Senses of Cinema World Poll 2024: my favourites

 

RaMell Ross: Nickel Boys (US 2024). Based on the novel by Colson Whitehead, RaMell Ross creates something profoundly cinematic, even reinventing the fundamental device of the point-of-view shot. He makes us see in a new way.

In viewing order.

SENSES OF CINEMA SHORTLIST (TOP TEN NEW FILMS)

The Old Oak (Ken Loach, 2023) DCP, Tennispalatsi, Helsinki

Zielona granica (Green Border, Agnieszka Holland, 2023) DCP, UGC Danton, Paris

Anatomie d'une chute (Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet, 2023) DCP, MK2 Odéon Côté St Michel, Paris

Benediction (Terence Davies, 2021) DCP, UGC Danton, Paris

Cerrar los ojos (Close Your Eyes, Víctor Erice, 2023) DCP, Lapinsuu, Midnight Sun Film Festival, Sodankylä

Dane-ye anjir-e ma'abed (The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Mohammad Rasoulof, 2024) DCP, Sheridan Opera House, Telluride Film Festival

Apocalipse nos Trópicos (Apocalypse in the Tropics, Petra Costa, 2024) DCP, Le Pierre, Telluride Film Festival

No Other Land (Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, 2024) DCP, Le Pierre, Telluride Film Festival

Santosh (Sandhya Suri, 2024) DCP, Le Pierre, Telluride Film Festival

Io capitano (Matteo Garrone, 2023) DCP, Kinopalatsi, Love & Anarchy: Helsinki International Film Festival

THE FILM OF THE YEAR

Sois belle et tais-toi ! / Be Pretty and Shut Up (Delphine Seyrig, FR 1982) 2023 restoration by Centre audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir and Bibliothèque nationale de France * DCP with English subtitles * Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna - I saw this restoration last year, but now with English subtitles it made full sense.

I NEW

The Old Oak (Ken Loach, GB 2023) DCP * Tennispalatsi LUXE 6, Helsinki

Stormskärs Maja / Stormskerry Maja / Myrskyluodon Maija (Tiina Lymi, FI 2024) DCP * Tennispalasi Isense, Helsinki

Zielona granica / Green Border (Agnieszka Holland, PL 2023) DCP * UGC Danton, Paris

Anatomie d'une chute / Anatomy of a Fall / Putoamisen anatomia (Justine Triet, FR 2023) DCP * MK2 Odéon Côté St Michel, Paris

May December (Todd Haynes, US 2023) MK2 Parnasse, Paris

Das Lehrerzimmer / The Teachers' Lounge / Opettajainhuone (Ilker Çatak, DE 2023) UGC Odéon, Paris

Benediction / Les Carnets de Siegfried (Terence Davies, GB 2021) UGC Danton, Paris

Nome (Sana Na N'Hada, Guinea-Bissau 2023) DCP released by The Dark, Reflet Médicis, Paris

Koneen kirjoittama / Written by AI (Ada Johnsson & Siiri Halko, FI 2024) DCP * ELO Film School Spring Screening at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi, Helsinki

Cerrar los ojos / Close Your Eyes (Víctor Erice, ES 2023) DCP * Midnight Sun Film Festival, Sodankylä

Celluloid Underground (Ehsan Khoshbakht, GB 2023) DCP * Midnight Sun Film Festival, Sodankylä

Henry Fonda for President (Alexander Horwath, AT 2024) DCP * Midnight Sun Film Festival, Sodankylä

Epäonnistunut tyhjyys / Failed Emptiness (Mika Taanila, FI 2024) DCP * Midnight Sun Film Festival, Sodankylä

Dâne-ye anjîr-e ma'âbed / The Seed of the Sacred Fig / Pyhän temppeliviikunan siemen (Mohammad Rasoulof, DE/FR/IR 2024) DCP * Telluride Film Festival

Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross, US 2024) DCP * Telluride Film Festival

Apocalipse nos Trópicos / Apocalypse in the Tropics (Petra Costa, BR 2024) DCP * Telluride Film Festival

No Other Land (Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, Palestine/NO 2024) DCP * Telluride Film Festival

The White House Effect (Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk, Pedro Kos, US 2024) DCP * Telluride Film Festival

Santosh (Sandhya Suri, GB/DE/FR 2024) DCP * Telluride Film Festival

Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola, US 2024) DCP * Helsinki International Film Festival

Sex (Dag Johan Haugerud, NO 2024) DCP * Helsinki International Film Festival

Io capitano (Matteo Garrone, IT/BE/FR 2024) DCP * Helsinki International Film Festival

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found (Raoul Peck, FR/US 2024) DCP * Helsinki International Film Festival

Miki - tätä et minusta vielä tiennyt (Minna Reiche, FI 2024) DCP * Helsinki International Film Festival

Tab / Walk Up (Hong Sang-soo, KO 2022) DCP * Helsinki International Film Festival

Nevydymyi batalyon / Invisible Battalion (Iryna Tsilyk, Svitlana lischynska, Alina Gorlova, UA 2017) Ukrainian Film Days, Helsinki

Songs of Slow Burning Earth (Olha Zhurba, UA 2024) Ukrainian Film Days, Helsinki

Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy (Christopher Jacob Jones, Stephen Ujlaki, US 2024) Night Visions, Helsinki

Shadowland (Otso Tiainen, FI 2024) Night Visions, Helsinki

Heijastus metsästä / A Reflection of the Forest (Eija-Liisa Ahtila, FI 2024) 8-channel video installation loop on a 27 meter screen at Serlachius Manor, Mänttä

My Name Is Hope (Sherwan Haji, FI 2025) Aalto ELO Film School screening, Lasipalatsi Bio Rex, Helsinki

II OLD

Yoru no kawa / Undercurrent (Kozabura Yoshimura, JP 1956) 2022 restoration by Kadokawa * DCP released by Carlotta Films * Filmothèque du Quartier Latin, Paris

Devil's Doorway / Paholaisen portti (Anthony Mann, US 1949) 35 mm * La Cinémathèque française

The Furies / Raivotar (Anthony Mann, US 1949) 35 mm * La Cinémathèque française

The Tall Target (Anthony Mann, US 1951) 35 mm * La Cinémathèque française

Border Incident / Kuoleman raja (Anthony Mann, US 1949) 35 mm * La Cinémathèque française

The Fall of the Roman Empire / Rooman valtakunnan tuho (Anthony Mann, US 1963) the 185 min roadshow version * DCP * 2011 digital transfer * La Cinémathèque française

El Cid (Anthony Mann, US/IT 1960) 35 mm * 187 min * 1993 restoration * Institut Lumière print * La Cinémathèque française

Atash-esabz / La Flamme verte (Mohammad Reza Aslani, IR 2008) DCP * Carlotta Films release * Reflet Médicis, Paris

He Walked by Night / Hän kulkee öisin (Alfred L. Werker, US 1948) 35 mm * restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive * La Cinémathèque française

Cimarron (Anthony Mann, US 1960) 35 mm * 147 min version * La Cinémathèque française

Reign of Terror / Yllämme giljotiini (Anthony Mann, US 1949) 35 mm * La Cinémathèque française

Napoléon vu par Abel Gance - première partie: Bonaparte (Abel Gance, FR 1927) 2024 digital restoration by La Cinémathèque française * French intertitles * DCP * Il Cinema Ritrovato, Cinema Modernissimo, Bologna * for the first time with French intertitles

Khak-e sar bé mohr / The Sealed Soil (Marba Nabili, IR 1977) 2024 restoration by UCLA Film & Television Archive * DCP * Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, Cinema Jolly

Sarah Maldoror Trilogy (FR/CV 1979) 2024 restoration by CNC * DCP * Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, Cinema Jolly

Entezar / Waiting (Amir Naderi, IR 1974) 2024 restoration by Kanoon * DCP * Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, Cinema Jolly

Camp de Thiaroye / The Camp at Thiaroye (Ousmane Sembène, SN/DZ/TN 1988) 2024 restoration by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project * DCP * Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, Cinema Jolly

The Snake Pit / Käärmeenpesä (Anatole Litvak, US 1948) 35 mm print from BFI National Archive * Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, Cinema Jolly

Onna no saka / A Woman's Uphill Slope (Kozaburo Yoshimura, JP 1960) 35 mm print from Japan Foundation * Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, Cinema Jolly

La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua / Nwbat nisa Jabal Shanwat / The Nubah of the Women of Mount Chenoua (Assia Djebar, DZ 1978) 2024 restoration The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project * Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, Cinema Jolly

Sorry, Wrong Number (Anatole Litvak, US 1948) 35 mm print from Academy Film Archive * Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, Cinema Jolly

Al-leil / The Night (Mohammad Malas, SR 1992) 35 mm print from Trigon Film * Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, Cinema Arlecchino

The T.A.M.I. Show (Steve Binder, US 1964) YouTube * for the first time I see a quasi complete presentation of the landmark pop / rock / soul / R&B concert record

D. W. Griffith: The Biograph shorts of 1908 in new 2024 digital restorations by the Film Preservation Society * DCP * Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone * immeasurably superior to the dismal 1997 screenings of The Griffith Project

Ikkinchi xotin / The Second Wife (Mikhail Doronin, SU-UZ 1927) DCP National Film Fund of Uzbekistan (Tashkent) * Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone

Vanina (Arthur von Gerlach, DE 1922) 2024 restoration Cinémathèque royale de Belgique / Filmmuseum München / Det Danske Filminstitut * DCP * Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone

Raskolnikow (Robert Wiene, DE 1923) 2024 restoration Filmmuseum München * DCP * Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone

Grossstadtschmetterling (Richard Eichberg, DE/GB 1929) 2024 restoration Deutsches Filminstitut * Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone

Die Büchse der Pandora / Pandora's Box (G. W. Pabst, DE 1929) 2024 blu-ray The Criterion Collection and 2024 blu-ray Eureka! The Masters of Cinema Series * I see Martin Koerber's 2009 restoration for the first time, at 19 fps (Criterion) and at 20 fps (Eureka!) * the smoothness of the edit and the transitions change the experience significantly

La Grande Illusion / The Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, FR 1937) Studio Canal blu-ray 2021 * I see the 1992 Toulouse / AFF-CNC reconstruction and its 2011 digital restoration for the first time

Gaslight (1944) and Gaslight (1940) * Warner Archive Collection blu-ray 2019 * I see Thorold Dickinson's Gaslight for the first time * Robin Wood's classic comparison of the two adaptations is even more impressive having viewed the films back to back

Le notti di Cabiria / The Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, IT 1957) Studio Canal blu-ray 2021 * I see for the first time the uncut film integral with the "man with the sack", arguably the greatest sequence in the Fellini oeuvre

    THE GREATEST RETROSPECTIVES, both firsts for me: Anthony Mann (Jean-François Rauger / La Cinémathèque française) and Anatole Litvak (Ehsan Khoshbakht / Il Cinema Ritrovato).

III BOOKS

     Finnish:

Jukka Rislakki: Tiedustelu ja vakoilu [Intelligence and Espionage] (2024)

Marjaliisa Hentilä & Seppo Hentilä: Oikeusvaltion etuvartiossa: Ester ja Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg 1925-1952 [In the Frontline of the Rule of Law: Ester and Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg 1925-1952] (2024)

    International:

Anna Reid: A Nasty Little War: The West's Fight to Reverse the Russian Revolution (2023)

Steve Coll: The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the Middle East, 1979-2003 (2024)

Yuval Noah Harari: Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (2024)

Edwin Frank: Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel (2024)

IV EXHIBITIONS

Van Gogh: the Last Months: Van Gogh à Auvers-sur-Oise: Les derniers mois (Musée d'Orsay) Paris

Mark Rothko (Fondation Louis Vuitton) Paris

Surrealism 100 Years: International (Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique) Brussels

Surrealism 100 Years: Belgique (Bozar) Brussels

Impressionism 150 Years: Paris 1874 Inventer l'impressionnisme (Musée d'Orsay) Paris

Impressionism 150 Years: Monet and London. Views of the Thames (The Courtauld Gallery) London

    THE CURSE AT EXHIBITIONS: the by far brightest shining thing at exhibitions today is the sea of mobile phones of people photographing, in the process preventing others from seeing. The dominant thing now is the mobile devices, not the art. I now visit exhibitions less frequently and consider no longer visiting them.

V THE SPEECH OF THE YEAR

Judith Godrèche: "I speak, I speak, but you are not listening" (2024 César Awards)

Frank Auerbach (1931-2024): Rebuilding the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square (a painting)

Frank Auerbach (1931-2024): Rebuilding the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square (GB 1962). Accepted by HM Government in Lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery in 2015. © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Marlborough Fine Art, London.

The Courtauld Gallery: "Frank Auerbach established his reputation as a leading modern painter in London during the 1950s and 1960s. One of his main subjects during that period was the bomb-scarred landscape of London and especially the numerous building sites that emerged across the city as reconstruction work got underway. Auerbach made repeated visits to different building sites, dodging workmen to find a spot to make swift sketches of the construction activity. Back in his studio, he used these sketches as the basis of his paintings, each of which typically took many months to produce, the paint building up into an encrusted and richly textured surface."

"Auerbach made thirteen major building-site paintings between 1952 and 1962: Rebuilding the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square proved to be the last of the series. The artist recalled passing the outside of the cinema and looking in to discover a scene of frenetic activity, which he sketched immediately: “I did the drawing with a very considerable feeling of urgency… I knew what I saw there would no longer be there perhaps a fortnight later… The composition in a way was a gift… you looked through and saw something marvellous.”"

"His sketch of the scene resulted in this dramatic painting. The thick red lines that structure the composition are beams or scaffolding spanning a gaping chasm in the foreground. As viewers, we stand at the very edge of this dark void, the confined space as a whole lit by a few patches of light towards the bottom and top of the picture. The painting offers a disorienting scene of partially constructed floor levels, jutting beams and extremes of light and dark. Auerbach’s use of red throughout the work gives fiery intensity to the painting, as if we are witness to an intense, almost hellish, vision."

"The painting was formerly in the collection of the artist Lucian Freud, who was a close friend of Auerbach and owned a significant number of his paintings." (The Courtauld Gallery)

Visited at The Courtauld Gallery, 17 December 2024

In memoriam Frank Auerbach (born 29 April 1931 in Berlin, Germany, died 11 November 2024 in London, England).

To save him from Nazi persecution, his parents sent him to Britain in 1939. They stayed behind and were murdered in Auschwitz.

Frank Auerbach was one of the greatest painters of the century. Together with his friends Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, he belonged to the School of London.

Empire Leicester Square is one of the most famous cinemas in the world. Opened as a variety theatre and ballet venue in 1884, it became the British premiere venue of la Cinématographe Lumière in 1896. In 1927 it was rebuilt as a palace cinema with 3.300 capacity. In 1962 it was substantially reconstructed (this demolition witnessed by Frank Auerbach). Today called Cineworld Leicester Square it's a 9-screen multiplex complete with IMAX (the largest in the UK), Superscreen and 4DX.

My acquaintance with Empire Leicester Square dates back to 1987 when I started to visit the London Film Festival (a habit I dropped after Finnish film festivals grew bigger and better). My first visit to the Empire was in the gala premiere of Cry Freedom.

Monet and London: Views of the Thames (2024 exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery) (21 paintings)

Claude Monet (1840-1926): Londres, le Parlement. Trouée de soleil dans le brouillard / London, Parliament, Sunlight in the Fog. 1904. Huile sur toile. H. 81,5 ; L. 92.5 cm. Legs comte Isaac de Camondo, 1911. Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d'Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski.

Monet and London: Views of the Thames (21 paintings)

The Courtauld Gallery

Somerset House, Strand ; London WC2R 0RN

Denise Coates Exhibition Galleries, Floor 3

    Supported by Kenneth C. Griffin and The Huo Family Foundation, with additional support from the Dr. Lee MacCormick Edwards Charitable Foundation.

    27 Sept 2024 – 19 Jan 2025

    Karen Serres is Senior Curator of Paintings at the Courtauld Gallery, London, and curator of the exhibition.

    Jennifer A. Thompson is Curator of European Painting and Sculpture and Head of the European Department of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

    Frances Fowle is Chair of Nineteenth-Century Art, Edinburgh College of Art and Senior Curator, French Art, at the National Galleries of Scotland.

    Visited on 17 Dec 2024

    

Exhibition catalogue: Karen Serres - with contributions from Frances Fowle and Jennifer A. Thompson: Monet and London: Views of the Thames. The Courtauld in association with Paul Holberton Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-913645-73-1. Format: Hardcover. Dimensions: 25 x 26 cm. 152 pages, 80 illustrations. - Four solid essays, in-depth exhibition catalogue with full page illustrations of each of the 21 paintings complete with contextual illustrations, plus a complete illustrated catalogue of the 1904 Galeries Durand-Ruel exhibition of Series of Views of the Thames in London (1900 to 1904) with a run of 37 paintings.

The Courtauld: Highlights from the Gallery. Written by Ernst Vegelin von Claerbergen, Alexandra Gerstein, Ketty Gottardo, Coralie Malissard, Karen Serres, Rachel Sloan, Barnaby Wright and Alixe Bovey. First published in paperback in 2021. The hardcover edition © B. T. Batsford Ltd. 2024. ISBN: 9781785515811 - Dimensions: 23 x 19 cm - Pages: 136. A handsome volume with masterpieces from Fra Angelico to Frank Auerbach. The visual quality of the illustrations is high.

The Courtauld Gallery introduction: "Claude Monet (1840—1926) is world renowned as the leading figure of French Impressionism, the movement that changed the course of modern art. Less known is the fact that some of Monet’s most remarkable Impressionist paintings were made not in France but in London. They depict extraordinary views of the Thames as it had never been seen before, full of evocative atmosphere, mysterious light and radiant colour."

"Begun during three stays in the capital between 1899 and 1901, the series — depicting Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge and the Houses of Parliament — was unveiled in Paris in 1904. Monet fervently wanted to show them in London the following year, but plans fell through. To this day, they have never been the subject of a UK exhibition."

"The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Monet and London. Views of the Thames realises Monet’s unfulfilled ambition of showing this extraordinary group of paintings in London, and just 300 metres from the Savoy Hotel where many of them were painted. By presenting the paintings Monet himself selected for his public in Paris and London, it provides visitors with the unique experience of seeing the show Monet curated and the works he felt best represented his ambitious artistic enterprise — brought together for the first time 120 years after their inaugural exhibition." (The Courtauld Gallery introduction)

AA: The year's last visit to an art exhibition is meaningful and memorable in many ways.

I admire it for half an hour outside the entrance. The exhibition has been sold out long ago. But if you believe in miracles, they can happen, and I finally enter the blessed rooms with the 21 paintings. I will be forever grateful for the angels that made it possible. Christmas time is still magical in London, and this exhibition becomes my greatest Christmas present. A sacred hour of art worship. In the danger zone of the Stendhal syndrome.

A miraculous bath in radiant light and colour. The subjects remain the same, but each painting is different. London by the Thames was Monet's favourite subject, and he was enthralled by its constantly changing views. He tried to catch the instant, and could spend years and even decades in trying to cover the nuances and the layers of the lights, the reflections and the atmosphere. 

This is the 150th anniversary of impressionism, and it was a Monet painting, "Impression, soleil levant", that gave the name to the movement. In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, Camille Pissarro and Claude Monet went to exile in London where they were inspired by Turner and Constable. 

Monet returned to London 30 years later and created entire series of paintings of London by the Thames. His esteem rose to a new level in the Durand-Ruel exhibition of these paintings, and he wanted to bring his London series even to London. Alas, that never happened. Until now, 120 years later.

Claude Monet and impressionism were all about art for art's sake. But I am an incorrigible sociologist and always interested in the philosophy of history. These breathtaking paintings are for me also visionary about the capital of the greatest empire of the age - and the industrial revolution. Of smog, dust and dirt, health danger, pollution and environment disaster, Monet created poetry. 

Monet himself praised the beauty in the views, but in some paintings I ask: if this is beauty, who needs ugliness? I find that Monet transcends the distinction of "ugly" and "beautiful". Instead, I would use words like "eerie", "strange" and "uncanny". The fog-surrounded silhouette of the Neo-Gothic architecture even evokes horror. The imagination of disaster of the climate change. The new aesthetics of destruction and mutilation. Monet did not invent it: Turner and Whistler did.

But Monet is a techno-optimist. His art is a celebration of tremendous power, energy, drive and movement, reflected both in the mighty tidal river Thames and the steam trains rolling on its bridges. London can take it.

The sun struggles to bring its rays through the smoke, soot, steam and vapour. The Thames appears both as a river of life and a river of death - the Acheron and the Styx - and the phantom-like characters on the vessels evoke Charon, the ferryman of the underworld negotiating those rivers.

In his visionary London paintings Monet was a great poet of the industrial revolution.

I showed the Courtauld catalogue to Ehsan Khosbakht who gave yesterday a superb introduction to a rare film noir, and he pointed out that the Monet cover art (Westminster in the fog) shares its subject with the opening credits of that film, The Brighton Strangler. Let's also remember that the first really distinctive film of Alfred Hitchcock was The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog.

Yesterday on the South Bank, today on the North Bank. From the expressionism of film noir to the impressionism of Claude Monet. 

...

The Views of the Thames exhibition would deserve focus, concentration and meditation, but in today's circumstances that has become impossible. The dominant visual presence was not Monet but the photographers with LED screens brighter than the paintings. If Monet would have entered, he would have turned away.

The book The Courtauld: Highlights from the Gallery is lovely with a fine visual quality in the illustrations. The Monet and London exhibition catalogue is a highly rewarding keepsake (it took me almost two months to digest), but the visual quality of the illustrations fails to do justice to Monet.

The Brighton Strangler + extended intro by curator Ehsan Khoshbakht

 

Max Nosseck: The Brighton Strangler (US 1945) with John Loder (Reginald Parker / Edward Grey) and June Duprez (April Manby Carson).

Brightonin kuristaja (Yle Teema: Kino Kyöpeli 17 Aug 2007).

    US 1945. PC: RKO Radio Pictures. EX: Sid Rogell. P: Herman Schlom.

    D: Max Nosseck. Ass D: Lloyd Richards. SC: Arnold Phillips, Max Nosseck. Add dialogue: Hugh Gray. DP: J. Roy Hunt. AD: Albert S. D'Agostino, Ralph Berger. Set dec: Darrell Silvera, Harley Miller. Gowns: Renié. SFX: Vernon L. Walker. M: Leigh Harline. Music D: C. Bakaleinikoff. Recorder: Roy Meadows. Re-recorder: James G. Stewart. ED: Les Millbrook. Montage: Harold Palmer.

    C: John Loder (Reginald Parker/"Edward Gray"), June Duprez (April Manby), Michael St Angel (Bob Carson), Miles Mander (Chief Inspector W. R. Allison), Rose Hobart (Dorothy Kent), Gilbert Emery (Dr. Manby), Rex Evans (Shelton), Matthew Boulton (Inspector Graham), Olaf Hytten (Banks), Lydia Bilbrook (Mrs Manby), Ian Wolfe (Brandon R. Clive, the mayor). Uncredited: Gavin Muir (officer).

    68 min

    Certificate 12A

    A  35 mm print from BFI National Archive.

    BFI Southbank: Projecting the Archive.

    Extended intro by curator Ehsan Khoshbakht.

    Viewed at NFT2, London, 16 Dec 2024

BFI Southbank capsule intro: "A Christmas thriller with a murderous twist in which a theatre star with amnesia believes himself to be a serial killer."

"When a theatre is bombed in wartime London, a famous actor loses his memory and assumes the personality of the character he’s been playing on stage: The Brighton Strangler."

"British expat stars John Loder and June Duprez bring authenticity to their roles – much needed to counterbalance the Hollywood depiction of Britain’s south coast. Director Max Nosseck was a colourful character, best-known for making low-budget crime dramas across different countries, of which this is a deliciously melodramatic example. Taking place over the theatre’s Christmas closure, this RKO B-movie makes a perfect alternative seasonal offering." BFI Southbank

...

AA: This screening of Max Nosseck's The Brighton Strangler (US 1945) was special thanks to an inspired introduction by Ehsan Khoshbakht, which amounted to no less than a rehabilitation and claim of auteur status for Max Nosseck. 

In a witty resume and an illuminating clipreel Khosbakht tracked continuities and disparities on the Nosseck oeuvre from Weimar Germany through 1930s Portugal, France, Spain and the Netherlands, 1940s USA from the East Coast (Astoria studios) to the West Coast (Hollywood), and back to post-war Germany and Austria.

Nosseck filmed in many languages and pursued a wide array of genres, from comedy to crime and "from Judaism to nudism" (E.K.). The Yiddish-language Overture to Glory (US 1940) was a distinguished achievement in the lineage of Das alte Gesetz and The Jazz Singer. The Garden of Eden (US 1954), produced with the approval of the American Sunbathing Association, was, contrary to expectations, not a piece of sensationalist exploitation. 

Nosseck directed masters of comedy such as Curt Bois (Der Schlemihl, DE 1931) and Buster Keaton (Le Roi des Champs-Élysées, FR 1935). He was even happy to film horses (Black Beauty, US 1946) and dogs (The Return of Rin Tin Tin, US 1947). 

The year 1945 was a high point. Nosseck directed two strong films noir, besides The Brighton Strangler also Dillinger, in which Lawrence Tierney received his breakthrough as an actor and Philip Yordan got an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay. 

All through his hectic career Nosseck usually worked in B-movie circumstances, but he always pursued creative control and often co-wrote his films. He was interested in the interplay of performance and life itself. He was fascinated by shattered minds and psychic disorders. A continuing feature regardless of genre are psychedelic inserts, nightmares and dream scenes with ominous superimpositions. (End of my freely edited notes from Ehsan Khoshbakht's introduction).

...

Like the director Max Nosseck, his movie The Brighton Strangler, co-written by him, is eminently worthy of rehabilitation. Nosseck takes full advantage of a brilliant team of RKO professionals, familiar from other RKO films noir, but also Citizen Kane, Hitchcock and Lewton. J. Roy Hunt, Albert S. D'Agostino, Vernon L. Walker and Leigh Harline know what they are doing.

What Nosseck brings to the mix most of all is an urgent sense of psychic turmoil. The storyline with its affinities with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Weimar classics including Der Andere, Der Student von Prag and Orlacs Hände, is familiar, but in the year 1945 it gained fresh and acute power.

Film noir is hard to define, but The Brighton Strangler in my opinion belongs to its hard core. It could even represent the entire phenomenon.

Rudolf Kurtz said to Lotte H. Eisner: "For me, Expressionism is not an artistic genre, but the expression of a world crisis". My reception of film noir is similar. Anton Kaes interpreted Weimar cinema as shell shock cinema. The same can be said about film noir - to a second degree. Adorno wrote that "writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric". For me, film noir is poetry after Auschwitz.

Shell shock is the premise of The Brighton Strangler. The actor Reginald Parker becomes a victim of a Luftwaffe Blitz in London. He loses his memory and identity. Imagination becomes reality, and Parker turns into the character of his play - Edward Gray, the Brighton Strangler. He starts to commit murders following the script. Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari is also evoked in Parker's somnambulistic agenda. The allegory is the same: ordinary people turn into spellbound serial killers.

From a familiar starting-point Nosseck keeps creating something unusual until the very end which offers us a final big surprise.

It was particularly moving to watch this film in London. The cinema was packed, and I could feel that many in the audience had family histories relevant to this strange tale from the days of the Battle of Britain.

Great visual quality in BFI's 35 mm print.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila: Heijastus metsästä / A Reflection of the Forest (vernissage in the presence of Eija-Liisa Ahtila and Ilppo Pohjola)

Eija-Liisa Ahtila: Heijastus metsästä / Reflection of the Forest (FI 2024). From: Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation. Photographer: Sampo Linkoneva, Serlachius. Please do click on the image to expand it to the max.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila: Heijastus metsästä / Reflection of the Forest (FI 2024). From: Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation. Cubism is back.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila: Heijastus metsästä / Reflection of the Forest.

    14 Dec 2024 - 27 April 2025 Serlachius Kartano / Serlachius Manor, Joenniementie 47, 35800 Mänttä. Screenings start at 11.30, 12.30, 13.30, 14.30, 15.30 and 16.30.

    A 8-channel video installation loop with a changing number of projections. The number and size of projected images (1-8) will vary to reflect the theme of each scene and the material contained in it.

    Written and directed by Eija-Liisa Ahtila.

    FI 2024 © Crystal Eye – Kristallisilmä Oy. P: Ilppo Pohjola

    Cin: Antti Ruusuvuori, Pekka Uotila - 8 x 4K UHD 16:9. Colorist: Pentti Keskimäki. Image post production by Jari Hakala. PD: Tiina Paavilainen. Cost: Johanna Vainio. ED: Heikki Kotsalo. S: Olli Pärnänen - audio 8.0.

    C: Eetu Ahtila, Nora Dadu, Sue Lemström, Mitra Matouf. Voice over: Laura Birn, Marika Parkkomäki, Aije Zhou.

    Original languages: English, Chinese, Finnish and Swedish with English and Finnish subtitles.

    50 min

    Introduced by Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Ilppo Pohjola and Pauli Sivonen.

    Viewed at the vernissage on a 27 meter screen at Serlachius Manor, 13 Dec 2024.

Serlachius Manor introduction: "Reflection of a Forest is a commission for Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation."

"Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s third commissioned work for Serlachius is “Reflection of a Forest,” an eight-channel installation with the forest playing a central role. Ahtila continues to challenge the narrative of moving images and the human-centric perspective. She seeks ways of representation and expression that can create a more balanced picture of the living reality of our planet."

"Ahtila and her team have filmed the work over three years in various parts of Southern Finland. The piece does not have a traditional narrative but rather events and situations. Its central theme is the spatiality of the forest: how diverse life intertwines in the forest space and forms a connection of existence. The work features various living beings and their fictional thoughts and speech."

"The state of emergency in the environment affects our choices, ways of thinking and perceiving, as well as the role of culture and art in society. The starting point of the work is the shared spatial existence of different living beings – life maintained together."

"Eija-Liisa Ahtila (b. 1959) is internationally Finland’s most renowned contemporary artist. She is known as a pioneer of video art, focusing on works that move in the border line between film and video art. She has uniquely understood the possibilities of moving images as an artistic medium. At the same time, she has continuously produced installations, drawings, photographs, and spatial art."

"Ahtila’s works have been exhibited in internationally significant museums such as MoMA in New York, Tate Modern in London, Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, and Jeu de Paume in Paris. Her works have also been displayed at major contemporary art festivals, including the Venice, Sydney, and São Paulo Biennales and Documenta in Kassel."

"For Serlachius, she has previously created the commissions “Studies on the Ecology of Drama” (2014) and “Potentiality of Love” (2018). These works have later been exhibited around the world."

"Eija-Liisa Ahtila has received numerous recognitions for her work as an artist. In 2009, she was named an academician of art at the age of just 49. She has been awarded, among others, as Commander, First Class, of the Order of the White Rose of Finland in 2020, the Pro Finlandia Medal in 2005, the Artes Mundi Prize in 2006 and Vincent Van Gogh Award for Contemporary Art in Europe in 2000, and Honorary Mention, 48th Venice Biennale, Italy in 1999."

"She has also received several film awards, and has been a Golden Lion jury member at Venice International Film Festival in 2011. She has also received The Honorary Doctorate of Media Arts  from Ionian University, Greece in 2019, and from Aalto University of Applied Arts, Finland in 2018."

AA: Eija-Liisa Ahtila's A Reflection of the Forest invites us into a space of contemplation, but it is so intense that time flies by like in an action film.

The theme of the forest has been covered in recent high profile Finnish non-fiction films. Tale of a Forest (FI 2012, D: Ville Suhonen & Kim Saarniluoto, Cin: Teemu Liakka, Mikko Pöllänen, Hannu Siitonen, P: Marko Röhr) grew into one of the most popular Finnish non-fiction films of all time. Once Upon a Time in a Forest (FI 2024, D: Virpi Suutari) focuses on Extinction Rebellion.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila pursues a long-term ecological quest of her own.

Studies in the Ecology of Drama (FI 2014) was a four screen panorama at 360°. To see everything the viewer had to be constantly on the move. The work pursued the insight of The Annunciation (2010): Jacob von Uexküll's idea of all living beings in parallel realities. For instance the critical flicker frequency of the common swift is beyond human capability. A dog sees a movie as a cluster of still images. The resolution of time is different from humans.

In A Reflection of the Forest Ahtila's perspective widens beyond the animal to the vegetable world and to all living beings. For a moment I think about Lowell Dean's ecological horror movie Die Alone (CA 2024), in which the vegetable kingdom takes over, turning humans into flesh-eating zombies on our way to self-extinction. In contrast, Ahtila's vision is serene and benign.

Ahtila's ecological cycle opens new possibilities to a key concept of classical aesthetics: the sublime. During the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, the horror of industrial scale warfare shattered among other things the key tenets of classical aesthetics (the beautiful and the sublime). Old ideals proved false, hypocritical and destructive. Modern artists turned their backs to old parameters which of course survived in traditional and conventional work and popular media.

The sublime in the sense of Longinus, Burke and Kant means, as distinct from the beautiful, something overwhelming, awe-inspiring and transcending the limits of the ordinary.

In Ahtila's work we experience a new sublime in insights into the extraordinary senses of animals and visions of the time dimensions in the life of trees, impossible for humans to fathom but humoristically dramatized in Horizontal (FI 2011), a 6-channel projected installation of a magnificent life size spruce tree.

The eight channel video installation of A Reflection of the Forest provides novel experiences in split screen aesthetics. The screen explodes at times to 16 images. The result is a fresh and original entry in the art of montage. Intentionally or unintentionally, A Reflection of the Forest is a hommage to Abel Gance, the father of Polyvision, the triptych cinema. One of Gance's triple screen sequences transforms into a Polyvision tricolor in Napoléon vu par Abel Gance (FR 1927), a brilliant digital restoration of which was released this year by La Cinémathèque française. The epic is also a masterpiece of the avantgarde.

At Serlachius Manor, Polyvision is back in three parallel widescreen moving images, displaying not exploits of war but the stubborn power of life.