Pelle Hermanni ja hypnotisoija

Timo Koivusalo: Pelle Hermanni ja hypnotisoija (FI 2023) starring Vesa Vierikko.

Clownen Herman och hypnotisören.

    FI 2023. PC: Artista Filmi Oy. P: Timo Koivusalo. Co-P: Ari Tolppanen, Roosa Toivonen, Petri Kemppinen (Aurora Studios).

    D+SC: Timo Koivusalo. Cin: Pertti Mutanen - colour - scope. AD: Markku Myllymäki. Cost: Elina Vättö. Makeup: Erja Mikkola. VFX: James Post Oy. M+cond.: Esa Nieminen. 

    "Pelle Hermanni" theme based on the Radetzky-Marsch (1848) by Johann Strauss (Vater) with new material written by Esa Nieminen. Perf. Kasperi Koskinen and Päivänkehrän koulun oppilaat. - "Nyt lähdetään" (Timo Koivusalo, Esa Nieminen). - "Pelle Hermannin huuliharppulaulu" (Timo Koivusalo).

    S: Jyrki Luukko, Olli Pärnänen. Sound ED: Meguru Film Sound Oy. ED: Jyrki Luukko, Timo Koivusalo.

    Based on the character created by Simo Ojanen for the children's series Sirkuspelle Hermanni at Yle TV2 Pikku Kakkonen 1978–1988, starring Veijo Pasanen (1930–1988). 

    CAST from Elonet:

Vesa Vierikko / Pelle Hermanni

Jari Salmi / tirehtööri Tilpehööri

Martti Suosalo / Maximilian

Iina Kuustonen / Viola

Tom Lindholm / Viktor

Minttu Mustakallio / Sylvia

Hannu-Pekka Björkman / sirkustirehtööri

Heikki Nousiainen / Kasperi

Tuija Piepponen / äitiliini

Milo Tamminen / Roni

Oona Hakanpää / Julia

Tommi Virhiä / Tilpehöörin vahtimestari

Miia Selin / tarkastaja

Juha Laitila / hypnotisoitava Tilpehöörin sirkuksessa

    Sirkustaiteilijat / Aura Company: Emma Nivala, Markus Nivala, Antti Nerg, Lassi Tauriainen, Roni Heimo.

    Varsinais-Suomen Rhönradvoimistelijat ry: Niina Viitala, Tiina Mäkelä, Alina Altis, Jenna Lähderanta.

    Sirkus Hepokatin väki: Oskari Huhtanen, Eveliina Jääskeläinen, Anni Koskiniemi, Mari Koskiniemi, Telle Leppiniemi, Olli Mustaniemi, Jenna Pukkila, Veikko Pukkila, Terhi Räty, Johanna Santanen, Hannele Syrjälahti, Seppo Wallin, Siina Ventelä, Jarkko Viljanen.

    Karukylän väki: vahtimestarin vaimo: Reetta Hulmi, surullinen tyttö Karukylässä: Tilli Vuorinen, sekä Lea Heino, Pertti Heino, Aarre Hulmi, Touko Hulmi, Mari Hyväri, Petri Hyväri, Irina Kaukinen, Kullervo Kauppi, Unto Kauppi, Seela Kimppa, Juha Kulmala, Pentti Laine, Sari Mäkinen, Sievi Sillanpää, Tiia Sillanpää.

    Sirkusyleisö: Wivi Lönnin koulun oppilaat ja opettajat / Susanna Wilska, Tampere.

    Sirkusorkesteri: Pertti Hurmalainen, Severi Koivusalo, Esa Nieminen, Heikki Markkula, Sauli Saarinen.

    Lounatuulen päiväkodin väki, Pori.

    Lapsikuoro: Päivänkehrän koulun oppilaat.

    Acknowledgements: Sirkus Finlandia / Carl Jernström, Kalle Roos, Seppo Tauriainen, Tomi Tauriainen, Tero Juopperi, Terhi Eklund-Moilanen ja koko muu henkilökunta.

    77 min

    Premiere: 22 Dec 2023 - distributed by SF Studios - Swedish subtitles by Michaela Palmberg and Heidi Nyblom Kuorikoski.

    Viewed at Tennispalatsi 3, Helsinki, 27 Jan 2024.

Synopsis from Filmikamari Pressit: " Sirkuspelle Hermanni valloittaa valkokankaat jälleen!"

    "Sirkus Hepokatin väki päättää järjestää Pelle Hermannille suuret yllätysjuhlat, mutta kukaan ei tunnu tietävän, milloin Hermannin syntymäpäivä oikein on. Hänelle ei ole koskaan järjestetty syntymäpäiviä. Syntymäpäiväjärjestelyt saavatkin yllättävän käänteen, kun kilpailevan sirkuksen häikäilemätön johtaja; tirehtööri Tilpehööri, tahtoo Pelle Hermannin oman sirkuksensa vetonaulaksi keinolla millä hyvänsä. Kun metkut Hermannin huijaamiseksi eivät ota onnistuakseen, päättää Tilpehööri ottaa järeämmät kepulikonstit käyttöönsä ja pian Hepokatissa alkaa tapahtua toinen toistaan kummempia asioita. Kuka kumma on kironnut sirkuksen ja miten Pelle Hermanni tähän kaikkeen oikein liittyy? Tämä kaikki selviää värikästä sirkuselämää sykkivässä koko perheen elokuvassa Pelle Hermanni ja hypnotisoija. "

AA: I liked Timo Koivusalo's first Pelle Hermanni movie when I saw it in the summer of 2022. Still based on a direct screenplay contribution by Simo Ojanen (1940-2021), the creator of the Pelle Hermanni concept, the film was dedicated to him. The warmth of the audience response was palpable. 

The new film [The Clown Herman and the Hypnotist would be the direct translation of its title] is even better. I have not seen a better Finnish film about the circus world. Koivusalo is at his best here, and I am a fan of his films, whether comedy, drama or epic.

The clown is an endlessly puzzling figure for "children of all ages" and the greatest artists. Last October in Pordenone I saw the comedy retrospective curated by Ulrich Rüdel and Steve Massa with discoveries such as the magical Rêves de clowns by René Hervouin and Blanche Vigier de Maisonneuve, featuring the Fratellini brothers. It made me think more deeply about the ancient and atavistic roots of the clown and the holy fool.

Clowns' antics play with mental sanity in a way that is sometimes near madness, and Koivusalo understands this dimension well because among his qualifications is that of a psychiatric nurse.

The plot of this film is about the search for Clown Herman's lost birth certificate without which he will be doomed to live his entire life without a birthday party at his Circus Hepokatti [Grasshopper].

Obstacles along the way include a rivalling circus whose director Tilpehööri [Bric-a-Brac] is a master hypnotist, able to turn anybody into a sleepwalker. And also hypnotize members of Hepokatti to sabotage their own circus.

I have today just viewed Wish, the new Walt Disney animation, and I register a connection between the master manipulators Tilpehööri and King Magnifico, both about to turn the world into their own image.

I risk being heavy-handed, but watching today's situation on subway trains and city streets with everyone lost in the virtual reality of mobile devices, I feel like Tilpehööri has already taken over.

In comedy, Koivusalo sustains the right level of exaggeration. Iina Kuustonen has again the funniest part: her dialogue consists only of proverbs, which she never gets right. There are amusing ideas throughout. The hickup test. The talking dog who exposes Tilpehööri.

The circus performances are outstanding, including in thrilling scenes of sabotage. The acrobats are real artists.

In digital, it is nowadays possible to create a bright colour world without being jarring. It is pleasantly warm and sunny.

Esa Nieminen succeeds with the score. It is genuinely appealing and amusing, and on the other hand oddly menacing in the ominous Karukylä music world.

Musical comedy is the most difficult genre. Timo Koivusalo's cinema succeeds in being more than fun. His hallmarks include joy, tenderness, gentleness and a spirit of generosity. Good medicine in our age of divisiveness and hate speech.

Wish (Centenary of the Walt Disney Animation Studios)

Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn: Wish (US 2023).

Centenary of the Walt Disney Animation Studios

Toive / Önskan.

    US ©  2023 Disney Enterprises. PC: Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios. P: Peter Del Vecho, Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster-Jones.

    Animation (watercolour and computer animation).

D: Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn. SC: Jennifer Lee & Allison Moore - story: Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn, Allison Moore - additional story material: Carlos López Estrada, Andrew Rothschild.
    CinemaScope 2.55:1. Digital 2K. In 3-D and 2-D.

    Layout: Rob Dressel. PD: Michael Giaimo. Production Management, Art Department, Visual Effects Department, Animation Department, Sound Department, Music Department: all huge. M score: Dave Metzger. Songs: Julia Michaels, Benjamin Rice. ED: Jeff Draheim.

    VOICE TALENT original / Finnish / character

Ariana DeBose / Silja Kutvonen / Asha

Chris Pine / Markus Niemi / Kuningas Magnifico

Alan Tudyk / Osku Ärilä / Valentino

Angelique Cabral / Maria Ylipää / Kuningatar Amaya

Victor Garber / Eero Saarinen / Sabino (Ashan isoisä)

Natasha Rothwell / Ushma Olava / Sakina (Ashan äiti)

Jennifer Kumiyama / Niina Lahtinen / Dahlia

Evan Peters / Aaro Wichmann / Simon

Harvey Guillén / Miiko Toiviainen / Gabo

Ramy Youssef / Leo Ikhilor / Safi

Niko Vargas / Ringa Aflatuni / Hal

Della Saba / Mirella Roininen / Bazeema

Jon Rudnitsky / Henri Piispanen / Dario

    Finnish edition: dialogue and songs directed by Jukka Nylund. Translated by Aki Heinlahti.

    95 min

    US premiere: 8 Nov 2023 (El Capitan, Hollywood)

    US premiere: 22 Nov 2023 (wide)

    Finnish premiere: 15 Dec 2023, released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Finland.

    Finnish edition in 2-D viewed at Tennispalatsi 2, Helsinki, 27 Jan 2024

IMDb: " A young girl named Asha wishes on a star and gets a more direct answer than she bargained for when a trouble-making star comes down from the sky to join her. "

IMDb: " Dedicated to Burny Mattinson, a Disney legend who died on February 27, 2023, having worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios for over 70 years. "

AA: During the end credits stylish vignettes cover a magical history tour of the Disney Company celebrating its 100th anniversary.

The jubileum film has been inspired by the studio anthem, "When You Wish Upon A Star", written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington for Pinocchio (1940).

I appreciate in Wish the cosmic vision, the topical allegory of a narcissistic tyrant who wants to control even people's dreams and wishes, and the rebellious fighting spirit.

Topical is also the focus on female agency. No more sleeping beauties waiting for the prince's kiss. The Walt Disney tribute at Pordenone's Le Giornate del Muto in October 2023 reminded us that Disney's first protagonist and dynamo was Alice in the Alice Comedies series, launched in October, 1923, produced by Margaret J. Winkler.

The eternal dilemma of animation is that humans are less appealing than animals. (The very word "animation" seems to convey an animal affinity). A hundred years ago Walt Disney solved this by combining a live action Alice with Julius the Cat, the predecessor of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Mickey Mouse, etc. From the beginning, Disney realized the appeal of round forms and figures. In Wish, there is a slight concession towards roundness in human figures.

The art and craft is perfect, meeting all expectations. The achievement is nothing short of admirable. Released during the same season was another major animation, the new Hayao Miyazaki film The Boy and the Heron. It is superior due to its compelling and engrossing personal vision. It is full of a genuine Miyazaki spirit.

...

The first film I saw was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in its 1962 re-release (a Finnish voice version starring Eeva-Kaarina Volanen). The Hunting Instinct; Nikki, Wild Dog of the North; In Search of the Castaways; The Sword in the Stone and Mary Poppins were the first Disney films I caught during their first runs. I included many Disney movies in my film guides of 1000, then 1100 great films. My last project as programmer of the KAVI film archive was a comprehensive Walt Disney retrospective for Kino Regina in 2023-2024. We always had a happy collaboration with the Disney Company, memorably also in mounting a unique Film Concert Fantasia at the Helsinki Concert Hall with Disney's The Swan of Tuonela as a bonus, played live by Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

I had the honour to know Pentti Hauhiala, possibly the greatest Disney collector in the Nordic countries. He loved all things Disney. He also remarked that after Walt's death, Disney animations started to lack a genuine Walt spirit.

Tuomion saari / The Island of Doom

Keke Soikkeli: Tuomion saari / The Island of Doom (FI 2023) with Sonja Aiello, Konsta Hietanen, Markku Pulli, Elmeri Rantalainen, Emma Lahti, Jenni Rautiainen.

FI 2023. PC: Same-eYes Production / Nordic Films. P: Jesse Tervolin, Keke Soikkeli.

    D+SC: Keke Soikkeli. Cin+ED: Teemu Villikka. Makeup: Sara Niinimäki. SFX (blood effects): Marko Moilanen. M: Eetu Hämäläinen, Olli Rantanen.

    C: Sonja Aiello (Miia), Markku Pulli (Teemu), Konsta Hietanen (Kimmo), Elmeri Rantalainen (Timo), Emma Lahti (Maija), Jenni Rautiainen (Laura), Heljä Lappi (Tiina), Tiia Weckström (Eetu's lover), Timo Dadu (boy's father), Linnea O. Leino (Ilona), Karo Auvinen (Rami), Viivi Mauno (Emma), Toni Lipsanen (Eetu / the killer), Viivi Schroderus (Tuuli / waitress).

    90 min

    Finnish premiere: 29 Dec 2023, distributed by Kuusan Kino Ky.

    Viewed at Kinopalatsi 3, Helsinki, 20 Jan 2024.

English Wikipedia: " Mia learns that her boyfriend Eetu is cheating on her and she goes to live with her friend Maija to recover from the shock. Maija decides to take Mia to a summer bar with her friends Rami, Laura and Kimmo, where Mia falls in love with the porter Teemu. At the bar, they try to think of some kind of pastime for Mia to get her mind off Eetu's infidelity and soon they come up with going to a remote lake island, which is called the "Island of Doom". There is an urban legend about the island, according to which a young boy guilty of murdering his baby sister was banished to the island by his father and left there to die. Mia agrees to this idea and the next day they go camping on the island. After spending the night there, Laura starts to get nervous about the atmosphere on the island, which the horror story left behind. The situation is not made easier by the fact that there is indeed a small abandoned cottage on the island, which would indicate that someone actually lived there. And when their boat disappears while they are trapped on the island, they soon begin to realize that what started out as a "horror story" has some kind of basis of truth. "

Filmikamari Pressit: " Syrjäisellä seudulla sijaitsee saari, josta kerrotaan kauhutarinaa sinne aikanaan hirmutekonsa jälkeen karkotetusta lapsesta. Kukaan ei usko hänen selviytyneen edes ensimmäisen talven yli, mutta legendan mukaan saarelle menijät eivät vielä tänäkään päivänä sieltä palaa. Parikymppinen Mia on juuri kokenut järkytyksen ja pettymyksen parisuhteessaan ja kaipaa muuta ajateltavaa, joten kyseisen kauhutarinan kuultuaan hänen onnistuu houkutella muutama jännitystä elämään kaipaava ystävänsä mukaan tuulettumaan veneillen ja telttaillen sekä tutustuen saaren legendaan. Saarelle päästyään nuoret kohtaavat tuomionsa yksi kerrallaan. "

AA: The last movie of my private "Saturday film festival" of four films in a row.

The title of the horror film Tuomion saari means in literal translation "Doom Island". I rush to the screening from Stormskärs Maja / Stormskerry Maja, also set on a tiny island. Maja's is an island of love. Tuomion saari is an island of death.

The movie is a low budget regional independent production made outside regular financing structures, shot in Kouvola and Iitti.

It is a genre movie, a splatter film and a slasher movie, with clear affinities with films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes and Halloween.

One thing can be stated for certain: Tuomion saari is not sophisticated. The female characters' main characteristic is that they are oozing with sex. I hesitate to call this aspect male abuse of feminine glory. It seems that the female performers are themselves more than happy to flaunt their youthful attributes.

The visitors to the doom island have all heard that nobody who visits it comes back alive. They do not believe in such nonsense and thus get to learn by experience. 

It's raw. It's crude. There is no excuse for stilted performances, but still there is a lesson in this movie. A horror film does not become better if it is produced on a huge budget, say, like Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, which drowns under its own weight. Tuomion saari exudes unreconstructed genre energy.

According to Stephen King in his magisterial study of horror fiction, Danse Macabre, it is all about our coming to terms with death and madness. His formative experience in his childhood was Creature from the Black Lagoon, and ever since, death for him has meant that the creature from the black lagoon comes to get you.

Despite everything, Tuomion saari does deliver this essential, atavistic and primordial horror impact.  The axe killer covered in sackcloth comes to get you. I have always refused to speak about "horror classics" because it is an oxymoron. "Horror" is the antithesis of "classic". Horror is meant to be upsetting in every way. Having said this, I wish Tuomion saari were a better film or even a good film.

There are memorable images such as the wooden doll.

Today I also saw another genre quickie, the medical drama Syke: Särkynyt sydän. It is a parallel case: not a great film, but it also conveys something of the genre essence, perhaps somehow in a purer form because it is not refined. It is also about life and death. And madness and sanity.

Stormskärs Maja / Stormskerry Maja

Tiina Lymi: Stormskärs Maja (FI 2023) with Linus Troedsson (Janne) and Amanda Jansson (Maja).

Myrskyluodon Maija.

    FI 2024. PC: Solar Films Inc. Oy. P: Jukka Helle, Hanna Virolainen, Markus Selin. EX: Gustav Oldén.

    D+SC: Tiina Lymi - based on the Stormskärs-Maja series of novels by Anni Blomqvist: Vägen till Stormskäret (1968), Med havet som granne (1969), Maja (1970), I kamp med havet (1971) and Vägen från Stormskäret (1973). DP: Rauno Ronkainen. PD: Otso Linnalaakso. Cost: Auli Turtiainen. Makeup: Kaisa Pätilä. VFX: Viivi Veivo (VFX Helsinki Oy). M: Lauri Porra. Cond: Dalia Stasevska. Orchestra: Sinfonia Lahti. Theme tune (1976): Lasse Mårtenson. S: Kirka Sainio. ED: Joona Louhivuori. Sailing expertise: Storbåt Aura / Turun perinneveneyhdistys, Sonja / Kustavin Talonpoikaispurjehtijat ry.

    C: Amanda Jansson (Maja), Linus Troedsson (Janne), Jonna Järnefelt (Maja's mother), Tobias Zilliacus (Maja's father), Amanda Kilpeläinen Arvidsson (Anna, Maja's sister), Desmond Eastwood (Wilson, British Navy officer), Tony Doyle (Harris, British Navy officer).

    Loc: Åland, 2022-2023.

    Language: Swedish.

    163 min

    Finnish premiere 19 Jan 2024, released by Nordisk Film with Finnish subtitles by Iira Tuominen.
    Viewed at Tennispalatsi Isense, Helsinki, 20 Jan 2024.

Previous adaptation: Stormskärs Maja 1-6 (TV series, FI 1976), D: Åke Lindman, SC: Benedict Zilliacus, M: Lasse Mårtenson, C: Rose-Marie Rosenback, Leif Sundberg.

Filmikamari Pressit: " Myrskyluodon Maija on koskettava tarina vahvasta naisesta ja hänen kohtaamistaan haasteista myrskyisällä saarella. Elokuva perustuu Anni Blomqvistin samannimiseen romaaniin ja sijoittuu 1800-luvun Suomen rannikkoseudulle. Nuori 17-vuotias Maija avioituu vasten tahtoaan kalastajamies Jannen kanssa. Hänen elämänsä Myrskyluodolla on täynnä haasteita ja vastoinkäymisiä: kalastajan vaimona hän joutuu selviytymään miehensä pitkistä poissaoloista merellä ja huolehtimaan perheestään yksin. Maijasta on kuitenkin kasvanut lujatahtoinen ja itsenäinen nainen, joka ei pelkää tarttua toimeen karussa saaristossa. Maijalla ja Jannella on vahva yhteys, sekä ajan myötä syventynyt rakkaus. Janne tukee vaimonsa pyrkimyksiä ja ymmärtää, että perheen vahvuus syntyy yhteisistä ponnisteluista. "

" Myrskyluodon Maija on tarina tahdosta, voimasta ja rakkaudesta. "

AA: "Storm Cliff Women" is a formidable cycle of novels by a family of female authors from the municipality of Vårdö in the Åland archipelango, launched by Sally Salminen with Katrina in 1936, an international bestseller in some 20 languages. Her sister Aili Nordgren (née Salminen) also became a writer, famous for Väljer du stormen [If You Choose the Storm] among others. Also two of their brothers became writers. Their second cousin was Anni Blomqvist, whose most popular achievement was the Stormskärs-Maja series of five books. All five were born before Finland's independence, when even Åland belonged to the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire.

The Storm Cliff Women phenomenon in 1936 belonged to a new wave of young female protagonists in Finnish fiction, including Liisa Harju (in Hilja Valtonen's Nuoren opettajattaren varaventtiili), Ilona Ahlgren (in Hella Wuolijoki's Niskavuoren naiset), and Katri Ukonniemi (in Auni Nuolivaara's Paimen, piika ja emäntä). All were  memorably filmed - Katrina in Sweden, directed by Gustaf Edgren in 1943. During wartime, filming on Åland was forbidden, and exteriors were filmed in the Stockholm archipelago. The new Stormskärs Maja is the first theatrical Storm Cliff movie shot on real Åland locations.

I have loved the actor-director Tiina Lymi since her breakthrough role in Akvaariorakkautta and as a director since her short film Naisen nimi. Sharp wit, great sense of humour, perfect timing and talent in eliciting good performances were there from the beginning. I have had the privilege to interview her, and when I praised her luonnontunne (feeling for nature) she protested and declared that she does not even know what that is, being a city girl. But I found it in Äkkilähtö and Napapiirin sankarit 3 in reverse, satirizing our estrangement from nature and in Ilosia aikoja, Mielensäpahoittaja in paradox, the retro attitudes of the Curmudgeon appearing hip from an ecological viewpoint.

Stormskärs Maja is Tiina Lymi's greatest film, and it has nature feeling galore. It starts as a vision of nature. The sky and the sea and the bare rock: this is the edge of Eternity. The young protagonists Maja and Janne appear as Adam and Eve, and their tiny rocky island as Paradise. "We were young, we minted gold", wrote Johannes Linnankoski in Song of the Scarlet Flower about young lovers who have nothing, yet everything.

It is hard work from morning till night, a constant combat with the elements. First they have only each other, soon there are five children. The tough conditions of life are conquered with a sunny disposition, a life-affirming stance and a joy of sex. Maja is a true woman of the sea, hardened and unafraid of ice swimming, indeed, envigorated and reborn in an ice bath. Maybe love is not all you need, but with love, you can better survive anything.

The action takes place in 1840-1899, a period still dominated by torpparilaitos, where landowners had superior power and tenant farmers were dependent subordinates, just like Janne and Maja. (The situation changed only after the Civil War in 1918). But Janne and Maja take the first step to freedom by moving to the small island by themselves, and struggle towards freedom from there. Thereby they also escape pressure from their elders, including Maja's mother and sister. A Woman can be a wolf to a woman.

Stormskärs Maja is the first theatrical film in which I see scenes from the Åland War (in Finnish Oolannin sota, still famous from a popular song). The war took place in 1854-1856 between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman-British-French alliance, and because Åland was the Westernmost outpost of the Russian Empire, a British Navy Division appears on Maja's Stormskär and occupies it during a full year.

Maja helps Janne flee Russian draft. She keeps her family safe while British marines occupy the buildings. The Brits are immediately made to realize that transgression is out of the question. With chutzpah and willpower Maja also saves the family's only cow from being slaughtered for dinner. She deserves the respect of the officers and even provides nursing services when they are severely wounded in combat.

The British occupation is an ordeal. There is also true tragedy for Maja: the mother's greatest tragedy when her son Mikael drowns, and the wife's greatest tragedy when Janne drowns in the ice. Maja still refuses to leave Stormskäret. She will now take care of Stormskäret by herself, with help from her children, who are growing up.

She defies all obstacles: the class barrier, the gender barrier and the cultural barrier. Maja has grown up analphabete, but her children can by now read and write, and Maja learns with them. The gender barrier seems hard to overcome. 19th century women have not equal property and financial rights, but there is a way to arrange a loan from the mighty Saka (Carl-Kristian Rundman), and Maja gets unexpected support from Mrs. Saka (Andrea Björkholm) who is seen reading John Stuart Mill's The Subjection of Women.

The social charge in the novels of Sally Salminen and Aili Nordgren was frank. The writer sisters confronted oppression, exploitation and harassment in their novels, and their heroines were indefatigable fighters against injustice. This aspect was watered down in Gustaf Edgren's film adaptation. Stormskärs Maja belongs to the same tribe, but Anni Blomqvist was socially less engaged than her Storm Cliff predecessors. Nevertheless Stormskärs Maja is a mighty growing up saga of female independence, and in Tiina Lymi's adaptation, Amanda Jansson creates a terrific portrait of a fearless survivor and a woman full of love.

...

Storm Cliff Women is an international trend in fiction, also in the cinema. Last October in Pordenone at the Giornate del Cinema Muto festival I saw no less than three such movies (La divine croisière, Pêcheur d'Islande and Vent debout), all French, all set in Brittany. Some of the earliest films relevant to the context were inspired by Alfred Tennyson's poem "Enoch Arden", including D. W. Griffith's After Many Years (US 1908, with Florence Lawrence) and Enoch Arden (US 1911, starring Linda Arvidson), remade for Griffith as Enoch Arden (US 1915) by W. Christy Cabanne, with Lillian Gish. They etched the scene of a woman waiting for her lost husband's return from the sea into the cinema's most lasting imagery. In Stormskärs Maja, Tiina Lymi adds an original and powerful interpretation to this legacy.

...

For the 11 Jan 2024 issue of the Kirkko ja Kaupunki newspaper of the Helsinki congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, Tiina Lymi has granted an interview about the spiritual message of Stormskärs Maja. The Lutheran church plays an important part in powering the people in their daily struggle with the elements. The marriage, the baptism and the funeral sequences are mounted with stark devotion. The sea voyage to the child's funeral catches the unfathomable sorrow of the berieved mother in a vision comparable with Albert Edelfelt's painting "Ett barns likfärd" / "Conveying the Child's Coffin" (1879). But Maja's sense of the sacred is bifurcated. Beyond the official creed of the Church there is still the ancient spirituality of magic, pantheism and premonitions. Maja is organically rooted in the deepest atavistic forces of the earth and the sea. During all seasons, summer and winter, she finds solace at the bottom of the sea.

Syke-elokuva: Särkynyt sydän

Taavi Vartia: Syke-elokuva: Särkynyt sydän (FI 2023) with Jarkko Niemi (Petteri Holopainen), Lotta Kaihua (Heidi), Niina Koponen (Noora).

Syke: Brustet hjärta.

    D: Taavi Vartia. SC: Petja Peltomaa. DP: Jyri Hakala. AD: Inka Uusitalo-Matilainen. Cost: Henna-Riikka Taskinen. Makeup: Mari Vaalasranta. M: Karl Sinkkonen. ED: Jyrki Levä.

    90 min

    Finnish premiere 25 Dec 2023, distributed by Nelonen Media with Swedish subtitles.

    Viewed at Tennispalatsi 10, Helsinki, 20 Jan 2024.

The Syke franchise is known in Swedish as Puls and in English as Syke and Pulse.

Filmikamari Pressit: " Rakastetun mutta omalaatuisen kirurgin Petteri Holopaisen elämä on mallillaan, mutta kun Syke-sairaalaan kiidätetään hänelle tärkeä potilas, mikään ei voi palata enää ennalleen. Holopainen kadottaa kaiken sen, mikä on hänelle tärkeää. Kun Holopaisen arkeen astelee tuttu ihminen menneisyydestä, Holopaisen on päätettävä, millä on vielä merkitystä. "

AA: Syke (Pulse) is since 2014 a Finnish television phenomenon. The 15th season started last autumn. It is a multi-character study, and the cast covers much of the who's who of Finnish actors. The series creator is Petja Peltomaa, and Taavi Vartia has been the director of the recent seasons. The setting is the traumaosasto [trauma department] of the central hospital of a big city like Helsinki. The concept has similarities with ER (1994-2009) and belongs to a tradition of cinematic and televised medical drama series including Dr. Kildare, Medic, City Hospital, General Hospital, Ben Casey, Emergency!, M*A*S*H, Casualty and Charité.

Marshall McLuhan in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964) celebrated the tactile quality of the TV image in medical drama. In closed-circuit instruction in surgery, medical students reported that "they seemed not to be watching an operation, but performing it". "They felt that they were holding the scalpel". "Thus the TV image, in fostering a passion for depth involvement in every aspect of experience, creates an obsession with bodily welfare. The sudden emergence of the TV medico and the hospital ward as a program to rival the western is perfectly natural".

The original appeal of the medical drama lives on in phenomena like Syke. The vital ingredients are powerful and appealing: dealing with matters of life and death in a constant state of emergency. The source of tremendous drama is forever replenished. The sense of danger and violent injury is the same as in war films and brutal thrillers, but instead of killing people, the mission is saving people. Nothing can be more engrossing.

Of the Syke television franchise, two cinema spinoffs have been produced. I saw the first one, Syke: Hätätila (FI 2021, D: Tony Laine), which was distributed in English as Nurses - Dreadful Hospital Outage and remember the palpable gratification and intensity of the audience experience. This second spinoff (its Finnish title in literal translation: "Pulse: The Broken Heart") is the story of the surgeon Petteri Holopainen (Jarkko Niemi) whose wife Noora (Niina Koponen) dies in his hands on the operating table; only after the operation does he realize the patient's identity. He experiences a shock so severe that it takes him a year to recover. Meanwhile he becomes something like a sleepwalker and even a living dead. At home he speaks with Niina's ghost. He refuses to stay away from the hospital during his sick leave, yet also refuses to perform as a surgeon anymore. He is on the verge of getting fired. Colleagues seem to think that he should belong to a madhouse. But Petteri's contribution becomes crucial in solving a mysterious life-and-death emergency of two teenagers during Midsummer week, and the almost overwhelming challenge helps him get back on track again.

The subjects are stronger than melodrama, but because they are treated in clinical fashion, there is a strange, paradoxical atmosphere. In Syke: Särkynyt sydän the dialogue is often formal and literate in a consciously anti-realistic way like in the Finnish  Särkkä-Tulio-Donner-Kaurismäki tradition. Nobody speaks like that. Often the dialogue is near parody. The subjects are taken seriously but the attitude is only one step from comedy.

The total impact is a bizarre combination of deadly earnest and a spoof attitude.

Yet Syke: Särkynyt sydän evokes genuine issues including the obscene income gap between surgeons and nurses (reportedly something like a half of Finland's hospital staff considers changing jobs), self-destructiveness among young people and the dangers of conversion drugs. Petteri with his shallow attitudes has to some extent been a sleepwalker even before his shock experience..

The Old Oak

Ken Loach: The Old Oak (GB 2023), starring Ebla Mari (Yara, a Syrian refugee) and Dave Turner (TJ Ballantyne, owner of the pub The Old Oak).

The Old Oak / The Old Oak

    BE/FR/GB 2023. PC: Sixteen Films / Why Not Productions / Les Films du Fleuve / BBC Film. P: Rebecca O'Brien.

    D: Ken Loach. SC: Paul Laverty. DP: Robbie Ryan. M: George Fenton. ED: Jonathan Morris.

    Loc: County Durham (Murton, Horden, Easington, Durham Cathedral).

    113 min

    Festival premiere: 26 May 2023 Cannes

    Finnish premiere 8 Dec 2023, released by Cinemanse Oy with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Ilse Rönnberg / Charlotte Elo. 

    Viewed at Tennispalatsi LUXE 6, Helsinki, 20 Jan 2024.

Filmikamari Pressit: " The Old Oak sai ensi-iltansa Cannesin elokuvafestivaalin kilpasarjassa 2023. Ken Loachin omien sanojen mukaan hänen viimeinen elokuvansa tiivistää useasti palkitun ohjaajan koko pitkän uran kattavat yhteiskunnalliset teemat. Loachin ja käsikirjoittaja Paul Lavertyn testamentti on elokuvassa kirjailtu kaivostyöläisten banderolliin: yhteisöllisyyden voima, solidaarisuus ja vastarinta. "

" Kun entiseen kaivoskaupunkiin Englannissa majoitetaan syyrialaisia pakolaisia, kuihtuvan kylän ainoan jäljellä olevan pubin, The Old Oakin tuoppien ääressä alkavat tunteet kuohua. Sodan jaloista pakenevat tulijat nähdään uhkana paikallisille, joilla on yllin kyllin omiakin ongelmia. Valokuvaajan urasta haaveileva nuori Yara (Ebla Mari) kuitenkin ystävystyy pubin isännän TJ:n (Dave Turner) kanssa ja hitaasti erilaiset ihmiset alkavat löytää tiensä saman pöydän ääreen. "

The press kit: " The Old Oak is a special place. Not only is it the last pub standing, it is the only remaining public space where people can meet in a once thriving mining community that has now fallen on hard times after 30 years of decline. TJ Ballantyne (Dave Turner) the landlord hangs on to The Old Oak by his fingertips, and his hold is endangered even more when The Old Oak becomes contested territory after the arrival of Syrian refugees who are placed in the village. In an unlikely friendship TJ encounters a young Syrian, Yara (Ebla Mari) with her camera. Can they find a way for the two communities to understand each other? So unfolds a deeply moving drama about loss, fear and the difficulty of finding hope. "

AA: We live in a period in which old masters are producing some of their best work. Think about the achievements last year by Wim Wenders and Martin Scorsese, for instance. Ken Loach stunned the world almost 60 years ago with Cathy Come Home and is still at the top of his game with topical, relevant and engrossing films such as Sorry We Missed You and now The Old Oak. It is a masterpiece.

Loach is working again with his trusted team of Rebecca O'Brien (producer), Paul Laverty (screenwriter), Robbie Ryan (cinematographer), George Fenton (score) and Jonathan Morris (editing). As usual, Loach shoots on location, this time in County Durham, North England, not far from Scotland. The milieu is a former flourishing mining community now struggling for its existence. 

The Old Oak pub sustains what is left of the community spirit. It was once the heart of "strength, solidarity, resistance", now degrading into suspicion, isolation, impotence and racism. A busload of Syrian refugees inflames the hatred of a vicious group, while other inhabitants display generosity to war victims who have lost everything.

Upon her arrival, a racist young man breaks the camera of a young Syrian refugee, Yara. The camera is her only valuable possession, and the pub owner TJ Ballantyne, who would prefer to stay out of controversy, nevertheless helps Yara to have her camera fixed.

Angry young racists cultivate vicious dogs, and those dogs attack and kill TJ's little dog Marra, his only friend. We learn from TJ that "marra" in northern English miners' language of the 19th century means "mate", "best friend", complementing each other and fitting together well. The death of Marra is a serious blow for TJ.

There is starvation among the Englishmen and the Syrians. Inspired by slogans in the historical photographs in the back room - "They shall not starve", and "When you eat together, you stick together" - Yara and TJ decide to open the back room for community meals. The meals are free for all, and everyone is welcome. The project becomes a huge success and a turning-point in the community spirit. "Solidarity, not charity".

The racist fringe sabotages this by rigging the plumbing. The damage is so devastating that the back room cannot be used anymore. 

Among other things, The Old Oak is a wonderful contribution to the subject "cinema and photography". TJ shows Yara a historical photograph exhibition in the back room. Yara keeps photographing the life and the people of Durham and gains recognition and affection for her family. Yara has talent in portrait photography, because she is able to establish a connection of sympathy with her subjects. When her family learns of the death of their father in the brutal prison circumstances of Syria, a public display of condolences escalates on their doorstep. It grows into an epic display of the better angels of our nature.

A memorable sequence is dedicated to a visit to Durham Cathedral, familiar in the cinema from Harry Potter movies. TJ takes Yara there as they fetch a charity delivery. The sequence conveys powerfully the spirit of the sacred in the medieval monument of worship. It is an encounter of supreme respect between two religious worlds.

"Shukran" is "thank you" in Arabic, as Yara teaches TJ in The Old Oak. It is also what a grateful viewer would wish to tell to the film-makers:

"Shukran!"

Mummola / Family Time

Tia Kouvo: Mummola / Family Time (FI 2023). Facing: Ria Kataja (Susanna), Leena Uotila (Ella), Tom Wentzel (Lasse), Elina Knihtilä (Helena), Jarkko Pajunen (Risto). With their backs on us, the children are watching the grown-ups: Sakari Topi (Simo), Elli Paajanen (Hilla), Toomas Talikka (Kassu). Please click on the poster to enlarge it.

Finnish Christmas movies are an annually growing phenomenon. There are fairy-tales, usually set in Lapland and featuring reindeer, Santa Claus, the Snow Queen and Moomins. There is the definitive Finnish anti-Christmas movie: Joulubileet by Jari Halonen. A current of its own is the Christmas celebration film among family or friends including Joulumaa, Täydellinen joulu, Kulkuset kulkuset and now Mummola, the debut feature film by Tia Kouvo. whose eponymous short film Mummola (2018) I saw five years ago at Tampere Film Festival.

The annual Christmas get-together takes place at the grandmother's place (mummola). The grandmother is Ella (Leena Uotila) and the grandfather is Lasse (Tom Wentzel). Their grown-up daughters are there: Susanna (Ria Kataja) and Helena (Elina Knihtilä). Susanna arrives with her husband Risto (Jarkko Pajunen) and their two little children Simo and Hilla (Sakari Topi, Elli Paajanen). Helena is accompanied by her son Kassu (Toomas Talikka).

The situation is intimate in the extreme, but it is tempered by the visual approach, a variation of the early cinema revival trend, familiar from Roy Andersson. As a rule, there is a long take and a long shot and no camera movement. Not quite plan-séquence, but not far either. Certain important scenes are shot with faces left outside the camera field or even with no human visibility. Only voices, or silences, convey what is going on. It is a distanciation effect to field off melodrama, but the camera neutrality and objectivity - even indifference -  turn to serve a genuine emotional charge.

The viewpoint of the children is all-important. I bambini ci guardano. The grown-ups are accustomed to the "same procedure as every year". The children are the future, the embodiment of the Christmas spirit, the celebration is essentially for them, and little Hilla (Elli Paajanen) speaks up that what is happening is wrong and spoils the party for all. The emperor's new clothes. Significantly, the film ends with Hilla staying for a long while in grandfather's tool shed, his man cave.

The movie is divided into two parts. Part I is Christmas, Part II is after. In the second part we follow Susanna's promotion to a position of higher responsibility at a big Finnish retailing cooperative. We learn more about Helena's situation with her passive adult son Kassu who is dexterous with computers but lacks initiative. In the beginning of Part I, asked whether Kassu has a girlfriend, he counters: "it might as well be a boyfriend".

The anthology piece of the movie is Susanna's inviting Risto to the garage for a child-free moment in the family car, speaking out about the state of the union. Nothing is wrong externally, but intimacy is missing, a topic painfully hard to discuss. The balance of gravity and comedy is perfect in the dialogue, performances and direction of this sequence.

Speaking about topics hard to discuss, the veritable elephant in the room is the alcoholism of the grandfather Lasse. It is so extreme that he passes out and has to be carried to his bed in the middle of the party. As he wakes up in the morning, he instantly starts to drink again, and when Ella warns that he could die, Lasse states "if only".

In the second part we see Lasse sober for the only time. He is expecting a guest, Seppo (Matti Ristinen). They have been sailors together. Lasse is not only sober, he is nice and radiant and the consummate host.

Only after the screening it dawned on me what it was about. I have heard that all viewers have not grasped it even afterwards, a situation comparable with Ihmiset suviyössä / People in the Summer Night which is possible to see without realizing what is troubling Nokia.

There are many causes for alcoholism, and repressed homosexuality is one of them. Lasse is sincere when he declares that he truly loves Ella. But he has been a terrible husband, father and grandfather, ruined the childhood of his daughters and given them an awful role model as father and husband. In reaction, the daughters have grown self-sufficient in a way that may not leave airspace for husbands.

In Finnish fiction and cinema I detect a powerful current of matriarchy. I considered using the word "undercurrent", but the current is not really hidden at all. It is just taken for granted. It is fascinating that it is never discussed. Mummola is a new major showcase of matriarchy in Finnish fiction.

Excellent work by Tia Kouvo, cast and crew. The audience was quite obviously engaged and gratified.

Valoa valoa valoa

Inari Niemi: Valoa valoa valoa (FI 2023) with Anni Iikkanen (Mimi) and Rebekka Baer (Mariia).

I have loved Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen's novel Valoa valoa valoa (2011) ever since it was published and it has a place of honour in our home library. Set in 1986, the year of Chernobyl, it is a growing-up story of two 14 year old girls. 

I have liked the films of Inari Niemi, including Robin - the Movie, Kesäkaverit, Joulumaa and Tyttöbileet. But Valoa valoa valoa, based on a screenplay by Juuli Niemi, is on a new level of achievement. 

The title has multiple meanings. It is about the light of the coming summer. It is also about a nuclear catastrophe that puts mankind in danger.

It is the story of a first love, an experiment that brings "light light light" to one's whole life and illuminates one's entire being.

It is a love that transcends class barriers. Mariia is from a well-to-do home. Mimi is from a broken home.

It is a love that starts with a fatal misunderstanding. Mariia gets a false impression that Mimi is on drugs. The misunderstanding casts a shadow on Mimi's status at school and Mariia's home. Mariia never corrects the mistake, and the unhealed guilt disturbs her through life.

The love between the girls transcends convention. It liberates. Inari Niemi conveys this in lyrical, pantheistic images full of life force and a sense of nature. The movie does not feel like a literary adaptation. It breathes its own cinematic life. And what could be more cinematic than the motif of light, also in the sense of enlightenment: growing beyond one's prejudices, having the courage of one's convictions, open to all senses and possibilities of experience.

I thank Mox Mäkelä for recommending this movie. Last year was full of big changes in my life, and I missed valuable movies. I'm glad to have caught this one. Valoa valoa valoa goes up onto my list of the best films of 2023.

Huijarit

Rike Jokela: Huijarit (FI 2023).

Huijarit is a piece of light entertainment, a humorous thriller-romance about a trio of swindlers always trying to cheat in matters ranging from small (how to steal a hotel breakfast) to big (how to run a fake wellness clinic).

An impressive and distinctive leading performance by Tuulia Eloranta as the fake doctor Siru Paasio. Tommi Korpela is convincing as the main villain, Jukka Helasuo. Miitta Sorvali is great as the real doctor Eila who sees through Siru instantly. Pilvi Hämäläinen as Siru's sister Kati, the police detective who tries to guide Siru to the straight and narrow. Elsi Sloan, impressive in Sydänpeto, is striking again as Siru's non-binary ex, now her roommate.

The film evokes the 1980s trend of films where a repressed yuppie careerist meets a wild woman who changes his life, such as Something Wild, Blind Date, After Hours, and Desperately Seeking Susan.

But Huijarit is original and different as written by Anna Ruohonen, Lassi Vierikko, Juha Jokela and Rike Jokela, based on a story by Riina Hyytiä and Seppo Vesiluoma, and directed by Rike Jokela, an experienced television director now debuting in theatrical movie-making.

After the movie I was thinking that Finland used to be a country of honesty, where the word was the bond, but this is no longer self-evident. Huijarit is a sign of the times.

Napoleon

Ridley Scott: Napoleon (2023) starring Joaquin Phoenix.

Ridley Scott is at his best in Napoleon.

I have been his fan since The Duellists. Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma & Louise for me belong to the essential achievements of world cinema. I was disappointed with G.I. Jane, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, A Good Year, Robin Hood and Prometheus, and ceased to even check Scott's new work. But I liked House of Gucci. Gladiator for me was impressive enough but suffered in comparison with The Fall of the Roman Empire on which it is based. Napoleon, instead, stands up to comparisons so well that I get curious to catch up with Scott's late period (The Martian, Alien: Covenant, All the Money in the World, The Last Duel).

Napoléon vu par Abel Gance is the lasting masterpiece on the subject, amazing in its cinematic inventiveness which is not mere eye-popping brio but a perfect visual counterpart to the revolutionary subject. 

Gance followed Napoléon's story only until the dawn of his Italian campaign in 1796. Ridley Scott covers the entire saga until the warlord's death on the isle of Elba in 1821. His grandiose ambition requires severe pruning and focusing.

Scott's solution is dual. He covers Napoleon's major military turning-points with epic grandeur. But he gives full weight also to Napoleon's love story with Joséphine Bonaparte (de Beauharnais).

Major military sequences include the Siege of Toulon, the Battle of the Pyramids, the Battle of Austerlitz, the Battle of Borodino and the Battle of Waterloo.* All different, all impressive. King Vidor and Sergei Bondarchuk excelled in the Austerlitz and Borodino sequences in their respective War and Peace adaptations. Bondarchuk's Borodino reconstruction in War and Peace Part III: The Year 1812 (SU 1967) has been for me the most formidable battle sequence ever filmed. But Ridley Scott copes impressively, too. Waterloo is the ultimate climax of his movie, as it should be.

Focusing on the military, Scott ignores the meaning of the French Revolution: the message of "liberté, égalité, fraternité", the downfall of the ancient regime and the corrupt feudal system, and the rise of the victorious bourgeoisie, free speech and free enterprise.  Huge social transformations such as le Code Napoléon (Code civil) are not mentioned even in passing. Scott does convey the backlash when the revolutionary general is crowned into Emperor, and the call of liberty is perverted into a call of Empire. Nevertheless, after mighty tides and ebbs, the world changes irrevocably to the one in which we live now.

As Napoléon, Joaquin Phoenix at first seems stuck in monotonous arrogance, but in Ridley Scott's telling, the encounter with Joséphine transforms him. At first he acts like a moron, even sexually, although the sexual charge between the two is instant and electrifying. Joséphine's indiscretions hurt Napoleon deeply, as does her inability to conceive. During their marriage, Napoléon matures emotionally, and Scott's movie is the one in which we see the emperor most often in tears.

Vanessa Kirby is moving and engaging as Joséphine.  I understand that history-loving Frenchmen find it hard to relate to Ridley Scott's imagined Joséphine. Nevertheless, she is no token woman in a man's world, but a strong-willed and independent spirit on a wild ride through history. In Ridley Scott's interpretation, Napoléon chooses a woman equal in character and will-power. Let's register in this age of increasing attention to fair display of female agency that Ridley Scott has a very good record ever since Sigourney Weaver created a new kind of heroine as Ripley in Alien.

In the Battle of Waterloo, Rupert Everett as Duke of Wellington is convincing as the Field Marshal who beats Napoléon. Memorable are also Paul Rhys as Talleyrand and Ben Miles as Caulaincourt.

Musically, Carl Davis's unforgettable solution for Gance's Napoléon was to combine heroic Beethoven (such as the Emperor concerto) with key revolutionary tunes like, inevitably, La Marseillaise. There is no Beethoven here; instead, lovely piano passages from Haydn. There is no Marseillaise either, but a selection Revolutionary songs like " Ah ! ça ira " (sung by Édith Piaf for Sacha Guitry's Si Versailles m'était conté...) and " La Carmagnole ". The solution resembles that of Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov for War and Peace. No pomp and circumstance.

* The catalogue of the battles sounds like a list of subway stations. Among them, Borodino has the distinction of being a Napoleonic battlefield with a subway station of its own.