Kuulustelu / The Interrogation

Förhöret. FI (c) 2009 Jörn Donner Productions. P: Jörn Donner, Misha Jaari, Mark Lwoff. D: Jörn Donner. SC: Olli Soinio. DP: Pirjo Honkasalo. M: Pedro Hietanen. CAST: Minna Haapkylä (Kerttu Nuorteva), Marcus Groth (Paavo Kastari), Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Pertti Sveholm (Arvo "Poika" Tuominen), Lauri Nurkse, Kristiina Elstelä, Marja Packalén, Mikko Reitala, Markku Maalismaa, Uula Laakso, Rea Mauranen, Ursula Salo. 110 min. Released by Walt Disney Motion Pictures Finland with Swedish subtitles by Janne Staffans. Viewed at Kinopalatsi 5, Helsinki, 25 Sep 2009 (the first public screening).

A digital video look. - Produced for television, this excellent film was taken up for a cinema release. - It is the true story of the Soviet spy Kerttu Nuorteva (born in America 1912, died in Kazakstan in 1963) who was sent to Finland during the war via parachute from Soviet Karelia, caught by the Finnish security police and interrogated. - A strong historical movie casts a light into the circumstances in Stalin's Russia and into the purges in which some 20.000 Finnish communists were murdered in the late 1930s, including almost the whole group of Finnish left-wing intelligentsia who had escaped white terror to East Karelia. - It also shows the struggle for justice in Finland during wartime, when there were German-oriented leaders like Anthoni leading the Finnish state security police. - A film of multiple contradictions and bitter ironies of history. - Kerttu Nuorteva has a mental breakdown as she learns more fully about Stalin's terror from Arvo Tuominen, a former Communist leader, who defected to the West during the war. - Shot in intensive close-ups and medium shots by Pirjo Honkasalo, but apparently in digital video. No other Donner film has looked this shabby on screen. - Pedro Hietanen has created a moving score. - Donner has returned as a cinema film director after a pause of 25 years, and this film may be his best. - This film and Raja 1918 (The Border 1918) are a promising opening in Finnish cinema into really thought-provoking historical films.

Siihen aikaan kun isä lipputangon osti

When Daddy Bought a New Flagpole. FI 1995. D: Anssi Mänttäri. CAST: Olli Vesala (Dad), Tiina Harpf (Mum), Pertti Sveholm (Neighbour). 6 min. A KAVA print with English subtitles viewed at Cinema Orion, 16 May 2009. - A Centenary of the Cinema film. - "Perkele, don't you know that we are living in a time of depression?"

Kolme viisasta miestä

Tre visa män / Three Wise Men. FI (c) 2008 Marianna Films. D: Mika Kaurismäki. SC: MK and Petri Karra with dialogue written by the actors, themselves. DP: Rauno Ronkainen - 35mm print from digital intermediate. The men: Kari Heiskanen (Erkki, a photographer with terminal cancer), Pertti Sveholm (Matti, a policeman whose Russian wife gives birth to a baby), Timo Torikka (Rauno, an actor working in France). With: Elena Spirina (Taina, Matti's wife), Tommi Eronen (Tero, Rauno's son), Irina Björklund (Magdaleena, convalescent of depression), Pirkko Hämäläinen (Tiina, the mother of Erkki's son), Riitta Havukainen (Riitta), Aake Kalliala (the karaoke host), Peter Franzén (Santa Claus), Heikki Orama (opera singer). 105 min. Released by FS Film without subtitles. Viewed at Kinopalatsi 6, Helsinki, 28 Nov 2008. - The film is a homage to John Cassavetes. - A digital video look. - Inspired by Husbands by John Cassavetes, a Christmas story of three men's midlife crisis, which mostly takes place in an empty karaoke bar with karaoke songs by each (fun: "Kuka mitä häh"). They face their emptiness, self-deception and livsløgnen [Henrik Ibsen's term, life lie, the foundation lie]. - Interesting stuff but with a quickie touch.

Macbeth (Pauli Pentti 1987)

Macbeth / Macbeth. FI 1987. PC: Villealfa. P: Aki Kaurismäki. D+SC: Pauli Pentti - based on Shakespeare's play (1606). DP: Olli Varja. M: Mikko Mattila, Tapio Siitonen (synthetizators). Verdi: Aida. "Love Me Or Leave Me" performed by Mari Rantasila (voc), Eero Raittila (piano). ED: Timo Linnasalo. Starring Markku Valtonen (Macbeth), Pirkko Hämäläinen (Lady), Antti Litja (Dunkku / Duncan), Pertti Sveholm (Bankko / Banquo), Paavo Piskonen (porter). 66 min. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 14 September 2008. - In the presence of Pauli Pentti interviewed by Markku Varjola. PP had known Aki Kaurismäki since the school days, both always avid film buffs. There was the playful idea of a Shakespeare trilogy, of which Aki directed Hamlet Goes Business, and Pauli, Macbeth. The third project, Mänttäri's Lear, never got off the ground. It was a consciously downgraded project. Markku Valtonen as Macbeth was famous from the Sleepy Sleepers (soon to be transformed into Leningrad Cowboys) and the Radio City show Pullakuskit (Bun Drivers). - Deadpan modernization turning the Macbeth plot into the present-day gangster world in Finland, shot in Helsinki, Savonlinna Opera Festival, and London. The anti-realistic gangster ambience is based on the films of Melville and Godard. The blunt dialogue is intentionally comic and made the audience laugh in the right places. The men carry sunglasses at all times. - The Lady goes mad and walks into the sea. Macbeth has been warned that the Pihlajasaari island will attack him, and finally, a vessel masked as a forest approaches. - This is one of the Villealfa films which had a similar ambience with the later Tarantino films (his company called A Band Apart, both companies' names are tributes to Godard).

Calamari Union

FI 1985. PC: Villealfa. D+SC: Aki Kaurismäki. 82 min. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 13 September, 2008. In the presence of Timo Eränkö (Frank), Pertti Sveholm (Frank), and Markku Toikka (Paavo) interviewed by Eero Tammi. All in character, perfect. - I revisited the start only of this weird film, in one scene of which the Franks visit Cinema Orion and see the eyes of Ivan Mozzhuhin as Father Sergius. Cinema Orion became the Film Archive cinema in 1984. - The cinema was full, Calamari Union having become a cult film. There is even a Calamari Union Fan Club which had also toured the other locations of the film.