpts from a particularly fascinating short film, good non-fiction with actors and fine cinematography.
Ylioppilaselämää. FI 1990. P+D+ED: Ville Suhonen. SC+commentary: Pekka Suhonen. Digibeta, 24 min.
A groundbreaking, very ambitious compilation about the history of the Helsinki University Students' Association, covering over 90 years. Many moving moments. My favourite: On elo ylioppilaan...

In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni

We Turn In the Night, Consumed by Fire. FR (c) 1978 Simar Films. P: Gérard Lebovici. D+SC: Guy Debord. DP: André Mrugalski. DP: Stéphanie Granel. S: Dominique Dalmasso. Documentalist: Joëlle Barjolin. M: François Couperin; Benny Golson ("Whisper Not", performed by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers). Voice: Guy Debord. 35mm, B&W, 105 min. A Love Streams / Agnès B. print presented with e-subtitles in English by Ken Knabb edited by Tommi Uschanov. Avanto, Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 15 Nov 2008. Guy Debord: "On the question of stolen films, that is, of fragments of preexisting films incorporated into my films — notably in The Society of the Spectacle — (I’m talking here primarily about the films that interrupt and punctuate with their own dialogues the text of the spoken “commentary” derived from the book), the following should be noted:"
"In A User’s Guide to Détournement (Lèvres Nues #8) we already noted that “It is thus necessary to conceive of a parodic-serious stage in which detourned elements are combined . . . in order to create a certain sublimity.”"
"“Détournement” is not an enemy of art. The enemies of art are those who have not wanted to take into account the positive lessons of the “degeneration of art.”"
"Thus, in the film The Society of the Spectacle the (fiction) films detourned by me are not used as critical illustrations of an art of spectacular society (in contrast to the documentaries and news footage, for example). On the contrary, these stolen fiction films, external to my film but brought into it, are used, regardless of whatever their original meaning may have been, to represent the rectification of the “artistic inversion of life.”"
"The situation shifts in In girum due to several important differences: I directly shot a portion of the images; I wrote the text specifically for this particular film; and the theme of the film is not the spectacle, but real life. The films that interrupt the discourse do so primarily to support it positively, even if there is an element of irony (Lacenaire, the Devil, the fragment from Cocteau, or Custer’s last stand). The Charge of the Light Brigade is intended to crudely and eulogistically “represent” a dozen years of the SI’s actions!"
"As for the use of music, even though it is detourned like everything else, it will be felt by everyone in the normal way; it is never distanciated and always has a positive, “lyrical” aim." Guy Debord (1989)
Guy Debord: "The entire film (including the images, but already in the text of the spoken “commentary”) is based on the theme of water. Hence the quotations from poets evoking the evanescence of everything (Li Po, Omar Khayyam, Heraclitus, Bossuet, Shelley), who all used water as a metaphor for the flowing of time."
"Secondarily, there is the theme of fire; of momentary brilliance — revolution, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, youth, love, negation in the night, the Devil, battles and “unfulfilled missions” where spellbound “passing travelers” meet their doom; and desire within this night of the world (“nocte consumimur igni”)."
"But the water of time remains, and ultimately overwhelms and extinguishes the fire. Thus the brilliant youth of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the fire of the ardent Charge of the Light Brigade, advancing “under the cannon fire of time,” were drowned in the flowing water of their century…" Guy Debord (1977)
Print has ok visual quality but signs of wear. - The consumer society. The irony is more bitter here. The scorn on the family idyll feels strange. Debord's voice sounds more melancholy, old, tired. Robin des Bois. Bliss it was to be young in this city, but nothing remains of the Paris of my youth. Where are the young hooligan girls of my youth? Excerpts: They Died with their Boots On, Les Enfants du Paradis, Orphée. Rien est vrai, tout est permis.

La Société du Spectacle

The Society of the Spectacle. FR 1973. PC: Simar Films. P: Gérard Lebovici. D+SC: Guy Debord (adapted from his 1967 book). DP: Antonis Georgakis. ED: Martine Barraqué. DOC: Suzanne Schiffmann. S: Antoine Bonfanti. M: Michel Corrette. Voice: Guy Debord. 35mm, B&W, 90 min. a Love Streams / Agnès B. print presented with e-subtitles in English by Ken Knabb edited by Tommi Uschanov. Avanto, Cinema Orion, Helsinki. - Brochure [Guy Debord n.c]: "Until now it has generally been assumed that film is a completely unsuitable medium for presenting revolutionary theory. This view was mistaken. The lack of any serious attempts in this direction stemmed simply from the historical lack of a modern revolutionary theory during virtually the entire period of the cinema’s development; as well as from the fact that the potentials of cinematic composition, despite so many declarations of intent on the part of filmmakers and so much feigned satisfaction on the part of a miserable public, have as yet scarcely been liberated."
"Published in 1967, The Society of the Spectacle is a book whose theoretical insights have profoundly influenced the new current of social critique that is now more and more openly undermining the established world order. Its present cinematic adaptation, like the book itself, does not offer a few partial political critiques, but a total critique of the existing world; that is, a critique of all aspects of modern capitalism and of its general system of illusions."
"The cinema is itself an integral part of this world, serving as one of the instruments of the separate representation that opposes and dominates the actual proletarianized society. As revolutionary critique engages in battle on the very terrain of the cinematic spectacle, it must thus turn the language of that medium against itself and give itself a form that is itself revolutionary."
"The text and images of this film form a coherent whole; but the images are never mere direct illustrations of the text, much less demonstrations of it (cinematic “demonstrations” are in any case never reliable due to the unlimited possibilities of manipulation offered by the unilateral editing of the material). Instead, the film’s use of images (whether photographs, newsclips, or sequences from preexisting films) is governed by the principle of détournement, which the situationists have defined as “communication that includes a critique of itself.” The images through which spectacular society presents itself to itself are taken and turned against it: the spectacle’s means should be treated with insolence. As a result, in a certain sense this film, coming at the end of the cinema’s pseudo-autonomous history, incorporates all the memories of that history. It can thus be seen simultaneously as a historical film, a Western, a love story, a war movie, etc. Like the society it examines, it also presents a number of comical aspects. In talking about the spectacular order, and about the commodity domination that it serves, one is also talking about what this order hides: class struggles and strivings toward real historical life, revolution and its past failures, and the responsibilities for those failures. Nothing in this film is made to please the fashionable blockheads of leftist cinema: it has equal contempt for what they respect and for the style in which they express that respect. One who is capable of understanding and denouncing an entire socio-economic formation will denounce it even in a film. Objections to our “extremism” are meaningless, because current history is already on the verge of going beyond the most extreme possibilities imagined."
"Theses that have never before been presented in the cinema will now appear there in a never before seen form, simply because for the first time a filmmaker has undertaken an uncompromising critique."
"In the socio-economic context, the total freedom required to create such a film obviously means that the producer must renounce any claim to exert any preliminary control over the director, whether by insisting that he present a synopsis or by seeking to obtain from him any other sort of meaningless commitment. This has been recognized in the contract between the filmmaker and the producer, Simar Films: “It is understood that the filmmaker will carry out his work in complete freedom, without any control or supervision whatsoever, and without even being obliged to pay the slightest attention to any comment that the producer might make regarding any aspect of the content or of the cinematic form that the filmmaker feels appropriate for his film.”"
"Considering that this film itself expresses its meaning in a sufficiently comprehensible manner, the producer and the filmmaker believe that it is unnecessary to provide any further explanations." Brochure [Guy Debord n.c. (1974)].
The print quality not as good as Debord's short films, duplication apparently at more generations' distance from the original. - A sold-out screening, dozens could not get tickets. - Famous film excerpts (Arkadin, Johnny Guitar, The Shanghai Gesture, Potyomkin, ?Ernst Thälmann). - Debord's breast fetish that masquerades as media criticism amused the audience. - The spectacle as a permanent opium war. - Deservedly famous, but maybe the short films are even more interesting, and The Society of the Spectacle functions better as a book.

THE SHADOW OF DEBORD (SEMINAR)

Avanto, Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 15 Nov 2008.
Mr. Kari Yli-Annala (convener)
Mr. Pekka Luhta (moderator)
Mr. Tommi Uschanov (Debord translator)
Ms. Helena Sederholm (expert on Situationism)
Mr. Jussi Vähämäki (expert on Situationism)
Ms. Tiina Purhonen (expert on art theory)
Mr. Lauri Luhta (meta-commentator)
An excellent seminar on Guy Debord, hopefully the presentations will be published. There was also a lively an intelligent discussion. The spirit of Debord lives also in healthy irony and distanciation.
- Having seen Debord now for the first time, and his complete films at the same time, one of the interesting observations was the affinity of Debord and Godard. Debord was first.

Réfutation de tous les jugements, tant élogieux qu’hostiles, qui ont été jusqu’ici portés sur le film “La Société du Spectacle”

Refutation of All the Judgments, Pro or Con, Thus Far Rendered on the Film “The Society of the Spectacle. FR 1975. P: Simar Films. P: Gérard Lebovici. D+SC: Guy Debord. ED: Martine Barraqué. S: Paul Bertauld. Voice: Guy Debord. 35mm, B&W, 20 min. A Love Streams / Agnès B. print presented with e-subtitles in English by Ken Knabb edited by Tommi Uschanov. Avanto, Cinema Orion, 14 Nov 2o08. - Dialogue from the film: "Refutation of All the Judgments, Pro or Con, Thus Far Rendered on the Film “The Society of the Spectacle” is an attack on the somewhat mixed feedback Debord got after his 1974 feature film."
”In a freer and more truthful future people will look back in amazement at the idea that pen-pushers hired by the system of spectacular lies could imagine themselves qualified to offer their smug opinions on the merits and defects of a film that is a negation of the spectacle - as if the dissolution of this system was a matter of opinion. Their system is now being attacked in reality and it is defending itself by force. Their counterfeit arguments are no longer accepted, which is why so many of these professional agents of falsification are facing the prospect of unemployment.” Dialogue from the film. - A good print. - The counter-review technique reminds me of Syberberg. Illustrated with commercials. It grows into an meta-essay.

Critique de la séparation

Critique of Separation. FR 1961. PC: Dansk-Fransk Experimental-filmskompagni. D+SC: Guy Debord. DP: André Mrugalski. ED: Chantal Delattre. M: François Couperin, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier. Voice: Guy Debord. Voice (during the credits): Caroline Rittener. Actress: Caroline Rittener. 35mm, B&W, 19 min. A Love Streams / Agnès B. print presented with e-subtitles in English by Ken Knabb edited by Tommi Uschanov. Avanto, Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 14 Nov 2008. - Guy Debord: "Before the credits, a hodgepodge of meaningless images is punctuated by a series of text frames — “Coming soon to this screen . . . One of the greatest antifilms of all time! . . . Real people! A true story! . . . On a theme the cinema has never dared to confront!” — while Caroline Rittener reads the following passage from André Martinet’s Elements of General Linguistics: “When one considers how natural and beneficial it is for man to identify his language with reality, one realizes the level of sophistication he had to attain in order to be able to dissociate them and make each an object of study.” All the rest of the film’s commentary is spoken by Guy Debord. Caroline Rittener also plays the young woman in the film. The music is by François Couperin and Bodin de Boismortier."
"The images in Critique of Separation are often taken from comics, ID photos and newspapers, or from other films. In many cases subtitles are added, which may be rather difficult to follow at the same time as the spoken commentary. The people who have been directly filmed are almost always none other than members of the film crew."
"The relation between the images, the spoken commentary and the subtitles is neither complementary nor indifferent, but is intended to itself be critical." Guy Debord, 1964
Excellent print. - Great self-irony ("one of the greatest antifilms of all time"), ironic Baroque music (like soon Greenaway with Nyman), media critique seasoned with loving looks at Paris, a fascination with the face of a woman, colonial violence, the world of commercials, found footage, the ravages of storms, a film which interrupts itself and does not come to an end.

Sur le passage de quelques personnes à travers une assez courte unité de temps

On the Passage of a Few Persons Through a Rather Brief Unity of Time. FR 1959. PC: Dansk-Fransk Experimental-filmskompagni. D+SC Guy Debord. DP: André Mrugalski. ED: Chantal Delattre. Voice 1: Jean Harnois. Voice 2: Guy Debord. Voice 3: Claude Brabant. M: George Frederick Handel, Michel-Richard Delalande. 35mm, B&W, 18 min. A Love Streams / Agnès B. print with e-subtitles in English by Ken Knabb edited by Tommi Uschanov screened at Avanto, Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 14 Nov 2008. - Guy Debord: "The spoken commentary is read in somewhat apathetic and tired-sounding voices by Jean Harnois (Voice 1, tone of a radio announcer), Guy Debord (Voice 2, more sad and subdued) and Claude Brabant (Voice 3, a little girl)."
"The sound track during the opening credits is from a recording of a discussion during the Third Conference of the Situationist International in Munich, primarily in French and German. The Handel theme is from the ballet suite The Origin of Design; the two themes by Michel-Richard Delalande are from Caprice #2 (a.k.a. Grande Pièce)."
"The spoken commentary includes a large portion of detourned phrases, drawn indiscriminately from classic thinkers, a science-fiction novel, and the worst pop sociologists. In order to go against the usual documen-tary practice regarding spectacular scenery, each time that the camera is on the verge of coming upon a monument this has been avoided by shooting in the opposite direction, from the viewpoint of the monument (just as the young Abel Gance shot a passage from the viewpoint of a snowball). The initial plan for this documentary envisaged more détournements from other films, particularly recent ones. (...) These extensive film-quotations were ultimately prevented because several distributors refused to sell reproduction rights for at least half of the scenes selected, which refusal destroyed the montage envisaged. Instead, more exten-sive use was made of the Monsavon soap ad, whose star (actress Anna Karina, trans. note) was to have a brighter future. André Mrugalski is responsible for the sequence of detail photos detourning the style of “art documentaries.”"
"This short film can be considered as notes on the origins of the situationist movement; notes which thus naturally include a reflection on their own language." Guy Debord, 1964.
A brilliant print, cinematography professional, an invigorating sociological essay. Anna Karina appears in a Monsavon commercial.

Hurlements en faveur de Sade

Howls for Sade. FR 1952. D+SC: Guy Debord. Voice 1: Gil J Wolman. Voice 2: Guy Debord. Voice 3: Serge Berna. Voice 4: Barbara Rosenthal. Voice 5: Jean-Isidore Isou. Originally 35mm, B&W, 75 min. The only film print can no longer be screened, and no negative exists. Dvd projection with e-subtitles in English by Ken Knabb edited by Tommi Uschanov at Avanto Festival, Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 14 Nov 2008.
Guy Debord: "Howls for Sade, a feature-length film created in June 1952, contains no images whatsoever. The soundtrack is accompanied by a completely blank white screen during the spoken dialogues. These dialogues, which altogether total no more than twenty minutes, are broken up into short fragments amid passages of total silence totalling one hour (the final portion of the film consisting of an uninterrupted 24-minute period of silence). During the silences the screen, and thus the theatre remains totally dark."
"The film contains no other sound or accompaniment, with the exception of a solo lettrist improvisation by Wolman during the first white screen passage, immediately before the beginning of the dialogue. The first two statements comprise the only credits."
"The content of this film should be considered in the context of the lettrist avant-garde of the period, both on the most general level, where it represents a negation and supersession of Isou’s conception of “discrepant cinema,” and on the anecdotal level, from the mode of using double first names (Jean-Isidore, Guy-Ernest, Albert-Jules, etc.) or the reference to Berna, the organizer of the Easter 1950 scandal at Notre Dame, to the dedication to Wolman, creator of the preceding lettrist film, the admirable Anticoncept. Other aspects should be considered in the light of positions since developed by the situationists, particularly the use of detourned passages."
"The first showing of Howls for Sade — in Paris, June 30, 1952, at the Ciné-club d’Avant-Garde, then directed by A.-J. Cauliez, in the Musée de l’Homme building — was violently disrupted almost from the beginning by the audience and the film club managers. Several lettrists then dissociated themselves from such a crudely extremist film. The first complete showing took place October 13 of the same year at the Ciné-club du Quartier Latin in the Sociétés Savantes room, defended by a group of “left-lettrists” and a couple dozen additional supporters from Saint-Germain-des-Prés. A few months later the presence of these same people prevented the same film club from presenting a Sadistic Skeleton which had been announced and attributed to a certain “René-Guy Babord,” a joke which was seemingly intended to consist merely of turning out all the theater lights for a quarter of an hour." Guy Debord
A dadaistic anti-film with black and white passages only on screen, and dialogue and total silence on the soundtrack. Almost all stayed, only a few members of the audiences left.

Palava enkeli

Lauri Törhönen: Palava enkeli / Burning Angel (FI 1984) starring Riitta Viiperi as the psychiatric nurse Tuulikki Merinen.

Ängel i flammor / Burning Angel.
    FI © 1984 Skandia-Filmi. P: Kaj Holmberg.
    D: Lauri Törhönen. SC: Hannele Törrönen, Claes Andersson, Lauri Törhönen. DP: Esa Vuorinen – Fujicolor – 1:1,66. AD: Anu Maja. M: Hector. ED: Olli Soinio. S: Johan Hake.
    Thanks: Nikkilä Hospital, Laakso Hospital, Kellokoski Hospital, Aurora hospital.
    C: Riitta Viiperi (psychiatric nurse Tuulikki Merinen), Eeva Eloranta (Katariina, mental patient), Tom Wentzel (psychiatrist Johan Kukkola, "Juhana"), Juuso Hirvikangas (Mikko, nurse), Elina Hurme (Karin, best friend from the nurse training school), Helena Notkonen (Saimi, patient), Yrjö Pelkonen (Veikko, chauffeur), Marja-Leena Kouki (Maila, nurse), Eeva Mäkinen (Irja, assistant nurse), Hellevi Seiro (Hellevi Härkönen) (Leila, nurse), Vieno Saaristo (Tuulikki's mother), Ritva Arvelo (head nurse), Marjatta Lohikoski (psychologist), Carl Mesterton (chief physician), Annikki Viitala (headmaster of the nurse training school), Jussi Parviainen (man in the discotheque), Ilse Stubbs (assistant nurse), Lasse Lind (colonel, patient), Katja Kiuru, Nina Mattila, Aila Pervonsuo, Tuovi Sundell (patients), Kristiina Kalla (Juhana's girlfriend), Heikki Leppänen, Pauli Tervo (policemen). Raimo Häyrinen (voice of the radio commentator), Heikki Harma (voice of the disc jockey).
    105 min
    In the presence of Lauri Törhönen, interviewed by Markku Varjola.
    Vintage print viewed in Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 12 Nov 2008.

Vintage print with good definition of light, good colour, a scratch through the image during the second half of the film.

LT: "This was my feature film debut, although even my school film was a 50 min fiction film. A friend of mine studies psychology and had experience from a mental institution beyond Joensuu, called Paihola [in the film: Kaihola]. There was a true story behind the script, and because of it, legislation was changed [that a nurse can be a patient in her own ward]."

MV: This was new material in Finnish cinema, maybe only in Radio tulee hulluksi [The Radio Goes Crazy] had treated it before, in a comic way.

LT: "Variety lauded Riitta Viiperi as the most photogenic Nordic female star since Liv Ullmann. But the film had an unknown director, and it received weird reviews. But then it begun to grow, 7. week was better than the 1. [It became the most popular film of the season]. I myself went to Maxim to see it, head deeply buried in my cap, and behind me there was a strange row of spectator, with a brisk lady in both ends. I then learned that from the Nikkilä mental hospital etc. there were whole groups who came to see the film, and it was also used for on-the-job supervision."

MV: The 1980s was the record decade of debut directors. You opened new paths in production, the American way.

LT: "Part of the debut directors never continued beyond the 1980s. Myself, I did more of the artistic stuff for tv, because there, the films always received a million spectators. For the cinemas, it was more about entertainment. Esa Vuorinen was my teacher. [Lauri Törhönen was second assistant director in Warren Beatty's Reds, 1981]. Reds was the craziest adventure on can have, but I learned the American production methods: timetables, shooting schedules, location plans. Riisuminen [The Undressing] I did in 12 shooting days."

MV: What about the technical development.

LT: "Esa Vuorinen is a great artist, the finest Nordic cinematographer alive, he has worked a lot in Sweden. Film-making has been compared with a flight to the moon in the complexity of the logistics".

AA: The young nurse Tuulikki (Riitta Viiperi) comes to a mental hospital and is put in charge of an incurably ill patient Katariina (Eeva Eloranta) in the closed ward. Katariina is obsessed with fire, refuses to drink, and has manic outbursts. While there is a masked ball on the other side of the lake, Katariina dresses as an angel, sets herself to fire and drowns in the lake. Shattered, Tuulikki herself loses her mental balance and becomes a patient in her own ward. In the final image we see her vanish into the happy crowd of a summer music festival.

Still one of the rare Finnish films that portray psychotherapy in a serious way. There is much that is worthy in the performances of the actors. The cinematography is elegant and consistently expressive.

There would be a demand for this film in the dvd market among professionals of psychotherapy.

SATOSHI KON IN HELSINKI

Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 8 Nov 2008. Mr. Satoshi Kon spoke Japanese, expertly translated into Finnish by Mr. Aleksi Järvelä. There were many previously prepared questions from the audience, and a number of questions in the two-hour-plus session, in addition. - Mentioning a film of his (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika) for the first time Mr. Kon asked whether anyone from the audience had seen them, and, happily impressed by the good show of hands, stood up and bowed in gratitude. - Summing up Mr. Kon's comments: "I started with manga, but manga did not sell, so I switched to anime, and the transition was easy. The big difference is that there is a large group of people involved in anime. It is dialogue, it is speaking about images, exchanging thoughts. I had never considered myself as a social person, but it turned out to be the other way around. Anime is being closely followed. There is a lot of mediocre anime. The best anime is created when there is a small compact group involved. It pays to focus on quality."
"My first feature Perfect Blue is based on a novel I had not read myself. About the star and the fan who becomes a stalker. We go inside senses, adopting the first person view of the protagonist. - Anime involves a terrifying amount of images. - In Japan, painting is highly appreciated. - One has to fight for one's position."
About fantastic milieux. "Many critics don't understand anything about making movies. - My starting point is to create fantasy out of the ordinary. - A lot of ideas get discarded. - I develop a web and continuum of ideas. - Paprika was a different process. - Imagery and design are on the forefront. - Usually my starting point is quite realistic, but there are hallucinations involved. - In Paprika, hallucinations dominate. - An unusual parade. - Today reality is emphasized more, and less attention is paid to dreams."
"In my movies, I don't use much the computer, maybe one fifth of the film is computer-generated. It is about the budget: the CG effects are more expensive. Drawing by hand is much cheaper. - Then there is the post-production and the subsidiary production. - In animation, there is not one right way to think."
"I have used my good composer consistently."
"The question of fact/fiction is basic but not all-encompassing".
Do you get mail from people who have had similar experiences of blurring reality and fantasy? "Yes, and sometimes the blurring has become a problem. It can be scary. I don't know whether these persons should watch these films."
Is there a message or vision? "I have to explain a lot, as if I were a radio with non-stop talk. There is none. But one can find ideas hidden in different layers, and it is the viewer's task to find them."
Strong female characters such as Paprika. "As in biology, my characters start as females, but they can transform into men. - The biggest battle I had with the strong female character in Millennium Actress. - The most difficult was Perfect Blue, as the budget was minuscule. - Easy have none of them been."

Môsô dairinin 1: Ohayo!

Paranoia Agent 1: Good Morning! TV anime series, first episode of 13. JP 2004. PC: WoWoW. D: Satoshi Kon. Episode 25 min. Dvd projection in Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 8 Nov 2008. Extra screening on the occasion of the visit of Satoshi Kon. - IMDB series summary: "We follow different fates in modern Japan. Each episode ends with an assault by a boy with a golden bat. Throughout the animation series we learn more about the boy." - A fascinating anime with original approaches to the psyche.

Paprika

JP 2006. PC: Madhouse, Paprika Film Partners. D: Satoshi Kon.SC: Seishi Minakami, Satoshi Kon - based on the novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui. M: Susumu Hirasawa. Anime. 2,35:1, colour. 90 min. Blu-Ray projection of the English version with Finnish subtitles in Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 8 Nov 2008. - An extra screening on the occasion of Satoshi Kon's visit. - The Blu-Ray premiere at Orion. There is a depth of image clearly different from dvd. - Plot synopses from IMDB: "When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patient's dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist can stop it: Paprika." - "Three scientists at the Foundation for Psychiatric Research fail to secure a device they've invented, the D.C. Mini, which allows people to record and watch their dreams. A thief uses the device to enter people's minds, when awake, and distract them with their own dreams and those of others. Chaos ensues. The trio - Chiba, Tokita, and Shima - assisted by a police inspector and by a sprite named Paprika must try to identify the thief as they ward off the thief's attacks on their own psyches. Dreams, reality, and the movies merge, while characters question the limits of science and the wisdom of Big Brother." - "In this Japanese anime epic, humanity's last bastion of privacy has finally been infiltrated by technology, the world of our dreams. The story centers on a new invention called the DC-Mini. With this revolutionary device, psychiatrists are now able to enter a patient's dreams in a therapeutic setting. But when an unknown assailant steals all of the devices, using them to enter peoples minds enacting mind control, chaos ensues as dreams begin to bleed into reality, and the thin line between the conscious and the unconscious begins to blur. Enter a young female researcher named Chiba, who takes it upon herself to delve into the newly anarchic dream world in order to set things straight. In this surreal realm her name is Paprika, and she's out to save the world. Bursting with fantastic imagery and breathtakingly innovative animation." - I could only catch the first 20 minutes of this original and fascinating anime, certainly worth revisiting.

Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick

Ikuistetut hetket / Everlasting Moments. SE/DK/FI/NO/DE (c) 2008 Final Cut. P: Tero Kaukomaa, Christer Nilson, Thomas Stenderup. D: Jan Troell. SC: Niklas Rådström - based on a story by Agneta Ulfsäter-Troell and Jan Troell. DP: Mischa Gavrjusjov, Jan Troell - colour - 1,85:1 - digital intermediate: Digilab - printed on 35mm film. CAST: Maria Heiskanen (Maria Larsson), Mikael Persbrandt (Sigfrid Larsson), Jesper Christensen (Sebastian Pedersen), Emil Jensen (Englund), Ghita Nørby (Miss Fagerdal), Hans Henrik Clemensen (Mr. Fagerdal), Amanda Ooms (Matilda), Antti Reini (Captain), Birte Heribertsson (Aunt Tora), Claire Wikholm (Grandmother Karna), Hans Alfredson (prison guard). 133 min. Released in Finland by Sandrew with Finnish subtitles by Anitra Paukkula. Viewed at Maxim 2, 7 Nov 2008. - The digital intermediate look is shabby. - It is great to see Jan Troell (born 1931) in good form. He is a director who has always something to say. - This is a story of the power of photography (and cinematography, and art) to transform life, to open new horizons and perspectives. - "The images are taking hold". "They turn me to another being". "They reveal another world". "There is no turning back". "For always, for ever". - Storywise I like the film's portrayal of the everyday working life around WWI, the hard toil, the ascent of the workers' movement. It is naturalistic but not boring. But the imagery as filtered through the digital intermediate is not interesting to look at. It lacks the vibration of life. - The story takes place in Göteborg and in the neighbourhood. - There are the two men in Maria's life: the brutal Sigfrid, to whom she is faithful and whom she manages to transform (even though he has to go to prison after having tried to murder Maria). And there is the platonically friendly owner of the photographer's shop, Sebastian Pedersen, who encourages Maria to her new passion of photography. - Good visual ideas: the image of the butterfly reflected on Maria's hand via the camera lens. - Cinematography: Sebastian Pedersen shoots a newsreel of the three kings' meeting on the eve of WWI. There is a screening of Charles Chaplin's Easy Street with piano and violin accompaniment. [Jan Troell has a an interest in silent cinema representation but also a tendency to exaggerate overspeed, also in Här har du ditt liv.] - A story about art transcending and transforming life.