Lauluja rakkaudesta / Still Into You

 

Anu Kuivalainen: Lauluja rakkaudesta / Still Into You (2020). Ritva Oksanen – Sirkka & Yki – Ahti & Paavo.

 

Sånger om kärlek.
    FI © 2020 BonsaiFilms Oy. P: Anu Kuivalainen, Marianne Mäkelä.
    D+SC: Anu Kuivalainen. Cin: Saija-Mäki-Nevala. With: Marita Hällfors, Jarkko T. Laine, Mauri Lähdesmäki. Post production: Whitepoint Digital Oy. Digital effects: Jouko Manninen. Sound design and music: Janne Laine. S recording: Pirkko Tiitinen. ED: Mervi Junkkonen.
    A documentary film featuring:
Ahti & Paavo
Sirkka & Yki
Raija
Ritva [Oksanen]
Maricca & Antti
Risto & Pirjo
    Performer, songs and poems: Ritva Oksanen. Piano, arrangements: Pedro Hietanen.
    Poems: Aino Suhola: "Old Woman's Prayer" and "Of People and Computers"
    Sunlines "Helmiradion diskoristeilyt", TYKS neurokirurgian osasto.
    Songs include: "Akselin ja Elinan häävalssi", "Syvä kuin meri", "Kultainen nuoruus", "Hiljaiset sillat", "Minä olen muistanut", "Born To Be Alive", "Niin paljon kuuluu rakkauteen", "Itke sydämein", "Syli", "Sisältäni portin löysin".
    Film clip: Hän tuli ikkunasta (1952).
    In memory of Pirjo.
    70 min
    Translations: Tiina Kinnunen. Translations of poems and songs: Maria Lyytinen.
    Premiere: 7 Aug 2020, released by Arto Heiskanen.
    A Vimeo screener viewed at a forest retreat in Punkaharju on a tv set, 6 Aug 2020.

AA: Lauluja rakkaudesta / Still Into You is a candid and tender documentary quest into love at a venerable age.

We meet Sirkka and Yki, a "young pair", who have found each other just a few years ago. There are Ahti and Paavo, two men happily in love. Maricca is a passionate woman in love with a much younger man, Antti. We also follow the last act of a long marriage. Risto accompanies his wife Pirjo to the final journey.

Anu Kuivalainen's previous film Sielunmetsä / Into the Forest I Go was a pantheistic survey into the love affair of Finns with the forest. I can presently totally identify with that film, watching Kuivalainen's new film and blogging about it in the forest myself.

The new film is much more intimate, and both the film-maker and the people featuring in it are generous in letting us accompany them in such private moments.

The need for love at an advanced age is a theme that has been getting more prominence in recent times. Michael Haneke's Amour was a trendsetter, and there have been several mainstream entertainment films on the theme such as Song for Marion. This year, Teräsleidit / Ladies of Steel was a big hit in Finland. All this reflects changing demographics in "developed" countries.

The title of Kuivalainen's movie is "Songs of Love" in literal translation, and popular songs are important for all main characters. There is also a professional singer and performer, Ritva Oksanen, continuing her career at age 80. She recites satirical poems by Aino Suhola about the paradox that our life ideal is to stay healthy and live long, but there is a subtext about people in an advanced age being an "expense to society".

The message of the movie is life-affirming. Protagonists in the movie declare that they are living the best times of their life*. They are active in exercise, trekking in Lapland, dancing, even indulging in burlesque. Looks aren't everything. When looks are gone, you may get deeper in love. You no longer love appearances and discover essences.

Ritva Oksanen has chosen to stay solo, because she refuses to become a servant to a man. But desire never dies, and the longing of the skin is imperishable. In Sielunmetsä the director herself performed the traditional Nordic "swimming job" as a pantheistic union with nature. In the finale of the present movie Ritva Oksanen exposes her al fresco beauty in a similar scene. The film ends with a montage of the sublime nature and the wild rivers of Lapland. It is a Tolstoyan feeling: facing death, when the end is near, we return to nature in a final embrace. In the closing song Ritva Oksanen sings Mikko Alatalo's "Syli" [Love Records, 1975, "Take Me In Your Arms"], with Pedro Hietanen at the piano.

* Cicero would have agreed: see Cato maior de senectute.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: THE OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS FROM THE FILMIKAMARI WEBSITE:

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: THE OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS FROM THE FILMIKAMARI WEBSITE:

Mitä rakkaudelle tapahtuu, kun ihminen vanhenee? Lauluja rakkaudesta on Anu Kuivalaisen dokumenttielokuva uuden rakkauden innosta, pitkän kumppanuuden vahvuudesta, yksin elämisen onnesta – rakkaudesta kaikkine kasvoineen.

Lauluja rakkaudesta piirtää kuvan kypsän iän rakkaudesta eri muodoissaan. Ritva Oksasen esittämät laulut ja runot kietovat yhteen kuuden erilaisen rakkauden tarinan. Tuoretta avioparia yhdistää karaoke, intohimo ja puiden kaataminen. Leski rakentaa elämäänsä uudelleen menetyksensä jälkeen. Elämästään nauttiva nainen seurustelee 20 vuotta nuoremman miehen kanssa ja epäilee voiko sitä kutsua rakkaudeksi. Miesparin pitkä suhde on kantanut läpi vaikeuksien ja kantaa yhä vaikka terveys heikkenee. Teatterineuvos Ritva Oksanen nauttii vapaudestaan; tekee töitä, nostaa painoja eikä halua parisuhdetta. Mies saattaa dementoituneen vaimonsa hoivakotiin tietäen, että aika kuluu vähiin. Lauluja rakkaudesta on rohkea ja voimaannuttava katse rakkauteen ja vanhuuteen.