Saturday, April 18, 2009

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (2009 MoMA restoration) (2009 viewing)


Melvin Van Peebles: Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (US 1971). Melvin Van Peebles (Sweetback).

US © 1971 Yeah. P+D+SC+M+ED: Melvin Van Peebles. M: Earth, Wind & Fire. CAST: Melvin Van Peebles (Sweetback), Simon Chuckster (Beetle), Hubert Scales (Mu-Mu), John Dullaghan (Commissioner), Niva Rochelle. 98 min. A MoMA restored print viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki 17 April 2009.  A brilliant print. Last time I saw this in 1992, the print was not so hot.  Revisited (the beginning and the end): a film that is more fascinating than I have realized, see Pirkka Kivenheimo's commentary below.

Pirkka Kivenheimo: African American Cinema (a lecture, 17 April 2009).

Pirkka Kivenheimo: African-American Cinema (lecture)


Oscar Micheaux: Body and Soul (US 1925) starring Paul Robeson in a dual role, a fake "Reverend Isaiah T. Jenkins" and his brother Sylvester.

Lecture at Cinema Orion, 17 April 2009, in the U.S. Independents series.

For the black film-makers in the United States, being "independent" was not a virtue but a necessity.

The Birth of a Nation: racism in the heart of mainstream Hollywood.

The PBS definition: three of the following criteria have to be met in order for a film to be classified as "black": 1) black producer, 2) black director, 3) black executive producer, 4) black talent, 5) black target audience.
In Hollywood the black breakthrough took place only in the late 1990s.
Clip: ABC Nightline on the 1996 Oscar Gala. American film industry was one of the last to have black presence.

For a long time blacks had to make their films independently on a small budget.
1910: Chicago, Phileon Poster. Segregation in Cinemas.
1910-1952: ca 500 race movies.
Oscar Micheaux: 34 films. He made the first black feature film The Homesteaders (1919). Paul Robeson debuted in Body and Soul (1924). The first black sound film.
The 1950s and the 1960s were the great decades of civil rights. During 1952-1967 there was not a single film directed by a black artist in the United States.

1967: San Francisco Film Festival: Melvin Van Peebles presented La Permission. He had lived since 1959 in Europe. Born in 1932 in Chicago, served in the U.S. Air Force, was a painter in Mexico, worked in San Francisco as a trolley driver, became an author, since 1957 short films, Pick-Up Men for Merrick, moved to the Netherlands in 1959, was a dramaturg, moved to France in 1961, first feature film 1965, and in 1967, La Permission, in the same year as Sidney Poitier starred in In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

Hollywood studios were intrigued and employed at once three black directors. Gordon Parks, Sr. became the first black Hollywood director (The Learning Tree). Ossie Davis, the second (Cotton Comes to Harlem). Van Peebles directed The Watermelon Man for Columbia.

But in 1971 he directed Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. On a budget of 100.000 USD the revenue was 10 million dollars. Immediately this success inspired the blaxploitation cycle, starring blacks, but written, directed and produced by whites.
Van Peebles inspired a whole generation of young black film-makers, such as Spike Lee, Robert Townsend, Keenen Ivory Wayans, the Hudlins, Charles Burnett, Mario Van Peebles, John Singleton, the Hugheses, Ernest Dickerson, Carl Franklin, Bill Duke, Mike Lane, Leslie Harris, Ruby Oliver.
Clip: Melvin Van Peebles visits the set of Do the Right Thing (1989).

Melvin Van Peebles was multitalented: he made records, poems, novels, theatre, he was a flyer, and in the 1970s and the 1980s he was a trader in the New York stock exchange, and also wrote a book about that.
Clip: Mario Van Peebles, 2003.

As a 13 year old boy Mario played a sex scene in Sweet Sweetback.
Backing came from Bill Cosby, among others.
Clip: Baadassss (Mario Van Peebles, 2003)
The secret of the popularity of Sweet Sweetback: the right time, the right place, the right spirit. The black community. Melvin hired black professionals to his crew. For the first time, police violence against blacks was shown. It was well-known to the blacks, but first in 1991, with the Rodney King incident, whites became aware of it. Sweet Sweetback was prophetic.

No more resignation. Taking responsibility. Emphasis on the black community. Already the opening credits are significant. "Starring: the black community". Melvin himself stars as "Brer Soul", a reference to Brer Rabbit and the old tales of the South, coming from Africa. A new kind of hero.

The film is serious beneath the surface.
The depiction of sexuality was interpreted as machoist, but is not that simple. The theme of androgyny. The sexual exploitation is mutual.

The theme of violence. The essential scene: Sweetback kills the policemen who beat cruelly a brother. There is no glorification of violence.
"Dedicated to the brothers and sisters who have had enough of the Man".

The old woman's comment: "I might have had a Leroy once, but they used to take them away from me". The slave masters could break up families, and so could the social security officials.
Clip: the premiere (from Mario's Baadassss, 2003), "dedicated to the brothers and sisters who opened the door".

Earth, Wind & Fire performed the soundtrack in the year of their debut album.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

The Bells of St. Mary's

Pyhän Maarian kellot / Klockorna i St. Mary. US 1945 © Rainbow Productions, Inc. P+D: Leo McCarey. SC: Dudley Nichols – from a story by Leo McCarey. DP: George Barnes. COST: Edith Head. M: Robert Emmett Dolan. Songs: "The Bells Of St. Mary's" (Douglas Furber, A. Emmett Adams); "Aren't You Glad You're You?" (Johnny Burke, James Van Heusen); "In The Land Of Beginning Again" (George W. Meyer, Grant Clarke); "Varvindar friska"; "Adeste fideles (O, Come All Ye Faithful)" (John Francis Wade); "O sanctissima" (trad. virsi). CAST: Bing Crosby (Father O'Malley), Ingrid Bergman (Sister Mary Benedict), Henry Travers (Horace P. Bogardus), William Gargan (Joe Gallagher), Ruth Donnelly (Sister Michael), Joan Carroll (Patsy Gallagher), Martha Sleeper (Mrs. Gallagher), Rhys Williams (Dr. McKay), Dickie Tyler (Eddie), Una O'Connor (Mrs. Breen). 125 min. A UCLA print viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 15 April 2009. - This is a much screened print of a restored version apparently based on partly challenging materials. Mostly the definition of light is beautiful. - A masterpiece revisited. - I am not a religious person, but as years go by, my respect and admiration for religious work keeps growing. - There are several profound ideas in this film produced during WWII. - There is a fight among the schoolchildren in the yard. Bing Crosby defends the boy who wins: "On the outside it's a man's world". Ingrid Bergman: "How are they doing?". - "I turned the other cheek. Then he really let me have it". - The funniest scene is the "boxing nun" scene; it's also very thought-provoking. It brings to mind that Leo McCarey was the co-creator of the Laurel and Hardy "tit for tat" concept. - The story of the troubled millionaire who finally donates the schoolhouse to the nuns. The message of the film is that doing good for others is good for your heart, even literally. - It is the story of the joy of giving, when every day is Christmas. - If we don't fail sometimes our successes don't mean anything. - You don't become a nun to run away from something but because you've found something. - The final prayer: remove all bitterness from my heart. - The final, breathtaking scene: "You have a touch of TB". "Thank you... you have made me very happy". The misunderstanding of Ingrid Bergman's transfer is cleared (it is to save her). - The beautiful close-ups of the protagonists who have sworn abstinence. - The film is humoristic, but there is also a sense of hidden profound sadness and disappointment which the protagonists fight to overcome.

Huuto tuuleen

A Shout Into the Wind. FI (c) 2007 Oktober Oy. P: Joonas Berghäll. D+SC: Katja Gauriloff. DP: Jarkko T. Laine, J.-P. Passi, Jani Kumpulainen, Pentti Pällijeff, Johannes Lehmuskallio. M: Pekka Karjalainen. ED: Tuuli Kuittinen. S: Juha Hakanen. 56 min. Digibeta from Katja Gauriloff, with English subtitles by Susan Heiskanen, viewed at Cinema Orion, 15 April 2009 in the presence of Katja Gauriloff. - This is the story of the Skolt Sami today, a proud people of ca 600 only, most of which lived in Petsamo, now part of Russia, and now living around Lake Sevetti. - The film both gives a view of the lived life of the Skolt Sami and the action to have their status as an indigenous people accepted. - The director herself is a Skolt Sami.

Porojen parissa / With the Reindeer


Erik Blomberg, Eino Mäkinen: Porojen parissa / With the Reindeer (FI 1947).

Bland renar. FI 1947. P: Erik Blomberg Oy, Eino Mäkinen, Adams Filmi. D: Erik Blomberg, Eino Mäkinen. 8 min. A fine KAVA print viewed at Cinema Orion, 15 April 2009 (Dokumentin ytimessä 47). - Revisited the beautiful account of the reindeer round-up (poroerotus), a big annual event in the life of the Sami people, of the "paliskunta" institution (reindeer owners' association).

Suonikylän talvielämää / Winter Life in Suenjel


Eino Mäkinen: Suonikylän talvielämää / Winter Life in Suenjel (FI 1938).

Vinterliv i Suenjel. FI 1938. PC: Kansatieteellinen Filmi. D+SC: Eino Mäkinen, Kustaa Vilkuna. Specialist: Karl Nickul. Silent, 25 min. A fine 35 mm KAVA print. Viewed at Cinema Orion, 15 April 2009 (Dokumentin ytimessä 47: Saamelaiset / In the Core of the Documentary 47: The Sami People). - A beautiful print. - Revisited the classic of Finnish ethnographic cinema, with scenes of sheep-farming, washing clothes, net-fishing through ice, children playing with the lasso (suopunki) and with reindeer horns, producing thread from veins, spinning by distaff and filling the shoe with hay. Also shown is baby-rearing and removing blackheads from the skin of the back. The whole property of the skolt sami family is packed in a sleigh (ahkio), and winter survival techniques are displayed. - Ilkka Kippola and Jari Sedergren criticize the film for breaches of intimacy, but the Sami director Katja Gauriloff did not find the film improper in that way. - A beautiful film in the Flaherty tradition.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Katyń


Andrzej Wajda: Katyń (PL 2007).

PL © 2007 Akson Studio etc. P: Michał Kwieciński. D: Andrzej Wajda. Based on the novel Post Mortem by Andrzej Mularczyk. SC: Andrzej Wajda, Przemysław Nowakowski. DP: Paweł Edelman - 4K digital intermediate. M: Krzysztof Penderecki. ED: Milenia Fiedler, Rafał Listopad. Excerpts from both the German and the Soviet propaganda films, "Im Wald vom Katyn" and "Katynskiego lieso". CAST: Maja Ostaszewska, Artur Żmijewski, Paweł Małaszyński. 122 min. A Polish TV / Polish Embassy print with English subtitles by Jerzy Siemasz. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki 9 April 2009. - The 4K digital intermediate is so well made that I didn't notice it was digital. - A strong historical film that approaches the Katyn massacre in 1940 of 22.000 Polish officers by NKVD from the viewpoint of the survivors. The script is well constructed to convey the profundity of the horror and the pressure on the survivors to lie. - As in Roman Polanski's The Pianist, there is no self-conscious style here. The director's style is unrecognizable, there is perhaps a slight lack of sturdiness and intensity. - The subject-matter is horrible in itself, and the visual and musical expression is calm and dignified. - Certainly one of Wajda's key films beside Ashes and Diamonds and The Man of Marble.

"Plaisir d'amour" (song by Martini, 1780)


William Wyler: The Heiress (US 1949). Montgomery Clift (Morris Townsend) and Olivia De Havilland (Catherine Sloper). The best (and the only great) Henry James film adaptation, based on Washington Square.

"Plaisir d'amour", the song by Jean Martini (1780), has a central role in two films in which it is the theme song:
Love Affair (Leo McCarey, 1939): the moment of gravity in the life of the protagonists.
The Heiress (William Wyler, 1949): the lost love of father and daughter; also in this film the tune is played imperfectly; the choice of the song was Wyler's

Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment.
chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.

J'ai tout quitté pour l'ingrate Sylvie.
Elle me quitte et prend un autre aimant.

Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment.
chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.

Tant que cette eau coulera doucement
vers ce ruisseau qui borde la prairie,

Je t'aimerai me répétait Sylvie.
L'eau coule encore. Elle a changé pourtant.

Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment.
chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.

Love Affair

Sanovat sitä rakkaudeksi / Det handlar om kärlek... US (c) 1939 RKO. D: Leo McCarey. SC: Delmer Daves, Donald Ogden Stewart - based on a story by Mildred Cram and Leo McCarey. DP: Rudolph Maté. AD: Van Nest Polglase, Al Herman. M: Roy Webb. Theme song: "Plaisir d'amour" (1780, Jean Paul Egide Martini). ED: Edward Dmytryk, George Hiveley. CAST: Irene Dunne (Terry McCay), Charles Boyer (Michel Marnay), Maria Ouspenskaya (grandmother). 88 min. A MoMA restored print with funding provided by The Film Foundation. Viewed at Cinema Orion, 9 April 2009. - This is the best print; the restoration has been conducted from partially worn and scratched materials. - A masterpiece revisited. - The Madeira turning-point. Two shallow people who have been drifting through life experience a moment of gravity. - The story of spiritual regeneration through love.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Fucking Åmål / Show Me Love


Lukas Moodysson: Fucking Åmål / Show Me Love (SE 1998) with Alexandra Dahlström (Elin), Rebecca Liljeberg (Agnes).

Fucking Åmål. 
    SE © 1998 Memfis Film. D+SC: Lukas Moodysson. DP: Ulf Brantås - Super 16 mm - blow-up to 35 mm. Music selections include: "När vi två blir en" (Per Gessle) pres. Gyllene Tider. "Adagio" (Albinoni). "I Want To Know What Love Is" pres. Foreigner. "Show Me Love" pres. Robyn. ED: Michal Leszczylowski. CAST: Alexandra Dahlström (Elin), Rebecca Liljeberg (Agnes), Mathias Rust (Johan), Erica Carlson (Jessica), Stefan Hörberg (Markus). 89 min. Finnish subtitles: Arto Paljakka. A vintage release print, a good print, viewed at Cinema Orion, 7 April 2009.

The 16 mm cinematography brings a filmic texture, the colour is full and saturated in a pleasant way in the all-photochemically processed print.

Lukas Moodysson's masterpiece stands the test of time. Now, after the serial school massacres that got a higher profile since Columbine 1999, the theme of school bullying seems interesting and alarming in a new way. The film is psychologically subtle and honest. It is an extremely serious film about identity, sexual identity in this case. It is about love that has to be hidden. The conclusion is moving. "Do you really mean what you said before?" The victory of pride.

See my later blog entry on Fucking Åmål on 12 April 2014.

Once Upon a Honeymoon


Leo McCarey: Once Upon a Honeymoon (US 1942). Cary Grant (Pat O'Toole), Ginger Rogers (Katie O'Hara von Luber or Katherine Butt-Smith).

Paronitar painuu maan alle / Baronessen går under jorden / Lua sem mel. US 1942 © RKO Radio Pictures. P+D: Leo McCarey. SC: Sheridan Gibney – based on a story by Sheridan Gibney and Leo McCarey. DP: George Barnes. AD: Albert S. D'Agostino, Al Herman. Set dec: Darrell Silvera, Claude E. Carpenter. COST: Miss Leslie. M: Robert Emmett Dolan. S: James G. Stewart, Richard Van Heussen. Montage: Douglas Travers. ED: Theron Warth. CAST: Cary Grant (Pat O'Toole), Ginger Rogers (Katie O'Hara von Luber or Katherine Butt-Smith), Walter Slezak (Baron von Luber), Albert Dekker (Le Blanc), Albert Bassermann (General Borelski). 116 min. A Cinemateca Portuguesa print. Viewed at the Finnish Film Archive, Orion, Leo McCarey retrospective, Helsinki, 7 April 2009. – A print from less than perfect start material. – A wonderful film which faces the fatal world historical situation in the Hollywood way, a remarkable film that can be juxtaposed with Chaplin's The Great Dictator and Lubitsch's To Be Or Not To Be. The three greatest comedy directors active in Hollywood each handled Nazi invasion, persecution of the Jews and concentration camps in a topical comedy. – A film rich with surprises, and Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers handle their difficult roles very well.

...
SUOMEN ELOKUVA-ARKISTO
Finnish Film Archive
Program note based on Robin Wood, edited by Antti Alanen
Once Upon a Honeymoon
Paronitar painuu maan alle / Baronessen går under jorden
 
USA 1942 © RKO Radio Pictures. Tuottaja, ohjaaja: Leo McCarey. Apulaisohjaajat: James Anderson, Harry Scott. Käsikirjoitus: Sheridan Gibney – Sheridan Gibneyn ja Leo McCareyn tarinasta. Kuvaus: George Barnes. Lavastus: Albert S. D'Agostino, Al Herman (art directors), Darrell Silvera, Claude E. Carpenter (set decorations). Puvut: Miss Leslie. Musiikki: Robert Emmett Dolan. Ääni: James G. Stewart, Richard Van Heussen. Montaasi: Douglas Travers. Leikkaus: Theron Warth. Pääosissa: Cary Grant (Pat O'Toole), Ginger Rogers (Katie O'Hara von Luber eli Katherine Butt-Smith), Walter Slezak (paroni von Luber), Albert Dekker (Le Blanc), Albert Bassermann (kenraali Borelski), Ferike Boros (Elsa), Harry Shannon (Ed Cumberland), Natasha Lytess (Anna), John Banner (Kleinoch), Hans Conried (ranskalainen sovittaja). Helsingin ensiesitys: 23.5.1947 Capitol, maahantuoja: RKO Radio Film – vhs-julkaisu: 1990 Mistar – tv-lähetyksiä: 26.3.2003 YLE Teema, 19.3.2004 YLE TV1, 11.6.2006 YLE TV1 – VET 27351 – S – 117 min 

Elokuvassa Paronitar painuu maan alle Leo McCarey leikkii hienovaraisesti klassisen Hollywood-kerronnan sovinnaisilla keinoilla. 
    Kun Gestapo-upseerit löytävät Patin (Cary Grant) ja Katien (Ginger Rogers) varsovalaisen rauniotalon kellarista, toinen upseereista kompastelee raunioissa niin monta kertaa, että Grant sanoo, mahdollisesti improvisoiden: "Lopeta jo, tuo ei ole hauskaa". Tokaisu perustuu siihen, että natsien esittämiselle oli Hollywood-elokuvassa jo vakiintuneita konventioita, ja se leikkii niillä kahdella tavalla: olettamalla ironisesti, että natsi yrittää viihdyttää meitä ja muistuttamalla meitä koko näytöksen illusionismista.
    Tätä ennen Katie on kohdannut koomisen naiivin ja intomielisen natsinuorukaisen, kapteeni von Cranachin. Seuraavassa jaksossa hänet ammutaan kylmäverisesti omiensa toimesta, ja nuorukaisen viimeisiksi sanoiksi jäävät: "Heil... Hitler?" Komiikan ja kauhun rohkea ja hämmentävä vuorottelu on tyypillistä elokuvalle. 
    Production Coden säätelemissä 1940-luvun elokuvissa sankari ja sankaritar eivät saaneet mennä sänkyyn ennen avioliittoa. Monessa elokuvassa konventiolla leikittiin niin, että tarinassa kaikki viittaa siihen, että sänkyyn mennään, mutta mukana on myös todiste siitä, että niin ei olekaan käynyt. Tuon ajan elokuvien katsoja oppi luottamaan viittaukseen ja ignoroimaan todisteen. Pariisi yöllä: Pat ja Katie ovat ravintolan kattoterassilla kuvassa, jossa heidän välillään sojottaa Eiffel-torni. Seksuaalinen hellyys läpäisee koko jakson, mutta seuraavan aamun keskustelusta hotellin conciergen kanssa saamme tietää, että Pat ja Katie ovat nukkuneet eri huoneissa. Monimieliseksi loppuvaikutelmaksi jää tavaton hellyys.
    Kokonaisrakenteen tasolla McCareyn leikki konventioilla on uskallettua. Paronitar painuu maan alle on kevyt romanttinen komedia, jonka juonen kulku johtaa puolivälissä kysymykseen kirurgisesta sterilisaatiosta. McCarey oli vankan maineen omaava menestysohjaaja. Cary Grant oli noussut uransa huipulle. Ginger Rogers oli edennyt Fred Astaire -musikaalien partnerista itsenäiselle tähtiuralle. Saksalainen Walter Slezak sai elokuvassa ensimmäisen englanninkielisen roolinsa. Elokuva sai ensi-iltansa marraskuussa 1942. Vaikka USA oli jo lähes vuotta aikaisemmin vedetty mukaan toiseen maailmansotaan, kysymys fasisminvastaisesta sitoutumisesta ei ollut vielä mikään itsestäänselvyys (eikä siitä milloinkaan tullutkaan sellaista). Hollywood-viestinä Paronitar painuu maan alle oli selväpuheinen. Eräässä kohtauksessa Ginger Rogers esiintyy Vapaudenpatsaana (samoin kuin oli tehnyt Leo McCareyn aikaisemmassa elokuvassa Belle of the Nineties Mae West), ja hän työntää kirjaimellisesti yli laidan miehen, joka aikoo levittää natsismin verkostoa Amerikkaan.
    Vuonna 1942 oli rohkea ja edellä aikaansa se, joka käsitteli elokuvassa natsien juutalaisvainoa. Vaati erityistä suuruutta käsitellä sitä komediassa. Charles Chaplin oli tehnyt niin Diktaattorissa (1940); Ernst Lubitsch teki niin elokuvassa Ollako vai eikö olla (1942). "Lopullisen ratkaisun" toteuttaminen oli käynnistynyt vasta vuonna 1942. Leo McCareyn siirtoleirikuvat – niiden yö ja usva – tuovat mieleen keskitysleirit. Näemme sumussa selittämättömiä kumpareita (hautoja? vainajia? vaatepinoja?). Sterilisaation teemaa käsitellään suorapuheisesti, ja se liittyy myös elokuvassa keskeiseen "potenssin" teemaan.
    Elokuvan keskeistä liikettä voidaan kuvata kahdella tavalla, jotka liittyvät siinä vallitsevaan rakenteellisten vastakohtien verkostoon (ks. luettelo alla). Ensinnäkin Katien kehitys kohti sitoutuneisuutta antaa elokuvalle sen kerronnallisen rakenteen. Kehityksessä on useita askelia: kohtaus, jossa Pat esiintyy räätälin sovittajana; vodkanjuonti varsovalaisessa hotellissa ("this above all, to thine own self be true... ", Laertesin sanat pojalleen Shakespearen Hamletissa); Katien kommentti paronille kahdesta natsista; Katien reaktio kenraalin ja nuorukaisen murhaan; tajutessaan, että juutalaisen kotiapulaisen lapsia vainotaan Katie antaa tälle oman passinsa; siitä alkaen häntä ja Patia itseään kohdellaan juutalaisina ja heidät lähetetään siirtoleirille; nyt Katie on valmis avainkohtaukseen, jossa valokuvaaja-kaksoisagentti (Albert Dekker) värvää hänet vakoilijaksi; Katie työntää natsin yli laidan.
    Kehitykseen liittyy elimellisesti se, että Katie löytää (uudelleen) oman todellisen identiteettinsä. Hän on teeskennellyt olevansa Katherine Butt-Smith Philadelphiasta, josta on tulossa paronitar von Luba, mutta vähitellen paljastuu hänen todellinen taustansa: Katie O'Hara, burleskitanssija ja "Queen of them all". Butt-Smith-teeskentelyyn on liittynyt naisellisen laskelmoitu tyhmänä esiintyminen, jonka tarkoitus on mielistellä miestä. Katie ei kuitenkaan pysty täysin tukahduttamaan spontaania reaktiotaan koomiseen absurdiikkaan, ja luonnollisen identiteetin palautuminen liittyy saumattomasti vastuun ottamiseen ja sitoutumiseen.
    Elokuvassa ovat vastakkain päälinjat demokratia vastaan fasismi ja Amerikka vastaan Eurooppa. Edellinen päälinja on ehdoton, jälkimmäinen on monimielinen ja juontaa juurensa aina en-simmäisten pyhiinvaeltajien aikakauteen asti. Päälinjat kohtaavat paronin hahmossa, jonka McCarey loi kiehtovasti yhteistyössä Walter Slezakin, loistavan koomikkolahjakkuuden, kanssa. Von Luba on sekä natsiroisto että aristokraattinen hurmuri. Hahmotus on sukua Jean Renoirin herra Batalalle (Jules Berry) Herra Langen rikoksessa.
    Seksuaalisten pohjavirtausten merkitys elokuvassa on suurempi kuin on ilmeistä. Puvunsovituskohtauksessa Patin mittanauha on jatkuvasti sojossa. Junassa Tshekkoslovakiasta Puolaan Pat saa yllättäen haltuunsa saksofonin, jonka ääniin Katie reagoi, kunnes paroni toteaa viimein: "I hope that doesn't keep up all night". Katien seuratessa syvästi hengittävää Patia Katie alkaa hengittää rytmissä tämän kanssa; Pat herää ja muistaa Katien nimen; Katie korostaa heidän yhteyttään: "O'Toole, O'Hara, O, O". Eiffel-tornista on ollut jo puhetta; sen vastakuvana on kuuluisa parvekekuva Hitleristä taustallaan Eiffel-torni. Voidaan vielä muistaa Vapaudenpatsas ja Patin maininta, että Katie olisi vielä "carrying the torch" paronin suuntaan; ja hämmentävä lisäys, että "in fact I've swallowed it". Elokuvassa kehitellään seksuaalisen kaksoisagentin teemaa, jota vei pidemmälle Alfred Hitchcock elokuvissaan Notorious ja Vaarallinen romanssi. 
    Teeskentelyn ja aitouden vastakohtapari on elokuvassa keskeinen. Natsit pyytävät Patia teeskentelemään kahta ominaisuutta radiolähetyksissään Amerikkaan: spontaanisuutta ("shpontanuity") ja vilpittömyyttä. Ne ovat McCareyn tuotannon avainhyveet. Niidenkin kautta Paronitar painuu maan alle kytkeytyy kahteen McCareyn hienoimpaan 1930-luvun elokuvaan, Ruggles of Red Gap ja Make Way for Tomorrow.

– Robin Woodin mukaan (esseestä "Democracy and Shpontanuity. Leo McCarey and the Hollywood Tradition", Film Comment, January 1976), AA 7.4.2009

Robin Wood: rakenteelliset vastakohdat elokuvassa Paronitar painuu maan alle: Elokuvan arvomaailmaa voidaan kuvata vastakohtapareina, ja elokuvan rikkaus juontuu osaltaan niiden vuorovaikutuksesta.

1. Fasismi / demokratia
2. Armottomuus / avaramielisyys
3. Laskelmointi / improvisaatio
4. Keinotekoinen valta / luonnollinen potenssi
5. Sterilisaatio / luovuus
6. Rotupuhtaus / monirotuinen yhteiskunta
---
7. Eurooppa / Amerikka
8. Philadelphia / Brooklyn
9. Katherine Butt-Smith / Katie O'Hara
10. Aristokraatit / plebeijit
11. Paronitar von Luba / "Queen of them all"
12. Vaatteet statusesineinä / striptease
13. Browning – Shakespeare – Irving Berlin
14. Teeskentely / rehellisyys
15. Joutilaisuus / työ
16. Vastuuttomuus / sitoutuneisuus

Oikeanpuoleiset kohdat ovat niitä, joita elokuvassa kannatetaan. Ensimmäisissä kuudessa vasemmanpuoleiset kohdat tuomitaan selvästi. 
Lopuissa vasemmanpuolisia kohtia käsitellään humoristisesti, satiirisesti ja jopa sympaattisesti.

Friday, April 03, 2009

Swoon

Leopold & Loeb: lapsenmurhaajien tarina / Brottslig drift. US 1992. PC: Intolerance Productions, American Playhouse. P: Christine Vachon. D+SC: Tom Kalin. CAST: Daniel Schlachtet (Loeb), Craig Chester (Leopld). 94 min. A Cinemateket / Svenska Filminstitutet print with Swedish subtitles. Viewed at Cinema Orion, 3 April 2009. - I watched the first 20 minutes of the fascinating black and white film which borders on the experimental.

Marjo Pipinen: New Queer Cinema (lecture)

An excellent lecture belonging to the U.S. Independents cycle at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 3 April, 2009.

- Traditional queer cinema: American Underground, European directors (Pasolini, Jarman, Fassbinder, Akerman), San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival 1977
- Gay representations in mainstream cinema (The Children's Hour, Rebel Without a Cause)
- The 1980s: Born in Flames, Lianna, The Times of Harvey Milk, Desert Hearts, Mala Noche, My Beautiful Laundrette, I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, Looking for Langston
- New Queer Cinema. B. Ruby Rich (Sight & Sound, Sep 1992, March 2000). Festivals the main distribution channel. "A new kind of film and video-making that was fresh, inventive, unapologetic, sexy and stylistically daring". No consistent aesthetics or strategy, but a common style: Homo Pomo
- Characteristics: roughness (low budget); appropriation - pastiche - re-interpretating the past; pleasure!; no clear identities; an unapologetic attitude; aesthetizing violence
- Themes: re-interpreting the past: Looking for Langston (Isaac Julien, GB 1988), The Hours and the Times (Christopher Münch, 1991), Edward II (Derek Jarman, GB 1991), Swoon (Tom Kalin, 1992), Orlando (Sally Potter, GB 1992), The Watermelon Woman (Cheryl Dunye, 1996)
- Themes: AIDS. RSVP (Laurie Lynd, 1991), The Living End (Gregg Araki, 1992), Blue (Derek Jarman, GB 1993), Derek (Isaac Julien, GB 2008), Zero Patience (John Greyson, CA 1993), Fig Trees (John Greyson, CA 2009), Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995)
- Themes: Queers of Color. Looking for Langston (Isaac Julien, GB 1988), Young Soul Rebels (Isaac Julien, GB 1991), Paris Is Burning (Jennie Livingston, 1991), Tongues Untied (Marlon Riggs, 1991), Khush (Pratibha Parmar, GB 1991), A Place of Rage (1991), The Watermelon Woman (Cheryl Dunye, 1996)
- Themes: Outside Society. Gus Van Sant: Mala Noche (1985), My Own Private Idaho. - Todd Haynes: Poison (1991). - Tom Kalin: Swoon (1992), Savage Grace (2007). - Gregg Araki: The Living End (1992), Mysterious Skin (2004). - Negative representions?
- Lesbian Cinema. Su Friedrich: Sink or Swim (1990), Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire (1994). Sadie Benning: A Place Called Lovely (1991). Aerlyn Weissman & Lynne Fernie: Forbidden Love (CA 1992). Rose Troche: Go Fish (1994). Cheryl Dunye: The Watermelon Woman (1996). Lisa Cholodenko: High Art (1998).
- After New Queer Cinema? - From a radical impulse to a market opportunity. - Rather a moment than a movement. - Queer motifs int0 the mainstream: Lesbian chic, trendy gays. - A flood of hlbt film festivals. - Genre cinema: coming out, romantic comedy.
- Cam Archer: Wild Tigers I Have Known (2006), EX: Gus Van Sant
- Queer in the 2000s: old film-makers. Gus Van Sant (1952. Elephant, Paranoid Park, Milk). Gregg Araki (1959. Mysterious Skin, Smiley Face). Bruce LaBruce (1964. The Raspberry Reich DE/CA, Otto; Or, Up With Dead People DE/CA). Todd Haynes (1961. Velvet Goldmine, Far from Heaven, I'm Not There). Tom Kalin (1962. Savage Grace). Todd Solondz (1959. Happiness, Storytelling, Palindromes).
- Queer in the 200s: new film-makers. John Cameron Mitchell (1963. Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus). Michel Cuesta (1963. L.I.E.). Jonathan Caouette (1973. Tarnation). Cam Archer (1982. Wild Tiger I Have Known)
- L Code employing Lesbian directors. Rose Troche (D, SC, P), Go Fish. Kimberly Peirce (D), Boys Don't Cry. Jamie Babbitt (D), But I'm a Cheerleader, Itty Bitty Titty Committee. Angela Robinson (D, SC), D.E.B.S.
SOURCES:
- “New Queer Cinema”, Sight & Sound, Sep 1992
- B. Ruby Rich, “Queer and Present Danger”, Sight & Sound, maaliskuu 2000
- PopcornQ: http://www.planetout.com/popcornq/
- Michele Aron (toim.), New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader (2004)
- Richard Dyer, Now You See It (1990, 2003); The Culture of Queers (2002)
- B. Ruby Rich, Chick Flicks: Theories and Memories of the Feminist Film Movement (1998)

Make Way for Tomorrow

[The film has never been released in Finland, nor transmitted on tv, nor published on video or dvd]. US (c) 1937 Paramount. Presented by: Adolph Zukor. EX: William LeBaron. D: Leo McCarey. SC: Viña Delmar - based on the novel Years Are So Long (1934) by Josephine Lawrence and an unpublished play based on the novel by Helen Leary and Nolan Leary (1935). DP: William C. Mellor. AD: Hans Dreier, Bernard Herzbrun. Interior Decorations: A.E. Freudeman. M: Victor Young, George Antheil. Song: "Make Way For Tomorrow" (Leo Robin, Sam Coslow, Jean Schwartz). "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" (Leo Friedman, Beth Slater Whitson). S: Walter Oberst, Don Johnson. ED: LeRoy Stone. CAST: Victor Moore (Barkley Cooper), Beulah Bondi (Lucy Cooper), Fay Bainter (Anita Cooper), Thomas Mitchell (George Cooper), Porter Hall (Harvey Chase), Barbara Read (Rhoda Cooper), Maurice Moscovitch (Max Rubens), Elisabeth Risdon (Cora Payne), Minna Gombell (Nellie Chase). 91 min. A Universal print. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 2 April 2009. - A fine print. - Revisited: Leo McCarey's masterpiece of the generation gap, or, rather "a canyon between us". - The motto is "Honour Thy Father and Mother", but the film is a satire about that theme. - Parents living with children: never has worked out for anybody else. - Grandmother Lucy spoils her daughter-in-law's bridge class. - The kind shopkeeper Rubens reads Lucy's letter to Barkley. - The first half of the film is the story of the embarrasment as the old Cooper couple gets evicted from their home and cannot fit to live with their children, even separately. - The second half is their "second honeymoon" 50 years after the first one (their golden wedding), for one day only, which they spend in New York, in Central Park, in front of the car store, in the restaurant and the dancing hall of the Vogard hotel, and in the railway station. - Everybody else is very nice to them. - "We have five children". "It must be a lot of pleasure". "I bet you haven't any children". - Barkley doesn't know that Lucy is going to an old people's home. "It's been very nice knowing you". - The train leaves. A medium shot of the lonely Lucy. The End.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

The Awful Truth (2009 viewing)


Leo McCarey: The Awful Truth (US 1937). Ralph Bellamy (Daniel Leeson), Irene Dunne (Lucy Warriner), Esther Dale (Mrs. Leeson) and Cary Grant (Jerry Warriner).

Rouvani sulhanen / Min fru har en fästman.
    US © 1937 Columbia Pictures. 
    P+D: Leo McCarey. SC: Viña Delmar  contribution to screenplay construction: Dwight Taylor  based on the play by Arthur Richman (1922). DP: Joseph Walker. AD: Stephen Goosson, Lionel Banks. Interior Decorations: Babs Johnstone. Gowns: Kalloch. M: Ben Oakland, MD: Morris Stoloff.
    Song: "My Dreams Are Gone With The Wind" (Ben Oakland, Milton Drake). "Home On The Range". "La serenata" sung by Irene Dunne. 
    CAST: Irene Dunne (Lucy Warriner), Cary Grant (Jerry Warriner), Ralph Bellamy (Daniel Leeson), Alexander D'Arcy (Armand Duvalle), Cecil Cunningham (Aunt Patsy), Molly Lamont (Barbara Vance), Esther Dale (Mrs. Leeson), Joyce Compton (Dixie Belle Lee), Skippy (Mr. Smith). 
    91 min
    A SFF print with Swedish subtitles by Torsten Manns. 
    Viewed at Finnish Film Archive, Orion, 1 April 2009.

Other film adaptations of the play: 1925, 1929, 1953.

Print was intact but with low contrast.

Revisited: a film I had seen only on tv before. I had not unreservedly liked it because I sensed a mean streak in the parody of the characters around the Warriner couple. I have preferred the Lubitsch approach which makes fun of everybody, with tenderness underneath.

I still find that the film's weakness is that all except the Warriners are made too ridiculous, and as we feel no sympathy for them, the whole story is diminished. Having said that, the film has joys to offer. Even as I watch it I want to see it again, because there are too many touches to savour during a single viewing.

Cary Grant and Irene Dunne: sophisticated comedy acting at its best. The skill of Cary Grant of making Irene Dunne's remarriage plans look ridiculous as he pretends to defend them. The affection of Cary Grant as he rises to Irene Dunne's defense when her reputation is questioned. Cary Grant's girlfriend's skirt-blowing song scene and its parody by Irene Dunne. The dance scene with the waltz and the jitterbug. The scene with the two hats and the dog. Ralph Bellamy: "Well, I guess a man's best friend is his mother".

The final sequence is magnificent. The couple drive together on the final evening before their divorce is legal. The seriousness behind the fun. Irene Dunne tricks them to Aunt Patsy's cabin, a trysting place of affairs. There is between the two bedrooms a creaking door that won't stay shut. There is a black cat, a wind from the window, and a cuckoo clock with a male and a female figure. "Things are the way you made them". "Things could be almost the same, only a little different". The eroticism and sensuality of Irene Dunne in the final bedroom image is of Lubitsch caliber (resembling Jeanette McDonald's nightgown scenes).

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The Singing Revolution

Laulev revolutsioon / Laulava vallankumous / Den sjungande revolutionen. US/EE (c) 2006 Mountain View Productions. D: James Tusty, Maureen Castle Tusty, Mike Majoros. Narrator: Linda Hunt. 97 min. A 35mm print with title sequences and subtitles in English from Mountain View Productions. Viewed at Cinema Orion, 31 March 2009. - A good print, with many of the news footage from video origins, and at least some new footage looked like it is shot or edited digitally. - An excellent documentary film of Estonia's way back to independence 20 years ago. - Magnificent aerial footage on the Laulupidu song festivals. - The memory of the free republic. The forest brothers. The gulag survivor. The last forest brother captured in 1978. Russification. I (interview): Lennart Meri. - One of the largest collections of folk songs in the world. - The song fest of 1947: Stalin era, Soviet hymn, and "Mu isanmaa" (Gustav Ernesaks, Lydia Koidula). The unofficial national anthem. The sign of protest. - 1969: the centenary song festival, revival of "Mu isanmaa". They had to let Ernesaks conduct. - 1985: Gorbachov. 1987: non-violence, environment, phosphor mines. - Official debate on the occupation. The revelation of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. - The Tartu revolt. I: Mart Laar. The Heritage Society. The guy on the motorcycle with a flag - soon flags everywhere. - Revolution with a smile and a song. - Glasnost = free speech. - Popular front. Edgar Savisaar. Carrying out perestroika. - USSR replaced hardliners with Vaino Valjas. Russians got nervous. 40% Russians in Estonia. Interfront. - All had different strategies. - Laulupidu: 300.000 - one third of the Estonians. - I: Edgar Savisaar. I: Marju Lauristin. I: Heinz Valk. I: Vaino Valjas. - Developing Estonian Laws. I: Arnold Rüütel. The Estonian language. The Estonian flag. - 1989: avoiding direct confrontation. An example of responsibility. - Footage of Gorbachov meeting the Estonians. - The 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. - The giant human chain through the three Baltic countries. - The Soviet Party warns the Baltic countries. - Illegal occupation. Political violence. Estonian citizenship exists. Registration campaign. Denying legitimacy of occupation. It was easy to start. 860.000 registered. An overwhelming referendum. - 1990: the Congress of Estonia. Not declaring any official authority. Russians lose privileges. Interfront increasingly hostile. - Hammer and sickle illegal. - Interfront at Toompea. I: Jevgeni Kogan (Interfront). - The crowd stormed. The defense of Toompea Castle. Liberty! The crowd stayed calm. - 1991: Vilnius: Soviet soldiers killed 14, hundreds wounded. I: Lennart Meri. Free media. Riga: 6 more killed. - Soviet system collapsed. Hardliners agains Gorbachov. Gorbachov always late. Restructuring. Tanks. - The Hirve Park demonstration. - Heinz Volk gave the Singing Revolution its name. - A calmly engrossing documentary film. - Essential viewing for any Finn.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Bottle Rocket (print check viewing)


Wes Anderson: Bottle Rocket (US 1996) with Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson and Robert Musgrave.

Cinema Orion, 27 March 2009. – Bottle Rocket was imported to Finland for cinema release, but in the period of a dearth of cinemas before the opening of the Tennispalatsi multiplex it was shelved. – I checked 45 minutes of the brilliant vintage unused print with full colour in the Texas light. – The screening was well attended, and the audience audibly enjoyed the fine picture. – A film that rewards repeated screenings.

See my remarks on Bottle Rocket viewed on vhs.

Antti Alanen: "The Class of 1999" in American Cinema (lecture)


Spike Jonze: Being John Malkovich (1999).

Cinema Orion, 27 March 2009. Main points:

1. A new generation of directors:
Paul Thomas Anderson,
Wes Anderson,
Darren Aronofsky,
Sofia Coppola,
Michel Gondry,
Spike Jonze,
Alexander Payne,
David O. Russell,
Todd Solondz.
The screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.

2. Key films of 1999:
Magnolia,
Three Kings,
Being John Malkovich,
Fight Club,
American Beauty,
The Matrix,
Election,
The Virgin Suicides,
Boys Don't Cry.
The most exciting year in American cinema in the last ten years.
The following year: Requiem for a Dream.

3. The network: many of the new directors were friends

4. The video generation

5. Low tech not a problem

6. The music video background (especially Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry)

7. The skateboard video background

8. The issue of violence and crime

9. The sensitivity to young people

10. The widening register of sexual issues from virginity and restraint to paedophilia and incest.

Three Kings
















Kolme kuningasta. USA (c) 1999 Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Films. PC also: Coast Ridge Films, Atlas Entertainment, TK PRoductions. D+SC: David O. Russell - based on an idea by John Ridley. DP: Tom Sigel - Technicolor - Super 35 - 2,35:1. CAST: George Clooney (Maj. Archie Gates), Mark Wahlberg (Sgt. Troy Barlow), Ice Cube (Staff Sergeant Chief Elgein), Nora Dunn (Adriana Cruz), Jamie Kennedy (Walter Wogaman), Spike Jonze (Private Conrad Vig). Colour, 2,35:1, DD 5.1, 114 min. Dvd (Finland): Sandrew / Warner, 2003, extras galore. - From my MMM Film Guide: A political action satire featuring Major Archie Gates (GC) on the verge of retirement in the Gulf War in 1991 on one of his last missions. He finds out that three soldiers possess a map based on which it is possible to find a gold treasure stolen by Saddam Hussein's troops from the Kuwaitians. But as they embark on the quest for the treasure they find themselves having to defend innocent civilians who are in the line of fire of Saddam's troops, and they are soon in danger from their own forces, as well. - The media war. - The clash of the civilizations. - George W. Bush in 1999: then I guess I'll have to finish this war?

The Virgin Suicides


Sofia Coppola: The Virgin Suicides (1999).

Kauniina kuolleet.
    US © 1999 Virgin Suicides, LLC. O: Sofia Coppola. M: Air. C: James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, Michael Paré, Scott Glenn, Danny DeVito. Colour, 1,85:1, DD 5.1, 97 min. Finnish subtitles Marko Hautala. Dvd, Future Film 2001.
     [My suggestion for the Finnish title: Nuorena nukkuneet.]

Sofia Coppolas debut feature revisited on dvd.

Wikipedia capsule: "Based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, the film tells of the suicides of the five Lisbon sisters in an upper middle class suburb of Detroit during the 1970s. The girls’ suicides fascinate their community as their neighbors struggle to find an explanation for the acts."

The Lisbon sisters have overprotective, isolating parents. – This is an account of the awkward age. – The movie has an interesting 1970s soundtrack. – The movie is a tragedy, but there also moments of joy, happiness, and love. – I saw the film during the first run. It was interesting to see it again now, having seen the development in their later films of Sofia Coppola, Kirsten Dunst, and Josh Hartnett. – The Virgin Suicides is a story of repression. One of the motifs is tree protection. The home becomes a prison. – Messages are sent via music codes. There is a gang of boys admiring the virgins. – There is a profound sense of loss and sadness. – The motif of the collective suicide resonates also with the contemporary school tragedies of Columbine, 1999, and later.

Election

















Vaalit. USA (c) 1999 Paramount Productions. PC: MTV Films. D: Alexander Payne. CAST: Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon. 99 min. Colour, anamorphic 2,35:1, DD 5.1, 99 min. Dvd release in Finland: Paramount / Finnkino. With audio commentary with Alexander Payne. - A good transfer. - Tom Charity in Time Out Film Guide: "This remarkable film may be set in high school, but its satiric take on moral corruption, political chicanery, adultery and seduction is anything but juvenile. In a smart role reversal, Ferris Bueller (aka Matthew Broderick) plays Mr. McAllister, a responsible, concerned teacher worn thin by long years at George Washington Carver High, by his sexless marriage, and by the plight of his best friend, sacked for sleeping with the redoubtable but under age Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon). Come elections for student council president, Tracy is far and away the front runner, but Mr. McAllister, terrified by the prospect of working so closely with this closet Lolita, and charged with overseeing the proceedings, discreetly sponsors a rival candidate, gormless jock Paul (Chris Klein). Things hot up when Paul's lesbian younger sister joins the race. Granted, McAllister's narration has a sour, misogynistic aftertaste, even if director/co-writer Payne affects a certain balance by giving Tracy her say. There's more than a whiff of Monica Lewinsky about Ms. Flick. With her clipped diction, prim demeanour and blinkered ability to see only her side of every issue, she makes a frighteningly credible proto despot. This may not be politically correct, but as a microcosm of the malaise creeping through Western democracies, the apathy, vote rigging, and character assassination manifest at Carver High serve all too well". - Sharp, focused, satirical, visually expressive. - The ending is an original development of "what happened to them afterwards".

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Welcome to the Dollhouse
















Tervetuloa nukketaloon. USA (c) 1995 Suburban Pictures. D: Todd Solondz. CAST: Heather Matarazzo, Dawn Wiener, Brendan Sexton, Jr., Daria Kalinina, Matthew Faber, Angela Pietropinto. 90 min. Finnish subtitles by Simo Tarkkonen. Dvd (Future Film 2006).

A moving account of the coming of age, school harassment, and growing pains at 12. Leonard Maltin crystallizes this very well: "The pain of puberty has never been portrayed so unflinchingly; smart-but-ordinary Matarazzo has to deal with her incredibly un-nurturing suburban family (which dotes on her "adorable" younger sister), and worse, the pranks and sexual threats of virtualy her entire junior high school. Amid this dire lack of support and warmth is a heroine of enormous pluck and cunning. While viewer may wince as numerous unpleasant situations play out, there is also terrific satire (and guffaws) as life in the Seventh-Grade-From-Hell is depicted with dead-on clarity. Strong performances, sharply scripted by the director". - Sensitive, humoristic, with a lively soundtrack incorporating nice surprises of familiar classical music excerpts. - Themes include sexual initiation and drugs. The ballerina little sister adored by everyone is kidnapped. The bully boyfriend Brandon McCarthy (Brendan Sexton III) escapes to New York. The egoistic rocker Steve Rodgers (Eric Mabius) insults the protagonist. She tries to find the lost little sister with a terrible sense of guilt.

Bottle Rocket




Lurjukset. US 1995. PC: Gracie Films. D: Wes Anderson. SC: Owen Wilson, Wes Anderson. DP: Robert Yeoman. M: Mark Mothersbaugh. CAST: Luke Wilson (Anthony), Owen Wilson (Dignan), Robert Musgrave (Bob Mapplethorpe), Lumi Cavazos (Inez), James Caan (crime lord). 91 min.
    Viewed on vhs (Nordisk Finland 1996).

Wes Anderson's debut feature film is a freewheeling account of three would-be criminals, who are rather stupid than evil.

The title means a small firework, which the guys use in the big caper.

In comparison with Tarantino this is realistic, sensitive, vibrant with life.

There is a touching, tentative relationship between Paraguyan Grace and Anthony.

The spoilt rich Mapplethorpe brothers.

Planning a big caper, a bit I soliti ignoti, but completely original. Also an affinity with early Fellini (I vitelloni).

There is also a soundtrack album.

A favourite of Martin Scorsese, Tony Rayns and Robin Wood.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Krustceļš / Homeland


Juris Podnieks: Krustceļš / Homeland (LV 1990).

Um Freiheit zu singen. 
    LV © 1990 JPS Productions. PC: Jura Podnieka Studija, Channel 4 (GB), NHK Japan. 
    D+SC: Juris Podnieks. DP: Andris Slapiņš, Gvido Zvaigzne, Juris Podnieks – IMAX – 70 mm – 1,44:1. ED: Antra Clilinska. S: Anrijs Krenbergs. 
    64 min
    A Betacam SP from the Latvian Embassy. 
    English subtitles. 
    Screened at Cinema Orion, 24 March 2009.

A masterpiece on the Baltic liberation 20 years ago. Beautiful image and sound.

The bells. The old man in his log house. Archival footage of the song festivals of the past. The oldest conductor of the Baltic countries. Occupation footage. Reunions. Aerial footage of the song festival. Latvian choirs from many countries. Estonia: Saarenmaa, the occupation in 1940.

The deportations.

Interviewed: Miss Saarenmaa of 1931, taken to the Gulag. The Saarenmaa song festival of 1931. Once again she wears her ribbon.

Will the Russians leave?

WWII: 10% of the men conscripted. The veteran who is missing his other arm.

Saldus military test site.

Demonstrations: citizens vs. soldiers.

Siberia: Bulani village.

10% of the Baltic people left for the USA.

The return from the Gulag. "With the eyes of an animal". Forgiveness. I wore a mask. We became actors. The bones of the deported.

The graveyard in Siberia. 200.000 from the Baltic are buried here. The repatriation of the dead. The hill of the crosses. The masses under their umbrellas. Lithuania: the cross is an ancient symbol of power. The hill of a million crosses. Although it was rolled over, it rose time and again. The KGB opened all foreign mail. The path of the cross.

The huge bust of Lenin is rolled down. The Baltic countries have been put down.

1990: the Supreme Soviet: the debate on independence. 53% of the people in Latvia are non-Latvians. Every 10. Latvian belongs to the Red Army.

Police violence against the peaceful demonstration. Water of life, water of death. The camera rises to an aerial shot of the huge song festival. Two cameramen were later shot by Red Army snipers, and the director died in a car accident.

Fear Beyond the Wall (Baltic memorial event 2009: 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall, 60th anniversary of Stalin era deportations)




Fear Beyond the Wall event at Cinema Orion, 24 March 2009. In memory of the 60th anniversary of the deportations in the Baltic countries and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall. Organized by the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Embassies together with National Audiovisual Archive, WSOY, Sofi Oksanen, and Imbi Paju. In the photo: Anna Žīgure, author, ex-Ambassador of Latvia and Merle Pajula, Ambassador of Estonia. Foto Kai Vase.

Pelko muurin takana
In memory of the 60th anniversary of the deportations in the Baltic countries and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall.
Organized by the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Embassies together with National Audiovisual Archive, WSOY, Sofi Oksanen, and Imbi Paju.
At Cinema Orion, 17.00-21.00
Moderator: Ms. Iivi Anna Masso

GREETINGS
Ms. Merle Pajula, Ambassador of Estonia
Mr. Einars Semanias, Ambassador of Latvia
Ms. Halina Kobeckaité, Ambassador of Lithuania
Ms. Anna Žīgure, author, ex-Ambassador of Latvia

ADDRESSES
Mr. Toomas Hiio (International Commission of History, Estonia): Management of the Past in Estonia by Historical Research
Mr. Martin Arpo (Security Police, Estonia, ex-researcher of war crimes and crimes against humanity): Deportations as a Crime Against Humanity
Prof. Seppo Zetterberg: The Estonian Historiography from the Viewpoint of a Finnish Researcher

INTERVIEW
Mmes Imbi Paju and Sofi Oksanen, editors of the anthology book Kaiken takana oli pelko (Fear Was Beyond Everything, WSOY 2009) interviewed by Iivi Anna Masso

PRESENTATION
AA: Gulag and the Cinema the Fear Beyond the Wall retrospective [the first retrospective in Finland on the theme, curated by Sofi Oksanen and Imbi Paju]

MUSICAL EVENT
the original presentation of
Jüri Reinvere: Requiem
presented by the Scotch flautist Richard Craig and four singers from the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
combined with a film on Digibeta by Catherine Jarvis, compiled from rare Estonian footage from 19111945
text written by Jüri Reinvere, recited by Catherine Jarvis

The cinema was packed, the atmosphere was calm and intensive, and there had already been the book presentation two hours earlier at the Mediatori at Sanomatalo. There was great media attention, but, alas, half of it was devoted to a bizarre demonstration of a group of Nashi of 15 (misled to believe that the film The Soviet Story was being shown).

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Belle of the Nineties


Leo McCarey: Belle of the Nineties (US 1934). Mae West (Ruby Carter) in the "My American Beauty" production number.

Kaunotar ja lemmenoikut [tv title in Finland]. 
    US © 1934 Paramount. D: Leo McCarey. SC: Mae West. DP: Karl Struss. COST: Travis Banton. M performed by: Duke Ellington's Orchestra.
    "Pom Tiddley Om Pom (Beef Trust Chorus)" (comp. Walter Passmore, lyr. R. H. Douglas, arr. Sam Coslow)
    "My Old Flame" ( Arthur Johnston, Sam Coslow)
    "Troubled Waters" (Johnston, Coslow)
    "My American Beauty" (Johnston, Coslow)
    "I Met My Waterloo" (Johnston, Coslow)
    "I'm In Love With A Tattooed Man" (Johnston, Coslow)
    "When A St. Louis Woman Comes Down To New Orleans" (Johnston, Coslow, Gene Austin)
    "Meet The King" (Arthur Johnston, Leo McCarey)
    "The Royal Wedding" (Johnston, McCarey)
    "Memphis Blues" (trad.)
    CAST: Mae West (Ruby Carter), Roger Pryor (Tiger Kid), John Mack Brown (Brooks Claybourne), John Miljan (Ace Lamont), Katherine de Mille (Molly Brant), Duke Ellington's Orchestra. 
    73 min
    A brilliant 35 mm Universal Paramount print.
    Viewed at Finnish Film Archive, Orion, Leo McCarey retrospective, 18 March 2009.

Revisited: a marvellous Mae West film. She is a master of sexual parody, making fun of sexual hype and sexual inhibition. "My American Beauty" where she transforms from a butterfly to the Statue of Liberty could be her signature production number. This film has her best music numbers, thanks to Duke Ellington, and their "Memphis Blues" would be my all-time favourite Mae West performance. This film, one of the working titles of which was "It Ain't No Sin", fell victim to the tightening of the Production Code, but there is still enough life in it.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Six of a Kind

Rehellinen mies / Äventyr på brollopsresan. US (c) 1934 Paramount. D: Leo McCarey. Cast: Charles Ruggles (J. Pinkham Whinney), Mary Boland (Flora Whinney), W. C. Fields (Sheriff ["Honest"] John Hoxley), George Burns (George Edward[s]), Gracie Allen (Gracie Devore), Alison Skipworth (Mrs. K. Rumford), Bradley Page (Ferguson), Grace Bradley (Goldie), William J. Kelly ([A. B.] Gillette). 65 min. A brilliant Universal-Paramount print. Viewed at Cinema Orion, 17 March 2009.
The six of the kind are presented during the opening credits: six aces, the pairs:
- Charles Ruggles and Mary Boland, planning their 20th anniversary honeymoon trip coast-to-coast: from New York to Hollywood and back in two weeks
- George Burns and Gracie Allen, sharing the trip to cut costs, turning the trip to disaster
- W.C. Fields and Alison Skipworth in Nuggetville, Nevada, where the two couples stop
The funniest performer is W.C. Fields with his twisted pool stick routine and an incomprehensible account on why he is called "honest John".
The plot is also about a bank robbery. A crooked bank teller colleague slips 50.000 dollars in Charles Ruggles' suitcase in order to retrieve them later.
Ok, not great.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance


John Ford: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (US 1962) starring James Stewart (Ransom Stoddard), John Wayne (Tom Doniphon) and Vera Miles (Hallie Stoddard).

THE ANN RUTLEDGE THEME (from Young Mr. Lincoln) is the main music theme of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. (There is also a theme song recorded called The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, but it is not heard in the film.) The Ann Rutledge theme is played seven times:
1) Hallie and Link arrive in their cart at Tom's burned hut.
2) Ransom promises Hallie to teach her to read.
3) Tom brings a cactus rose to Hallie.
4) Hallie alone in the classroom.
5) Hallie binds Ransom's wound.
6) After the statement "print the legend", the train whistle, "getting late", Hallie's cactus flower on Tom's coffin.
7) After the statement "nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance", the train disappears in the horizon, THE END.

THE PSYCHOANALYTICAL ANGLE
1) The main symbols: the cactus rose and the gun.
2) The psychologically sensitive actors Vera Miles and James Stewart, both Hitchcock regulars.
3) Das Unbehagen in der Kultur: the theme of civilization being built upon the repression / control of our wild primitive forces.
4) The unhappy, unsatisfied woman, the childless Hallie.
5) Alcoholism. What makes the man drink: Tom loses Hallie, takes to the bottle, burns his house, almost commits suicide, and in a way the rest of his life is a slow suicide.

THE JOHN FORD STYLE
The unique combination of the over-the-top (the character of Liberty Valance, several other characters verging on the caricature and parody) and restraint. The most beautiful scene of restraint is the one where Hallie sits besides Link, and their looks tell everything. During the film, Vera Miles acts with her eyes.

THE SCREEN AND THE MONITOR
The eloquence of the restraint is evident on the cinema screen but may pass unnoticed on the home monitor. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is readily available on dvd and in tv programming, but to evaluate it it's necessary to see it on the screen.

Cinema and Psyche: The Touch of Horror (Symposium 13-14 March 2009)

Cinema Orion, 190 participants

FRIDAY 13 MARCH, 2009

Chairman AA
9.00 Film: El espíritu de la colmena (Victor Erice, ES 1973)
- an infinitely rich film, inspired a high level discussion with several in-depth interpretations; the print was not brilliant
11.00 Lecture: Christel Airas: The Spirit of the Beehive by Victor Erice
11.45 Recital: Arto Leppänen: the commentary to La Morte Rouge (ES 2006, Victor Erice)
- the film itself is not yet available for screenings (it is reserved for viewing at the marvellous Erice / Kiarostami exhibition only), but in this case, the commentary is highly rewarding in itself, as the film is largely speech-driven
12.15 Lunch break

Chairperson Aune Raitasalo
13.45 Lecture: AA: Media and Violence
14.45 Film: Retour en Normandie (Nicolas Philibert, FR 2006)
- a fascinating documentary look on the countryside, mirroring the making of Moi, Pierre Rivière 30 years earlier, the changes and fates of the performers
16.40 Coffee break
17.05 Lecture: Jussi Kotkavirta: Retour en Normandie
18.30 Film: Moi, Pierre Rivière (René Allio, FR 1976)
- the first screening of this film in Finland, based faithfully on the dossier edited by Michel Foucault's team, an unique film made on location with lay performers, on a turning-point in the French history of jurisdiction and psychiatry, Pascal Bonitzer and Serge Toubiana among the screenwriters

SATURDAY, 14 MARCH 2009

Chairperson Stig Hägglund

9.00 Film: Nosferatu (DE 1922)
- the Lumière project restored version (1995), always rich and fascinating
10.25 Break
10.40 Lectures: Mikael Enckell: Nosferatu, and Aune Raitasalo: Latterday Vampires
11.45 Film: Tuholaiset [Devastators / Pests / Vermins] (Katja Lautamatti & Mina Laamo, FI 2007) 39 min + discussion with Stig Hägglund and Mina Laamo
- an excellent documentary on the reality and nightmare projections of household insects
13.00 Lunch break
14.30 Film: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (US 1962)
- see separate entry
16.30 Coffee break
17.00 Lecture: Vesa Manninen: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
- the male images of Tom Doniphon and Ransom Stoddard
18.00 Conclusion

18.15 Buffet dinner at Restaurant Dubrovnik

Friday, March 13, 2009

Die bleierne Zeit / Marianne & Juliane

 
Margarethe von Trotta: Die bleierne Zeit / Marianne & Juliane / The German Sisters (DE 1981) with Jutta Lampe (Juliane) and Barbara Sukowa (Marianne).

SISARUKSET
ANTTI ALANEN
HELSINGIN SANOMAT
DVD-KLASSIKKO
13.3.2009

YHTEISKUNNALLINEN SAIRASKERTOMUS

Die bleierne Zeit. Saksan liittotasavalta © 1981 Bioskop. O: Margarethe von Trotta. N: Barbara Sukowa, Jutta Lampe, Rüdiger Vogler. Väri, anamorfinen 1,66:1, stereo, 103 min. Suomennos: Helena Lindell. Finnkino (Kinowelt) 13.3.2009

Elokuvat ovat antaneet käsitteitä Saksan synkälle syksylle 1977. "Punaisen armeijakunnan" (RAF) terroristit kidnappasivat ja murhasivat silloin teollisuusjohtaja Hanns-Martin Schleyerin. He kaappasivat lentokoneen tapahtumaketjussa, joka päättyi verisesti Mogadishussa. Keskeiset vangitut terroristit (mm. Gudrun Ensslin ja Andreas Baader) tekivät ryhmäitsemurhan Stammheimin vankilassa. 

Saksalaiset elokuvantekijät tekivät tuoreeltaan yhteiselokuvan Deutschland im Herbst (Terrorin ja kauhun syksy), jonka nojalla puhutaan edelleen "saksalaisesta syksystä". Margarethe von Trotta ohjasi elokuvan Die bleierne Zeit (Sisarukset), josta on jäänyt puheenparreksi "lyijyinen aika".  

"Lyijyisen ajan" käsite on peräisin Friedrich Hölderlinin runosta "Der Gang aufs Land". Elokuvaa tehdessään Trotta tarkoitti ilmaisulla nuoruutensa 1950-lukua, jolloin "elimme lyijykuoren alla", kun kansakunnan menneisyydestä vaiettiin. Italiassa ja Ranskassa ilmaisu ymmärrettiin toisin, se rinnastettiin terroristisen väkivallan lyijyluotien aikaan, ja tässä muuttuneessa merkityksessä Trotta itsekin elokuvansa nimen nyttemmin näkee. 

Sisaruksia on kiinnostavaa verrata ajankohtaiseen suurelokuvaan Baader Meinhof Komplex (2008), jossa Johanna Wokalek esittää Gudrun Ensslinin roolin. Ne eivät mene juurikaan päällekkäin, ja molemmat avaavat rikkaan näkökulman uudemman historian outoon tapahtumakulkuun. Trottan elokuvan käynnistyessä eletään vuotta 1968, ja päähenkilöiden, kuten Ensslinin sisarusten, nimet on muutettu. Konservatiivisen protestanttisen papinperheen tyttäristä on tullut taistelijoita. Sisarukset Marianne (Barbara Sukowa) ja Juliane (Jutta Lampe) taistelevat laillisen abortin puolesta. Sosiaalidemokraattinen Juliane toimittaa feminististä lehteä. 

Marianne hylää perheensä, jättää lapsensa lastenkotiin ja liittyy terroristiryhmään. Kun Marianne vangitaan, sisko auttaa tätä poikaystävänsä Wolfgangin (Rüdiger Vogler) vastustuksesta huolimatta. Tämä on vasta lähtökohta traagiselle tarinalle, joka perustuu tositapahtumiin.

Tunnevoimaa elokuva saa koulumuistoista, joissa Rainer Maria Rilken runo herättää ivaa, mutta Alain Resnais'n Yön ja usvan katselu koulusalissa saa sisarukset itkemään. Elokuvaa on joskus arvosteltu siitä, ettei se kuvaa terroristien uhrien kokemaa väkivaltaa, mutta se ei ole myöskään terroristisen hulluuden puolustuspuhe. "Sukupolvea aikaisemmin olisit kuulunut natseihin" on Julianen ankara kommentti sisarestaan. 

Elokuvan loppukehittelyssä keskeiseksi nousee Mariannen hylätyn ja äitinsä takia hengenvaaraan joutuneen pojan näkökulma.  Leikkaus (Dagmar Hirtz) on vaikuttavaa, ja värimaailma (kuvaus: Franz Rath) harkitun kelmeää. Hölderlinin runo on klikkauksen takana. 

Friedrich Hölderlin
Der Gang aufs Land
An Landauer  

Komm! ins Offene, Freund! zwar glänzt ein Weniges heute 
Nur herunter und eng schließet der Himmel uns ein. 
Weder die Berge sind noch aufgegangen des Waldes 
Gipfel nach Wunsch und leer ruht von Gesange die Luft. 
Trüb ists heut, es schlummern die Gäng' und die Gassen und fast will 
Mir es scheinen, es sei, als in der bleiernen Zeit. 
Dennoch gelinget der Wunsch, Rechtglaubige zweifeln an Einer 
Stunde nicht und der Lust bleibe geweihet der Tag. 
Denn nicht wenig erfreut, was wir vom Himmel gewonnen, 
Wenn ers weigert und doch gönnet den Kindern zuletzt. 
Nur daß solcher Reden und auch der Schritt’ und der Mühe 
Werth der Gewinn und ganz wahr das Ergötzliche sei. 
Darum hoff ich sogar, es werde, wenn das Gewünschte 
Wir beginnen und erst unsere Zunge gelöst, 
Und gefunden das Wort, und aufgegangen das Herz ist, 
Und von trunkener Stirn' höher Besinnen entspringt, 
Mit der unsern zugleich des Himmels Blüte beginnen, 
Und dem offenen Blick offen der Leuchtende sein.  

Denn nicht Mächtiges ists, zum Leben aber gehört es, 
Was wir wollen, und scheint schicklich und freudig zugleich. 
Aber kommen doch auch der segenbringenden Schwalben 
Immer einige noch, ehe der Sommer, ins Land. 
Nämlich droben zu weihn bei guter Rede den Boden, 
Wo den Gästen das Haus baut der verständige Wirth; 
Daß sie kosten und schaun das Schönste, die Fülle des Landes 
Daß, wie das Herz es wünscht, offen, dem Geiste gemäß 
Mahl und Tanz und Gesang und Stutgards Freude gekrönt sei, 
Deshalb wollen wir heut wünschend den Hügel hinauf. 
Mög' ein Besseres noch das menschenfreundliche Mailicht 
Drüber sprechen, von selbst bildsamen Gästen erklärt, 
Oder, wie sonst, wenns andern gefällt, denn alt ist die Sitte, 
Und es schauen so oft lächelnd die Götter auf uns, 
Möge der Zimmermann vom Gipfel des Daches den Spruch thun, 
Wir, so gut es gelang, haben das Unsre gethan.  

Aber schön ist der Ort, wenn in Feiertagen des Frühlings 
Aufgegangen das Tal, wenn mit dem Neckar herab 
Weiden grünend und Wald und all die grünenden Bäume 
Zahllos, blühend weiß, wallen in wiegender Luft, 
Aber mit Wölkchen bedeckt an Bergen herunter der Weinstock 
Dämmert und wächst und erwarmt unter dem sonnigen Duft.

...
Dämmert und wächst und erwarmt unter dem sonnigen Duft,
Schöner freilich muss es ,werden wenn
Liebenden in den

entgegentönt

friedlich die Arme des Neckars
die Insel
indessen oben

und der volle Saal

da, da
sie sinds, sie haben die Masken
Abgeworfen
jetzt, jetzt, jetzt
ruft
dass es helle werde,
weder höret noch sehen
Ein Strom
daß nicht zu Wasser die Freude
Werde, kommt ihr himmlischen Gratien
und der Nahmenstag der hohen,
der himmlischen Kinder sei dieser!

Kommen will ich
Aber fraget mich eins, was sollen Götter im Gasthaus?

Dem antwortet, sie sind, wie die Liebenden, feierlich seelig,
  Wohnen bräutlich sie erst nur in den Tempeln allein
Aber so lange ein Kleineres noch nach jenen genannt ist,
   Werden sie nimmer und nimmer die Himmlischen uns
Denn entweder es herrscht ihr Höchstes blinde gehorcht dann
 Anderes
Oder sie leben in Streit, der bleibt nicht oder es schwindet
  Wie beim trunkenen Mahl, alles
Diß auch verbeut sich selbst, auch Götter bindet ein Schiksaal
  Denn die Lebenden all bindet des Lebens Gesez.

Friedrich Hölderlin

An den Rand der letzten Zeilen ab der Wendung: "aber fraget mich eins..." bis zum Ende des Textes hat Hölderlin notiert:

Last der Freude

Singen wollt ich leichten Gesang, doch nimmer gelingt mirs,
  Denn es machet mein Glück nimmer die Rede mir leicht.

Quelle: Hölderlin, Sämtliche Werke / Elegien und Epigramme, Hrsg.: D.E. Sattler

1800 unvollendet

Hölderlin Friedrich
Lampe Jutta
Sukowa Barbara
Trotta Margarethe von
Vogler Rüdiger

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Milky Way

Aivotärähdys / Folkets jubel. US (c) 1936 Paramount. D: Leo McCarey. Starring Harold Lloyd (Burleigh Sullivan), Adolphe Menjou (Gabby Sloan), Helen Mack (Mae Sullivan), Dorothy Wilson (Polly Pringle), George Barbier (Wilbur Austin), Lionel Stander (Spider Schultz), Bonita (landlady). 92 min. A Harold Lloyd Entertainment print. Viewed at Cinema Orion, 10 March 2009. - A good, clean print but not brilliant [a victim of Paramount's negative-burning?]. - Revisited: most of this very good comedy, which I last saw last year on dvd. - This film may not have the same excellent reputation as the Harold Lloyd 1920s masterpieces, but it is a perfectly enjoyable comedy with so many delicious touches that the film is worth revisiting every now and then. A great difference to the 1920s films that the women are now more independent, and even more charming. Helen Mack portrays Harold's sister, and Dorothy Wilson his girlfriend, who distances herself from him when his personality changes as a result of his phony boxing success. - There are psychological depths in the Harold Lloyd comedies: big themes of self-esteem, self-image, illusion vs. reality, self-awareness, self-confidence. This film is rich with them.

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Ultimate Sexual Massage


Bernie Zilbergeld: Ultimate Sexual Massage (US 2002).

USA © 2002 Alexander Institute. Bernie Zilbergeld. 60 min. From Sin City, Helsinki, 7 March 2009.

A sexually explicit education video, somewhat amateurish, with a framing story of a massage video being watched by a couple. The woman performer who shows he video to her man is really pleasant. She seems really aroused and orgasming. Her vaginal massage scene is superb.

On the flipside of the two-sided dvd there are advertisements of other Alexander Institute releases plus the best scenes of "G-Spot and Genital Massage Techniques from Ultimate Sexual Massage" without the unnecessary framing story.

Tantric Sexual Massage for Lovers

















USA (c) 2008 Alexander Institute (Sherman Oaks, CA, USA). Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson. Complete Explicit Version. 75 min. From Sin City, Helsinki, 7 March 2009.

A sexually explicit educational video with two performing couples (one normal people, the others very fit performers) and one teaching couple. Good advice for everybody on the road to ancient Indian wisdom. Basic video record. Nondescript computer music. Mundane commentary and dialogue.

The trapezius muscle
The sacrum
The parasympathetic nervous system
Breath up spine
Dry friction rub
Mons veneris of the hand
Achilles tendon
Full body massage
Nipple stimulation
External female genital massage
Internal female genital massage
External male genital massage
Internal male genital massage

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

The Kid from Spain

Härkätaistelija / Tjurfäktaren. US (c) 1933 Samuel Goldwyn. D: Leo McCarey. SC: William Anthony McGuire, Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby. DP: Gregg Toland. AD: Richard Day. COST: Milo Anderson. MD: Alfred Newman. SONGS: "In The Moonlight", "Look What You've Done", "What A Perfect Combination" (Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby). CHOREO: Busby Berkeley. ED: Stuart Heisler. CAST: Eddie Cantor (Eddie Williams / Don Sebastian II), Lyda Roberti (Rosalie), Robert Young (Ricardo), Ruth Hall (Anita Gomez), John Miljan (Pancho), Noah Beery (Alonzo Gomez), J. Carrol Naish (Pedro). AFI: 118 min, 101 min, 90 min. The print viewed was 82 min and seemed complete as for plot. At Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 3 March 2009. - This film does not have a good reputation, but it is a wacky comedy that is completely enjoyable, and there was an applause after the movie. - The huge Busby Berkeley setpieces are comically disparate from the plot, starting from the girls' dormitory with patterned swimming in a huge pool. A mixup with robbers brings Eddie to Mexico. Even there the women are gorgeous. Eddie needs to pose as the bullfighter, Don Sebastian II. - What an imperfect combination!