Haarautuvan rakkauden talo

Den kluvna kärlekens hus / [The House of Forking Love]. FI (c) 2009 Marianna Films. P+D: Mika Kaurismäki. SC: Mika Kaurismäki, Sami Keski-Vähälä - based on the novel by Petri Karra (2008). DP: Rauno Ronkainen - colour. CAST: Hannu-Pekka Björkman (Juhani Helin), Elina Knihtilä (Tuula Helin), Kati Outinen (Yrsa), Antti Reini (Wolffi), Tommi Eronen (Pekka), Irina Björklund (Marjut), Maria Järvenhelmi (Kitty), Kari Väänänen (Niilo), Anna Easteden (Nina), Ilkka Villi (Marco), Antti Virmavirta (Timo), Mari Perankoski (Tiina), Timo Torikka (PK), Jevgeni Haukka (Vidar), Wanda Dubiel (Sanna), Sakari Kuosmanen (Boogie), Kari Heiskanen (neighbour), Aino Seppo (neighbour's wife), Martti Syrjä (taxi driver), Pertti Sveholm (fireman), Clas-Ove Bruun (tall crook in the bar). 107. A FS Film release with Swedish subtitles by Markus Karjalainen. Viewed at Kinopalatsi 5, 3 Sep 2009. - The print has a digimastered look. It is not jarring in close-ups and medium shots. - The story belongs to the comedy / drama of remarriage tradition (The Awful Truth), complete with the fake escorts to make the ex-partner jealous. - Redeeming features: the actors are good, and there are interesting performers even in small parts - there are funny scenes with Juhani's paid escort Nina - "my wife has to think you're my girlfriend, although you are not" - "usually it's the other way around" - yet they start genuinely to like each other, and Nina introduces fresh ideas of her own to fool Tuula - they annoy Tuula with sounds of simulated sex but end up being genuinely aroused by their play-acting - there are also funny scenes with Juhani's playboy friend Pekka - his self-confident double pick-up procedure in the bar in the company of the timid divorced Juhani is a humoristic and realistic record of the manners of today - Pekka is also a humoristic commentator to the tortuous divorce process ("no mites teillä on täällä eroaminen sujunut", this line is difficult to translate). - Unfortunately the film is not as good as its best elements. There is too much: the criminal world, the world of prostitution, the topic of childlessness. Too often the characters just display their shallow, indifferent, and ugly characteristics. Then the viewer ceases to care. - This is one of the several Finnish divorce films of the decade where the wife is such a total harridan that the viewer is puzzled why the man is not simply celebrating his freedom!

Käsky

Varghyndan / Tears of April. FI /DE/GR (c) 2008 Helsinki Filmi Oy / Thoke Moebius Film Company / Two Thirty Five. Premiere: 2008. P: Aleksi Bardy. D: Aku Louhimies. SC: Jari Olavi Rantala - based on the novel by Leena Lander (2003). "Der Erlkönig" (J.W. von Goethe). DP: Rauno Ronkainen - digital intermediate: Digital Film Finland, Generator Post - color - 35mm film print 1,2.35. PD: Tiina Pätilä. M: Pessi Levanto. Erik Satie, Beethoven, Chopin. CO: Tiina Kaukanen. ED: Benjamin Mercer. Starring Samuli Vauramo (Aaro Harjula), Pihla Viitala (Miina Malin), Eero Aho (Emil Hallenberg), Eemeli Louhimies (Eino), Miina Maasola (Martta), Riina Maidre (Beata Hallenberg), Sulevi Peltola (Konsta), Mikko Kouki (sergeant major). 116 min. In Finnish, with some lines in Swedish, German, etc. Released by FS Film with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Anitra Paukkula / Joanna Erkkilä. Viewed at Kinopalatsi 2, Helsinki, 30 August 2008. - Bleak digital intermediate look. - The Finnish Civil War of 1918 was a national tragedy. The subject is still sensitive, but films can offer an excellent outlet to discuss the historical trauma. - The film starts in April, as the White Army has already beaten the Red Army. The bloody retribution has started. The film starts with a gang rape and summary executions without trial by the Whites of women caught from the Red side. The White brave Aaro rescues the Red Miina from slaughter and brings her to military court. As Miina tries to escape at sea, they are shipwrecked for a week on an island. At the military court, they meet the mad judge Hallenberg. - The film is brave in its counter-statement to the dominant White version of history. - But of the characters, only Aaro and Miina are three-dimensional. Save Aaro, the Whites are caricatures of evil, grotesque figures of horror, monsters. - T.J. Särkkä was not famous for his subtlety, but his film "1918 - A Man and His Conscience" (1957) was richer in nuance. - The military court episodes are needlessly prolonged. - This is a film about brutalization and moral squalor. I don't think it pays justice either to the Reds or the Whites. - The composition of the shots is powerful. Unfortunately, much of the richness of the cinematography has been lost in the digital transition. The colour is cold and gloomy, as in the antechamber of Hell.

Peilikirkas päivä

A-027825 / G / FI / 1997 / Cantell, Saara / / drama
Peilikirkas päivä / A Mirror Clear Day. © Kinotar Oy. P: Lasse Saarinen. D+SC: Saara Cantell. DP: Rauno Ronkainen. CAST: Ismo Kallio, Tommi Korpela, Saara Pakkasvirta, Jatta Lukkari. 30’. 1,85. DIST: Kinotar Oy. Viewed in Helsinki, VET, Wednesday 4 February 1998. *** A fine short story about an old mirror-maker (Kallio) and a café-owner (Korpela) who is about to sculpt a fountain of ice.