D. W. Griffith: Deceived Slumming Party (1908) (2017 digital scan 4K)

D. W. Griffith & Wallace McCutcheon: Deceived Slumming Party (US 1908).

US 1908. Prod: American Mutoscope & Biograph Company.  

    Dir: D. W. Griffith, Wallace McCutcheon. Story: ?. Photog: Arthur Marvin. Cast: Edward Dillon, D. W. Griffith, Mack Sennett, Harry Solter, George Gebhardt, Charles Inslee, Anthony O’Sullivan.

    Filmed: 27.5, 14.7.1908 (NY Studio; Times Square, NYC). rel: 31.7.1908.

    Copy: DCP (4K), 8'35" (from paper print, 483 ft, 15 fps); titles: ENG. source: Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus, Culpeper, VA.

    Digital scan 2017. Given the absence of original intertitles, new ones have been written by the Film Preservation Society

    43rd Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone.

    Grand piano: Neil Brand.

    Viewed at Teatro Verdi with e-subtitles in Italian, 5 Oct 2024. 

Tracey Goessel (GCM, The Biograph Project 2024): "The production dates document that Slumming was filmed both in late May and in mid-July; therefore Griffith directed only half the film. Which half? The exteriors filmed in Times Square? Or the interiors – the three vaudeville set pieces? Given that 27 May was a warm, sunny day, and 14 July had headline-inducing rain and hail, it is likely that Wallace McCutcheon directed the exteriors in May and Griffith handled some – or all – of the interiors in July."

"It scarcely matters. The interiors are of the “locals tricking the suckers” variety, using a gag with a sausage-making machine and Asians loading dogs and cats into the grinder. Even contemporary critics agreed this was getting old."

"We are reduced to studying Griffith’s monocle-clutching performance as the comic Englishman. He does display some minor comic skills when he attempts to coach one of the Bowery boys in the sweet art of boxing, but essentially, as an actor, D. W.  Griffith is a very good director. Just not yet."

AA: I saw Deceived Slumming Party for the first time, having missed it in the Griffith Project (DWG 34) sessions of 1997 when it was shown on 16 mm at 375 ft / 15 fps with intertitles missing.

Deceived Slumming Party recycles farce formulas that may have been old already in the 1890s, and they appeared not only in American comedies but also in the French ones by Lumière, Méliès, Alice Guy, et al. Deceived Slumming Party may have been seen like a meta-film at the time.

Striking here is the speed. The familiar ingredients are thrown into a speed-blender, and relevant imagery is also literally introduced in the final episode of the "Chinese" sausage machine where cats, dogs, rats, and even the curious Matilda of the sightseeing group are thrown. Fortunately there is a reverse button, and Matilda emerges intact from the doomsday machine.

The film is such a whirlwind and rollercoaster experience that it is as much an action film as a comedy. Is it a successful comedy? I was laughing.

The question of racism haunts early Griffith, in every film in a different way. This film's point is to spoof "slumming" tours in the Bowery and the Chinatown, with fake opium joints. So maybe we are meant to laugh at the non-Chinese and our prejudices about the Chinese.

Visual quality is surprisingly good for a DCP with paper print origins.

D. W. Griffith: The Redman and the Child (1908) (2017 digital scan 4K)

 

D. W. Griffith: The Redman and the Child (US 1908).

US 1908. Prod: American Mutoscope & Biograph Company. 

    Dir: D. W. Griffith. story: ?. photog: Arthur Marvin. cast: John Tansey, Linda Arvidson, George Gebhardt, Charles Inslee, Harry Solter. 

    Filmed: 30.6, 3.7.1908 (Passaic River, Little Falls, New Jersey). Rel: 28.7.1908. copy: DCP (4K), 15'40" (from paper print, 857 ft., 15 fps); titles: ENG. 

    Source: Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus, Culpeper, VA.

    Digital scan 2017. Given the absence of original intertitles, new ones have been written by the Film Preservation Society.

    43rd Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone.

    Grand piano: Donald Sosin.

    Viewed at Teatro Verdi with e-subtitles in Italian, 5 Oct 2024. 

Tracey Goessel (GCM, The Biograph Project 2024): "The Redman and the Child, like Dollie, was filmed entirely outdoors, in Little Falls, New Jersey. Being away from the studio permitted Griffith to play to his strengths. He not only brings his camera in closer to the players; he frees their movements. In the studio, actors only move straight left or right – staying in the camera’s focal range. Here they run toward and away from us; cut diagonally across the screen; and paddle along the Passaic River with absolute freedom. Griffith uses jump cuts not for trick effects but to permit such shots as our hero drowning one of the kidnappers. (Down he goes, and, thanks to the cut, down he stays.) We are even given a matted POV shot as the Indian looks through the surveyors’ telescope."

"This is advanced stuff for 1908, and the critical reception proved that Griffith had certainly hit the ground running." Tracey Goessel

Moving Picture World: "Alongside of a beautiful mountain stream in the foothills of Colorado there camped a Sioux Indian, who besides being a magnificent type of the aboriginal American, is a most noble creature, as kind-hearted as a woman and as brave as a lion. He eked his existence by fishing, hunting and mining, having a small claim which he clandestinely worked, hiding his gains in the trunk of an old tree. It is needless to say that he was beloved by those few who knew him, among whom was a little boy, who was his almost constant companion. One day he took the little fellow to his deposit vault, the tree trunk, and showed him the yellow nuggets he had dug from the earth, presenting him with a couple of them. In the camp there were a couple of low-down human coyotes, who would rather steal than work. They had long been anxious to find the hiding place of the Indian's wealth, so capture the boy, and by beating and torture compel him to disclose its whereabouts. In the meantime there has come to the place a couple of surveyors who enlist the services of the Indian to guide them to the hilltop. Here they arrive, set up their telescope and start calculations. An idea strikes them to allow the Indian to look through the 'scope. He is amazed at the view, so close does it bring the surrounding country to him. While his eye is at the glass one of the surveyors slowly turns it on the revolving head until the Indian starts back with an expression of horror, then looks again, and with a cry of anguish dashes madly away down the mountain side, for the view was enough to freeze the blood in his veins. Arriving at the old tree trunk, his view through the telescope is verified, for there is the result he improvised bank rifled, and the old grandfather of the little boy, who had followed the miscreants murdered. Picking the old man up he carries his lifeless form back to the camp, reaching there just after the murderers, with the boy, had decamped in a canoe. Laying the body on the sands and covering it tenderly with his shawl he stands over it and solemnly vows to be avenged. What a magnificent picture he strikes as he stands there, his tawny skin silhouetted against the sky, with muscles turgid and jaws set in grim determination. It is but for a moment he stands thus, yet the pose speaks volumes. Turning quickly, he leaps into a canoe at the bank and paddles swiftly after the fugitives. On, on goes the chase, the Indian gaining steadily on them, until at last abandoning hope, they leave their canoe and try to wade to shore as the Indian comes up. Leaping from his boat he makes for the pair, seizing one as the other swims to the opposite shore. Clutching him by the throat the Indian forces his head beneath the surface of the water and holds it there until life is extinct, after which he dashes in pursuit of the other. This proves to be a most exciting swimming race for a life. They reach the other shore almost simultaneously, and a ferocious conflict takes place on the sands terminating in the Indian forcing his adversary to slay himself with his own dagger. Having now fulfilled his vow he leaps into the water and swims back to the canoe in which sits the terrified boy, and as night falls he paddles slowly back to camp." —Moving Picture World synopsis

AA: Griffith reverses the racial child abduction situation of The Adventures of Dollie. White bandits abduct a little white boy, and a Sioux hunter saves him in Griffith's earliest portrait of the noble savage. 

Compared with The Fight for Freedom, Griffith clearly relishes shooting a Western on location again.

It is a violent and heartbreaking story. The bandits torture a child and murder his grandfather. The Sioux is guiding a couple of surveyors to a mountain top. They have a telescope, and the Sioux sees for the first time his home country at long distance precision. Moving the telescope "in a panoramic shot" the Sioux also witnesses the robbery of his tree-trunk treasure cache by the bandits and the murder of the boy's grandfather. This is an inspired, purely cinematic scene.

The final fight with the surviving bandit is brutal and ferocious. It ends with the bandit perishing by his own knife.

Griffith is making quick progress as a cinematic storyteller.

...

I saw The Redman and the Child in The Griffith Project (DWG 30) screening in Pordenone on 15 October 1997, a 35 mm print from a Library of Congress paper print, 16 min at 15 fps with intertitles missing, with Antonio Coppola at the grand piano. I was revolted by the brutal battery of the child in the hands of the bandits. I was impressed by the point-of-view conducted bý the long distance view of the telescope. It was also startling when the little boy witnesses his kidnapper being drowned by the Sioux saviour.

D. W. Griffith: The Fight for Freedom (1908) (2017 digital scan 4K)

US 1908. Prod: American Mutoscope & Biograph Company. 

    Dir: D. W. Griffith. Story: ?. Photog: Arthur Marvin, Billy Bitzer. Cast: Florence Auer, Anthony O’Sullivan, Edward Dillon, George Gebhardt. 

    Filmed: 23-24.6.1908 (Shadyside, New Jersey; NY Studio). Rel: 17.7.1908. 

    Copy: DCP (4K), 12'58" (from paper print, 729 ft, 15 fps); titles: ENG. 

    Source: Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus, Culpeper, VA.

    Digital scan, 2017. Given the absence of original intertitles, new ones have been written by the Film Preservation Society.

    43rd Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone.

    Grand piano: Donald Sosin.

    Viewed at Teatro Verdi with e-subtitles in Italian, 5 Oct 2024.

Tracey Goessel (GCM, The Biograph Project 2024): "Scholars everywhere write about The Adventures of Dollie, but Griffith’s sophomore effort gets nary a word. Determining what, exactly, was his second film requires some digging. Page 104 of Bitzer’s production log (now at the Museum of Modern Art) conveniently begins with Adventures of Dolly [sic] and documents that production dates after Dollie were devoted to The Fight for Freedom, corresponding to the release order. It is a typical 1908 product: stagey, static, and difficult to understand without explanatory intertitles. Perhaps the most interesting aspect about this (admittedly primitive) effort are the scenes in Pedro’s house. Arthur Marvin, never a careful craftsman even at his best, managed to line up the shot so that the lens of the Biograph camera is clearly visible in the mirror on the set. How one wishes for a broader view of what was going on behind the camera! At this stage of Griffith’s evolution, it would have been far more interesting than what was in front."

The Moving Picture World, July 18, 1908: "It almost makes us question the justice of fate that the innocent should suffer for the crimes of the guilty. Such, you must admit, is often the case, as will be seen in this Biograph film story. In a barroom on the Mexican border, Pedro is engaged in a game of poker with several cow-punchers. One of the party seems to be attended with remarkable luck. Pedro becomes suspicious and at last detects him cheating. A quarrel ensues, which results in Pedro laying out the crook, cold and stiff. The sheriff now takes a hand in the squabble and Pedro dives through the window, taking glass and sash with him, followed by a fusillade of 44s, several of which take effect in his body. Staggering into his home, where he is met by his wife, Juanita, and his mother, weak from the loss of blood, he recounts as best he can what has occurred. They hide him in the loft above, and none too soon, for the sheriff enters and searches the place. He is just about to leave when he is attracted by the dropping of blood on the bed. Convinced that the fugitive is above, he makes a start for the loft, but is shot by Pedro, who anticipates him. At this moment in rushes the vigilance committee, who, seeing the sheriff stretched out, accuse Juanita of the crime and carry her off to jail. The mother visits her and devises a scheme. Attiring Pedro in her clothes, she sends him to the prison with a basket of provisions. While the guard is examining the contents of the basket, Pedro, still disguised, slips a pistol to Juanita. The guard, satisfied things are all right, opens the jail door. Juanita and Pedro at once pounce upon him, bind, gag and lock him in the cell. Off they go, but have not proceeded far when their flight is discovered and they are pursued by mounted police. They go down over a rugged rocky hill, which they figure impassable for the pursuers. Hiding behind the rocks, they await an opportunity, and taking the guards unawares, cover them with their guns until they have appropriated the horses, and make good their escape. The guards, however, by a short cut through the woods, come out on the road ahead of the fleeing Pedro and Juanita and as they approach a bullet from the guards in ambush lays poor Juanita prostrate across her horse, dead, while Pedro is seized, bound and carried back to prison to meet his inevitable fate." The Moving Picture World, July 18, 1908

AA: A violent bordertown Western story. Pedro the Mexican is cheated by cowboys in a poker game. A fight starts, and Pedro kills the crook. When the sheriff catches Pedro at his home, Pedro kills him as well and hides in the attic. His wife Juanita is arrested for the murder of the sheriff. Pedro rescues Juanita from the jail in drag, dressed as his own mother. Memorable images: drops of blood give Pedro away; dexterity in the jailbreak as a pistol is quickly slipped to Juanita by Pedro. I am not sure if The Fight for Freedom can be listed among Griffith's racist stories. Our sympathy is on the side of Pedro and his family. The desperation in their situation is acute in this movie that at 13 minutes is jam-packed with plot and little breathing space for character. Visually, The Fight for Freedom is humble as Griffith's sense of open air is missing. Griffith's director credit seems to have been contested. 

...
I saw The Fight for Freedom in The Griffith Project (DWG 29) screening in Pordenone on 15 October 1997, a 35 mm print from a Library of Congress paper print, 13 min at 15 fps with intertitles missing, with Antonio Coppola at the grand piano. It was difficult to understand this plot-heavy film without intertitles. Having enjoyed the open air ambience of The Adventures of Dollie I felt let down by the cardboard sets.

D. W. Griffith: The Adventures of Dollie (1908) (2017 digital scan 4K)

D. W. Griffith: The Adventures of Dollie (US 1908).

US 1908. Prod: American Mutoscope & Biograph Company.

    Dir: D. W. Griffith. story: ?. photog: Arthur Marvin. cast: Arthur Johnson, Linda Arvidson, Charles Inslee, Madeline West.

    Filmed: 18-19.6.1908 (Sound Beach, Connecticut). Rel: 14.7.1908. copy: DCP (4K), 12'04" (from paper print, 713 ft, 16 fps); titles: ENG. Source: Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus, Culpeper, VA.

    Digital scan, 2017. Given the absence of original intertitles, new ones have been written by the Film Preservation Society.

    43rd Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone.

    Grand piano: Donald Sosin.

    Viewed at Teatro Verdi with e-subtitles in Italian, 5 Oct 2024.

Tracey Goessel (GCM, The Biograph Project 2024): "Here it is: the film that for those learning about silent films 50 years ago represented the alpha. (The efforts of Méliès and Porter were mere footnotes in this view. True cinema began with Griffith, and Dollie.) Subsequent scholarship has revised this simplistic school of thought, true. But there is no denying that Biograph was about to become the most innovative of studios, and it did begin here."

"Griffith sought advice from cameraman Billy Bitzer before filming. Bitzer wrote, “Judging the little I had caught from seeing his acting, I didn’t think he was going to be so hot.” (“Billy Bitzer – Pioneer and Innovator” [Part I], American Cinematographer, December 1964) We can only be grateful that Bitzer was wrong." 

AA: There is always a miraculous feeling of baptism viewing the first film directed by D. W. Griffith, similar with some early titles of the Lumière brothers and Jean Renoir's debut film La Fille de l'eau. (The) Adventures of Dollie is not a masterpiece, but there is already a genuine cinematic flow - even literally, because it is the drama of a little girl caught in a river. To a Nordic viewer there is also an affinity with our logrolling and rapid-shooting adventures.

There is something fresh and sacred in the experience. There is also a dark side. Already in Griffith's debut film a shadow of racist prejudice looms. The villains are nomadic Romani who abduct Dollie from her parents.

The print is superior to the ones we have seen before. Still struck from paper print materials, there is more nuance in the detail. For the first time I see the film with intertitles. They have been created for this edition by the Film Preservation Society with good taste and understanding.

...

I have seen (The) Adventures of Dollie a few times before, including in The Griffith Project (DWG 27) screening in Pordenone on 15 October 1997. It was a 35 mm print from a Library of Congress paper print, 15 min at 15 fps, titles missing, with Antonio Coppola at the grand piano. It was a print of somewhat low contrast, yet conveying texture and detail, "the beauty of leaves trembling in the wind". I was struck by the association with the saga of Moses. And also of an affinity with Jean Renoir's first film La Fille de l'eau where the orphan girl Virginia (Catherine Hessling) finds refuge with Bohemians.

The Outrun

Nora Fingscheidt: The Outrun (GB/DE 2024) with Saoirse Ronan.

GB/DE 2024

Festival premiere: 19 Jan 2024 Sundance.

Telluride Film Festival (TFF), 1 Sep 2024 in a tribute to Saoirse Ronan.

Love & Anarchy 37th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF): Spotlight Selection

Viewed at Savoy, Helsinki, Thursday, 26 Sep 2024

Greta Gerwig (TFF 2024): "I’ve had the privilege of working with Saoirse Ronan twice, in LADY BIRD (2017) and LITTLE WOMEN (2019), and have been watching her transform in front of me as an audience member since she was just a little girl. The word “prodigy” is thrown around a lot, but in her case, it is fitting. Her gift is incredibly rare, but how she’s cared for it and grown it to become the formidable artist she is today, is rarer still."

"She is a translucent actor—she somehow makes her external life transparent so we can all see her soul. But every character she plays is unique, wildly different from the others, so each soul she shows us is a new revelation. She is impeccable with every external aspect of her craft—all the bells and whistles of the character’s walk, voice, tics, and presence. That never ceases to dazzle me. But the thing that floors me is the soul change."

"In THE OUTRUN, I saw a person I’d never seen before from Saoirse, someone so specific and so particular but who also, paradoxically, felt like every single one of us. She holds the vast discomfort and ecstasy of being alive. I don’t recognize her, the Saoirse I know, in this film. But I never do. All traces of her are gone, and only the person of the character remains, and only ever the whole truth of that person. She fully inhabits this other life."

"As a director you spend a lot of time looking at your lead actor’s face. In rehearsal, then filming, and finally, in the edit. Even after months and months of sitting in the dark and staring at Saoirse, I always find something new she’s given me. She continually gifts the whole film through every detail in her performance."

"It’s a magic that she wears lightly and practically—head down, unfussy, getting on with it. I was not at all surprised when she said she wanted to do everything in movies—write and direct and produce. Because she is a mystic and a craftswoman simultaneously, I knew that she would be brilliant. She’s always considered herself a part of the crew, even when she is number one on the call sheet. I have an image of her lodged in my mind: sitting on a dolly rig while looking through the camera at a shot and laughing with the gaffer at an inside joke, immediately before going into an emotional scene. That is who she is. In one second, fully alive as Saoirse Ronan, teammate and goofball, and in the next, melting into another life."

"I still don’t know how she does it, but I am thrilled every time I get to sit down and watch her become yet again." –Greta Gerwig

Bilge Ebiri (TFF 2024): "Nora Fingscheidt’s potent and visually sumptuous drama stars Saoirse Ronan as a woman both existentially and physically submerged. Fingscheidt and Amy Liptrot adapt Liptrot’s 2016 memoir of addiction and recovery into the story of Rona, a young biologist who returns home to the Orkney islands to flee her troubled past and to regain a sense of herself. But even in relative isolation, a stable, quiet life eludes her. As Rona researches the flora, fauna, and mythology of the Orkneys, while also dealing with her own troubled family, she begins to see herself as a wayward essence—lost in both the spiritual fog of the city (seen in dreamy flashbacks) and the heady, windswept immediacy of life on the coast. Ronan, who also produces the film, offers one of the most commanding performances of her career, portraying a complex, adrift character whose restlessness is matched both by the inventiveness of Fingscheidt’s immersive filmmaking and the wildness of the ocean that surrounds her." –Bilge Ebiri (UK-Germany, 2024, 118 min)

AA: Nora Fingscheidt's The Outrun is the second film I see from her, after the extraordinary Systemsprenger / System Crasher (DE 2019), one of the greatest movies of that year and with Helena Zengel in the most powerful performance of the year with Joaquin Phoenix in Joker.

The Outrun is based on an acclaimed book, a recovery memoir by Amy Liptrot, set in Orkney and dealing with rehabilitation from alcoholism.

The magnificent landscape of Orkney, the power of the Scapa Flow and other forces of nature, such as the vicinity of communicative seals and the elusiveness of the corncrake, put human things into a larger perspective.

Saoirse Ronan, one of the greatest talents of her generation, takes new challenges as Rona, based on Amy Liptrot. whose story is a combat against forces more formidable than furies of nature. She strips all glamour and enters the heart of her character and life among the elements.

However, The Outrun does not grow into one of the cinema's unforgettable accounts of alcoholism, and Saoirse Ronan's performance is not an immortal portrait of an alcoholic. Perhaps Nora Fingscheidt did not find the right spark abroad, perhaps Saoirse Ronan failed to connect with the inner life of an alcoholic.

The Substance

Coralie Fargeat: The Substance (FR 2024) with Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.

FR 2024

Director: Coralie Fargeat

Starring: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid

Languages: English

140 min

Finnish premiere: 27 Sep 2024, distributed by: Cinema Mondo with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Outi Kainulainen / Joanna Erkkilä.

Yhteistyössä: Institut français de Finlande

Love & Anarchy 37th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF): Gala Films

Love & Anarchy Gala: The Substance

Viewed at Bio Rex, Helsinki, Thursday 26 Sep 2024

HIFF 2024: "This Cannes juggernaut and best screenplay-winner is a horrifically sharp body horror thriller, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley."

Peter Bradshaw quoted by HIFF 2024: "Coralie Fargeat absolutely tore the place up with her feminist body-horror satire The Substance, starring Demi Moore. Fargeat did for Moore what Tarantino did for John Travolta in Cannes with Pulp Fiction." Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Owen Gleiberman quoted by HIFF 2024: "Shocking and resonant, disarmingly grotesque and weirdly fun, The Substance is a feminist body-horror film that should be shown in movie theaters all over the land. By that, I don’t mean that it’s some elegant exercise in egghead darkness like the films of David Cronenberg, or a patchy postmodern punk curio like Titane. Coralie Fargeat, the writer-director of The Substance, has a voice that’s italicized, in-your-face, garishly accessible and thrillingly extreme. She draws on much of the hyperbolic flamboyance that’s come to define megaplex horror. But unlike 90 percent of those movies, The Substance is the work of a filmmaker with a vision. She’s got something primal to say to us." Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Mika Siltala (HIFF 2024): "Cannes-pankin räjäyttänyt ja käsikirjoituksestaan palkittu uutuus on karmaisevan terävä kehokauhusatiiri, jota tähdittävät Demi Moore ja Margaret Qualley."

"Täydellisyyden tavoittelu tulee kalliiksi. Syöksykierteeseen joutunut hiipuva tähti Elizabeth (Demi Moore) päätyy kokeilemaan ainetta, joka takaa käyttäjälleen paremman version itsestään."

"Muutos on raadollinen. ”Parempi” minä syntyy kirjaimellisesti entisen minän sisuksista selkäpiitä riipivällä tavalla. ”Uusi” minä on nimeltään Sue (Margaret Qualley) ja saa todella saa katseet kääntymään. Kahden minän tulisi jakaa elämä tasan, mutta näin vahvoilla egoilla ei päästä tasapeliin. Syntyy rumaa jälkeä."

"The Substance räjäytti pankin Cannesin elokuvajuhlilla. Samanlaisen ilotulitusvastaanoton muistan nähneeni vain kahdesti aikaisemmin, Pulp Fictionin ja Adelen elämän vuosina. Coralie Fargeat palkittiin festivaalilla parhaasta käsikirjoituksesta." Mika Siltala

AA: Coralie Fargeat's The Substance is a remarkable contribution to what must be the most striking phenomenon in the horror genre during the last ten years: female horror. Major works include The Babadook (2014), A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014), Raw (2016), The Wind (2018), Saint Maud (2019), Titane (2021) and Pahanhautoja / The Hatching (2022). In this edition of the Love & Anarchy festival we have just seen Love Lies Bleeding also with some horror genealogy.

Fargeat has an original style and a sharp sense of satire. The characters border on caricature but remain memorably original thanks to extraordinary performances by Margaret Qualley - and particularly Demi Moore in a role for the lifetime and one of the most daring performances of a film star in the history of the cinema. It can be compared with the demolition of the star image performed by Bette Davis and other veteran female stars in the 1960s, but Demi Moore goes beyond our wildest expectations... or nightmares.

The desecration of the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is an apt summary of the fabula.

The film is rich with influences and references, but Fargeat pursues a nightmare narrative of her own. Like in Love Lies Bleeding, the glorification of fitness is a major theme, and the satire is saturated with imagery from fitness videos, commercials and music television clips. Like the aerobics show where it all starts, we seem to be mentally stuck in the early 1990s, although 2020s gadgets are on display.

The great tradition of fiction that The Substance draws upon is that of the Doppelgänger - the double. In cinema, it was most vigorously pursued in German cinema, Weimar, pre-Weimar and post-Weimar, in The Student of Prague and The Other, but also in Faust (old Faust and young Faust) and Metropolis (Maria and Robot Maria). Other Doppelgänger traditions are also relevant: The Picture of Dorian Gray and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

We are also reminded of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: "magic mirror on the wall / who's the fairest of them all?" The monster seems to be inspired by the Wicked Witch and the substance by the poison apple, but The Substance goes further.

The finale is a magnificent New Year's Eve Special. The greatest spectacle turns into an epic bloodbath in an unexpected sense of the word.

Perfection in all departments. The special effects, the visual effects and the monstrous transformations are brilliantly executed. The monster is something we have never seen before. It all serves the main subject of the satire - the cult of youth and the beautiful surface. Schein instead of Sein. It is a timeless subject, but in the age of social media it has grown into bigger than ever proportions.

I would grant Demi Moore an Academy Award for courage. Demi Moore is a lovely and attractive actress with charisma and character. In Striptease (1996) I was amazed by her determination to transform her body into an armour. Undressed she seemed dressed. I lived in Los Angeles at the time and saw on the week of its premiere a restored Gilda at UCLA Melnitz Hall and Striptease at AMC Burbank. I wrote a letter to the editor of Los Angeles Times and wondered that Rita Hayworth removing a single glove felt more sensual than Demi Moore revealing everything. Demi Moore is at least as gorgeous as Rita Hayworth, but cinema had turned inhospitable to genuine sensuality. Nudity was offered as a substitute.  G.I. Jane (1997) was a logical step in the "body armour" aesthetics, parallel to the overdone muscleman cult of Stallone & Schwarzenegger. We strayed far from the ideals of classical harmony.

The Substance takes the breath away. It would be better if it were an hour shorter. Horror is a genre that works best in shorter duration, because it is by definition preposterous and prone to excess. And our daredevil star takes no Demi measures as long as we keep asking for Moore.

The T.A.M.I. Show

Steve Binder: The T.A.M.I. Show (US 1964). The poster from IMDb. Please click on the image to expand it.

Pop! Pop! Pop! [release title in Finland].

Teen-Age Command Performance [UK title].

    US © 1964 Electronovision Productions, Inc. PC: Screen Entertainment Co. / Screencraft International / Theatrofilm. P: Lee Savin. EX: Bill Sargent (as William Sargent Jr.).

    A Theatrofilm by Electronovision in association with Screen Entertainement Co. recorded before a live audience at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, California.

    D: Steve Binder. Cin: Jim Kilgore - Electronovision  - video - released on 35 mm - b&w - 1:1,85. Technical supervisor: Robert J. Ringer. Technical director: Charles W. La Force, Jr. Video engineer: Carl Hanseman. Technical facilities by Mark Armistead T.V. Inc. under the supervision of Joseph E. Bluth. Electronic film recording by RCA. Film processing by Technicolor. PD: Franklin Swig. Cost: Wallace A. Harton. Fashions from Corky Hale, Hollywood. CH: David Winters, assisted by: Toni Basil. S: Lionel St. Peter. S editor: Ronnie Ashcroft. ED: Bruce B. Pierce, Kent Mackenzie. 

    M arranged and conducted by: Jack Nitzsche.

    Loc: Santa Monica Civic Auditorium - 1855 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA - 28-29 Oct, 1964.

    123 min

    Los Angeles premiere: 14 Nov 1964 - distributed by American International Pictures (AIP).

    US premiere: 29 Dec 1964.

    Helsinki premiere: 15 Oct 1965 Adams - released by Parvisfilmi Oy at 113 min
    LIST OF PERFORMERS in order of appearance + SET LIST (from Wikipedia):

Jan and Dean (Over credits) "(Here They Come) from All Over the World" - The T.A.M.I. opening credits theme song written by Steve Barri & Phil Sloan

Chuck Berry

"Johnny B. Goode"

"Maybellene"

"Sweet Little Sixteen"

"Nadine"

Gerry and the Pacemakers:

    * Gerry Marsden - vocals, guitar

    * Les Maguire - piano

    * Les Chadwick - bass

    * Freddie Marsden - drums, backing vocals

"Maybellene"

"Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying"

"It's Gonna Be Alright"

"How Do You Do It?"

"I Like It"

The Miracles:

    * Smokey Robinson - lead vocals

    * Bobby Rogers - tenor vocals

    * Ronnie White - baritone vocals

    * Pete Moore - bass vocals

    * Marv Tarplin - guitar

"That's What Love Is Made Of"

"You've Really Got a Hold on Me"

"Mickey's Monkey"

Marvin Gaye (and The Blossoms):

    * Marvin Gaye - vocals

    * Fanita James - backing vocals

    * Darlene Love - backing vocals

    * Jean King - backing vocals

"Stubborn Kind of Fellow"

"Pride and Joy"

"Can I Get a Witness"

"Hitch Hike"

Lesley Gore

"Maybe I Know"

"You Don't Own Me"

"You Didn't Look Around"

"Hey Now"

"It's My Party"

"Judy's Turn to Cry"

Jan and Dean:

    * Jan Berry - vocals

    * Dean Torrence - vocals

"The Little Old Lady from Pasadena"

"Sidewalk Surfin'"

The Beach Boys:

    * Brian Wilson - bass, vocals

    * Mike Love - vocals

    * Al Jardine - guitar, vocals

    * Carl Wilson - guitar, vocals

    * Dennis Wilson - drums

"Surfin' U.S.A."

"I Get Around"

"Surfer Girl"

"Dance, Dance, Dance"

Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas:

    * Billy J. Kramer - vocals

    * Mike Maxfield - guitar

    * Mick Green - guitar

    * Robin MacDonald - bass

    * Tony Mansfield - drums

"Little Children"

"Bad to Me"

"I'll Keep You Satisfied"

"From a Window"

The Supremes:

    * Diana Ross - Lead vocals

    * Florence Ballard - backing vocals

    * Mary Wilson - backing vocals

"When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes"

"Run, Run, Run"

"Baby Love"

"Where Did Our Love Go"

The Barbarians:

    * Jerry Causi - bass, vocals

    * Ronnie Enos - guitar, vocals

    * Bruce Benson - guitar

    * Victor "Moulty" Moulton - drums

"Hey Little Bird"

James Brown and the Famous Flames:

    *James Brown - vocals

    *Bobby Byrd - vocals

    *Lloyd Stallworth - vocals

    *Bobby Bennett - vocals

"Out of Sight"

"Prisoner of Love"

"Please, Please, Please"

"Night Train"

The Rolling Stones:

    * Mick Jagger - vocals, maracas

    * Keith Richards - guitar, vocals

    * Brian Jones - guitar, backing vocals

    * Bill Wyman - bass, backing vocals

    * Charlie Watts - drums

"Around and Around"

"Off the Hook"

"Time Is on My Side"

"It's All Over Now"

"I'm Alright"

"Let's Get Together"

Viewed on YouTube, Helsinki, 26 Sep 2024, as "The T.A.M.I. Show 1964 - Full HD Original Electronovision Version", under the on-screen title "Teen-Age Command Performance", 113 min

AA: I just saw for the first time a quasi complete version of The T.A.M.I. Show - a film that has been on my bucket list since the 1980s. I had seen great clips from it for instance in Sweden in Jerry Williams's program Rockrullen and even screened at the Finnish Film Archive a strange hybrid cut when no copies of the full version were available.

Technically it is a pioneer work, one of the first movies shot on video to be released theatrically on 35 mm. It is a straight performance record - but what performances and performers they are. There had never been a better lineup in a popular music movie. 

In jazz, there had been Jazz on a Summer's Day, and in folk, there would be Festival. Then, in pop music, came the classics Monterey Pop and Woodstock. My brother Asko, the music expert in our family, registers the delightful balance between Black and White artists. 

The key star is Chuck Berry, not only in his own numbers but also in covers by The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones. The Beatles is absent yet present in "Bad to Me" credited to Lennon & McCartney, with John Lennon as the primary creator.

My favourites include: "Maybellene" (Chuck Berry), "You've Really Got a Hold On Me" (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles), "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" (Marvin Gaye), "You Don't Own Me" (Lesley Gore), " I Get Around" (The Beach Boys), "Where Did Our Love Go" (The Supremes), "Please, Please, Please" (James Brown - the highlight of the movie) and "Time Is on My Side" (The Rolling Stones).

As simple as can be, and all about the joy of music and dance.

En salaa sinulta mitään / Not Withholding Anything from You (in the presence of Veikko Aaltonen)

 

Veikko Aaltonen: En salaa sinulta mitään / Not Withholding Anything from You (FI 2024) with the painter Jarmo Mäkilä.

FI 2024

Director: Veikko Aaltonen

Languages: Finnish

Subtitles: English

83 min

Distributor: Oy Bufo Ab

In collaboration: Yle

Festival premiere: 7 March 2024

Telecast: 31 Oct 2024 Yle Teema, online 28 Oct 2024 Yle Areena.

Love & Anarchy 37th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF) 2024: Power of Art

In the presence of Veikko Aaltonen

Viewed at Maxim 1, Helsinki, Monday 23 Sep 2024

Featuring: Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Esa Vuorinen, Pekka Strang, Esko Salminen, Anne-Mari Forss, PK Keränen, Ralf Gothóni, Saara Turunen, Timo Valjakka, Asko Keränen, Espe Haverinen, Joonas Laakso, Anna Eriksson, Riina Tanskanen, Pirkko Hämäläinen, Heta Aho, Jarmo Mäkilä, Elisa Rovamo, Jessica Piasecki, Matilda Seppälä, Marjatta Levanto, Kimmo Nokkonen, Veli Seppä, Kari Cavén, Jaana Saario and Viktor Toikkanen.

HIFF 2024: "Creativity flourishes in this documentary about making art, where artists such as Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Anna Eriksson and Saara Turunen discuss their artistic works and processes."

Production notes quoted by HIFF 2024: "How do artists view their own work? How does the actor Esko Salminen immerse himself in his roles, how does the writer/director Saara Turunen create a whole new world for the stage, and why does the band 22-Pistepirkko’s frontman PK Keränen end up picking up his guitar time and time again? Is creativity a conscious or subconscious process, a pleasure or a compulsion?"

"Filmmaker Veikko Aaltonen’s documentary takes us straight into the heart of creativity in the company of artists from different fields and generations. From singer-turned-filmmaker Anna Eriksson to cinematographer Esa Vuorinen and from painter/sculptor Jarmo Mäkilä to actor Hannu-Pekka Björkman, these artists allow the audience to follow their work as they reveal what intuition, inspiration, and love and hate mean for their art. Celebrating the various forms of passion and creative work, the film presents a compelling case for the significance of art." Production notes

HIFF 2024: "Luovuus kukkii taiteen tekemisestä kertovassa dokumentissa, jossa omaa työtään puivat muun muassa Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Anna Eriksson ja Saara Turunen."

Mikko-Oskari Koski (HIFF 2024): "Jos jokin elokuva on juuri tässä maailman ajassa ja Suomen talouskriisin painaessa leikkauksineen kaikkien päälle ajankohtainen, niin se on tämä: taidetta sen miltei kaikilta mahdollisilta ilmenemisen suunnilta lähestyvä dokumentti En salaa sinulta mitään. Taide kun tarkoittaa aika paljon muutakin kuin kuvia, musiikkia, esityksiä tai jotain niiden yhdistelmiä. Tämän totuuden kanssa elävät ihmiset avaavat elokuvassa sisintään mukaansatempaavalla tavalla."

"Kokeneen dokumentaristi Veikko Aaltosen ohjaama elokuva on aihepiirinsä laajuudesta huolimatta hyvin napakka kokonaisuus. Kerronta jakautuu laajalle sektorille, niin kuvataiteen luomisprosessien kuin esittävien taiteilijoiden hetken impressioiden sekä pitkän harkinnan myötä kehittyneiden juttujenkin pariin. Mukana on sopivassa suhteessa niin Suomen mittapuulla isoja nimiä kuin vähemmän tunnettuja tekijöitäkin, muiden muassa Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Anna Eriksson ja Saara Turunen."

"Dokumentti muistuttaa taiteen monimuotoisuudesta, joka kannattaisi aina muistaa yritettäessä puhua siitä ikään kuin ”kokonaisvaltaisena” käsitteenä. Eikä mikään luova ala ole toista arvokkaampi." Mikko-Oskari Koski

AA: Veikko Aaltonen's new documentary film En salaa sinulta mitään is rewarding to see in tandem with his previous movie The Dinosaur (FI 2021), a portrait documentary on the director Rauni Mollberg, a Finnish monstre sacré who made other Me Too offenders look tame. It was an unforgettable study of excess in the life of an artist. Without any Bohemian glorification, it revealed the horror side of the creator.

En salaa sinulta mitään [literally: "I won't hide anything from you"] is purely about art itself. The movie is rich and meandering like a wild garden. It is not tidy and organized, as Aaltonen lets a hundred flowers blossom. We meet actors, cinematographers, musicians, art curators and connoisseurs.

The genesis of the project was in art forgery, the books Vilpitön mieli: miten myin Suomen täyteen väärennettyä taidetta [A Sincere Mind: How I Sold Finland Full of Forged Art] and Mieletön vilppi [Mindless Insincerity] by Marko Erola and the tv series based on them. They are based on the true story of the welder Veli Seppä (1947-2022), the greatest forger in Finnish art history. He was the Finnish Elmyr de Hory, the protagonist of Orson Welles's F for Fake. Veli Seppä was able to create new works in styles of great artists, authenticated by experts in catalogues raisonnés. But he was unable to create anything in a personal, original style. This is a genuine mystery, a parallel of which is the existence of bottegas and factories in which a great artist employs assistants who can produce works in his signature style.

From this starting point Aaltonen gathered background interviews so fascinating that they formed this documentary about "What Is Art", in the lineage of Leo Tolstoy, among others. (Tolstoy's book is completely mad... and a work of complete genius. You will laugh and you will cry. But you won't forget).

Themes include: "When I direct I am wiser than myself". "Cézanne did not need to sign his works". "All new is a rediscovery of the old". "A hold on the other self". "Art must bite the hand that feeds it". "Art is a lie that helps us see the truth" (Picasso). "It took me decades to learn to paint like a child" (Picasso again).

Finnish fine art history: in the 19th century there was a general style based on Romanticism.  The image of Finland in the age of the national awakening was based on the ideals of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. At the end of the century emerged the first painters with individual styles: Helene Schjerfbeck and Hugo Simberg.

This movie is a smörgåsbord, but there are compelling fundamental themes and undercurrents that make sense as a whole. Most importantly the inner drive in art. There is art as skill, and there is real art that is a unique personal expression, irrefutable, unavoidable, unforgettable. What is it? There is no answer except art itself, and continuous practice in new art. In my opinion, it is a fusion of the conscious (skill), the unconscious (unknown sources in our memory and imagination, inner conflicts, agonies, traumata, secret guilts) and something even deeper inside, the secret of our existence, the life force and the death drive.

...

À propos: I was left pondering the so-called AI (not discussed in the movie). I don't believe that the Turing test will ever be passed. We are mysteries to each other and to ourselves, and art is our most powerful means of trying to make sense of those mysteries. No machine or computer program can even approach that.

Alan Turing wrote about the imitation game. Forgers like Elmyr de Hory and Veli Seppä were able to make forgeries in imitation styles that fooled even artists themselves. Maybe computers can achieve that. But machine-made art is mere imitation, decoration and illustration.

...

À propos II: Also beyond the topics discussed in En salaa sinulta mitään but relevant to The Dinosaur: I have been thinking recently about the classic Contre Sainte-Beuve debate between Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve and Marcel Proust. Sainte-Beuve thought that for an art critic, art and the artist are inseparable. We can tell the artwork by the artist. For Proust, they are separate. A shallow person circulating in salons can be capable of great art while an exemplary, responsible model citizen can create indifferent art. We don't celebrate artists for wrecking other people's lives. We condemn them, but it has no impact on the value of their work.

Dahomey

 

Mati Diop: Dahomey (SN/BJ/FR 2024).

SN/BJ/FR 2024

Director: Mati Diop

Languages: English, French

Subtitles: Finnish

68 min

Festival premiere: 18 Feb 2024 Berlin - Golden Bear

Distributor: ELKE with Finnish subtitles by Salla Kivilaakso

In collaboration: Institut français de Finlande

Love & Anarchy 37th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF) 2024: African Express

Viewed at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi, Helsinki, Sunday 22 Sep 2204

Please note the film doesn’t have English subtitles and is only partly spoken in English!

HIFF 2024: "Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlinale, this incisive documentary delves into the legacy of colonialism and the repatriation of national treasures from Paris to Benin."

Jessica Kiang quoted by HIFF 2024: "In November 2021, 61 years after Benin gained independence from the French empire, 26 of the many thousands of plundered national antiquities were returned by France to their African home. Inserting an inquisitive, imaginative intelligence into this key moment in the troubled timeline of post-imperial cultural politics, French-Senegalese director Mati Diop fashions her superb, short but potent hybrid doc Dahomey as a slim lever that cracks open the sealed crate of colonial history, sending a hundred of its associated erasures and injustices tumbling into the light." Jessica Kiang, Variety

Peter Bradshaw quoted by HIFF 2024: "Franco-Senegalese actor and film-maker Mati Diop made history in 2019 as the first woman of colour to have a movie selected for competition at Cannes, the poetic migrant drama Atlantique. Now she brings an intriguing, 67-minute long documentary feature to Berlin: a kind of realist jeu d’ésprit or interrogative reverie about colonialism, culture, the past and the present." Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

HIFF 2024: "Kultaisen karhun Berliinissä voittanut dokumentti pureutuu kolonialismin perintöön ja Dahomeyn kuningaskunnan menetettyihin kansallisaarteisiin, jotka palautetaan Pariisista Beniniin."

Inari Ylinen (HIFF 2024): "”Mikseivät he kutsu minua oikealla nimelläni? Eivätkö he tiedä sitä?” kysyy ääni Mati Diopin vaikuttavassa dokumentissa Dahomey. Kiehtova elokuva kuvaa Dahomeyn kuningaskunnan 26 kansallisaarteen palauttamista 130 vuoden jälkeen Ranskan museoista kotiinsa nykyiseen Beniniin."

"Dokumentin ja fiktion rajat hämärtäen Diopin elokuva antaa konkreettisesti äänen historiallisille esineille ja tarkkailee niiden käymän matkan vaiheita maasta toiseen. Elokuva käsittelee kolonialismin perintöä samanaikaisesti runollisesti ja kouriintuntuvasti."

"Palautettavat esineet ovat vain murto-osa niistä tuhansista, jotka on varastettu Dahomeyn kuningaskunnasta eurooppalaisen ahneuden seurauksena. Elokuva päästää kiehtovissa väittelyjaksoissa ääneen beniniläisopiskelijat, jotka sanoittavat ristiriitaisia tunteita ja näkökulmia palautuksen ympärillä."

"Senegalilais-ranskalainen Diop palkittiin dokumentistaan Berliinin elokuvajuhlien Kultaisella karhulla. Ohjaaja teki edellisellä elokuvallaan Atlantics historiaa ensimmäisenä mustana naisena, jonka ohjaustyö valittiin Cannesin elokuvajuhlien kilpasarjaan." Inari Ylinen

AA: Mati Diop's non-fiction feature film Dahomey can be seen as a sequel to Les Statues meurent aussi / Statues Also Die (FR 1953, D: Alain Resnais, Chris Marker, Ghislain Cloquet) shot largely at the Musée de l'Homme in an age of innocence about the full significance of colonialism. Dahomey begins at Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques-Chirac where the first set of treasures is prepared for repatriation to Benin.

In Les Statues meurent aussi, the narrator was Jean Négroni. In Dahomey, the treasures themselves "take the floor". "La voix des trésors" has been written by Mati Diop in collaboration with the Haitian writer Makenzy Orcel.

It is a poetic monologue conveying a spiritual tragedy. My wife Laila saw yesterday at the Love & Anarchy festival Warwick Thornton's Australian movie The New Boy, starring Cate Blanchett, about an indigenous boy's special sensitivity, talent and power which he loses the moment he is baptized.

A similar epic sense of sacred power fields provides the background in Dahomey. Such a level of gravity was also acknowledged in Les Statues meurent aussi. Fascinatingly, some people of Benin are afraid of the repatriated statues, what they would be capable of if they would be not only repatriated but literally returned to their original location and function.

The uncanny radiation of the sacred objects can be felt even in Western colonial museums. I learned to know this at the favourite museum of my student years in West Berlin in the 1980s, das Ethnologische Museum / originally Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde, today probably dismantled.

As stated in Les Statues meurent aussi, the formidable objects were not meant to be art. Displayed in European museums, they were stripped of their sacred power and turned into objects of spectacle. This is a parallel with exponential dimensions of what Walter Benjamin meant when he wrote about the loss of aura in the age of mechanical reproduction. What happened to sacred objects was the original loss of aura, and what happened to art was a further stage in profanization.

Mati Diop poses the most fundamental question: what are these sacred objects, with their timeless and uncanny radiation, today, lost in the labyrinth of time, history and myth?

An angry debate on identity and pride is launched. 26 items of a total of 7000 stolen treasures have been repatriated. What about the rest? 

It is expensive to store art professionally. Perhaps, while starting as thieves, the Western ex-colonialists can become the best friends in safeguarding indigenous culture.

The same debate I have confronted as a film archive professional. Tropical climate is the worst for preserving photochemical film and analogue video, while in a Northern climate you can "store and forget".

Io capitano

Matteo Garrone: Io capitano (IT/BE/FR 2024).

IT/BE/FR 2024

Director: Matteo Garrone

Starring: Seydou Sarr, Moustapha Fall, Issaka Sawadogo

Languages: Wolof, French, Arabic, English

Subtitles: English

121 min

Festival premiere: 6 Sep 2023 Venice

Distributor: Edge Entertainment

In collaboration: Yle

In collaboration: Italian kulttuuri-instituutti / Istituto Italiano di Cultura

Love & Anarchy 37th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF) 2024: African Express

Viewed at Kinopalatsi 7, Helsinki, Sunday 22 Sep 2024

HIFF 2024: "Italy's Academy Award-nominee follows African refugees on a treacherous journey across deserts and seas."

Wendy Ide quoted by HIFF 2024: "Hope and fantasy coexist so closely in Io Capitano, Matteo Garrone’s wrenching Oscar-nominated account of the journey of two teenage Senegalese migrants towards a new life in Europe, that you start to wonder if the film is arguing that hope is a fantasy. Whether the better future that tempts 16-year-old Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and his cousin Moussa (Moustapha Fall) on to the perilous trip across the Sahara and the Mediterranean is no more substantial than the mirage of a floating woman that Seydou hallucinates in the desert. But in fact this is a film that, for all its brutal horrors, keeps a kernel of hope and faith in the inherent decency of humankind (or some of it at least)." Wendy Ide, The Observer

Leslie Felperin quoted by HIFF 2024: "Indelibly played by non-professional Seydou Sarr, offering a remarkably mature performance, he makes his way with his cousin (Moustapha Fall) from their home in West Africa across thousands of miles on a quest to reach Europe. Taking viewers with him every step of the way, it’s a journey that inevitably burns away Seydou’s childish innocence. Garrone, however, almost never puts a foot wrong with this painstakingly composed work, an adventure peppered by moments of nauseating horror but also ravishing beauty and grace." Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter

HIFF 2024: "Italian Oscar-ehdokas vie katsojan afrikkalaisten pakolaisten vaaralliselle matkalle aavikon halki ja meren yli."

Otto Kylmälä (HIFF 2024): "Senegalilaiset serkukset Seydou ja Moussa haikailevat monien lailla Eurooppaan. Lukuisista varoituksista huolimatta 16-vuotiaita ei pelota vaarallinen matka tuntemattomaan, koska tähtäimessä on supertähteys musiikkialalla. Yön turvin pojat lähtevät salaa äideiltään ja perheiltään kohti seikkailua."

"Kauniit maisemat ja rullaavat bluespoljennot vaihtuvat pian kiristäjiin ja orjakauppiaisiin matkan vaikeutuessa. Ylitettyään pakolaisten hautausmaaksi muuttuneen Saharan autiomaan pojat saapuvat Libyaan, jossa heidät erotetaan toisistaan. Pian serkun löytämisestä tulee Seydoulle yhtä tärkeää kuin Italiaan pääsemisestä. Seydoun suurimpana haasteena odottaa kuitenkin täyteen lastatun pakolaislaivan ajaminen turvallisesti Italiaan."

"Ohjaaja-käsikirjoittaja Garrone on usein kuronut elokuvillaan umpeen realismin ja fantasian kuilua. Puhtaasti fantasiamaailmaan sijoittuvat elokuvat sisältävät totuuden siemenen ja kaikkein realistisimmat elokuvat ripauksen taikaa. Jo debyytissään Vieraalla maalla (1997) pakolaisten kokemusta kuvannut Garrone tuo Io Capitanossa pakolaisten matkan autenttiseen kuvaukseen keventävää lyyrisyyttä ja maagista realismia."

"Elokuva on monella tapaa matka, jonka jälkeen katsoja on yhtä kokemusta rikkaampi." Otto Kylmälä

AA: I have been hearing great buzz on Matteo Garrone's Io capitano, and it meets and exceeds my expectations. It is a great work of art, one of the true solid masterpieces of the recent years. Strong, violent and honest, it signals a faith in human dignity that can overcome and transcend the brutality experienced during the calvary in Sahara desert, Tripoli torture chambers and the Mediterranean Sea.

Garrone has discussed immigration with a sense of urgency since his debut feature film Terra di mezzo. I am ashamed to confess that I have seen only one previous film by the director, Dogman. Which is a strong piece of cinema, but Io capitano is on an incomparably higher level of accomplishment.

Indeed, Io capitano rises to the number of the greatest ever Italian immigration films such as Terraferma (Emanuele Crialese) and Fuocoammare (Gianfranco Rosi). Compared with them, Io capitano is distinguished by its profound human qualities. The focus is on two Senegalese teenage boys and a whole bunch of immigrants under the responsibility of the 16-year-old Seydou. 

Where Terraferma and Fuocoammare take place on the Italian sea frontier, Io capitano is a saga of the full odyssey from home to the strange new shores. It is a thrilling and violent adventure story, a suspense thriller and a well-made play. We meet the worst of humanity, and the best. The youngsters display a grandeur of spirit and solidarity, helping each other and those in deepest distress.

Io capitano is also a great coming-of-age story. "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them" (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night). Seydou, who has never sailed and cannot even swim, is ordered to take over the captain's helm on a dismal, overcrowded boat meant to take the immigrants to Sicily. A shipwreck seems inevitable.

Visually Io capitano is grandiose, catching the luminosity of African light in Dakar, the merciless heat of the Sahara (doubled by Merzouga). the cruel torture in the hands of Libyan organized crime in Tripoli (doubled by Casablanca) and the uncanny Mediterranean Sea negotiated by Africans who have never sailed before.

"Pieniä on meijän murheet" ["small are our worries"] is my main impression viewing this magnificent movie in our tiny idyllic Finnish lintukoto [bird shelter].

Tiedustelijat / Spy from a Distance (world premiere in the presence of Ari Matikainen)

 

Ari Matikainen: Tiedustelijat / Spy from a Distance (FI 2024). The actor Joonas Saartamo incarnates his grandfather Hannes Vehniäinen, an officer in special reconnaissance units in long range patrols (kaukopartio).

FI 2024

Ohjaus: Ari Matikainen

Language: Finnish

89 min

Distributor: Cinemanse with Swedish subtitles by Monica Ödahl Åminne.

Love & Anarchy: 37th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF): Pohjolan huiput

La 21.9. klo 16.30–17.59 

In the presence of Ari Matikainen, Joonas Saartamo and Mikko Porvali, hosted by Matti Rämö.

Viewed at Kinopalatsi 2, Helsinki, 21 Sep 2024

Mikko-Oskari Koski (HIFF 2024): "Sukututkimusta ja jännityselokuvan elementtejä yhdistelevä dokumentti tutkii kaukopartiomiesten roolia Suomen sotahistoriassa."

"Näyttelijänä ja muusikkona tunnetun Joonas Saartamon vaiheikas tutkimusretki isoisänsä Hannes Vehniäisen sodanaikaisiin toimiin muodostuu Ari Matikaisen ohjaamana dokumentin ja seikkailudraaman yhdistelmänä kiintoisaksi kokonaisuudeksi. Saartamon lisäksi myös historioitsija ja elokuvan toinen käsikirjoittaja Mikko Porvali tuo tarinaan omakohtaisen tulokulmansa, onhan isoisillä ollut yhteistä sotapolkuakin."

"Vehniäisen toiminta toisen maailmansodan aikana tiedustelu-upseerina on vuosikymmenten mittaan ollut jos ei täysin vaiettu, niin eipä erityisen kovaäänisesti kuulutettukaan seikkailu. Saartamon kohtaamiset pienistä palasista pikku hiljaa koostuvan tarinan kanssa ovat inhimillisiä. Leffan nimelle Tiedustelijat saadaan kiintoisa kaksoismerkitys, kun sukututkimukseltakin näyttävät lähtökohdat kasvavat kiintoisaksi draamaksi kahdella tasolla." Mikko-Oskari Koski

Production notes: "Genealogy meets thriller in this documentary that explores the role of military reconnaissance in Finnish war history."

"Please note the film doesn’t have English dialogue nor subtitles!"

"The significance of the WWII intelligence officer’s secret past begins to be revealed as his grandson begins to investigate his family’s history and his grandfather’s international espionage networks. As the mystery unfolds, it becomes clear that the grandfather had to work under the constant threat of the Soviet Union, delivering his findings first to Germany and its allies and, after the war, to NATO."

"The film also paints a startling picture of Finland’s role as a playing field for international espionage. The protagonist’s observations of the secrets that have been passed down through generations help us reflect on our own safety today. Have we learned anything in this changed world?" Production notes

"Kaukopartio" in Swedish: "fjärrpatrull", in English: "long range patrol".

AA: Ari Matikainen has directed a series of remarkable documentary films including Lone Star Hotel, Russian Libertine and Karpo. A film of particular gravity was War and a Peace of Mind, the first Finnish war film to explore post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as its main theme.

Tiedustelijat is a case study around the same topic. It is safe to say that in Finland that topic concerns everybody. We fought four wars in the 20th century, and in a cross-generational PTSD sense none of them is over.

The protagonist is the actor Joonas Saartamo determined to make sense of repressed memories in his own family, the undiscussed secrets and traumata. He is searching for the story of his grandfather, a war veteran who fought in a special reconnaissance unit in WWII. By definition everything he did was confidential.

During the Cold War, documents were destroyed or hidden, and much remains confidential. But in the movie we have access to private wartime correspondence (which was of course censored) and official records.

A main participant is Mikko Porvali, a Detective Chief Inspector of the Finnish Police, an authority in the history of Finnish military intelligence and the chairman of the society guarding the legacy of the long range patrol veterans (by now all dead). A grandson of East Karelian evacuees, his grandfather was a border guard on the Karelian Isthmus.

The adventures of long range patrols have been the stuff for popular fiction and non-fiction for decades, but as far as I can recall there has been only one feature fiction film on the subject, Hopeaa rajan takaa (1963) directed by Mikko Niskanen.

Now Ari Matikainen brings to the popular genre a similar turn like he did for war stories in general in War and a Peace of Mind. He puts in focus the psychological toll for the fighters and their families - across generations.

Family memories, photo albums and montages of photographs bring back forgotten stories and memories. Photographs may have been published in books and online, but seen on a big cinema screen the impact is different, more powerful. Details emerge in another way from pictures that at the time were usually seen in small format.

These are stories of war but also of love for the country, for the families and camaraderie between brothers in arms. They were not expendable. When a brother in arms dies, there is concern for the family, and in certain cases, the widow could be employed by the defense forces in civilian duties. The concern never ends. The film starts with a moving sequence in which the remains of three soldiers retrieved from the other side of the border are buried with honours in the Lepola war veteran cemetary in Lappeenranta.

Contributors on screen also include Raija Ylönen-Peltonen and Heidi Ruotsalainen (National Archives of Finland), Mika Wist, Jari Koponen, Enrico Annus, Matti Saartamo and Pirjo Tuhkasaari. They are experts, relatives and therapists.

Tiedustelijat is a film of lasting value.

...

A startling aside: Mikko Porvali mentioned in passing that while there are no gaps in official records from wartime, from the recent decades, due to government austerity measures, only records from every ten years are stored.

He also mentioned the amazing storage of data retention and personal information kept by Californian IT behemoths, including our exact location data history with an accuracy of 5 centimeters.

Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

 

Rose Glass: Love Lies Bleeding (US/GB 2024) with Katy O'Brian (Jackie) and Kristen Stewart (Lou Jr.).

US/GB 2024

Director: Rose Glass

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Katy O'Brian, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Dave Franco, Ed Harris

Loc: Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Languages: English

Distributor: Scanbox Entertainment

104 min

US festival premiere: 20 Jan 2024 Sundance.

Festival premiere outside the US: 18 Feb 2024 Berlin.

Finnish premiere (limited): 31 May 2024 Scanbox Finland Oy without subtitles.

Love & Anarchy: 37th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF): Midnight Mayhem.

Viewed at Kino Engel 1, Helsinki, Friday 20 Sep 2024

Peter Bradshaw quoted by HIFF 2024: "A gym manager (the magnetic Kristen Stewart) meets a bodybuilder with dreams of Las Vegas neon-lights in this action-packed romance that has become a phenomenon with audiences."

"British film-maker Rose Glass lets rip with some pure roid-rage cinema in this uproarious, horribly violent and lethally smart noir thriller sited in the Venn diagram overlap between bodybuilding, murder and sex. The bodycount climbs so alarmingly that the characters are in danger of running out of rugs to roll the corpses up in."

"Glass has assembled a great cast – but first among equals has to be Kristen Stewart who gives an excellent performance as gym manager and twitchy nicotine addict Lou, embroiled in an amour fou. Why aren’t we talking more, or in fact all the time, about what a great actress Stewart is? Her snapping: “No!” in a tense situation and thereby refusing to let herself have a cigarette from a stray pack, is one of the laugh lines of the year." Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Clarisse Loughrey quoted by HIFF 2024: "Glass is a macabre fabulist, decorating her movie with dimly lit spaces, blood-red flashbacks, and the ominous call of a seemingly bottomless canyon. But the feeling that permeates it all is desperate frustration – specifically, a woman’s yearning for the kind of power that could finally even the odds." Clarisse Loughrey, The Independent

Maria Lehtonen (HIFF 2024): "Ilmiöksi nousseessa, toiminnan-täyteisessä rakkaustarinassa kuntosalinpyörittäjä (magneettinen Kristen Stewart) tapaa Las Vegasin neon-valoista haaveilevan kehonrakentajan."

"Jackie (esikoisroolissaan karismaattinen Katy O’Brian) on matkalla kohti suurta unelmaansa, Las Vegasin kehonrakennuskisoja. Lyhyeksi pysähdykseksi tarkoitettu visiitti piskuisessa Uuden Meksikon kaupungissa venähtää, kun paikallisen punttiksen nuhjuinen duunari Lou (Kristen Stewart) iskee silmänsä määrätietoiseen vierailijaan. Loulle Jackie on suurin mahdollinen unelma, toivo paremmasta elämästä ja ennen kaikkea rakkaudesta. Loun onneksi sydän sykkii molemminpuolisesti."

"Pian Loun perhekoukerot ulottavat rikolliset lonkeronsa nuorten rakastavaisten elämään. Patriarkaatin ikeessä Lou alistuu likaiseen työhön muun perheen lailla, tarjoten samalla rahapulassa olevalle Jackielle mahdollisuuden hyödyntää muskeleitaan muuhunkin kuin lavalla tepasteluun. Jackielle avautuu ovi maailmaan, jossa hiki ja veri tirskuu ja jossa muskeleista voi kasvattaa monstereita."

"Debyyttiohjauksellaan Saint Maud (2019) säväyttänyt brittiläinen ohjaaja Rose Glass iskee hikisellä muskeliunelmallaan kultasuoneen. Neonoirmainen ja pulpahtava teos vakuuttaa näyttelijä-suorituksillaan mutta ennen kaikkea naiskuvallaan ja rakkaustarinallaan. Debyyttinsä lailla Glass osaa luovia mielenmaisemissa omia polkujaan tarjoten samaan aikaan ihastuttavan ja kauhistuttavan katsomiskokemuksen." Maria Lehtonen

AA: Rose Glass made a mark with her debut feature film Saint Maud, a new wave horror movie inspired by William Blake. It was instantly evident that Glass has an authentic cinema sense and a privileged access to altered states of consciousness.

Her second feature film the Englishwoman has shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Again there is a genre genealogy, from film noir (Gun Crazy) to female road movies (Thelma & Louise) to Russ Meyer go-go splatter action (Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) not forgetting Herschell Gordon Lewis (The Gore Gore Girls) to comic book super-heroism (The Incredible Hulk) to 1950s science fiction (Attack of the 50 Foot Woman) to 1970s-1980s muscle and exercise worship (Pumping Iron, Jane Fonda's Workout) to Tarantino revisionism in genre revival with its penchant for excessive bloodletting (Kill Bill, True Romance, Natural Born Killers). There is also a link to a subdivision of gangster films located on the Mexican border with abysses for dumping corpses of those who try to mess with the drug trade and other activities that do not stand daylight. This year I have happened to catch an early specimen, Anthony Mann's masterful film noir Border Incident.

All this Glass mixes in her genre cocktail shaker. Love Lies Bleeding is a toxic voyage into misogyny and femicide. The movie is a purgatory in which the leading ladies take extreme measures with a "macho slut" attitude.

Kristen Stewart plays a working-class action hero, building on the opaque mask-like persona with which she became famous, interpreting Bella Swan in the Twilight series. Tough and vulnerable. (But I prefer her tender and humoristic side as in Café Society).

The discovery of the film is Katy O'Brian, the actress, martial artist, former police officer, personal trainer and bodybuilder, here in her breakthrough role, her first major role in a feature film. During her seven year career at the police force she worked at the Crisis Intervention Team, specializing among other things in psychosis and depression. She discontinued her bodybuilding career because she did not want to use steroids. I list these CV merits because they help understand her convincing presence in Love Lies Bleeding. She builds on reality and takes a wild leap into comic-book fantasy heroism / antiheroism.

Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brian have formidable presences, but I do not believe in the love affair of their characters.

Of the rest of the cast, Ed Harris is outwardly almost unrecognizable as the monster father Lou Sr. He is a gargoyle, yet the performance is psychologically powerful, credible and terrifying. 

Rose Glass builds on her talent in altered states of consciousness. It is a rare talent, and there is not a dull moment in the movie.

Visually, Love Lies Bleeding is striking. The sense of light and colour in Ben Fordersman's cinematography is extraordinary. Is it the natural light of New Mexico, or may there be interesting filters to power the colours? Cosmic views of the starry New Mexico sky put things into a perspective of eternity.

...

ON WOMEN AND VIOLENCE

Love Lies Bleeding is a female superpower saga. It builds on an excess of gory violence and the pre-civilized code of "eye for eye". (Read: revenge. The opposite of justice). The sexual violence in the movie is deeply shocking, including the psychology of the horribly mutilated and disfigured wife who defends her monster husband to the end.

I am puzzled by the interest of women film-makers to imitate male violent revenge fantasy. Violence in men is inherent. Aggression can be positive and beautiful when it is channeled into constructive action such as work, enterprise, building, sport, competition and creativity, also consensual, non-abusive sex (there is violence in much sex, not only in s/m). But aggression is also a vicious curse which men spend their entire lifetimes combating against. Violence is not something that men pursue but something they try to harness.

I know I'm old school, but I have always found that women have higher superpowers. I subscribe to Susan Sontag's remark that if women would be in power, there would be no wars. (In an interim period women, trying to prove themselves, may be worse than men).

Sex (2024)

 

Dag Johan Haugerud: Sex (NO 2024) with Jan Gunnar Røise (a chimney sweep) and Thorbjørn Harr (his chief).

Love & Anarchy: the 37th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF).

NO 2024.

D: Dag Johan Haugerud

C: Thorbjørn Harr, Jan Gunnar Røise, Anne Marie Ottersen

Kielet: norja

Tekstitykset: englanti

125 min

Teema: Nordic Council Film Prize Nominees

Copy source: Norwegian Film Institute.

Yhteistyössä: Nordisk Film & TV Fond ; Svenska kulturfonden ; Suomalais-norjalainen kulttuurirahasto ; Föreningen Konstsamfundet r.f.

Viewed at Kinopalatsi 1, Helsinki, 20 Sep 2024

Susanna Puomio (HIFF 2024): "Lämmin, ihana, herkkä; näillä adjektiiveilla emme ehkä ole tottuneet kuvailemaan elokuvaa, jonka pääosissa on kaksi keski-ikäistä työmiestä. Juuri nuo sanat täsmäävät kuitenkin erinomaisesti norjalaisen Dag Johan Haugerudin uutukaiseen. Samalla kertaa arkinen ja oivaltava komedia vie paitsi tarinan päähenkilöt myös katsojat lempeän valoisasti sukupuoli- ja seksuaalisuuskysymysten äärelle."

"Elokuvan alkaessa kaksi nuohoojaa jakaa kahvitauolla kuulumisiaan. Ystävyksistä kumpikin on viime päivinä kokenut jotain, mikä koettelee nyt suhdetta minäkuvaan ja miehuuteen. Jotain on muuttumassa, mutta vasta keskustelujen kautta sen näkee. Ilman toisia yksilöt eivät osaa asettaa kokemuksiaan kontekstiin."

"Trilogian ensimmäisenä osana julkaistu Sex ei nimestään huolimatta sisällä alastomia kehoja tai kiihkoa. Sen polttopisteessä hehkuu puhe: dialogi, monologi, jutustelu, vitsailu, reflektio. Hahmot kysyvät toisiltaan asioita, joita meidän muidenkin pitäisi aina välillä pohtia. Auringon paistaessa puutarhat puhkeavat kukkaan ja pilvenpiirtäjät kasvavat. Samoissa hetkissä hahmojen käsitykset muuttavat muotoaan ja asettuvat uudelleen." Susanna Puomio

"This heart-warming comedy unpacks the questions of masculinity through the conversations and monologues of two middle-aged chimney sweeps and their families."

"Had your fill of punishing investigations into toxic masculinity? Then the thoughtful questioning, sensitivity, low-key humor and refreshing candor of Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud’s Sex might be your antidote. Turning the male character study on its head with a gentle subversiveness that recalls what The Worst Person in the World did with romantic comedy, this superbly acted drama’s refusal to serve up tidy epiphanies might leave you wanting more." David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

"Haugerud has announced this as this first of three films — Sex, Dreams, and then Love — featuring the same cast and dealing overall with themes of desire, identity and freedom, not to mention sexuality and the place of gender in our lives and society. This first stand-alone film also leans heavily into masculinity in ways it is not normally discussed by guys, but they do here in profound ways in this thought-provoking movie that also puts a spotlight on Norway’s signature city, Oslo."

"Haugerud’s dialogue-driven screenplay is full of monologues delivered in talky exchanges either with two male colleagues (neither ever identified by name) at a chimney sweep company and/or their wives." Pete Hammond, Deadline

AA: I missed Sex at Midnight Sun Film Festival where Dag Johan Haugerud was a guest. The great buzz about Sex and Haugerud's fantastic morning discussion hosted by Liselott Forsman made me look forward to this film.

There is no visible sex. This is a conversation film in a special current of the cinema, best known by Louis Malle's My Dinner with Andre. 

What a thrill it is. Great dialogue and great actors (Jan Gunnar Røise / a chimney sweep and Thorbjørn Harr / his chief) are sufficient to carry Sex to constantly surprising depths and heights. Symbolically and literally the guys are chimney sweeps. They have no names, thus I refer to the names of the actors.

It follows organically from their profession that we are under a wide open sky and see magnificent panoramas of the city of Oslo. The private, the intimate and the personal are checked with a perspective that is general, grand and cosmic. Seagulls negotiate the airspace of Oslo in an unobtrusive imagery of freedom.

Sex starts with the interpretation of dreams. Thorbjørn, the fire chief who is a committed Christian, has a recurrent dream in which he meets a character who might be David Bowie. That character looks at Thorbjørn as if he were a woman. It is an unsettling but not distasteful feeling. The stranger sees Thorbjørn in a way in which he has never been looked at before. And in consequence he makes Thorbjørn see himself in another way. To be looked at without expectations. "He looked me at my core. I was free to be." God or Bowie?

Intrigued by Thorbjørn's story, Jan Gunnar makes a confession of his own about something that happened the day before. For the first time in his life, he had sex with a man. Why? Good question. He is not gay, and he did not come out. Jan Gunnar confesses immediately to his wife, who is bewildered. For Jan Gunnar it is no big deal, just something that happened. He was not cheating, because he is not having a secret affair on the side. But a marital crisis and a question of divorce ensues.

Distinctive in Sex is that it avoids stereotypes. Might this be a tale of midlife crisis? Or a revelation of the complexity of male sexual identity? Sigmund Freud thought that we are all born bisexual but usually settle on hetero- or homosexual identities after adolescence.

Common to Thorbjørn and Jan Gunnar is that neither is homosexual. Yet Jan Gunnar can experience a homosexual act as pleasurable and unshocking. Thorbjørn, the actor who has portrayed viking warriors, sees in his dream himself being looked at like a woman, and experiences that as strangely liberating. Both seek counsel to understand what is going on. 

There are even psychosomatic syndromes. Thorbjørn visits a female doctor with his son whose wrist needs to be bandaged. In the funniest sequence of the movie the doctor turns out to have an eccentric sense of humour. A discussion about tattoos leads to a digression in black and write about two romantic gay architects and their tattoo mix-up. The doctor recommends Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition. The dream catcher can go.