Noidan kirot

Trolldomens förbannelse / [The Curse of the Witch]. FI 1927. PC: Suomi-Filmi. P: Erkki Karu. D+SC: Teuvo Puro - based on the novel by Väinö Kataja (1914). DP: Frans Ekebom. AD: Carl Fager. CAST: Einar Rinne (Simo of Utuniemi), Heidi Blåfield-Korhonen (Selma, Simo's wife), Irmeli Viherjuuri (Aaprami of Utuniemi), Kaisa Leppänen (Elsa, Simo's blind sister), Hemmo Kallio (Esa of Rantamaula, Selma's father), Olga Leino (mistress of Rantamaula, Selma's mother), Nisse Karlsson (Aapo of Rantamaula, Selma's brother), Yrjö Tuominen (Sakari Kippari, "Fat Sakari", a lumber boss), Hannes Närhi (Jantukka, a witchdoctor from Lapland). 2070 m /24 fps/ 71 min. A Centenary of the Cinema tinted and toned jubileum print. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 16 Sep 2009. - Our speed was too fast; 20 fps would have been more appropriate. The colour was too heavy, taking away the luminosity from the image. - Revisited a stolid Finnish mainstream studio film of the late silent era. - The film is at best mediocre. No sense of cinematic expression, just clumsy shots one after the other. No suspense, no psychology, no cinematic direction of actors. I would not include this in an account of Finnish horror cinema. - The best moment is towards the end: the reconciliation. - A typical example of the boring mainstream cinema against which the young Valentin Vaala and Teuvo Tulio rebelled. The Suomi-Filmi studio was completely out of touch of the international development of cinema.

Meidän poikamme

FI 1929. PC: Suomi-Filmi. D: Erkki Karu. DP: Eino Kari. M: Emil Kauppi, Lauri Näre. Starring Axel Slangus, Helge Ranin, Birgit Sergelius. Print preserved by KAVA, with Finnish / Swedish intertitles, and e-subtitles in French, viewed at Salle Henri Langlois, La Cinémathèque francaise, Paris, 18 April 2008. - Introduced by Jean-Francois Rauger I made a short presentation on
1) Suomi-Filmi company, the oldest in Finland
2) the bi-lingual character
3) Erkki Karu, the visionary founder of the continuity of large-scale Finnish film industry, his interest in Finnish subjects, landscapes, and characters
4) Axel Slangus, the distinguished theatre man, his long film career from Nummisuutarit (The Village Shoemakers, 1923) till Ingmar Bergman's Jungfrukällan (The Virgin Spring, 1960)
5) the film's links to the military farce, a kind of a founding stone of Finnish military farce
6) the music by Emil Kauppi and Lauri Näre, which was played live in Helsinki by the brass band of the Hämeenlinna Tank Battalion, and the kantele
mainstream Finnish cinema, against which Tulio and Vaala reacted

Dokumentin ytimessä 42: Makeimmat mainokset

I dokumentärens kärna 42: Rivande reklam / In the Core of the Documentary 42: The Cutest Commercials. Compiled by Ilkka Kippola, Jari Sedergren. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 9 April 2008.
Ravintolayleisöä kameran silmällä [Restaurant Patrons Through the Eye of the Camera]. FI 1930. PC: Ab Mainos Oy. Supervised by: Ragnar Hartwall, Teuvo Tulio, Valentin Vaala. Starring: Hanna Taini, Josef Liebkind, Teuvo Tulio. 6 min. Betacam, alas.
Pikku myyjätär / Den lilla försäljerskan [The Little Saleswoman]. FI 1933. PC: Suomi-Filmi. D: Georg Malmstén. DP: Theodor Luts. Starring Kaarlo Angerkoski, Martta Kontula. Originally 38 min, preserved: 15 min. Video, alas.
Suomen toiset ravinto- ja nautintoainemessut. FI 1933. PC: Suomi-Filmi. P: Erkki Karu. DP: Eino Kari, Frans Ekebom. M: Tapio Ilomäki. 6 min on dvd, alas.
I saw these first films only of the really fascinating history of Finnish commercials.