Oppenheimer (70 mm)

Christopher Nolan: Oppenheimer (US 2023) starring Cillian Murphy. Poster from Ghana. Photo: IMDb. Please do click to enlarge the poster.

Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin : American Prometheus : The Triump and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. 721 pp. First edition cover, photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Photo from Wikipedia.

180 min

    Distributed by Finnkino Oy Teatterilevitys.

    70 mm event screenings at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi: 18 May, 19 May, 25 May, 26 May, 1 June, 2 June 2024

    Viewed without subtitles at Bio Rex Kulttuurikasarmi: Bio Rex Lasipalatsi, Helsinki, Saturday 25 May 2024

AA: I saw Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer for the first time on 21 July 2023, the international premiere day, the "Barbenheimer day" and blogged about it. It was my film of the year.

Inspired by the movie, I bought the book on which it is based, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (2005). It became my book of the year. I also read the new biography of Oppenheimer's friend George F. Kennan, Frank Costigliola's Kennan: A Life Between Worlds (2023).

Christopher Nolan does justice to the book. It is amazing how much he can fit in three hours. For those who like the film I recommend the book also. There is not a dull page.

A complex film rewards multiple viewings. Last year, I saw Oppenheimer on digital, but Hoyte Hoytema's magnificent cinematography was conducted on IMAX 65 mm and 65 mm, the ideal screening formats of which are IMAX and 70 mm. Finland's first five 70 mm screenings are now at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi. There are only two cinemas in Helsinki with 70 mm projection: Kino Regina and Bio Rex Lasipalatsi.

The screening is sold out. The audience is committed. During the screening I never glance at the watch.

Random remarks:

The cast feels even more impressive now. Familiar actors are convincing in roles unusual for them like Matt Damon as Leslie Groves and Matthew Modine as Vannevar Bush - or even unrecognizable such as Robert Downey, Jr. as Lewis Strauss and Gary Oldman as Harry S. Truman. It is a pleasure to see Kenneth Branagh as Niels Bohr, Benny Safdie as Edward Teller, David Krumholtz as Isidor Rabi and Tom Conti as Albert Einstein.

The women feel more important also. In the movie, Oppenheimer feels even stranger than in the book, a man who is hardly ever at ease with himself. He is "a man who knows too much" as the builder of a doomsday machine. Women keep him grounded, and they are well cast. Kitty Oppenheimer (Emily Blunt) is rock solid during the witch trials. The significance of Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh) grows in a repeat viewing. During the Manhattan project Oppenheimer is under extreme pressure and incessant surveillance. He risks everything to see Jean for the last time. Why? In order to be himself for once. Why two women? Oppenheimer is "too much for one woman".

My recent reading, including American Prometheus, Frank Costigliola's Kennan and Anna Reid's A Nasty Little War: The Western Intervention into the Russian Civil War, helps me make better sense of the complexity of world history during the beginning of the Nuclear Age. 

Oppenheimer and his team were building a nuclear weapon against the Nazis. But there was another war in secret preparation: a war against the USSR. The pre-preparation started already in 1918 as US, British and French forces put their boots on Russian ground to oust the Bolsheviks - long before the USSR even existed. Churchill always reminded us about that piece of unfinished business.

Kennan and Oppenheimer warned against overdoing the Cold War, particularly escalating the nuclear arms race, because it would legitimize Stalin's terror. This aspect is not explicitly discussed in Nolan's movie, and leaving it out is justified. But that background would help understand the extreme viciousness of the kangaroo court against Oppenheimer, who was denied a security clearance during the Cold War.

Oppenheimer was a hero when WWII ended, a suspected villain in the witch hunt years, and a redeemed hero since the Kennedy presidency.

The most engrossing aspect in Bird and Sherwin's book is the focus on team spirit. Oppenheimer was not the greatest genius; he never got the Nobel Prize. But he had unique talent in bringing out the best from everybody. He was an electrifying and charismatic leader. Out of complex debates, he was able to crystallize the essence, what moved the project forward. I miss in the film more emphasis on this talent of Oppenheimer's. But there are memorable exchanges:

Niels Bohr: Algebra's like sheet music, the important thing isn't can you read music, it's can you hear it. Can you hear the music, Robert? 

J. Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, I can.

The final dialogue:

J. Robert Oppenheimer: Albert? When I came to you with those calculations, we thought we might start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world...

Albert Einstein: I remember it well. What of it?

J. Robert Oppenheimer: I believe we did.

Followed by the end of the world. We see the Earth from outer space. The atmosphere is burning. 

...

The 70 mm experience is highly gratifying. The colour footage is vivid and glowing with photochemical glory. There is a special solid sense of reality in 70 mm. I wonder about the black and white. It did not convince in digital, and it is inferior also in this film screening. Full black is missing. It looks like the black and white sequences have been printed on colour stock.

ELO Spring Show: the latest student films by ELO Film School Finland IV

The poster image is from the opening imagery of: Milja Härkönen: Päättämättömien naisten tunnustuksia / Confessions of Undecided Women (FI 2024).

ELO KEVÄTNÄYTÖS

Bio Rex Lasipalatsi (Mannerheimintie 22–24, Helsinki)

Friday 24.5.2024

ELO FILM SCHOOL FINLAND ESITTÄÄ – PRESENTS

IV NÄYTÖS/SCREENING – 6PM – FILMS 74 MIN

TERVETULIAISPUHEET

VUOSIEN PÄÄSSÄ ON PAIKKA (It Takes Years to Reach Us) documentary, 2024, dir. Mikael Rutkiewicz, BA film, 19’ – AA: Experimental. A light shines in the darkness. It reaches house by the forest. It is in ruins. The rain drops. The ruin is slowly aspiring the state of nature. Huge photographic images are reflected on its interiors. Photograps of a lost way of life in the countryside. An experimental play on the metaphor "light years away". A strong score of electronic music.

PEIJAISET (Bear with Me) fiction, 2024, dir. Jasmin Gummerus,  BA film, 19’ – AA: A drama in the forest. Donna's birthday party turns into a horrific tragedy involving a bear rug. Peijaiset is an ancient Finnish hunting tradition to celebrate the catch of a slain bear / moose / elk (in Hokkaido the Ainu celebrate the Iomante in a similar way). Jealousy, thunderous psycho music, transformation. Theme song: "Lapsuuden ystävälle" (trad. / P. J. Hannikainen).

PIENIÄ AJATUKSIA NAAPURUUDESTA (Small Notes About My Neighbours) documentary, 2024, dir. Anna Törrönen, BA film, 19’ – AA: Experimental memory journey, childhood joys, rainy day fun, abstract inserts, also vegetation and butterflies are neighbours. Reflections on the mycelium, the formidable fungus structure. "Also my root are growing here". "I can smell a butterfly". Infinity is everywhere.

ILLAN VIKA (Meanwhile) fiction, 2024, dir. Yasmin Najjar, BA film, 17’ – AA: A movie resembling a short story. A young woman in charge of a small hamburger restaurant, teaching a newcomer how everything works, meeting crisis. "La Voix humaine" situation with her girlfriend abroad. She does not answer the phone until she does. Displaying a sense of character, tempo and psychological nuance.

ELO Spring Show: the latest student films by ELO Film School Finland III

The poster image is from the opening imagery of: Milja Härkönen: Päättämättömien naisten tunnustuksia / Confessions of Undecided Women (FI 2024).

ELO KEVÄTNÄYTÖS

Bio Rex Lasipalatsi (Mannerheimintie 22-24, Helsinki)

Friday 24.5.2024

ELO FILM SCHOOL FINLAND ESITTÄÄ – PRESENTS

III – NÄYTÖS/SCREENING - 3PM – FILMS 100MIN

TERVETULIAISPUHEET

VALMISTUNEIDEN KUKITUS

PÄÄTTÄMÄTTÖMIEN NAISTEN TUNNUSTUKSIA (Confessions of Undecided Women) animation/documentary, 2024, dir. Milja Härkönen, MA film, 20’ - AA: Fantastic psychedelic animated flower imagery (see poster graphics above) is in evidence from the beginning. The theme is the hardest decision: whether to have children and when? The soundtrack is documentary. The visual expression is a fireworks in a wide range of animation. From angry talking wombs to a literally imagined population explosion. Mind-blowing in every sense. *

ARCTURUS documentary, 2024, dir. Tuisku Lehto, MA film 26’ - AA: A nature experience, based on documentary observation but expanding into naivist, psychedelic directions.

KONEEN KIRJOITTAMA (Written by AI) documentary, 2024, dir. Ada Johnsson, Siiri Halko, MA film, 25’ - AA: There was a thunderstorm of laughter in the cinema. I cannot remember when I have laughed so much. An experimental film in the scientific sense. The screenplays of 25 of the most popular Finnish films (from Heinähattu ja Vilttitossu to The Unknown Soldier) were fed to the computer, which produced new screenplays based on them. The result is an absurdity of a new kind. It does not make sense, but it fails even to make nonsense in the familiar ways of Monty Python or Eugène Ionesco, because a human context is absent. But it is meaningless in a new way. The hilariousness is doubled by the deadpan presence of four leading IT experts and the actors' dedication to read the dialogue which has no basis in human psychology. --- Personally, I find "AI" the biggest bubble in post-WW history. Intelligence can never be artificial. Those who speak about "AI" misunderstand the human mind. The computer will never pass the Turing test. These are still mere imitation games and will always be. - This movie is a juicy proof. No doubt information technology will develop to completely new levels. But I predict the absurdity can never be surpassed. Nvidia & co. will have to find a new line of business if they want to avoid the fate of the dot-com bubble of 2000, the subprime mortgage crash of 2008, the crypto crisis... etc. *

ERITYISEN IKÄVÄ PAIKKA (Special Kinda Bad Feeling) 2024, fiction, dir. Reeta Varpama, MA film, 20’ - AA: A musical, a romantic comedy, theme song "Huomenna mä unohdan" ("Tomorrow I Will Forget"). It is about the dating game in today's world, mixing online and real time dating. Nonlinear, it moves in different time frames. Most importantly, it moves in the dream horizons where good musicals and love affairs exist.

ELO Spring Show: the latest student films by ELO Film School Finland II

The poster image is from the opening imagery of: Milja Härkönen: Päättämättömien naisten tunnustuksia / Confessions of Undecided Women (FI 2024).

ELO KEVÄTNÄYTÖS

Bio Rex Lasipalatsi (Mannerheimintie 22-24, Helsinki)

Friday 24.5.2024

ELO FILM SCHOOL FINLAND ESITTÄÄ – PRESENTS

II – NÄYTÖS/SCREENING – 1PM – FILMS – 67 MIN

REMEMBER ME FONDLY animation, 2024, dir. Amy Bruning, MA film, 12’ – AA: Animation growing from home movies and photos featuring fun with grandfather and grandmother. Pure joy.

TYÖN YÖSTÄ AUTONOMIAAN (From the Woes of Work to Autonomy) documentary, 2024, dir. Ilona Raivio, etude, 28’ - AA: Elements to an ambitious global survey about the future of work in capitalism - an occupied factory in Argentine - ecological farming in Greece - St. Vlome - Nürnberg - Järna. Ten points for the ambition.

ODOTTAJAT (The Wait) fiction, 2024, dir. Vilja Keskimäki, etude, 8’ - AA: Comedy, satire, farce. On a bus stop in the countryside, two young people offend everyone with their behaviour. Effective.

HEADREST animation, 2024, dir. Heta Okkonen, 3’, MA film, 3’ - AA: A reduced animation in line drawing mode - a dream, a bath, a threatening figure, blur in the eyes, head severed.

TAPE animation, 2024, dir. Hui Wing Ki Candace, MA film, 6’ - AA: A digital animation in watercolour mode. Starting from a sticky piece of tape, the action turns increasingly psychedelic. The sense of space if powerful, a hole opens to a black and white world.

MERENELÄVIÄ (Fish River Anthology) animation, 2024, dir. Veera Lamminpää, etude, 10’ - AA: A puppet animation with fish puppets. The scene: the fish counter of a grocery store. After the closing hour, the dead fish and seafood come alive. They start to move and perform musical production numbers. The song is hilarious, with fine performers, including Mari Rantasila. *

ELO Spring Show: the latest student films by ELO Film School Finland I

The poster image is from the opening imagery of: Milja Härkönen: Päättämättömien naisten tunnustuksia / Confessions of Undecided Women (FI 2024).

ELO KEVÄTNÄYTÖS

Bio Rex Lasipalatsi (Mannerheimintie 22-24, Helsinki)

Friday 24.5.2024

ELO FILM SCHOOL FINLAND ESITTÄÄ – PRESENTS

I – NÄYTÖS/SCREENING

- 10AM - FILMS 85 MIN

U.N.T.O animation, 2024, dir. Sonia Gran, BA minor Exercise, 2’ - AA: Sand animation. Excellent, stark, reduced, atavistic, primal visions, resonating on all most ancient traditions of visual expression, beyond art, before art, the spiral figures, resonating with ancient flower representations, metamorphoses. Enchanting score by Ville Heikki Väisänen. *

TIETYIN VARAUKSIN (Grain of Salt) animation, 2024, dir. Paula Aarniala, BA minor Exercise, 2’ - AA: Experimental animation, digital, simulating limited drawing, electronic soundscape. Drawn hands, morphing human figures, spinning figures. 

MORSIAN (The Bride) fiction, 2024, dir. Noa Korhonen & Vili Loikkanen, Course Exercise (Studiotyö), 3’ - AA: A lavish fragment in gorgeous period film / heritage film / costume film / melodrama style, a sample of excellence in mise-en-scène, cinematography, lighting, performances, costume design and make-up design.

MUISTOPUHE (Eulogy)  fiction, 2024, dir. Pinja Sormunen, Course Exercise (BA produktio), 10’ - AA: Drama about a daughter coming to terms with her mother at the mother's funeral. The daughter's monologue turns into a dialogue when the dead mother refuses to stay silent. Effective.

VAUVAKUUME (Baby Fever) fiction, 2024, dir. Severi Vilkko, Course Exercise (BA produktio), 9’ - AA: Another intergenerational drama. The devastation of pregnancy and childbirth, at the place of the grandmother-to-be. Nightmares about an insanely screaming baby and being left alone. Blood tracks on the carpet - real or hallucinated? Powerful, unfocused.

AMPHIBIA documentary, 2024, dir. Cyane Findji, MA film, 26’ - AA: Underwater explorations for an international research project, taking water samples in Furusund for the University of Stockholm. Coming to terms with a changing weather, including rainstorms. I love the underwater footage, but failed to make sense of the research subject.

The Making of a Japanese / Shogakko - sore wa chisana shakai

Ema Ryan Yamazaki: 小学校～それは小さな社会～ / Shogakko - sore wa chisana shakai / The Making of a Japanese (JP 2023).

小学校～それは小さな社会～/ Kouluvuosi Japanissa.
    JP/FI/US/FR © 2023 Cineric Creative / Pystymetsä Oy / Print du Jour. - PC (JP/US): Eric Nyari, Cineric Creative (Eric Nyari). - Cineric Creative and NHK present. - PC (FI): Pystymetsä Oy (Outi Rousu). - PC (FR): Print du Jour / Les Films du Balibari (Luc Martin-Gousset). - With the participation of Yle and France Télévisions.

    D+SC: Ema Ryan Yamazaki. Cin: Academy - colour. Colorist: Fumiro Sato. M: Päivi Takala, musicians: Päivi Takala and Pekka Nylund. S and mixing: Miikka Huttunen. ED: Ema Ryan Yamazaki.

    Ludwig van Beethoven: "An die Freude" / "Ode to Joy" / " 歓喜の歌 " from: 9. Sinfonie in d-Moll op. 125 (1824).

    Non-fiction.

    Loc: Tokyo 2021-2022.

    Language: Japanese.

    80 min

    World sales by Autlook.

    Festival premiere: 24 Oct 2023 Tokyo International Film Festival - distributed by Cineric Creative.

    13 March 2024 Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.

    Finnish premiere: 5 April 2024 - released by Pirkanmaan Elokuvakeskus.

    Viewed with Finnish subtitles only by Maikiko Lommi at Finnkino Kinopalatsi 3, Helsinki, Sunday 19 May 2024

Literal translation of the Finnish title Kouluvuosi Japanissa: [A School Year in Japan].

Motto: "Rakastavaa kurinpitoa" [Tender Discipline].

Motto: "Dokumenttielokuva haastaa suomalaisen peruskoulun" [A documentary film challenges the Finnish primary school] {elementary school, grade school, 小学校}.

Cineric Creative: " Located in one of Tokyo’s sprawling suburbs, Tsukado is one of the largest public elementary schools in Japan with nearly 1,000 students. In the nation’s unique educational system, children are tasked to run their own school in order to teach communal values and how to play one’s role in the group. Intimately capturing one school year from the perspective of 1st and 6th graders, The Making of a Japanese has the magic of childhood with precious moments of joy, tears, and discovery — as they learn the traits necessary to become part of Japanese society. "

Thessaloniki Documentary Festival: " Which are the distinct attributes sculpting the Japanese identity? What makes you Japanese? In order to figure out the answers, the British Japanese filmmaker closely follows 1st and 6th graders for one year at a public elementary school in Tokyo, as well as their teachers, unveiling how teachers and students interact and shape one another. The outbreak of the pandemic and its restrictions constitute just another controlling measure. The kids in Japan are after all forged by their homeland's culture through a strictly defined education process which is in pursuit, with unwavering focus, of the appropriate equilibrium between individual progress and harmony of the society as a whole. Offering a unique hybrid perspective, the filmmaker critically examines a culture that is equally familiar to her as it is foreign, while she peruses the school environment in terms of an industrial production plant, in which the raw materials for processing are the students. " —Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

Finnish logline: " Suomalaisen peruskoulun tilanne puhuttaa laajasti, mutta dokumenttielokuvia aiheesta ei vielä ole nähty. Tokiolaisen alakoulun lasten ja heidän opettajien kouluvuodesta kertova dokumenttielokuva Kouluvuosi Japanissa kuitenkin nostaa peilin myös suomalaisen peruskoulun eteen ja herättää kysymään miltä lastemme peruskoulu näyttää ja miten opettajat voivat? "

Finnish synopsis: " Empaattinen ja ajatuksia herättävä dokumenttielokuva Kouluvuosi Japanissa kertoo poikkeuksellisen intiimisti japanilaisesta peruskoulusta, jonka järjestelmä perustuu vanhaan sotilaskoulutukseen ja tiukkaan hierarkiaan. Lapset oppivat jo varhain hyviä tapoja, oppivat noudattamaan sääntöjä ja osoittamaan kunnioitusta, aivan erityisesti opettajia (’sensei’) kohtaan. "

" Taitava kuvausryhmä on saanut ainutlaatuisen sisäänpääsyn kouluun. Lapset ja opettajat ovat luontevia kameran edessä, ja välittävät koulutyön ilot ja surut. Koulun henkeä kuvastaa ilmaisu “rakastavaa kurinpitoa”. "

" Elokuva pohtii uniikin ja tiukan japanilaisen koulujärjestelmän ajanmukaisuutta, mutta erityisen vahvasti se osoittaa koulun merkityksen sen kasvattaessa lasta yhteisön jäseneksi. "

Japanese synopsis from Wikipedia: " 作品解説 ---  学校を「小さな社会」と位置付ける日本の教育制度。ある公立小学校の一年間を、1年生と6年生の目線で追う。教員の苦悩と子ども達の成長の先に見える日本の未来とは？" [ " Japan's educational system positions schools as "small societies." This film follows a year at a public elementary school from the perspective of first and sixth graders. What does the future of Japan look like beyond the struggles of teachers and the growth of children? " ]  

AA: Blogging about The Teachers' Lounge I registered a mini-wave of films about the school world in the spring season of 2024 (listed in the blog note linked above). Among them, Ema Ryan Yamazaki's The Making of a Japanese is the direct opposite to The Teachers' Lounge.

The Japanese school world is still traditional, and that tradition is in many ways original, based on a philosophy of individual responsibility in the constitution of society.

From the beginning, the children are invited to take responsibility in the social order by cleaning, arranging, greeting and interiorizing basic skills. 

There is discipline, but it is a kind, friendly and tender discipline. There are scenes of failure in heartbreaking sorrow and inconsolable crying. But if you fail, you try again. The teachers help you until you make it.

The Making of a Japanese means the making of a human as a considerate social being. Acting as a member of a group one learns to know oneself.

There was something oddly familiar to me in Ema Ryan Yamaguchi's film. In October 2002, in the lecture series of the Film Society of the Student Union of the University of Helsinki, I gave a lecture on the cinema of the Empire of Japan during WWII (1931-1947). I showed the oldest Japanese film in our collection, a nitrate print of Gendai Nippon: Kyoiku-hen / Glimpses of New Japan - Japanese Life Series . Children at School / Glimpses of Japan : Children at School (Shigeyoshi Suzuki, JP 1936, PC: TOA Hassei Eiga / TOA Sound News [TSN] on Japanese school education in 1936.* It was striking to register the young energy of the children submitted to military discipline. From the start, the children learned elements of the bushido code, which we saw put to practice in the main film of the evening, Yutaka Abe's Mojuru ozora / The Wild Eagles of Nippon (JP 1940), an ultra-militaristic celebration of kamikaze bravado.

In Ema Ryan Yamaguchi's film, the schoolmaster teaches the history of Japanese school education, still today based on military drill and strict hierarchy. After the fall of the Empire of Japan, the country and its education adapted to democracy, but essential elements of the ancient discipline remained. 

There is a paradox, and the Japanese-British director helps make sense of it. An important sequence is the earthquake alarm exercise. Japan is a country of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, fires and tidal waves called tsunamis. You must always be prepared.

During the making of this movie, the world endured an actual emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic. With education like this, the Japanese were certainly the best prepared people in the world.

This movie is not only a lesson about Japan but a lesson for us all on courtesy, taking other people into consideration, public order and cleanliness as a common calling. Not because we have to but because we want to.

The charming score evoking children's fantasy, imagination and sense of play has been composed by Pilvi Takala.

Rehearsals for a joint music project are a main subject in the later part of the movie. The composition: Beethoven's "Ode to Joy". Coincidentally, this year (2024), we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's 9th symphony to which it belongs. " It expresses a belief that arose during the Enlightenment: that music should be accessible and universal in style ", says The Economist in its 200th anniversary piece "Something for Everyone" (7 May 2024 online, 11 May 2024 in the print edition). [In The Economist, all articles are unsigned.]

The children are crying - those whose final year this is at the Tsukado School (one of the biggest in Japan). The teachers are crying, too.

It is a city movie, but there are excursions. Autumn colours and spring blossoms announce the changing of the seasons. In the background, Mount Fuji gives a perspective to eternity.

* I thank Mr. Petteri Kalliomäki for identifying this film which in 2002 was still unidentified.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM THE PRESS KIT:

10 kirjettä tulevaisuuteen / 10 Letters to the Future

Poikkeustila-ryhmä: 10 kirjettä tulevaisuuteen / 10 Letters to the Future (FI 2024). Ainu Kyrönseppä.

Poikkeustila-ryhmä: Anu Kuivalainen, Esa Illi, Sanna Liljander, Katja Gauriloff, Markku Heikkinen, Juho Reinikainen, Saara Helene Rawat, Susanna Helke, Sari Aaltonen, Pauliina Punkki, Jussi Rastas, Leena Kilpeläinen, Saija Mäki-Nevala, Timo Korhonen, Einari Paakkanen, Laura Rantanen, Terjo Aaltonen, Aija Salovaara, Niina Brandt, Mauri Lähdesmäki, Tuuli Teelahti, Saara Hakkarainen, Ville Tanttu, Tiina Meling, Larisa Rudolfson, Heli Pekkonen, Reetta Huhtanen, Kirsikka Paakkinen.

10 brev till framtiden / Ten Letters to the Future.

    FI 2024 © 2023 BonsaiFilms Oy. P: Saara Helene Rawat, Anu Kuivalainen.

    D: Poikkeustila-ryhmä : Anu Kuivalainen, Esa Illi, Sanna Liljander, Katja Gauriloff, Markku Heikkinen, Juho Reinikainen, Saara Helene Rawat, Susanna Helke, Sari Aaltonen, Pauliina Punkki, Other Managers, Jussi Rastas, Leena Kilpeläinen, Saija Mäki-Nevala, Timo Korhonen, Einari Paakkanen, Laura Rantanen, Terjo Aaltonen, Aija Salovaara, Niina Brandt, Mauri Lähdesmäki, Tuuli Teelahti, Saara Hakkarainen, Ville Tanttu, Tiina Meling, Laura Rudolfson, Heli Pekkonen, Reetta Huhtanen & Kirsikka Paakkinen.

    SC: Anu Kuivalainen, Saara Helene Rawat, Markku Heikkinen, Susanna Helke, Esa Illi. Cin: Saija Mäki-Nevala, Esa Illi, Katja Gauriloff, Sanna Liljander, Theofanis Kavvadas, Sari Aaltonen F.S.C, Heikki Färm F.S.C., Pekka Uotila F.S.C., Saara Helene Rawat, Leena Kilpeläinen, Janne Niskala, Jussi Rastas, Emi Linnakoski, Laura Rantanen, Aarju Aalam, Tero Hanski. M: Sanna Salmenkallio. S: Olli Huhtanen. ED: Katja Pällijeff F.C.E.

    Non-fiction.

    Featuring: Malmin peruskoulun aikakapselihanke [Malmi Primary School Time Capsule Project], Ainu Kyrönseppä, Minna Hankaniemi, Ilari Hämäläinen, Jalvvi Niillas Holmberg, Christoffer Weiss.

    Languages: Finnish, English, Hindi, Sami.

    66 min

    Festival premiere: 1 Feb 2023 DocPoint.

    Finnish premiere: 17 May 2024 - released by BonsaiFilms Oy (theatrical) and Yle Areena (online)

    Telepremiere: 7 June 2024 Yle TV1

    Viewed at Finnkino Kinopalatsi 10, Swedish subtitles only / svensk text Monica Ödahl Åminne, Saturday 18 May 2024

[Poikkeustila-ryhmä = Emergency Team.]

Logline: " 10 Letters to the Future is a documentary film about people living in a time of global crises, wondering what the future will be like in over fifty years from now. "

Official synopsis: " 10 Letters to the Future documentary film is a mid-term review in a world of intertwined crises. A jigsaw puzzle, a kaleidoscope that allows for a polyphonic debate in society. It started as a collective effort at a time when everything stopped. The reality of global states of emergency pierced everything we took for granted, and made many people reassess their lives in a new light. What happened to us and what kind of future do we want to be heading for? A virus researcher, a climate activist, a policy researcher and anti-vaxxer protesters see the future challenges of our society in a very different light. When the virus controlled the world, schoolchildren started to collect letters that will be encapsulated in a wooden case built by students, to be opened in over 50 years. The main characters in the documentary write their letters, address their loved ones or someone unknown in the future, creating a space for the viewer to take a breather. "

A word from the director - Poikkeustila-ryhmä: " We set out to make a film in the midst of the COVID crisis, but soon the need arose to look at this  historic moment more closely and further away. We wanted to see in a deeper and different way something this time has revealed about us. "

" With our film, we aim to look beyond the acute problems of this crisis, towards other issues that  challenge our time, such as the climate change. The time of COVID has been not only a global health catastrophe, but also a crisis testing the foundations of societies. In the fear and anxiety caused by the crisis, have the forces that sow anti-science and irrational conspiracy theories and undermine the

foundations of democracy further strengthened and taken hold of the future to which the main characters of the film are writing their letters? "

" Or will we find new ways of living together globally? Finnish society got off quite lightly. Is there something valuable in our society, something worth preserving, that helped us survive this reasonably well? What has this lifeless virus reminded us of? The world stopped, but just for a moment. Is now the time to turn the future around? "

AA: 10 Letters to the Future was made by the Poikkeustila-ryhmä [Emergency Team] of  29 directors during the COVID-19 pandemic, the outbreak of which was declared on 11 March 2020 as a public health emergency of international concern. Its festival premiere was on 1 February 2023 at the DocPoint in Helsinki. The theatrical release is this weekend.

It is a cross-section film about the Finnish society meeting its biggest emergency since the Second World War. Our Lapland War ended on 27 April 1945, 81 years ago. (We fought three separate wars in WWII.) The present film is a message to the future, but it includes reflections about the memory work of the past. We learn that the generation which endured the Lapland War, where the Wehrmacht subjected Lapland to scorched earth policy, did not want to dwell on the horrors. All energy was focused on building the future.

We see typical scenes from the pandemic years - a little girl's remote birthday party - Sanna Marin providing crisis communication - drone footage of deserted streets in Helsinki - borders closed in Lapland - discrimination: some thrive in remote work, others, such as musicians, are prevented from work - Parliament debates - a COVID-19 victim struggling for his life in a life-support machine - a Finnish-Indian family suffering from the travel ban - demonstrations against the ban of public gatherings of over 10 people.

A central subject is the project of a class at Malmi Primary School (Helsinki) to collect a time capsule in a wooden treasure chest to be archived at the SKS [Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura / Finnish Literature Society] to be opened in 50 years. 

The scope of the movie expands from the pandemic to other existential crises - the 2007-2008 financial crisis whose reverberations still linger heavily with us - the complicity of traditional political movements, losing their legitimacy - giving room to populism - ecocatastrophe - and the return of militarist geopolitics in Europe.

Like in Havumetsän lapset / Once Upon a Time in a Forest (Virpi Suutari, FI 2024), we visit demonstrations of the Extinction Rebellion / Elokapina movement. Why are the young people stopping the traffic and disturbing everyday life? "Because there is hope". "For the love of life".

The topic could not be better. But this pandemic film is also a pandemic victim. There is a lack of an irresistibly engrossing drive, what I have been calling the "pandemic-phlegmatic syndrome". 

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM THE PRESS KIT:

Hammarskjöld / Hammarskjöld: Fight for Peace

Per Fly: Hammarskjöld / Hammarskjöld: Fight for Peace (SE 2023) starring Mikael Persbrandt.

Hammarskjöld.

    SE/NO/DK © 2023 Unlimited Stories AB. P: Patrick Ryborn.

    D: Per Fly. SC: Ulf Ryberg, Per Fly. Cin: John Christian Rosenlund - TRIBE7 BLACKWING7 prime lenses - scope - 4K - DCP. PD: Niels Sejer. AD: Thomas Gubb. Set Dec: Louise Drake, Birrie le Roux. Cost: Karen Fabritius Gram, Pierre Vienings. Makeup: Mia Joksimovic. SFX: Doug Hardy. VFX: Alex Hansson. M: Raymond Enoksen. Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings (1936). S: Hans Møller. ED: Fredrik Morheden. Casting: Shakyra Dowling.

    C: Mikael Persbrandt (Dag Hammarskjöld), Francis Chouler (Bill Ranalla), Richard Brake (Hunter), Sara Soulié (Hanna), Hakeem Kae-Kazim (Moise Tshombe), Cian Barry (Wieschhoff), Colin Salmon (Ralph Bunche), Adam Neill (Lord Lansdowne), Celine Tshika (Ruth Tshombe), Thure Lindhardt (Peter Levin), Sanna Sundqvist (Greta Beskow), Mattias Nordkvist (Bo Beskow), Sven Ahlström (Sture Linnér), Edvin Endre (young Dag Hammarskjöld), Jordan Duvigneau (Patrice Lumumba), Michael D. Xavier (Hellemans), Martin Venter (Renard), Mattias Nordkvist (Bo Beskow), Zak Rowlands (Baldini), Sven Ahlsgröm (Sture Linnér), Bjorn Steinbach (Lone Ranger), Brian Caspe (Shelton), Seán Duggan (Conor O'Brien), Vasili Mishchenko (Nikita Khrushchev), Caspar Phillipson (John F. Kennedy), Christophe Guybet (Bloock), Urs Rechn (Kirov), David James (Congo Red).

    Loc: mostly South Africa (Cape Town, Johannesburg), New York City, Trollhättan, Österlen, Norway.

    Languages: English (main), Swedish, French.

    114 min

    World distribution: Beta Cinema.

    Swedish premiere: 25 Dec 2023 - distributor: Nordisk Film AB.

    Nominated for seven awards at the Guldbagge Gala in 2024.

    Festival premiere: 27 Jan 2024 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

    Finnish premiere: 17 May 2024 - released by Nordisk Film - Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Arja Sundell / Charlotte Elo.

    Viewed at Finnkino Kinopalatsi 9, Helsinki, Saturday, 18 May 2024.

BETA CINEMA: ABOUT THE FILM 

" Based on historical facts and including the results of the most recent investigations, this political thriller puts one of mankind’s most respected diplomats into the limelight. Dag Hammarskjöld has shaped international politics, led the very first blue helmet mission, and is considered the man who ended colonization. John F. Kennedy once called Hammarskjöld “the greatest statesman of our century”. "

 

" Director and screenwriter Per Fly (Backstabbing For Beginners, The Bench) alternates thriller, action and personal drama, also following a personal storyline that shows a private, faithful man, who in the late 50s and early 60s saw no possibility to follow his sexual orientation. A politician with a strong personality and uncompromising moral stance, who sacrificed his life for peace and the good of all. Indeed, he turned his longings and learnings into highly respected poetry. Until today, the posthumously published collection of poetry Markings is considered a moving spiritual classic: "Perhaps the greatest testament of personal devotion published in this century." (The New York Times).  "

   

BETA CINEMA LOGLINE 

" Based on a true story. Dag Hammarskjöld has reached the peak of his power, serving as Secretary General of the United Nations during the height of the Cold War. However, his life is turned upside down when an old friend shows up in New York. At the same time, he tries to make peace in the Congo, an undertaking that proves to be mission impossible. "

 

BETA CINEMA SYNOPSIS 

" In 1961, Dag Hammarskjöld has one year left as Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Cold War is at its peak, and its epicenter is the newly formed Democratic Republic of Congo. Hammarskjöld takes it upon himself to create a unified and peaceful nation out of the chaos left behind by Belgium. At the same time Hammarskjöld’s life is turned upside down when an old friend unexpectedly shows up in New York. He realizes that he has missed out on an important part of life – and that it might be too late. This throws him into a battle between his sense of duty to the United Nations and a true friendship. In the Congo, UN peacekeepers are killed in open battle by mercenaries paid for by the mining industry, which is conspiring against Hammarskjöld’s plans for national unity. In September 1961, he boards a plane in the Congo in a final desperate attempt to resolve the conflict, unknowingly embarking on the most dangerous journey of his life. "

  

PER FLY: DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

 

Pray that your loneliness 

may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.

- Dag Hammarskjöld 

  

" This short poem that Dag Hammarskjöld wrote in 1952 captures the core of his character: his loneliness, his wish for a meaningful life - and death - as a fulfillment of the plan God made for him. I have been fascinated by this mysterious character for years. "

" Dag Hammarskjöld was the second Secretary-General of the newly founded United Nations. A highly skilled diplomat, Kennedy called him the greatest statesman ever. He was a fearless idealist who wanted a strong UN based on the recently established concept of human rights. His goal was to create an international society in which all countries would work together towards a better world for all. World peace in our time. "

" He lived in an enormous apartment in Upper Manhattan with his butler Rolf and his beloved pet monkey Mr. Greenback. An extensive collection of poems that he had written over the course of his lifetime was found after his death. Nobody had known about them. In his own words, these poems are the one and only key to the truth about his life. Dag Hammarskjöld was very secretive about everything regarding his personal life, which led to a lot of speculations about his sexuality. In a time when homosexuality was illegal, allegations of homosexuality could serve as weapons in the political wars. He suffered two smear campaigns during his time in office. "

" When he launched the UN’s ambitious de-colonization program in late 1959, he initiated a fight with the most powerful forces in the world, and the last nine months of his life became a thrilling drama about greed, violence, and longing, played out in the frightening world of the Cold War, where the killing of politicians was just a part of normal affairs. "

Adrian Martin (IFFR 2024): " “In our age, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action”. So wrote the revered Swedish statesman Dag Hammarskjöld in Markings, his private journal of poems and thoughts published posthumously. In his period as Secretary General of the United Nations, Hammarskjöld made extraordinary progress in defusing global conflicts and, particularly, combating colonialism. This path, which he defended tenaciously, won him many enemies. When renewed trouble broke out in the Congo, Hammarskjöld felt compelled to organise a quasi-secret peacekeeping force, placing even his UN position in question. "

" Hammarskjöld was not merely a solitary person, but also an enigmatic one. Biographers continue to argue over the facts of his life and psychology, but director Per Fly takes a definite stance on his subject. As powerfully portrayed by Mikael Persbrandt (who already played the part in The Siege of Jadotville, dir. Richie Smith,  2016), Hammarskjöld is someone who denied his gay sexuality partly because of an almost religious commitment to his political role and the personal sacrifice it demanded. Likewise, this gripping biopic does not equivocate on the still disputed matter of Hammarskjöld’s tragic death in a plane crash. " – Adrian Martin

AA: The Swedish nobleman Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961), the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, was the successor of the Norwegian Trygve Lie who warned him about "the most impossible job in the world". Hammarskjöld was a leading Swedish economist, a secretary of Sweden's central bank, state secretary in the Ministry of Finance, his country's delegate at the conference that established the Marshall Plan and his father's successor in the Swedish Academy. Known as an "aristo-bureaucrat", he never joined a political party.

Hammarskjöld landed in the middle of decolonization - a global transformation after the Second World War. The Age of Empire ended. Decolonization went on for decades, until 1974 Portugal's Carnation Revolution. Massive turbulence, such as India's independence movement, emerged everywhere. Hammarskjöld helped negotiate the release of 15 American soldiers imprisoned in China after the Korean War. He helped in conflicts in Palestine, Israel and Cambodia. He received a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize in 1961.

Per Fly's film focuses on the year 1961 during the Congo's struggle of liberation from colonialism. The Belgian Congo was a colony until its independence in 1960. In the 19th century it had been the private property of Leopold II, King of the Belgians, under circumstances made legendary by Heart of Darkness (1899) by Joseph Conrad based on his own first hand observations. The Republic of the Congo (1960-1964) was established - with Patrice Lumumba (1960) as the first Prime Minister. A complication arose since French Congo (1882-1960) achieved independence at the same time, and the former Belgian and French Congos initially claimed the same name. Lumumba was an African nationalist and pan-Africanist. Belgian big business protected huge mining interests in Katanga. A breakaway State of Katanga was created under Moise Tshombe. Supported by Belgium and the United States, chief of staff of the army Mobutu arranged a coup d'état and the execution of the democratically elected Lumumba. The Lumumba story was the subject of Raoul Peck's stunning Lumumba, la mort du prophète (1991). Seeing the electrifying footage of Lumumba's harassment (also shown in Per Fly's film) was the turning-point for Souleymane Cissé in which he realized that cinema might be a medium for him: "Personne ne respirait. C'était un moment très fort".

In this minefield Hammarskjöld does his best to pursue justice. Nikita Khrushchev demands his resignation, but Hammarskjöld persists. He wants to prevent a Cold War proxy war and pushes the neutral UN Peacekeeping Force to pacify Congo but exceeds his authority. He is a brave leader unafraid of adversaries. But the US President John F. Kennedy, his admirer even in the cause of decolonization, strongly urges him to secure wide support before proceeding.

Per Fly with his charismatic leading actor Mikael Persbrandt creates a magnificent epic based on reality in the outline and artistic liberty in much of the detail and the cast of characters. The big picture seems fair and authentic. The portrait of Dag Hammarskjöld is powerful and meaningful. It takes a special character to deal both with superpowers and all others and get results.

Hammarskjöld is a man of the world. He is also a loner who lives like a monk. I don't believe in this film's interpretation of repressed homosexuality. I believe that Hammarskjöld's lineage in nobility is a more essential feature, as well as his Christian faith. I believe that Hammarskjöld saw himself as a crusader for peace. I think he incarnated the motto "noblesse oblige". Born into privilege in many ways, he does his best to pay back his debt of honour. His personal philosophy is clear in his only book Vägmärken / Waymarks (1963), published posthumously.

Hammarskjöld is a world-historical character and sees himself so. But a human being needs to be a complete personality with emotional relationships and bonds beyond the official and professional. As a star negotiator Hammarskjöld could not thrive and succeed without a strong emotional ground. In his calling as UN Secretary-General he needs to stay away from conflicts of interest and private traps that might disqualify and jeopardize his integrity and prestige - his main assets. This is the great tragic conflict at the heart of the movie.

I thank Per Fly for a rewarding film. I don't know about the production circumstances but I feel that the film might be a victim of the "pandemic-phlegmatic curse" and might have turned more energetic and engrossing in regular conditions.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM THE BETA CINEMA PRESS KIT FOR ROTTERDAM:

Dag Hammarskjöld: Vägmärken / Waymarks (a book of poetry)

Dag Hammarskjöld: Vägmärken [Waymarks]. His only book was published posthumously in 1963. The first English translation (Markings, 1964) was by Leif Sjöberg and W. H. Auden. The Finnish translation Kiinnekohtia (1964) was by Sinikka Kallio.

Vägen, 

du skall följa den.

Lyckan,

du skall glömma den.

Kalken,

du skall tömma den.

Smärtan,

du skall dölja den.

Svaret,

du skall lära det.

Slutet,

du skall bära det.

...

The way,

You shall follow it.

Success,

You shall forget it.

The cup,

You shall empty it.

The pain,

You shall conceal it.

The answer,

You shall learn it.

The end,

You shall endure it.

6. 601203 

[The last of the six waymarks in 1960 - 3 December 1960.]

© Albert Bonniers Förlag AB 1963

© Bernhard Erling 1982 (Translation), 1987 (A Reader’s Guide to Dag Hammarskjöld's Waymarks)

ISBN 978-0-9602240-3-6

St. Peter, Minnesota 56082

...

Tie,

se tulee seurata.

Onni,

sen voit unohtaa.

Kalkki -

viime pisaraan.

Tuska -

syvään piiloita.

Vastaus

tulee oppia.

Loppu

hyvin kohdata.

Translated by the composer Einojuhani Rautavaara.

Einojuhani Rautavaara: Dag Hammarskjöld: Vägmärken - pp. 144-146 in the anthology: Maarit Tyrkkö (ed.): Tätä runoa en unohda [This Poem I Shall Not Forget] - 101 Finnish lovers of poetry selected their favourite poem. Helsinki: Otava, 1977.

Following

Christopher Nolan: Following (GB 1998). Alex Haw as Cobb.

Following / Following.

    GB © 1998 Christopher Nolan. Production company: Next Wave Films. Produced by: Christopher Nolan, Jeremy Theobald, Emma Thomas.

    Directed by Christopher Nolan

Written by Christopher Nolan

Cinematography  Christopher Nolan - 16 mm - b&w - Academy

Music by David Julyan

Edited by Gareth Heal, Christopher Nolan

    Cast

Jeremy Theobald as The Young Man Bill / Daniel Lloyd

Alex Haw as Cobb

Lucy Russell as The Blonde

John Nolan as The Policeman

Dick Bradsell as The Bald Guy

Gillian El-Kadi as Home Owner

Jennifer Angel as Waitress

Nicolas Carlotti as Barman

Darren Ormandy as Accountant

    Budget $6,000

    Box office $126,052

    70 min

    Distributed by Momentum Pictures

Release dates:

    24 April 1998 (San Francisco)

    5 November 1999 (United Kingdom)

    Finnish premiere: 10 May 2024 - Syncopy logo - released by ELKE - Finnish subtitles (only) by Sami Siitojoki.

    DCP viewed at Kinopalatsi 9, Helsinki, Saturday, 11 May 2024

IMDb synopsis : " A young writer who follows strangers for material meets a thief who takes him under his wing. "

AA: On the occasion of the Finnish premiere of Following and in memory of David Bordwell I read the e-book Christopher Nolan: A Labyrinth of Linkages (2013, second edition 2019 free online) by David Bordwell with Kristin Thompson. Recommended! In his late work Bordwell was at his best.

I admire Christopher Nolan as a representative of the industrial-architectural school of film-making like James Cameron and Stanley Kubrick. It requires rare ability and talent to make global blockbusters with a personal signature and commitment. Never more than now when world cinema is in its biggest crisis and it has never been more difficult to make personal work on the highest budget echelon. In the middle of the pandemic Nolan achieved that twice, with Tenet and Oppenheimer.

These are my first impressions of Following, Christopher Nolan's debut feature film, which I saw for the first time.

Following reminds me of the early low budget work of Anthony Mann, Richard Fleischer and Stanley Kubrick. Circumstances are limited, but spirit is unbounded. There is true drive and a cinematic passion.

Following is already a family affair, with Emma Thomas as a producer partner and uncle John Nolan among the cast (as the policeman in the beginning and the end).

As analyzed by Bordwell & Thompson, Following is already an exercise in the nonlinear narrative like most of Nolan's movies. Timelines are twisted, and only towards the end we begin to make sense of the fabula. Bordwell & Thompson register four timelines of which three are crosscut.

The mystery of the timelines is not a merely formal device. Nolan's movies are time-plays with an experimental and philosophical dimension. Oppenheimer is a movie about quantum physics and the theory of relativity. Time is a key theme and subject in Nolan's films from Following till Oppenheimer.

Shot by Nolan himself on 16 mm stock in black and white Academy, Following is visually stark and original. It turns into a gangster movie of the hard-boiled school, but it begins as a study in urban solitude, in the classic tradition of Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Man of the Crowd" (1840). It is full of intriguing details, often covered in close-ups. The meanings of many details are gradually revealed during the non-linear course of the movie. Other details are just fun to register, like the Batman logo on the door, and the Mark Rothko exhibition poster.

Following is often called a film noir, a term I hesitate to use about films after Touch of Evil (1958). Now thinking about Nolan's oeuvre from Following till Oppenheimer, I find the connection relevant to all his movies, including in his apocalyptic Batman movies. In the conclusion of The Dark Knight Rises a neutron bomb is detonated. For me, film noir is poetry after Auschwitz, a poetic expression of the cosmic dread manifested in the Second World War, including Hiroshima. A sense of metaphysical agony on streets dark with something more than night. I would not call Nolan's movies films noir, but I would not start an argument if someone did.

Among the cast, I am struck by Lucy Russell who gives an unpredictable interpretation as the femme fatale. It was also her debut feature film, the start of an interesting career. Next she starred in Éric Rohmer's L'Anglaise et le duc - as L'Anglaise. Read Lucy Russell's Mini Bio in the IMDb - written by herself.

Within a week, I have seen two movies about burglary, breaking and entering, not (only) to steal, but to secretly inhabit the home of someone else (the previous one was Paradise Is Burning). Steven Zaillian's Ripley TV series (US 2024, starring Andrew Scott) has inspired discussions about the topical interest in faking the identity of the well-off or secretly inhabiting his place like in Parasite. It is a subject also in Following, but it turns out to be a subplot and cover story for crimes more brutal.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM WIKIPEDIA:

Une belle course / Driving Madeleine

 

Christian Carion: Une belle course / Driving Madeleine (FR/BE 2022). Line Renaud (Madeleine Keller) and Dany Boon (Charles Kaufman).

Madeleinen Pariisi / Madeleine och taxichauffören.

    FR/BE © 2022 Une Hirondelle Productions - Pathé Films - TF1 Films Production - Artémis Productions. Associated Co-PC: Bright Lights Films - Kobayashi Communication. Production : Laure Irrmann et Christian Carion. Coproducteurs : Ardavan Safaee et Patrick Quinet. Associate producers : Marie de Cenival, Laurent Bruneteau et Thomas Bruxelle. Executive producer: Stéphane Riga.

    Fiche technique

Réalisation : Christian Carion

Screenplay and dialogue : Cyril Gély - adaptation : Christian Carion.

Photographie : Pierre Cottereau - couleur

Décors : Chloé Cambournac

Costumes : Agnès Noden

Musique : Philippe Rombi

Son : Pascal Jasmes, François Maurel, Thomas Desjonquères, Thomas Gauder.

Montage : Loïc Lallemand

Casting : Gigi Akoka

    Distribution:

Dany Boon : Charles

Line Renaud : Madeleine

Alice Isaaz : Madeleine, jeune

Jérémie Laheurt-Fine : Ray

Julie Delarme : Karine

Gwendoline Hamon : Denise

Elie Kaempfen : Matt

Thomas Alden : Mathieu

Hadriel Roure : Mathieu, jeune

Jacques Courtès : Daniel

Carl Laforêt : l'automobiliste impatient

Christophe Rossignon : le président du tribunal

    Budget : 7,94 millions d'euros

Langue originale : français

Genre : comédie dramatique, road movie

91 min

    Dates de sortie :

France : août 2022 (festival d'Angoulême - film d'ouverture) - Société de distribution : Pathé Distribution (France)

Canada : septembre 2022 (festival de Toronto)

France : 21 septembre 2022

Finlande : 15 mars 2024 - Cinema Mondo - Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Outi Kainulainen / Joanna Erkkilä.

    Viewed at Maxim 2, Helsinki, Saturday 11 May 2024

Synopsis from the press kit: " Madeleine, 92 years old, calls a taxi to take her to the retirement home where she will be living. Charles, a disillusioned driver with a tender heart, agrees to drive by the places that affected Madeleine’s life. Through the streets of Paris, her extraordinary past is revealed. They don’t know it yet, but they will forge a friendship during this drive that will change their lives forever. "

AA: At first sight, Christian Carion's Driving Madeleine is a piece of feelgood entertainment, based on surefire ingredients: - the star pair Line Renaud and Dany Boon, acting together also in Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (Welcome to the Sticks, FR 2008, D: Dany Boon), the highest grossing French film of all time - a wonderful sightseeing tour of Paris full of beloved landmarks - the improbable friendship between a male driver and an elderly lady like in Driving Miss Daisy - soundtrack spiced with nostalgic international crossover hits by Dinah Washington and Etta James - the grudging taxi driver and the procrastinating lady ending up having the time of their lives - the taxi driver never charging for the round-the-clock ride, instead inviting the lady to dinner before the destination - but with a fairy-tale envelope from Madeleine's lawyer at the cemetery.

From this angle, Driving Madeleine delivers, and it is reportedly a pioneering technical achievement. Most of the movie takes place inside the taxi, but it was entirely shot in the studio. Paris traffic is difficult / impossible anyway, and especially with a 92 year old star. The DP Pierre Cottereau covered the whole journey from every possible angle in advance and employed a new generation LED screen system of transparencies, 4K high definition L-shaped screens in all directions, including the sky, better than greenscreens, in which actors have to imagine the surroundings. The immersion was total, and actors felt like they were in a moving car, including in the collision with the kid on an electric scooter. For the viewer, Une belle course is a gratifying cinematic Paris tour. Having returned two weeks ago from the 11th arrondissement, I was happy to revisit Place de la République and Avenue Parmentier together with Line Renaud (Madeleine Keller) and Dany Boon (Charles Kaufman).

Inside the sightseeing trip and the fairytale narrative there is a tough core. Madeleine is a young woman when the occupation ends and Paris is liberated. There is a love affair with Matt, a G.I., and a son, Mathieu, abandoned by him. There is a husband, Ray, who turns violent to both Madeleine and Mathieu. Brutalizing and disgracing Mathieu is the last straw. Madeleine poisons Ray and torches him where it hurts most. Madeleine is convicted to a 25 year prison sentence by an all male jury (moderated to 13 due to good behaviour). Meanwhile, by 1968, her son Mathieu has grown to a man who condemns his mother because of whom he has been bullied all his life. He goes to Vietnam as a war photographer and returns in a coffin.

There is no soft-pedalling in this territory. The movie is a time travel in gender discrimination. In France, women got to vote in 1948, but Madeleine tells Charles «the fifties weren’t like today...» Women had to get their husbands’ permission to work or have access to household money. In a scene unplanned by the film-makers, Madeleine and Charles walk past a City of Paris poster with the face of Simone Veil - remembered for Loi Veil, legalizing abortion in France in 1975. In the press notes, Christian Carion estimates that although times have changed, issues of femicide and domestic violence are even more serious today, because there are men who revenge on women for equality.

Regarding the young Madeleine's life during the Occupation there is a visit to a courtyard with a commemorative plaque to three Resistance fighters shot on 7 October 1943, including Lucien Keller, Madeleine's father. If the characters Madeleine Keller and Charles Kaufman, are Jewish, this is the only clue besides their names. [The actor Dany Boon, whose father was an Algerian Muslim, converted to Judaism when he married Yaël Harris, and also his previous wife Judith Godrèche was Jewish. Boon has been active in fighting antisemitism]. The desolate reminder of the plaque challenges the viewer to reassess the escapism of the project.

The deeply felt and nuanced interplay of Line Renaud and Dany Boon is the greatest reward of Driving Madeleine. At age 92, Line Renaud is full of life, wit and energy. Dany Boon, France's most popular comic actor, proves how great a comedian can be in a serious part.

 
BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM THE PRESS KIT:

Havumetsän lapset / Once Upon a Time in a Forest

Virpi Suutari: Havumetsän lapset / Once Upon a Time in a Forest (FI 2024) with Ida Korhonen, activist in Metsäliike (bringing together members of Elokapina, Greenpeace and Luontoliitto).

Barrskogens barn.

    FI 2024 Euphoria Film Oy. P: Virpi Suutari & Martti Suosalo.

    D+SC: Virpi Suutari. Cin: Teemu Liakka, Jani Kumpulainen F.S.C. - 1:2,39 and 4:3, 25 fps. M Sanna Salmenkallio. S: Olli Huhtanen. ED: Jussi Rautaniemi F.C.E. 

    Non-fiction.

    Featuring:

- Ida Korhonen on 23-vuotias ympäristöaktivisti ja metsätieteiden opiskelija.

- Minka Virtanen on 29-vuotias aktivisti, joka joka toimii useissa eri ruohonjuuritason liikkeissä ja isommissa järjestöissä.

- Otto Snellman on 29-vuotias yhteiskunnallisesti aktiivinen filosofian väitöskirjatutkija.

- Ville Murmann on 35-vuotias Luontoliiton metsäryhmän kartoituskoordinaattori, joka selvittää metsien luontoarvoja.

- Otso Piitulainen on 21-vuotias ympäristötieteiden opiskelija, jota kiinnostaa yhteiskunnallinen vaikuttaminen.

    Inspired by: Juha Kauppinen: Heräämisiä - kuinka minusta tuli luonnonsuojelija (2021).

    92 min

Festival premiere: CPH:DOX, Copenhagen, 16 March 2024.

Finnish premiere: 28 March 2024 - B-Plan Distribution.

    Viewed with Finnish subtitles for the hard-of-hearing at Kinopalatsi 4, Helsinki, Saturday 11 May 2024.

Literal translations of the Finnish title: "Children of the Taiga", "Children of the Conifer Forest".

MUBI synopsis: " Biodiversity and generation gaps collide in a politically urgent and thoughtful film about two young activists' fight to save the vast Finnish forests. Is it still civil disobedience when you know you have both history and the future on your side? "

    " Ida and Minka share a boundless love for the Finnish forests and a deep respect for nature. But not everyone agrees. The two young environmentalists demonstrate against deforestation and eventually win a seat at the table with the older, bearded men that represent the powerful giants of the timber industry. But one thing is the industry, another thing entirely is to convince your own grandfather, who has spent a lifetime clearing and planting trees, that wild nature means everything to biodiversity and to the future of the planet. The gaps between generations are deep, the climate fight is also a cultural struggle. Fortunately, Finnish filmmaker Virpi Suutari has an eye for more than bitter conflicts and hard fronts, and with commendable humanity (and a dose of understated humour) she has created that great film about nature, the future and the climate that the world has been waiting for – nothing less. And in the spirit of its young activists, it is also a beautiful and thoughtful tribute to nature itself, with tadpoles and flying squirrels as witnesses to the great human drama. " (MUBI synopsis)

Synopsis from the press dossier: " Palkitun Virpi Suutarin uusi elokuva Havumetsän lapset pöllyttää raikkaalla tavalla käsityksiämme metsistä ja niiden suojelusta. Elokuvan nuoret päähenkilöt Ida, Minka, Otto, Ville ja Otso haluavat pelastaa Suomen metsät. Vastassaan heillä on metsäteollisuus ja kansallinen ideologia metsistä taloudellisen hyvinvoinnin perustana. Ovatko nuoret sankareita vai isänmaan pettureita puolustaessaan jäkäliä ja katoamassa olevia hömötiaisia? Suutarin humaani metsäkertomus kuljettaa katsojansa lumoavalle luontomatkalle vanhojen havupuiden suojasta Aalistunturin huipulle, selluteollisuuden kabineteista Idan isoisä Taunon, entisen metsätyömiehen, kotisohvalle. Suomen ja suomalaisuuden kuvaajana ansioituneen Suutarin (mm. Aalto, Eedenistä pohjoiseen) elokuva ravistelee kohtaamaan hupenevan metsäluontomme kauneuden ja hädän. "

AA: There can be no more important theme than the one discussed by Virpi Suutari in Havumetsän lapset.

It is about Extinction Rebellion. The movement's eloquent Finnish title is Elokapina ["Life Rebellion". "Elo" is short for "Elämä" (Life), as even in "Elokuva" ("Life Image"), Finnish for "movie / film / cinema"].

It is about generation rebellion - the young desperate about the future of life on Earth. A matter of life and death. We the older generations are living like there is no tomorrow. For the young it is a question of whether there is a life span worth living and raising a new generation anymore.

They are powerless, they lack the weight of experience and the skill of argumentation that the forest industry behemoths possess. David vs. Goliath.

We have always known and accomplished much, but far from enough. Personally, born in 1955, as soon as I could understand, I became aware. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring appeared in 1962 and was published in Finnish the year after.

Suutari excels in pantheistic passages of sublime Lapland. I have never seen more breathtaking nature images, including underwater footage of swimming in Lapland's icy lakes among the perches and the pikes (photographed by the underwater cinematographer wizard Teemu Liakka).

The passages of Elokapina demonstrations are vivid and memorable. There are also historical inserts of the 1979 Koijärvi Movement and the 1991 strikes of civil disobedience.

A formidable theme of the philosophy of law is involved. The young are fighting for their right to live. We who do nothing are putting their lives in danger.

A novel twist in Suutari's movie is the drive towards dialogue: - in encounters with the forest industry - with the Centre Party (Suomen Keskusta), the main voice of the people in the countryside - and with the police and the forest rangers.

Suutari's drive is against polarizing clickbaits. The young actively seek dialogue. The powers-that-be treat them with respect, without condescension. But they speak with the voice of authority. They make promises, but is anything changing in the big picture?

The trouble is, you don't win elections with green promises. You lose, and populists win, with even more devastating consequences. This has been the dilemma since the 1950s.

Havumetsän lapset is a document about a huge communication gap. It is not enough to know, to be right. The big challenge is to engage everybody, starting from the people of the countryside, the ones who really live in the nature, with the nature, close to nature, dramatized in the dialogue between Ida Korhonen the Elokapina activist and her grandfather Tauno from Savo, a former farmer and lumberjack who does not understand a word of what Ida is saying. The cliché of the hipster nature tourists from the city vs. the true people of the countryside must be superseded. Beloved narratives, even the Koijärvi legend, could be examined anew.

There is little time left. A new accent for me here is "Trauerarbeit" [surutyö / grief work / process of grieving / work of mourning]. There may be no future. We are left to celebrate "Die Ehre Gottes aus der Natur" [Jumalan kunnia luonnossa / The Divine Glory from Nature]

...

PS. I saw the movie in a screening with Finnish subtitles for the hard-of-hearing. I am grateful for the identifications of all the bird sounds.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM THE PRESS KIT:

Paradiset brinner / Paradise Is Burning

Mika Gustafson: Paradiset brinner / Paradise Is Burning (SE 2023). Bianca Delbravo (Laura), Dilvin Asaad (Mira) and Safira Mossberg (Steffi).

Siskoni.

    SE 2023 © Hob AB (Nima Yousefi) / Tuffi Films (Venla Hellstedt, Jenni Jauri) / ToolBox Film (Maria Stevnbak Westergren) / IntraMovies (Marco Valerio Fusco, Micaela Fusco). Country: Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Finland.

    Director: Mika Gustafson

Screenplay: Mika Gustafson, Alexander Öhrstrand

Cinematographer: Sine Vadstrup Brooker - Color | 1.78:1

Production Designer: Catharina Nyqvist Ehrnrooth

Costume Designer: Susse Roos

Make Up and Hair Designer: Kaisa Pätilä

Music: Giorgio Giampà

Sound designer: Gustaf Berger - 5.1 & Stereo 

Editor: Anders Skov

Casting director: Elin Ström

    Cast: Bianca Delbravo (Laura, 16), Dilvin Asaad (Mira, 12), Safira Mossberg (Steffi, 7), Ida Engvoll (Hanna), Mitja Sirén (Sasha), Marta Oldenburg (Zara), Alexander Öhrstrand (Hannas man), Isabella Kjellberg (Sandra).

    Film clip: Stalker (SU 1979).

    Language: Swedish

    108 min

    World Sales: Marco Valerio Fusco – Intramovies

    Festival premiere: 7 Sep 2023 Venice Film Festival - Orizzoni prize for best director Mika Gustafson - Authors under 40 Award for best screenwriting Mika Gustafson.

    Swedish premiere: 27 Oct 2023.

    Guldbagge Awards: Best Film (Nima Yousefi) - Best Production Design (Catharina Nyqvist Ehrnrooth) - Best Make-up (Kaisa Pätilä)

    Helsinki premiere: 19 April 2024 - Cinemanse - Finnish subtitles: Janne Kauppila.

    Viewed at Finnkino Kinopalatsi 8, Helsinki, Saturday 4 May 2023.

IMDb logline: " Three sisters aged 7 to 16, live alone after their mother vanishes for whole swathes of time. When the social services demand a family meeting, oldest sister Laura plans to find a stand in for their mother. "

Handling: " Filmen kretsar kring tre systrar, Laura, Mira och Steffi, i åldrarna 7 till 16 år. Eftersom deras mamma är borta under längre perioder, bor systrarna ofta ensamma. När socialtjänsten börjar ställa frågor och kräver ett möte med familjen, planerar äldsta syster Laura att hitta någon kan fungera som stand-in för mamman. För att inte oroa sina yngre syskon, håller hon sin plan hemlig. "

Handling (Svensk Filmdatabas): " Tre systrar, 7 till 15 år, lever ensamma. Mamman försvinner i perioder och det mesta av vardagslivet får systrarna lösa själva. När soc kräver ett familjemöte har den äldsta systern Laura en vecka på sig att hitta någon som kan spela mamman. I sitt sökande efter en låtsasmamma inleder Laura en relation med 35-åriga Hannah. Någonting som inte bara förändrar Laura, utan även situationen for systrarna. "

Synopsis (Venice): " In a working-class area of Sweden, sisters Laura (16), Mira (12) and Steffi (7), get by on their own, left to their own devices by an absent mother. With summer on the way and no parents around, life is wild and carefree, vivacious and anarchic. But when social services call a meeting, Laura has to find someone to impersonate their mom, or the girls will be taken into foster care and separated. Laura keeps the threat a secret, so as not to worry her younger sisters. But as the moment of truth draws closer, new tensions arise, forcing the three sisters to negotiate the fine line between the euphoria of total freedom and the harsh realities of growing up. "

Director's statement (Venice) : " Paradise Burning is a declaration of love to sisterhood. To those who know your story and made you who you are. A bond that’s stronger than everything else. A blessing and a curse all at the same time. For me the film is about the transience of time and life. About memories and reconciliation. I want to show what it’s like to be a human being in those moments when euphoric freedom lies cheek to cheek with total despair and the everyday humor in between. "

AA: In Paradise Is Burning, Mika Gustafson's debut fiction feature, the joy and the energy of Laura (16, Bianca Delbravo), Mira (12, Dilvin Asaad) and Steffi (7, Safira Mossberg) evoke Charlotte Regan's Scrapper (GB 2023), another contemporary tale of childhood lived in freedom, the sunny side of being abandoned by parents. But the story that Paradise Is Burning tells is different. It is about sisterhood, tenderly observed and deeply felt. 

It is a perilous life, because it involves finding ever changing ways to get by without money. Sneaking into vernissages of exhibitions for a maximal catch of cocktail snacks. Shoplifting elevated to an art form. Eating fish fingers after the best before date. Chronical lying to social service officers when failing to appear at school.

Laura has even become an expert burglar who breaks into apartments for a few hours of living the life of others, sometimes in luxury. The girls frequent private swimming pools while the inhabitants are away. This aspect of Paradise Is Burning is a poignant statement about the status of outcasts in a consumer society. It reminds me of Auli Mantila's excellent Ystäväni Henry / My Friend Henry (FI 2004). We are invited into the life of the unseen citizens of our society.

During one of these adventures, Laura meets Hanna (35, Ida Engvoll) into whose home she has broken and entered. Unexpectedly, their encounter turns into friendship and more: a tentative love affair. The account of Hanna's situation remains elliptic, but there is a man (Alexander Öhrstrand, also the co-screenwriter) and a baby. Laura's presence chases him away, and Hanna then turns Laura down. But before that Laura has initiated Hanna into her secret life in other people's apartments and taught her the tricks how to get in and out without drawing attention.

A deadline casts its shadow over the girls' existence. A social service officer is coming, and the clock is ticking. There is a clear and present danger that the sisters will be separated. Hanna does her best to find someone to impersonate their mother. The last candidate is Hanna. Laura's tryst with her has alienated her from her sisters. The doorbell rings.

A recurrent motif is a pack of stray dogs wandering in the neighbourhood. The dog from Stalker is glimpsed on television. But Mika Gustafson's vision is the opposite of Andrei Tarkovsky's dystopia thanks to her warm celebration of community against all odds.

I thank Simo Halinen for recommending Mika Gustafson's remarkable fiction feature debut.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM THE PRESS KIT AND BIENNALE DI VENEZIA 2023:

Civil War

Alex Garland: Civil War (GB/US 2024). Great poster, one of four different ones. None of them appear in the movie. In the movie, the most powerful symbol is the Washington obelisk.

Civil War / Civil War.

    GB/US 2024 [year of release] © 2023 [Miller August Rights LLC tbc]. Production companies: DNA Films, IPR.VC. Produced by Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich, Gregory Goodman

Directed by Alex Garland

Written by Alex Garland

Cinematography by Rob Hardy

Music by Ben Salisbury, Geoff Barrow

Edited by Jake Roberts

    Wikipedia: Cast

- Kirsten Dunst as Lee Smith, a renowned war photojournalist from Colorado. She is said to be the youngest-ever member of the Magnum Photos cooperative. The character's first name is a reference to famed World War II photojournalist Lee Miller.

- Wagner Moura as Joel, a Reuters journalist from Florida and Lee's colleague

- Cailee Spaeny as Jessie Cullen, an aspiring young photographer from Missouri who accompanies Lee and Joel on their journey

- Stephen McKinley Henderson as Sammy, a veteran journalist for The New York Times and Lee's mentor

- Nick Offerman as the President of the United States, a dictatorial president currently serving his third term

- Sonoya Mizuno as Anya, a British reporter embedded with the Western Forces' advance on the capital

- Jefferson White as Dave, Anya's cameraman

- Nelson Lee as Tony, a Hongkonger reporter who is good friends with Lee and Joel

- Evan Lai as Bohai, a Hongkonger reporter who is a colleague of Tony

- Jesse Plemons as a racist ultranationalist militant who holds the journalists at gunpoint. Plemons was not credited for the role.

- Karl Glusman as a spotter

- Jin Ha as a sniper

- Juani Feliz as Secret Service Agent Joy Butler

    Loc: - Atlanta, Georgia. - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

    Language: English

    109 min

    Distributed by: A24 (United States), Entertainment Film Distributors (United Kingdom)

    Release dates:

Festival premiere: 14 March, 2024 South by Southwest (SXSW)

London premiere: 11 April, 2024 BFI IMAX, London

US premiere: 12 April, 2024

Finnish premiere 19 April 2024 - released by Cinemanse - Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Ilse Rönnberg / Charlotte Elo

    Viewed at Finnkino Tennispalatsi 10, Helsinki, Saturday 4 May 2024

Tagline: " Welcome to the frontline. "

Official logline: " An adrenaline-fueled thrill ride through a near-future fractured America balanced on the razor's edge. "

IMDb logline (from SXSW): " A journey across a dystopian future America, following a team of military-embedded journalists as they race against time to reach DC before rebel factions descend upon the White House. "

The division of the United States in the movie:

    Loyalist states (United States)

    Western Forces

    Florida Alliance

    New People's Army

AA: Alex Garland's Civil War is a dystopia, a war movie and a war journalist movie. Not a true genre movie, Civil War remains unclassifiable, with elements of science fiction and horror. Not a political movie in a specific way, it is a vision about a broken society. One of the trailers in the show was for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, resonating with the main picture.

Civil War reminds me of Medium Cool (US 1969), Die Fälschung (DE 1981), The Year of Living Dangerously (AU 1982), The Killing Fields (GB 1984), Welcome to Sarajevo (GB 1997) and Mr. Jones (PL 2019). Most of all it reminds me of Apocalypse Now (US 1979), not a journalist movie, but another journey to the heart of darkness.

When the film starts, the war is about to come to a conclusion. A team of journalists rushes towards Washington D.C. for the biggest scoop - the surrender of the increasingly dictatorial president (Nick Offerman).

Besides the daredevil Joel (Wagner Moura) there is his close colleague, the star photographer Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), and her mentor, the journalist veteran Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) "from what is left of The New York Times", the voice of reason. There is competition but even more importantly, solidarity. In the beginning, Lee rescues a cub photojournalist, Jessie Cullen (Cailee Spaeny), from a suicide bombing scene. During the journey there are even more engrossing instances of "what greater love is there than one willing to lay down their life for his friends".

Lee is not exactly happy to learn that she is Jessie's role model. Clearly Lee would not recommend anybody to follow her. Next morning, to her dismay, Lee finds out that Joel has invited Jessie to join their perilous journey from New York to Washington, D.C. It is an infernal odyssey. War brings out the worst of us.

The idol of both Lee Smith and Jessie Cullen is Lee Miller, the legendary photographer and photojournalist, honoured by Lee Smith even in her name. In the centenary year of surrealism, we remember Lee Miller as Man Ray's model, companion and herself the creator of some of the most memorable surrealist photographs. In WWII Lee Miller became a top war correspondent, often teaming with David E. Scherman. 

This war is different from the Second World War. In the Temptations song "War" (Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong, 1970), the chorus was "War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing", but here a further step is taken: for many, what is the war about? "Absolutely nothing". It is about violence for violence's sake. It is about the killing instinct.

Media is getting obsolete. Nobody reads. There is no internet. The star journalists are after the biggest scoop. But who is going to know? The victorious army gets its trophy like in a big game hunt. It is a hollow victory for both soldiers and their journalist-parasites in a world without values.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM WIKIPEDIA: