Pilvilinna

[A Castle in the Air] / Luftslott. FI 1970. PC: FJ-Filmi. D: Sakari Rimminen. SC: Meri Kurenniemi, Sakari Rimminen - based on a story by Meri Kurenniemi. DP: Pirjo Honkasalo - 16mm > 35mm - b&w. M: Those Lovely Hula Hands. Starring: Meri Oravisto (Annika), Erik Uddström (Erik Saarinen). 89 min. Viewed in Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 2 January 2008. This film I had missed at the time of release, and it has been somewhat forgotten, but now it has a wonderful, relaxed, realistic, familiar quality, which I can almost witness personally, as I was some three years younger than the protagonists at the time of the shooting. It's about rebellious teenagers at high school, who dream about a better world in a chaotic and anarchistic way. They are active at the teinikunta (the high school student's association), they participate in demonstrations against the Vietnam war, and they provoke parents with leftism. It's also frank and warm about sexual awakening, the girl is the active one, and the film has fresh insight into female desire, based on a story by Meri Kurenniemi. Obviously influenced by Godard, but not imitatively. The cinematography by Pirjo Honkasalo is lovely, and the blowup from 16mm is successful.