Läpimurto / The Breakthrough

Janne Kuusi: Läpimurto / The Breakthrough (FI 1981).

Genombrott.
    FI 1981. D: Janne Kuusi. SC: Janne Kuusi, Jouni Tommola. DP: Tahvo Hirvonen – 16 mm. Assistant Camera: Timo Salminen, Renny Harlin. ED: Anne Lakanen.
    C: Susanna Haavisto (Small Redhaired Girl), Matti Laustela (Moritz), Eero Saarinen (Jaska), Ulla Tapaninen (Priscilla), Timo Torikka (Max), Jukka Asikainen (Guard), Renny Harlin (Policeman), Jukka-Pekka Palo (Policeman), Kari Väänänen (Policeman), Elina Salo (Teacher), Janne Kuusi (Horseheaded Man).
    44 min.
    Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 12 September 2008.
    Together with Valehtelija / The Liar, FI/DE 1981.
    Guests: Mika Kaurismäki, Janne Kuusi, Jouni Tommola.

JK, JT: the background was the students' theater of the 1970s. The film was a joint project of the theater school and the film school. The manuscript was a mere accident, just a list of scenes. There were no models of any kind. We hated the old theater, the affected way of reading the lines. We acted in a new way, put ourselves into it, meaning to rebel. We hardly knew anybody from the film scene. We irritated them and almost risked our lives. Maybe there is a Buñuel, Fellini connection. Fuck influences. To the hell with everything old. We wanted something new of our own. Maybe we sat on Buñuel thinking Fellini. Maybe the Kaurismäkis were thinking about Godard and Truffaut when they were thinking of nothing.

Print ok for 16 mm.

I saw but the beginning, it's all about theatre students and their rehearsals. A parodic revolutionary scene. Mirror rehearsals. A silent film parody, very lowbrow, more so than Spede Pasanen. A mixed sauna scene with booze and sex. The next day the rehearsals are interrupted by vomiting, the actors revolting. Here at 22 pm I called it a day