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!

Sauna

Sauna / Sauna. FI © 2008 Bronson Club. P: Tero Kaukomaa, Jesse Fryckman. D: AJ Annila. SC: Iiro Küttner. DP: Henri Blomberg – shot on 35 mm Fuji – digital intermediate DFF – released both in digital and in 35 mm. AD: Vladimir Bedrich Dvorak, Antti Nikkinen, Ville Vauras. COST: Anna Vilppunen. M: Panu Aaltio. Sound design: Panu Riikonen, Vesa Meriläinen. ED: Joona Louhivuori.
    Cast: Ville Virtanen (Eerik), Tommi Eronen (Knut), Viktor Klimenko (Semenski), Sonja Petäjäjärvi (boy), Kari Ketonen (Musko), Kati Outinen (old woman), Rain Tolk (Rogosin), Vilhelmiina Virkkunen (good girl) / Maija Nurmio (bad girl), Ismo Kallio (village elder), Taisto Reimaluoto (father), Ivo Kubecka (monk), Dick Idman (Roukkula).
    In Finnish and Russian with Finnish subtitles, written information in Finnish only (no Swedish), 85 min. Distributed in Finland by Sandrew.
    A 35 mm film projection viewed at Tennispalatsi 14, Helsinki, 24 Oct 2008.

A film of original visionary power. The music and the soundscape are interesting. The performances are powerful.

A Gothic fantasy set in real history, in the horrific 16th century. Sweden and Finland have entered into the Treaty of Tyavzino (Teusina / Täyssinä) after 25 years of war. This has been the century of Ivan the Terrible in Russia, and the Reformation in Sweden. After the death of Gustaf Wasa his sons have succumbed to an era of violent chaos, depicted in the cinema in Mauritz Stiller's Herr Arnes pengar.

The story takes place in 1595 in Kiertämäjoki. As Sweden (to which Finland belongs) and Russia draw the new Teusina border they cross a horrible swamp and find a gruesome dark building which is called a sauna but which may be the doorway to hell.

There are affinities with Tarkovsky and Hideo Nakata in this story.

Among the interesting visual items: the faces of the old people, the old compass and other old objects. The fascination with the water, the river, the snow, and the blood. – The script is the weakness of the film. – Homepage: www.pesesyntisi.fi

The digital projection is reportedly better. The film is visually ambitious and consistent, and it has been tuned into a gray-cold colour scale. The digital intermediate look is obvious but not annoying.