Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Matti Salo (editor): My Personal Favourite Film (survey conducted in 2011 for Filmihullu magazine)


Carol Reed : Odd Man Out (GB 1947), starring James Mason, the personal favourite film of Roman Polanski and Matti Salo.

Matti Salo (1933–2017) curated and edited in 2011 a unique list for the Filmihullu magazine (3/2011) based on the concept "My Personal Favourite Film". It was not a poll, it was not about "the best film ever". Just strictly "my personal favourite film". The Filmihullu issue came from the print on 15 June 2011, the day of opening the Midnight Sun Film Festival, and it was eagerly studied on the plane and the bus to Sodankylä.

Aito Mäkinen was on the right track when he selected a mainstream entertainment drama called Tukkipojan morsian ([The Lumberjack's Bride], 1931). It would not have made his 1000 best films list. But it was the first film that he saw or the film that changed his life as a child.

Matti Salo even took pains to discover entries from people no longer alive, including writers such as F. E. Sillanpää, V. A. Koskenniemi and Väinö Linna. It is not a comprehensive list by any measure. It is idiosyncratic, aleatoric, stimulating. It inspires us to updates.

I assisted Matti Salo quietly and without credit as a deputy sheriff. I have kept my correspondence files, and from them I find entries that slipped out from the final edit. I update them here with the mark + . In the Filmihullu magazine the survey appeared as a special supplement arranged by the films in chronological order. For this blog I edited the survey according to the respondents in alphabetical order on 12 March 2021.

A

Aalto, Mauri : Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1958)
Aaltonen, Jouko : Mon oncle d'Amérique (Alain Resnais, FR 1980)
Aaltonen, Veikko : The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, US 1940)
Aarniala, Timo : L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, FR 1934)
Aarnio, Anna-Leena : Il gattopardo (Luchino Visconti, IT/FR 1963)
Aarnio, Pekka : La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, FR 1939)
Adrian, Esa : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Ahava, Matti : Les Enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné, FR 1945)
Ahlfors, Bengt : Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, US 1950)
Ahlroos, Arvo : L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, FR 1934)
Ahlroth, Jussi : Conan the Barbarian (John Milius, US 1982)
Aho, Kisu : Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, DK/SE/FR/NL/NO/IS/ES/GB 1996)
Ahokas, Pirjo : The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, US 1993)
Ahola, Rafael : The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, US 1992)
Ahtila, Eija-Liisa : I'm Not There. (Todd Haynes, US 2007)
Airaksinen, Anne : Valkoinen peura (Erik Blomberg, FI 1952)
Airisto, Lenita : Das Leben der Anderen (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, DE 2006)
Airola, Päivi : The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz & William Keighley, US 1938)
Alanen, Antti : Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford, US 1939)
Alanen, Asko : Trois couleurs : Bleu (Krzysztof Kieslowski, FR/PL/CH 1993)
Alanen, Laila : The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, US 1979)
Alaniva, Kirsi : Dirty Dancing (Emile Ardolino, US 1987)
Alapuro, Risto : Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, US 1957)
Alenius, Ele : Soljaris (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1972)
Alhainen, Atte : Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1968)
Alho, Olli : Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch, US 1939)
Alopaeus, Marja : The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1974)
Al-Sawed, Mohammed : Avatar (James Cameron, US 2009)
Andell, Pia : Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, US 1972)
Andersson, Claes : El (Luis Buñuel, MX 1952)
Andersson, Leo : The River (Jean Renoir, FR/GB/IN/US 1951)
Andrlíková, Šárka : Ashes and Snow (Gregory Colbert, US 2005)
Anhava, Ilona : Hopscotch (Ronald Neame, US 1980)
Anhava, Martti : Samma no aji (Yasujiro Ozu, JP 1962)
Anhava, Tuomas : Tokyo monogatari (Yasujiro Ozu, JP 1953)
Ania, Jyri : Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (Kim Ki-duk, KO 2003)
Antas, Maria : Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, US 1961)
Antila-Asplund, Päivi : The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, US 1995)
Anttila, Eila : Amarcord (Federico Fellini, IT 1973)
Apunen, Matti : Dekalog 1–10 (Krysztof Kieslowski, PL 1988)
Arajärvi, Pertti : La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, FR 1937)
Arhinmäki, Paavo : Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, GB 1996)
Arohonka, Anssi : La strada (Federico Fellini, IT 1954)
Aromaa, Anna : Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, US 2005)
Aronpuro, Kari : Pelle Svanslös (Stig Lasseby & Jan Gissberg, SE 1981, version dubbed in Finnish)
Arponen, Matti : Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, GB 1962)
Arvela, Aarno : La strada (Federico Fellini, IT 1954)
Askola, Irja : Tjorven och Skrållan (Olle Hellbom, SE 1965)
Asp, Kari : Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, FR 1964)
Asp, Lea : Erin Brockovich (Steven Soderbergh, US 2000)
Asplund, Pertti : Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, US 1959)
Astala, Erkki : A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, GB 1946)
Autio, Kaisa : The Birdcage (Mike Nichols, US 1996)
Autio, Lexa : Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1979)
Autio, Pekka : Four Friends (Arthur Penn, US 1981)
Avola, Pertti : Junior Bonner (Sam Peckinpah, US 1972)

B

Bacon, Henry : Persona (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1966)
Bagge, Tapani : Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, US 1958)
Bagh, Anna von : Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1958)
Bagh, Juhana von : The Emerald Forest (John Boorman, GB 1985)
Bagh, Peter von : The Quiet Man (John Ford, US 1952)
Bagh, Ritva von : Roma, città aperta (Roberto Rossellini, IT 1945)
Baltzar, Valto : Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, FR 1964)
Bargum, Johan : Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini (Vittorio De Sica, IT/DE 1971)
Bargum, Katja : Festen (Thomas Vinterberg, DK 1998)
Bargum, Marianne : Mat i syn (Aleksandr Sokurov, RU 1997)
Bergenstrand, Ekku : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Bergholm, Eija-Elina : Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney, US 1951)
Bergius, Anja-Riitta : Wesele (Andrzej Wajda, PL 1973)
Bergman, Benjamin : Csillagosok, katonák (Miklós Jancsó, HU 1967)
Bergman, Juha : Ei jälkeäkään (Pauli Virtanen, FI 1988)
Bergroth, Zaida : Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1982)
Berthômé, Jean-Pierre : The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, US 1955)
Birn, Laura : Dom za vešanje (Emir Kusturica, YU/IT/GB 1989)
Björkbacka, Hannu : The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, GB 1948)
Björklund, Helena : Cría cuervos (Carlos Saura, ES 1975)
Björklund, Ilkka-Christian : Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1952)
Blinnikka, Päivi : Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall, US 1990)
Blomstedt, Jertta : Bamako (Abderrhmane Sissako, ML/US/FR 2006)
Blomstedt, Juhana : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Blåfield, Ville : Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir, US 1989)
Bolotowsky, Gideon : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Boman, Christian : The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, US 1991)
Bourgeot, Ian : M (Fritz Lang, DE 1931) +
Brandt, Christian : La strada (Federico Fellini, IT 1954)
Brandt, Pamela : No Country for Old Men (Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, US 2007)
Brax, Tuija : Diva (Jean-Jacques Beineix, FR 1981)
Brotherus, Matti : La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, FR 1937)
Bülow, Anneli : Pasqualino Settebellezze (Lina Wertmüller, IT 1975)
Bülow, Petteri : Little Big Man (Arthur Penn, US 1970)
Böök, Mikael : Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, GB/US 1963)

C

Cantell, Saara : Der Himmel über Berlin (Wim Wenders, DE 1987)
Caplan, Tom : The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, US 1951)
Carlson, Jöns : Chinatown (Roman Polanski, US 1974)
Carlson, Kristina : Dogville (Lars von Trier, DK/NL/SE/DE/GB/FR/FI/NO/IT 2003)
Carpelan, Anders : Husbands (John Cassavetes, US 1970)
Carpelan, Bo : City Lights (Charles Chaplin, US 1931)
Cederström, Kanerva : Mon oncle (Jacques Tati, FR 1958)
Chydenius, Kai : Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, US 1959)
Colesniuc, Simona : Black (Sanjay Leela Bhansali, 2005)
Copper, Markus : Masters of the Universe (Gary Goddard, US 1987)

D

Dacre, Richard : Nashville (Robert Altman, US 1975)
Dae, Daniela : Love Actually (Richard Curtis, GB 2003)
Dammert, Erja : Dodeskaden (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1970)
Davidkin, Kai : Smultronstället (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1957)
Davidkin, Samuel : Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, US 1993)
Debarle, Irmeli : Sellaisena kuin sinä minut halusit (Teuvo Tulio, FI 1944)
Dietrichen, Christian : Ashes and Snow (Gregory Colbert, US 2005)
Donner, Jörn : Gycklarnas afton (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1953)
Drews, Kristiina : Limelight (Charles Chaplin, US 1952)
Dunderfelt, Tony : To Live and Die in L. A. (William Friedkin, US 1985)
Dunkel, Elias : Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, US 1994)

E

Ekholm, Kai : The Wire (David Simon, US 2002–2008) +
Ekqvist, Osku : Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (Hayao Miyazaki, JP 2001)
Elovaara, Raili : Zerkalo (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1974)
Enbuske, Tuomas : Annie Hall (Woody Allen, US 1977)
Enckell, Angeta : Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, FR 1961)
Enckell, Carolus : Miracolo a Milano (Vittorio De Sica, IT 1951)
Enckell, Henrik : The Right Stuff (Philip Kaufman, US 1983)
Enckell, Mikael : Limelight (Charles Chaplin, US 1952)
Engman, Max : Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, US 1941)
Envall, Erasmus : Gedo senki (Goro Miyazaki, JP 2006)
Envall, Ilmari : Smultronstället (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1957)
Envall, Luminia : Tonari no Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, JP 1988)
Envall, Markku : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Erholtz, Markku : Detstvo Gorkogo (Mark Donskoi, SU 1938)
Eriksson, Anna : Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, US 1966)
Eriksson, Jerker A. : The Little Foxes (William Wyler, US 1941)
Ertola, Erkki J. : Shane (George Stevens, US 1953)
Eräsaari, Marketta : Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, FR 1961)
Eskola, Liisa : Los olvidados (Luis Buñuel, MX 1950)
Eskola, Mika : The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, US 1994)
Etelämäki, Marja : Orlando (Sally Potter, GB/RU/IT/FR/NL 1992)
Eteläpää, Heikki : Casque d'or (Jacques Becker, FR 1952)
Europaeus, Marke : Tokyo monogatari (Yasujiro Ozu, JP 1953)
Evilampi, Petteri : The Blues Brothers (John Landis, US 1980)

F

Fabritius, Carine : La double vie de Véronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski, FR/PL/NO 1991)
Fabritius, Pessi : The Polar Express (Robert Zemeckis, US 2004)
Fernandes, Pedro : The Apartment (Billy Wilder, US 1960)
Finnspång, Henry : Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, FI 1976)
Forsblom, Harry : L'avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, IT 1960)
Franzén, Peter : The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, US 1979)
Fredrikson, Harri : Die Fälschung (Volker Schlöndorff, DE 1981)
Fränti, Mikael : Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1958)
Fält, Olavi : Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1958)

G

Georgejevic, Ivana : Dangerous Beauty (Marshall Herskovitz, US 1998)
Georgejevic, Jelena : Samsara (Pan Nalin, US 2001)
Ghion, Athena : Coming Home (Hal Ashby, US 1978)
Goldblatt, Roy : McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, US 1971)
Green, Andrew : Laura (Otto Preminger, US 1944)
Green, Katrina : The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, US 1939)
Green, Riitta-Kaisa : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Green, Sam : Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, US 1980)
Green, Selina : The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, US 1979)
Grünstein, Denise : Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (Werner Herzog, DE 1974)
Grünstein, Michel : Chinatown (Roman Polanski, US 1974)
Grünstein, Raoul : Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, US 1999)
Gröndahl, Lauri : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Grönman, Arto : Tin Men (Barry Levinson, US 1987)
Guicheteau, Philippe : Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, US 1950)
Gutman-Hanhivaara, Laura : Bis ans Ende der Welt (Wim Wenders, DE/FR/AU 1991)
Gävert, Jussi : Mondo cane (Gualtiero Jacopetti, Paolo Cavara & Franco Prosperi, IT 1961)
Gävert, Maija : Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, US 1991)

H

Haaksluoto, Aida : Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (Hayao Miyazaki, JP 2001)
Haaksluoto, Marko : Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, FR 1967)
Haala, Manu : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Haanpää, Harri : Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1983)
Haanpää, Pentti : Troika (Vladimir Strizhevsky, SU 1930)
Haapio, Marja : Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1982)
Haarala, Arto : 2001 : A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, GB/US 1968)
Haarala, Tarmo : Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1958)
Haavisto, Pekka : Amarcord (Federico Fellini, IT 1973)
Haavisto, Sami : Conan the Barbarian (John Milius, US 1982)
Haber, Samu : Fight Club (David Fincher, US 1999)
Hagelstam, Cecil : La notte (Michelangelo Antonioni, IT 1961)
Hakamies, Heikki : Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, DE 1982)
Hakanen, Gabi : Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1982)
Hakosalo, Heini : Mon oncle (Jacques Tati, FR 1958)
Hakulinen, Auli : Kauas pilvet karkaavat (Aki Kaurismäki, FI 1996)
Hakulinen, Jarmo : Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, GB/US 1999)
Hakulinen, Keijo : Tuntematon sotilas (Edvin Laine, FI 1955)
Hakulinen, Markku : Spaceballs (Mel Brooks, US 1987)
Hakulinen, Salme : East of Eden (Elia Kazan, US 1955)
Hakulinen, Tanja : Robin Hood (Walt Disney, US 1973)
Hakulinen, Tarja : Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1968)
Halinen, Saana : Bridget Jones's Diary (Sharon Maguire, GB/FR/US 2001)
Halla-aho, Jussi : Duel (Steven Spielberg, US 1971)
Hallivuori, Christian : Love Actually (Richard Curtis, GB 2003)
Halme, Ilkka : Chocolat (Lasse Hallström, GB/US 2000)
Halonen, Arto : The Elephant Man (David Lynch, US/GB 1980)
Halonen, Mia : Tähdet kertovat, komisario Palmu (Matti Kassila, FI 1962)
Halonen, Pekka : Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, US 2001)
Halonen, Tarja : Mies vailla menneisyyttä (Aki Kaurismäki, FI 2002)
Halttunen, Jukka : Videodrome (David Cronenberg, CA/US 1983)
Hampaala, Leila : Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch, US 1939)
Hanhijoki, Marjatta : La strada (Federico Fellini, IT 1954)
Hanhivaara, Jussi : Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh, GB 1995)
Hannula, Risto : Bitter Victory (Nicholas Ray, FR/US 1957)
Hantula, Sami : Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, FR 1965)
Happonen, Tiina : P.S. I Love You (Richard LaGravenese, US 2007)
Harada, Chikako : Suna no onna (Hiroshi Teshigahara, JP 1964)
Harakka, Timo : The Blues Brothers (John Landis, US 1980)
Harala, Tuukka : 37°2 le matin (Jean-Jacques Beineix, FR 1986) director's cut
Hardwick, Neil : Brassed Off (Mark Herman, GB 1996)
Harkimo, Hjallis : Tuntematon sotilas (Edvin Laine, FI 1955)
Haro, Taneli : Zerkalo (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1974)
Hartikainen, Johanna : Children of the Corn (Fritz Kiersch, US 1984)
Hartzell, Ritva : Hilman päivät (Matti Kassila, FI 1954)
Hattuniemi, Jens : A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, GB 1971)
Hautakangas, Tomi : Tarzan and His Mate (Cedric Gibbons, US 1934)
Hazard, Kaarina : The Blues Brothers (John Landis, US 1980)
Heikkinen, Jarmo : North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1959)
Heino, Johnny : Johtaja Uuno Turhapuro pisnismies (Ere Kokkonen, FI 1998)
Heinonen, Pirkko : Menolippu Mombasaan (Hannu Tuomainen, FI 2002)
Heinonen, Reijo E. : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Heiskanen, Antti : The Invisible Man (James Whale, US 1933)
Heiskanen, Arto : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Heiskanen, Olli : Amadeus (Milos Forman, US 1984)
Heiskanen, Outi : The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, US 1941)
Helasvuo, Antero : Babel (Alejandro González Iñárritu, US/MX/FR/MA/JP 2006)
Helasvuo, Tuula : Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, FR 1967)
Helenius, Elisa : The Piano (Jane Campion, NZ/AU/FR/US 1993)
Helke, Susanna : Elephant (Gus Van Sant, US 2003)
Hellstedt, Lenka : Sweetie (Jane Campion, AU 1989)
Helminen, Liisa : Akahige (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1965)
Heltola, Kai : Cría cuervos (Carlos Saura, ES 1975)
Hemming, Gunilla : House of Games (David Mamet, US 1987)
Hendriks, Johan : The Bourne Identity (Doug Liman, US/DE/CZ/FR 2002)
Henning, Carl : On the Town (Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen, US 1949)
Henning, Gitta : Othello (Orson Welles, IT/MA/US 1952)
Herala, Niina : Fried Green Tomatoes (Jon Avnet, US 1991)
Herlin, Ilona : Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö (Aki Kaurismäki, FI 1990)
Herranen, Mervi : Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1983)
Hietala, Antti : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Hietala, Marco : Hellraiser (Clive Barker, GB 1987)
Hietala, Veijo : Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1968)
Hietalahti, Kari : Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1983)
Hietamies, Eve : The Pursuit of Happyness (Gabriele Muccino, US 2006)
Hietanen, Pedro : Du levande (Roy Andersson, SE 2007)
Hiidenmaa, Pirjo : Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, US 1961)
Hiilloskorpi, Jarno : City Lights (Charles Chaplin, US 1931)
Hirvenoja, Eero : La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, IT 1959)
Hirviniemi, Aku : Die Hard (John McTiernan, US 1988)
Hirvisaari, Laila : The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, US 1993)
Hirvonen, Ari : Dogville (Lars von Trier, DK/NL/SE/DE/GB/FR/FI/NO/IT 2003)
Hokkanen, Jouni : Triumph des Willens (Leni Riefenstahl, DE 1935)
Holappa, Pentti : La strada (Federico Fellini, IT 1954)
Hollo, Anselm : Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1968), source: Jane Dalrymple-Hollo, 20 March 2021
Holma, Lasse : Star Wars (George Lucas, US 1977)
Holmberg, Annina : Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, IT/FR 1971)
Holmberg, Kalle : The Third Man (Carol Reed, GB 1949)
Home, Marko : Il deserto rosso (Michelangelo Antonioni, IT 1964)
Hongell, Henry : Himalaya – l'enfance d'un chef (Eric Valli, FR/CH/GB/NP 2000)
Honkarila, J. : The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1972)
Hopiala, Anne : Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1982)
Hotakainen, Kari : The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1972)
Hovi, Sanna-Maria : Monty Python's Life of Brian (Terry Jones, GB 1979)
Huhtala, Seppo : L'Année dernière à Marienbad (Alain Resnais, FR 1961)
Hukkila, Kari : La ricotta (Pier Paolo Pasolini, IT 1963, episodi elokuvassa Ro.Go.Pa.G.
Humaloja, Timo : Lola (Jacques Demy, FR 1960)
Huotarinen, Vilja-Tuulia : Animal Farm (John Halas & Joy Batchelor, GB 1954)
Huovi, Hannele : Der Himmel über Berlin (Wim Wenders, DE 1987)
Huovinen, Aino : Badlands (Terrence Malick, US 1973)
Hurskainen, Päivi : One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (US 1975)
Huru, Jouko : The Appaloosa (Sidney J. Furie, US 1966)
Huttu-Hiltunen, Heikki : La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, FR 1937)
Huuskonen, Ari : New York, New York (Martin Scorsese, US 1977)
Huutoniemi, Olli : Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1968)
Hyrkäs, Seppo : Amarcord (Federico Fellini, IT 1973)
Hytti, Jukka Hyde : La strada (Federico Fellini, IT 1954)
Häilä, Arto : Varjoja paratiisissa (Aki Kaurismäki, Fi 1986)
Häkkinen, Kari : Léon (Luc Besson, FR 1994) director's cut
Häkälä, Riitta : L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, FR 1934)
Hällström, Arto af : Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, US 1941)
Hämeen-Anttila, Jaakko : Kill Bill : Volumes 1–2 (Quentin Tarantino, US 2003–2004)
Hämeen-Anttila, Virpi : His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, US 1940)
Hämäläinen, Irja : Il gattopardo (Luchino Visconti, IT/FR 1963)
Hämäläinen, Pirkko : Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Luchino Visconti, IT 1960)
Hämäläinen, Tarja : Love Actually (Richard Curtis, GB 2003)
Hänninen, Juha : Sideways (Alexander Payne, US 2004)
Hänninen, Kauko : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Hänninen, Veli-Pekka : Ladri di biciclette (Vittorio De Sica, IT 1948)
Hänninen, Veli-Pekka : The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, US 1973)
Härkönen, Anna-Leena : The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, US 1979)
Härkönen, Tarja : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Härö, Klaus : Wo de fu qui mu qin (Zhang Yimou, CN 1999)
Härönen, Maako : Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, US 1991)

I

Idström, Annika : The Clock (Vincente Minnelli, US 1945)
Idström, Tove : Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Luchino Visconti, IT 1960)
Ihalainen, Rea : Chocolate (Prachya Pinkaew, TH 2008)
Immonen, Liisa : Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, SU 1975)
Ingman, Sirpa : Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, US 1959)
Inkala, Jouni : Soljaris (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1972)
Isaksson, Sandri : Labyrinth (Jim Henson, GB/US 1986)
Isoniemi, Tuula : La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, IT 1959)
Isosaari, Päivi : The Piano (Jane Campion, NZ/AU/FR/US 1993)
Istala, Päivi : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)

J

Jaakkola, Risto : La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, FR 1937)
Jaatinen, Eila : Trois couleurs : Bleu (Krzysztof Kieslowski, FR/PL/CH 1993)
Jaatinen, Raimo : Easy Rider (US 1969)
Jalander, Ywe : Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, US 1959)
Jalava, Markku : The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, US 1948)
Jalavisto, Marja-Leena : Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (Hayao Miyazaki, JP 2001)
Jalavisto, Mikko : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Jalonen, Olli : Stalker (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1979)
Jalonen, Riitta : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Jalonen, Risto : The Dark Crystal (Jim Henson & Frank Oz, US 1982)
Jalonen, Toni : The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, IT/ES/DE/US 1966)
Jarla, Pertti : The Train (John Frankenheimer, FR/IT/US 1964)
Jartti, Tero : Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel, FR 1972)
Jarva, Risto : I fidanzati (Ermanno Olmi, IT 1963)
Jokela, Lolja : Le grand bleu (Luc Besson, FR 1988)
Jokinen, Helena : The Count of Monte Cristo (Kevin Reynolds, GB/US/IE/CH 2002)
Jokinen, Ilmi : Niskavuoren Aarne (Edvin Laine, FI 1954)
Jokinen, Janne : The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1972)
Jokinen, Johanna : Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, US 2000)
Jokinen, Jukka : Tuntematon sotilas (Edvin Laine, FI 1955)
Jokinen, Pekka : It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (Stanley Kramer, US 1963)
Jokinen, Sanna : The Color Purple (Steven Spielberg, US 1985)
Jokinen, Seppo : Pidä huivista kiinni, Tatjana (Aki Kaurismäki, FI 1994)
Jokisuo, Hannu : Tuntematon sotilas (Edvin Laine, FI 1955)
Juhala, Minna : The English Patient (Anthony Minghella, US/GB 1996)
Junila, Marianne : Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Brooks, US 1958)
Junttila, Tiina : The Green Mile (Frank Darabont, US 1999)
Juntto, Anssi : Wo de fu qui mu qin (Zhang Yimou, CN 1999)
Juurikkala, Kaija : The Reflecting Skin (Philip Ridley, CA 1990)
Juva, Anu : Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1954)
Jäderholm, Jani : Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, IT 1988)
Jäppinen, Aija : Atonement (Joe Wright, GB/FR/US 2007)
Järvi, Juho : Werckmeister harmóniák (Béla Tarr, HU 2000)
Jääskeläinen, Anni : Zerkalo (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1974)
Jääskeläinen, Jarmo : Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, US 1941)
Jörgensen, Aki : Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, US 1994)

K

Kaario, Jukka : Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam, GB 1975)
Kaarresalo-Kasari, Eila : The Model Shop (FR/US 1969)
Kainulainen, Tommi : Ladri di biciclette (Vittorio De Sica, IT 1948)
Kaipainen, Jukka-Pekka : Star Wars : Skywalker Saga (George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Richard Marquand, US 1977–2005 [six episodes by then])
Kaivanto, Arto : Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, US 1955)
Kajander, Heidi : The African Queen (John Huston, GB 1951)
Kajander-Vierkens, Irja : His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, US 1940)
Kajantie, Marianna : The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Sam Peckinpah, US 1970)
Kakko, Tuija : Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir, US 1989)
Kalin, Kaj : La Reine Margot (Patrice Chéreau, FR 1994)
Kallas, Martta : Lilja 4-ever (Lukas Moodysson, SE 2002)
Kallio, Mirkka : Newark Athlete (William K. Dickson & William Heise, US 1891)
Kalliokoski, Jyrki : Gruppo di famiglia in un interno (Luchino Visconti, IT 1974)
Kallonen, Asko : All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, US 1950)
Kallunki, Jani : Papillon (Franklin J. Schaffner, US 1973)
Kanala, Kari : On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, US 1954)
Kanerva, Arla : Tokyo monogatari (Yasujiro Ozu, JP 1953)
Kangas, Raija : La strada (Federico Fellini, IT 1954)
Kangasjärvi, Jukka : Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1982) tv version
Kangasniemi, Hanna : Mission : Impossible (Brian De Palma, US 1996)
Kantokorpi, Otso : The Hustler (Robert Rossen, US 1961)
Kantola, Anna : Pippi i Söderhavet (Paul Riley, SE 1991)
Kantola, Ella : Billy Elliot (Stephen Daldry, GB 2000)
Kantola, Esa : Der Himmel über Berlin (Wim Wenders, DE 1987)
Kantor, Dan : Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Luchino Visconti, IT 1960)
Karakorpi, Titta : The Boat That Rocked (Richard Curtis, GB/FR/DE 2009)
Karemo, Tuomas : The Dead (John Huston, GB/IE 1987)
Karhulahti, Veli-Matti : Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, US 1982)
Karjalainen, Jussi : À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, FR 1960)
Karlsson, Kristian : Kill Bill : Volume 2 (Quentin Tarantino, US 2004)
Karonen, Kerttuli : Les Vacances de M. Hulot (Jacques Tati, FR 1952)
Karonen, Mirja : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Karonen, Venla : Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, US 1961)
Karonen, Vesa : Popiól i diament (Andrzej Wajda, PL 1958)
Karonen, Vilja : Tanoshii Moomin Ikka: Moomin-dani no suisei (Hiroshi Saito, JP 1992)
Karppinen, Mari : The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Peter Jackson, NZ/US 2001–2003)
Kartano, Antti : Notting Hill (Roger Michell, GB 1999)
Karukoski, Dome : Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1983)
Karvonen, Fennela : The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, US 1995)
Kassila, Matti : Cabaret (Bob Fosse, US 1972)
Kassila, Taavi : Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1982)
Katainen, Elina : Juha (Nyrki Tapiovaara, FI 1937)
Katajavuori, Riina : About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, US 2002)
Katri Helena : The Piano (Jane Campion, NZ/AU/FR/US 1993)
Kauppi, Mervi : One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (US 1975)
Kaurismäki, Aki : Tokyo monogatari (Yasujiro Ozu, JP 1953)
Kaurismäki, Mika : Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1968)
Kaurismäki, Paula : Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, US 1959)
Kautonen, Heli : Orlando (Sally Potter, GB/RU/IT/FR/NL 1992)
Kavén, Outi : Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, FR 2001)
Kejonen, Pentti : Chikamatsu monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, JP 1954)
Kekkonen, Helena : Shadowlands (Richard Attenborough, GB 1993)
Kekkonen, Urho : Kahdeksan surmanluotia (Mikko Niskanen, FI 1972)
Kekäläinen, Reima : Il Casanova di Federico Fellini (Federico Fellini, IT 1976)
Kekäläinen, Sanna : Porcile (Pier Paolo Pasolini, IT/FR 1969)
Kellosalo, Juhani : La double vie de Véronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski, FR/PL/NO 1991)
Kelomäki, Jouko : Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1954)
Kelomäki, Tapani : Jungfrukällan (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1960)
Kelomäki, Tuomas : Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, FR 1959)
Kemmo, Olli : Le Genou de Claire (Éric Rohmer, FR 1970)
Kemppinen, Jukka : Au hasard, Balthazar (Robert Bresson, FR 1966)
Keränen, Asko : Three Women (Robert Altman, US 1977)
Keränen, Jorma : Tuntematon sotilas (Edvin Laine, FI 1955)
Keskinen, Heikki : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Keskisarja, Teemu : Kahdeksan surmanluotia (Mikko Niskanen, FI 1972)
Keynäs, Ville : Peut-être (Cédric Klapisch, FR 1999)
Kilpi, Joonas : The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, US 1995)
Kilpi, Terhi : The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, US 1940)
Kilpi, Timo : Hilman päivät (Matti Kassila, FI 1954)
Kilpi, Yrjö : The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, US 1925)
Kindberg, Juha : Finis terrae (Jean Epstein, FR 1929)
Kinnunen, Jouni : Alexander's Ragtime Band (Henry King, US 1938)
Kippola, Ilkka : Nuit et brouillard (Alain Resnais, FR 1956)
Kirjavainen, Sakari : Boudu sauvé des eaux (Jean Renoir, FR 1932)
Kirstilä, Pentti : All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, US 1950)
Kivelä, Minna : Loma (Risto Jarva, FI 1976)
Kivisaari, Anna-Kaisa : Moonstruck (Norman Jewison, US 1987)
Kivitie, Essi : Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen, US 1952)
Kjer, Rasmus : Ink (Jamin Winans, US 2009)
Klintrupp, Anna-Maria : Mary Poppins (Walt Disney, US 1964)
Knihtilä, Elina : Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, US 2003)
Koilahti, Jussi : Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam, GB 1979)
Koiso-Kanttila, Hilkka : La strada (Federico Fellini, IT 1954)
Koistinen, Hellevi : The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, US 1925)
Koistinen, Jaana : North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1959)
Koistinen, Tero : Annie Hall (Woody Allen, US 1977)
Koivukari, Tapio : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Koivusalo, Timo : Kahdeksan surmanluotia (Mikko Niskanen, FI 1972)
Kolbe, Laura : Amarcord (Federico Fellini, IT 1973)
Kolehmainen, Aatu : The Picture of Dorian Gray (Albert Lewin, US 1945)
Kolehmainen, Ritva : Rakastunut rampa (Esko Favén & Tarja Laine, FI 1975) +
Komsi, Karri : Fight Club (David Fincher, US 1999)
Konkka, Anita : Zerkalo (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1974)
Koponen, Anna : Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, FR 1964)
Koponen, Eeva : Trois couleurs : Bleu (Krzysztof Kieslowski, FR/PL/CH 1993)
Koponen, Kaisa : Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, US 1939)
Koponen, Mattijuhani : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Koponen, Petteri : Katsastus (Matti Ijäs, FI 1988)
Kopra, Tarja : No Country for Old Men (Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, US 2007)
Kopu, Janne : E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, US 1982)
Korhonen, Ilkka : Komisario Palmun erehdys (Matti Kassila, FI 1960)
Korhonen, Kimmo : Smultronstället (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1957)
Korkeala, Saara : The Kid (Charles Chaplin, US 1921)
Koskelin, Olli : Offret (Andrei Tarkovski, SE/FR/GB 1986)
Koskenniemi, V. A. : Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophuls, US 1948)
Koski, Markku : Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, US 1941)
Koski, Pekka : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Koskimies, Satu : Sabrina (Billy Wilder, US 1954)
Koskinen, Eero : La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, FR 1937)
Koskinen, Liisa : The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, US 1940)
Koskinen, Timo : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Koso, Raija : Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, US 1959)
Kosonen, Marco : Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, FI 1976)
Kostamo, Eila : Ugetsu monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, JP 1953)
Kotilainen, Jari : The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, US 1980)
Kotiranta, Pirkko : Volver (Pedro Almodóvar, ES 2006)
Kotirinta, Saija-Reetta : Barcelona (Whit Stillman, US 1994)
Kourilehto, Martin : La montaña sagrada (Alejandro Jodorowsky, MX 1973)
Krogerus, Tellervo : Den goda viljan (Bille August, SE/DK/FI/FR/DE/GB/IT/NO/IS 1992)
Krohn, Elias : The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, US 1940)
Krohn, Inari : La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, FR 1937)
Krohn, Irina : Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Luchino Visconti, IT 1960)
Krohn, Leena : Smultronstället (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1957)
Krohn, Tiina : Stalker (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1979)
Kuittinen, Tuuli : All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, US 1979)
Kuivalainen, Anu : Soljaris (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1972)
Kukkonen, Ada : Fucking Åmål (Lukas Moodysson, SE 1998)
Kumpulainen, Arto : Gladiator (Ridley Scott, US 2000)
Kunttu, Agenor : The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Peter Jackson, NZ/US 2001–2003)
Kuparinen, Susanna : Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, GB/US 1975)
Kurenniemi, Erkki : 2001 : A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, GB/US 1968)
Kurki, Eeva : Ordet (DK 1955)
Kurki, Marja : El sol del membrillo (Víctor Erice, ES 1991)
Kurkinen, Päivi : Cría cuervos (Carlos Saura, ES 1975)
Kurki-Suonio, Sirkka : Lásky jedné plavovlásky (Milos Forman, CZ 1965)
Kurkvaara, Maunu : The Crowd (King Vidor, US 1928)
Kuula-Bruun, Meri : Il gattopardo (Luchino Visconti, IT/FR 1963)
Kuumola, Leena : Journal d'un curé de campagne (Robert Bresson, FR 1950)
Kuusela, Hakim : Kung Fu Panda (Mark Osborne & John Stevenson, US/CN 2008)
Kuusela, Jorma : Tuntematon sotilas (Edvin Laine, FI 1955)
Kuusela, Kaarina : Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö (Aki Kaurismäki, FI 1990)
Kuusela, Kristiina : Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, US 1985)
Kuusi, Maija : Sophie's Choice (Alan J. Pakula, US 1982)
Kuusisto, Tiina : Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, IT/FR 1971)
Kuuskoski, Martti-Tapio : Hitler, ein Film aus Deutschland (Hans Jürgen Syberberg, DE 1977)
Kylätasku, Jussi : City Lights (Charles Chaplin, US 1931)
Kyrö, Tuomas: The Godfather & The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1972, 1974)
Kähkönen, Sirpa : Marius (Marcel Pagnol, Alexander Korda, FR 1931)
Kärkkäinen, Antto : The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, US 1992)
Kärkkäinen, Terttu : Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, US 1939)
Köhler, Hector : Braveheart (Mel Gibson, US 1995)
Köykkä, Risto : Little Buddha (Bernardo Bertolucci, FR/LI/GB 1993)

L

Laaksonen, Pekka : Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, FR 1961)
Laaksonen, Satu : La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, FR 1939)
Laatikainen, Anne : Trois couleurs (trilogie) (Krzysztof Kieslowski, FR/PL/CH 1993–1994)
Lahtela, Atro : Vals im Bashir (Ari Folman, IL/FR/DE/US/FI/CH/BE/AU 2008)
Lahtinen, Matti : Limelight (Charles Chaplin, US 1952)
Lahtonen, Vesa : Arvottomat (Mika Kaurismäki, FI 1982)
Laine, Jaana : Hirttämättömät (Spede Pasanen & Vesa-Matti Loiri, FI 1971)
Laine, Mikko : Of Mice and Men (Gary Sinise, US 1992)
Laine, Pentti : Maurice (James Ivory, GB 1987)
Laitakari, Karoliina : Bridget Jones's Diary (Sharon Maguire, GB/FR/US 2001)
Laitinen, Lea : Maa on syntinen laulu (Rauni Mollberg, FI 1973)
Laitinen, Tom : The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, US 1994)
Lammi, Jaakko : Save the Tiger (John G. Avildsen, US 1973)
Lampela, Jarmo : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Lander, Leena : Jeux interdits (René Clément, FR 1951)
Lankinen, Jukka : Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, IT 1988)
Lappalainen, Timo : Rendez-vous à Bray (André Delvaux, BE 1971)
Lappi-Seppälä, Jyrki : Neokontsennaya pyesa dlya mekhanicheskogo pianino (Nikita Mikhalkov, SU 1977)
Larmola, Yrjö : Popiól i diament (Andrzej Wajda, PL 1958)
Lassila, Anna : Gummo (Harmony Korine, US 1997)
Lassila, Pertti : The Third Man (Carol Reed, GB 1949)
Laukkanen, Markku : Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, US 1941)
Laulajainen, Leena : Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, US 1941)
Lauri, Hannele : The Godfather Trilogy (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1972, 1974, 1990)
Lauri, Tomi : Stalker (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1979)
Laurila, Aarne : Fényes szelek (Miklós Jancsó, HU 1968)
Laurila, Ritva : Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, US 1985)
Laurinen, Sampsa : Histoire(s) du Cinéma (Jean-Luc Godard, FR 1998)
Laurio, Nina : Kolja (Jan Svěrák, CZ 1996)
Lavonen, Kuutti : Roma, città aperta (Roberto Rossellini, IT 1945)
Lederer, Arthur : The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, US 1995)
Leeve, Elena : The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, GB 1948)
Lehtinen, Lasse : Tatt av kvinnen (Petter Naess, NO 2007)
Lehtinen, Lauri : Lisa e il Diavolo (Mario Bava, IT 1972)
Lehtinen, Virke : Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, FR 1961)
Lehto, Jenni-Elina : The Sheltering Sky (Bernardo Bertolucci, GB/IT 1990)
Lehto, Liisa : To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, US 1944)
Lehto, Pekka : The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, GB/US 1980)
Lehtokari-Vidović, Anja : Shooting the Past (Stephen Poliakoff, GB 1999)
Lehtola, Erkka : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Lehtonen, Leena : The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, US 1942)
Lehtonen, Paavo : Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, GB 1947)
Lehtonen, Reijo : Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen, US 1952)
Lehtonen, Soila : Kaidan (Masaki Kobayashi, JP 1964)
Lehtonen, Veli-Pekka : The Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella, US 1999)
Lehtosaari, Pekka : Annie Hall (Woody Allen, US 1977)
Leino, Ritva : Amarcord (Federico Fellini, IT 1973)
Leino-Niemelä, Mervi : Jenseits der Stille (Caroline Link, DE 1996)
Lempinen, Kari (Walter de Camp) : Marius et Jeannette (Robert Guédiguian, FR 1997)
Lento, Anna M. : La Fille sur le pont (Patrice Leconte, FR 1999)
Leppo, Anna : The Piano (Jane Campion, NZ/AU/FR/US 1993)
Leppä, Perttu : The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, US 1955)
Leppänen, Kari : The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1974)
Letto, Pirkko : Alexis Zorbas (Michael Cacoyannis, GR/US 1964)
Levengood, Mark : The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, US 1965)
Lifländer, Elina : One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (US 1975)
Liikanen, Assi : Todo sobre mi madre (Pedro Almodóvar, ES 1999)
Liikanen, Erkki : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Liimatainen, Rainer : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Lillrank, Paul : Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, US 1994)
Lindemark, Jarno : Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, DE 1980)
Lindfors, Pertti "Lande" : Gentleman Jim (Raoul Walsh, US 1942)
Lindholm, Janne : Oldboy (Chan-wook Park, KO 2003)
Lindholm, Mari : American Beauty (Sam Mendes, US 1999)
Lindqvist, Antti : Los olvidados (Luis Buñuel, MX 1950)
Lindqvist, Vinski : Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, US 1993)
Lindstedt, Laura : Sátántangó (Béla Tarr, HU 1994)
Lindstedt, Sari : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Linkola, Pentti : Kauas pilvet karkaavat (Aki Kaurismäki, FI 1996)
Linna, Juha : One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (US 1975)
Linna, Milla : La belle verte (Coline Serreau, FR 1996)
Linna, Väinö : Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, US 1936)
Lipponen, Juha Petteri : Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, US 1982)
Lipponen, Paavo : Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1954)
Lipponen, Riku : Häjyt (Aleksi Mäkelä, FI 1999)
Lohman, Kimmo : One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (US 1975)
Loiri, Vesa-Matti : Seppuku (Masaki Kobayashi, JP 1962)
London, Mindele : Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen, US 1952)
Louhimies, Aku : City Lights (Charles Chaplin, US 1931)
Louhio, Petrus : Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, US 1990)
Loukola, Maiju : Det sjunde inseglet (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1957)
Lounela, Eero : The Blues Brothers (John Landis, US 1980)
Lukic, Tuula : Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori, NZ 1994)
Lumirae, Pertti : The Searchers (John Ford, US 1956)
Lundgren, Maija : Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, US 1939)
Lunn, Aslak : Altered States (Ken Russell, US 1980)
Luoma-Aho, Veera : The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, US 1997)
Luostarinen, Aki : Amarcord (Federico Fellini, IT 1973)
Luostarinen, Kiti : Zerkalo (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1974)
Luoto, Markku : The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, US 1973)
Luukko, Tapio : Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, FR 1965)
Luukkonen, Heidi : Closer (Mike Nichols, US/GB 2004)
Lwoff, Mark : Les quatre cents coups (François Truffaut, FR 1959)
Lyytikäinen, Erkki : Sininen viikko (Matti Kassila, FI 1954)
Långbacka, Mats : Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1979)
Långbacka, Ralf : Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, US 1957)
Lähteenkorva, Pekka : Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, US 1958)
Lähteenmäki, Pentti : Les Vacances de M. Hulot (Jacques Tati, FR 1952)
Länkelin, Lauri : Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, US 1994)
Länsisalo, Heikki : The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, US 1955)

M

Maisala, Pertti : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Maisalmi, Joel : Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, US 1999)
Majander, Antti : L'Armée des ombres (Jean-Pierre Melville, FR 1969)
Majander, Leena : Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, US 1939)
Makkonen, Velipekka : Ashug-Karibi (Sergei Paradzhanov & Dodo Abashidze, SU 1988)
Malassu, Ulla : The Queen (Stephen Frears, GB/US/FR/IT 2006)
Mali, Anssi : Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1982)
Mali, Rauni : The Piano (Jane Campion, NZ/AU/FR/US 1993)
Malja, Pia : The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Peter Jackson, NZ/US 2001–2003)
Mallinen, Jukka : Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1982)
Malmberg, Tarmo : Paris nous appartient (Jacques Rivette, FR 1961)
Malmi, Timo : Limelight (Charles Chaplin, US 1952)
Mandart, Pekka : Kumonosu-jo (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1957)
Manderbacka, Stig : Kohayagawa-ke no aki (Yasujiro Ozu, JP 1961)
Mannerkoski, Annikka : The Piano (Jane Campion, NZ/AU/FR/US 1993)
Mannermaa, Nemo : Tonari no Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, JP 1988)
Mannermaa, Nooa : WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, US 2008)
Mannila, Kaarle : E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, US 1982)
Mansikka, Markku : Ivanhoe (Richard Thorpe, US 1952)
Mansikka, Tarja : Anne of Green Gables (Kevin Sullivan, CA/DE/US 1985)
Mantere, Jyrki : Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, DK/SE/FR/NL/NO/IS/ES/GB 1996)
Mantila, Auli : Night Moves (Arthur Penn, US 1975)
Markus, Nicoleta : Så som i himmelen (Kay Pollak, SE 2004)
Marschan, Elizabeth : Kumonosu-jo (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1957)
Marttila, Hannu : Calamari Union (Aki Kaurismäki, FI 1985)
Marttinen, Tittamari : Partir (Catherine Corsini, FR 2009)
Masalin, Petteri : The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, FR 1997)
Maskula, Tapani : Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller, US 1953)
Matoniemi, Timo : Det sjunde inseglet (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1957)
Maunula, Leena : Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, US 1985)
Maylett, Hanna : Viskningar och rop (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1972)
McGlone, Neil : Poil de Carotte (Julien Duvivier, FR 1932)
Meeker, David : Slap Happy Lion (Tex Avery, US 1947)
Mela, Pirkko : Kulkurin valssi (Toivo Särkkä, FI 1941)
Melender, Tommi : Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, FI 1976)
Meller, Mikael : 2001 : A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, GB/US 1968)
Melleri, Arto : Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, US 1947)
Mellin, Tatu : Rölli ja Metsänhenki (Olli Saarela, FI 2001)
Meri, Lauri : Arvottomat (Mika Kaurismäki, FI 1982)
Meri, Veijo : Les Carabiniers (Jean-Luc Godard, FR 1963)
Meriluoto, Aila : Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1982)
Merimaa, Arto : Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1958)
Merimaa, Juha : Un condamné à mort s'est échappé (Robert Bresson, FR 1956)
Michael, Jan : Les Triplettes de Belleville (Sylvain Chomet, FR 2003)
Mieskonen, Juha : The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1972)
Miikkulainen, Markus : The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, US 1965)
Mikkola, Krista : La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, FR 1937)
Mikkola, Marja-Leena : Lásky jedné plavovlásky (Milos Forman, CZ 1965)
Mikkonen, Marja : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Mikkonen, Ulla-Riitta : Antonia (Marleen Gorris, NL/BG/GB/FR 1995)
Mitzner, Dennis : Annie Hall (Woody Allen, US 1977)
Moilanen, Harri-Ilmari : Les Vacances de M. Hulot (Jacques Tati, FR 1952)
Mollberg, Rauni : Utvandrarna (SE 1971)
Moring, Kirsikka : Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, SU 1975)
Mr. Lordi (Tomi Putaansuu) : E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, US 1982)
Muje, Juha : Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, US 1975)
Muranen, Miika : Billy Elliot (Stephen Daldry, GB 2000)
Mustakallio, Minttu : Loma (Risto Jarva, FI 1976)
Mustonen, Jari : Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1960)
Mykkänen, Marjaana : À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, FR 1960)
Myyryläinen, Elina : Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, IT 1988)
Mårtenson, Lasse : The Blues Brothers (John Landis, US 1980)
Mäenpää, Riina : Calamari Union (Aki Kaurismäki, FI 1985)
Mäenpää, Tuuli : Calamari Union (Aki Kaurismäki, FI 1985)
Mäensivu, Jukka : Tuntematon sotilas (Edvin Laine, FI 1955)
Mäkelä, Aleksi : The Kid (Charles Chaplin, US 1921)
Mäkelä, J. Pekka : La última cena (Tomas Gutiérrez Alea, CU 1976)
Mäkelä, Klaus : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Mäkelä, Matti : Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, US 1989)
Mäkelä, Riitta : Les Vacances de M. Hulot (Jacques Tati, FR 1952)
Mäkelä, Sinikka : Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1954)
Mäkelä, Taru : Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Luchino Visconti, IT 1960)
Mäkilä, Sirpa : Cry Freedom (Richard Attenborough, GB 1987)
Mäkinen, Aito : Tukkipojan morsian (Erkki Karu, FI 1931)
Mäkinen, Eeva : Bronenosets Potyomkin (Sergei Eisenstein, SU 1925)
Mäkinen, Joonas : Stalker (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1979)
Mäkinen, Kirsti : Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1982)
Mäki-Soini, Lasse "Lada" : The Matrix (The Wachowskis, US 1999)
Mäkynen, Teppo : Clockers (Spike Lee, US 1995)
Mäkäläinen, Jarmo : Apur sansar (Satyajit Ray, IN 1959)
Mällinen, Jarno : Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1958)
Mänttäri, Anssi : Eva (Joseph Losey, FR/IT 1962)
Mäntylä, Rauli : Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, US 1994)
Mäntymäki, Anna : The Pianist (Roman Polanski, GB/FR/PL/DE/US 2002)
Määttänen, Kalevi : Papillon (Franklin J. Schaffner, US 1973)
Määttänen, Paula : Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, US 1939)

N

Naukkarinen, Lasse : Nuit et brouillard (Alain Resnais, FR 1956)
Neumann, Pertti : The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, US 1995)
Nevanlinna, Tuomas : E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, US 1982)
Niemi, Juhani : Deliverance (John Boorman, US 1972)
Niemi, Raimo O. : La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, FR 1937)
Nieminen, Kaiho : Dodeskaden (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1970)
Niiniluoto, Ilkka : Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, FR 1961)
Niiniluoto, Maarit : Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, FR 1959)
Niiniluoto, Markku : Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, US 1984)
Niinimäki, Anneli : Tuntematon sotilas (Edvin Laine, FI 1955)
Nikkola, Tuula : Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, US 2003)
Niku, Risto : Edge of the City (Martin Ritt, US 1957)
Niskanen, Tuija-Maija : Zerkalo (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1974)
Nissinen, Jari : Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, FI 1976)
Nissinen, Kari : Big Wednesday (John Milius, US 1978)
Nissinen, Katja : La double vie de Véronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski, FR/PL/NO 1991)
Nopola, Sinikka : One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (US 1975)
Nordgren, Elisabeth : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Norha, Arto : Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, US 1959)
Norha, Marja : Trois couleurs (trilogie) (Krzysztof Kieslowski, FR/PL/CH 1993–1994)
Norkela, Antti : Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, US 1982)
Nummelin, Juri : Duel (Steven Spielberg, US 1971)
Nummi, Ilari : Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, GB 1973)
Nummi, Lassi : High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, US 1952)
Nummi, Markus : Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, US 1978)
Nummi, Rami : The Seven Year Itch (Billy Wilder, US 1955)
Nummi, Tuija : Pi (Darren Aronofsky, US 1998)
Nummi, Ville : Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, US 1991)
Numminen, M. A. : Un chien andalou (Luis Buñuel & Salvador Dalí, FR 1929)
Nurkse, Lauri : Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, US 1982)
Nurmio, Tuomari : The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, IT/ES/DE/US 1966)
Nylén, Antti : Le Diable probablement (Robert Bresson, FR 1978)
Nyman, Jake : Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner, US 1990) director's cut
Nyman, Jarmo : Stand By Me (Rob Reiner, US 1986)
Nyrhinen, Marita : Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, US 1959)
Näre, Sari : Germania anno zero (IT 1948)
Näsi, Jaakko : The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, NZ/US 2003)

O

Oinonen, Jaana : Mamma Mia! (Phyllida Lloyd, US/GB/DE 2008)
Ojaharju, Jorma : Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, US 1941)
Oksa, Ansa : Tuntematon sotilas (Edvin Laine, FI 1955)
Oksanen, Sofi : Orlando (Sally Potter, GB/RU/IT/FR/NL 1992)
Olsson, Claes : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Onkeli, Kreetta : Klaani (Mika Kaurismäki, FI 1984)
Onnismaa, Jolle : Melancholian kolme huonetta (Pirjo Honkasalo, FI 2004)
Oranen, Raija : Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, US 1959)
Oravainen-Wiik, Outi : Todo sobre mi madre (Pedro Almodóvar, ES 1999)
Orlov, Vappu : Mon oncle (Jacques Tati, FR 1958)
Osala, Sami : Con Air (Simon West, US 1997)
Osipow, Paul : Il gattopardo (Luchino Visconti, IT/FR 1963)
Otonkoski, Lauri : Akahige (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1965)
Ovaska, Tazu : Pieni pyhiinvaellus (Heikki Kujanpää, FI 1999)

P

Paalanen, Rauni : Il vangelo secondo Matteo (Pier Paolo Pasolini, IT 1964)
Paananen, Ritva : Il gattopardo (Luchino Visconti, IT/FR 1963)
Paananen, Seppo : La Maman et la putain (Jean Eustache, FR 1973)
Paappanen, Päivi : Amores perros (Alejandro González Iñárritu, MX 2000)
Paasilinna, Erno : High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, US 1952)
Paavilainen, Tiina : Tampopo (Juzo Itami, JP 1985)
Paavolainen, Olavi : La Bandera (Julien Duvivier, FR 1935)
Packalén, Jukka : Dreamcatcher (Lawrence Kasdan, US 2003)
Paersch, Anne Marie : Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1968)
Paju, Atte : Linnaisten vihreä kamari (Valentin Vaala, FI 1945)
Paju, Imbi : Love Story (Arthur Hiller, US 1970)
Pajukallio, Arto : La Peau douce (François Truffaut, FR 1964)
Pakkanen, Outi : Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, US 1954)
Pallasmaa, Ullamaria : Fa yeung nin wa (Wong Kar-wai, HK 2000)
Palmén, Jukka : Metropolis (Fritz Lang, DE 1926)
Palmén, Pia : La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, FR 1939)
Palmgren, Reidar : Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1968)
Palo, Jukka-Pekka : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Paloheimo, Matti : She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Ford, US 1949)
Palomäki, Antti : Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, US 1959)
Paloniemi, Milla : Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, US 1993)
Paloviita, Hannu : Le Diable probablement (Robert Bresson, FR 1978)
Papinniemi, Jarmo : Annie Hall (Woody Allen, US 1977)
Parikka, Harri: The Godfather & The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1972, 1974)
Parkkinen, Jukka : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Partanen, Heikki T. : Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Luchino Visconti, IT 1960)
Partanen, Joonas : Cars (John Lasseter & Joe Ranft, US 2006)
Partanen, Pauli : Tuntematon sotilas (Edvin Laine, FI 1955)
Partanen, Tommi : Star Wars (George Lucas, US 1977)
Parviainen, Tarmo : Jäniksen vuosi (Risto Jarva, FI 1977)
Parviainen, Tarmo : Rain Man (Barry Levinson, US 1988)
Pasanen, Kimmo : Zéro de conduite (Jean Vigo, FR 1933)
Paso, Eero : Maa on syntinen laulu (Rauni Mollberg, FI 1973)
Pauni, Titta : Trois couleurs : Bleu (Krzysztof Kieslowski, FR/PL/CH 1993)
Pelin, Fredrik : Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, GB/US 1999)
Peltola, Sirkku : Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, DK/SE/FR/NL/NO/IS/ES/GB 1996)
Peltonen, Jari Tapani : The Little Mermaid (Walt Disney, US 1989)
Peltoniemi, Marko : The Third Man (Carol Reed, GB 1949)
Pennanen, Jotaarkka : The Savage Innocents (Nicholas Ray, IT/FR/GB 1960)
Pennanen, Tyyne : Pauline à la plage (Éric Rohmer, FR 1982)
Pentti, Pauli: Coup de torchon (Bertrand Tavernier, FR 1981)
Penttilä, Anna-Mari : Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, US 1994)
Penttilä, Tomi : Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, US 1994)
Perankoski, Mari : Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, US 1969)
Perkiö, Sanna : 37°2 le matin (Jean-Jacques Beineix, FR 1986)
Perttu, Vivien : Lumikuningatar (Päivi Hartzell, FI 1986)
Perälä, Teijo : Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner, US 1990)
Pesonen, Henna : E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, US 1982)
Pesonen, Paula : Smultronstället (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1957)
Pesonen, Pekka : The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1955)
Pesonen, Saara : Stand By Me (Rob Reiner, US 1986)
Pesonen, Sauli : Big Business (Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, US 1929)
Petromaa, Aaro : Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, US 1959)
Peuhkuri, Ilmari : Kurenai no buta (Hayao Miyazaki, JP 1992)
Peuhkurinen, Anssi : Arvottomat (Mika Kaurismäki, FI 1982)
Peura, Maria : Cría cuervos (Carlos Saura, ES 1975)
Piela, Mikko : Sunrise (F. W. Murnau, US 1927)
Pietarinen, Tommi : The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, US 1979)
Pietiäinen, Jukka-Pekka : Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1958)
Pihkoluoma, Mikko : Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, FR 1965)
Pihlström, Bengt : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Piirainen, Tapio : Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Luchino Visconti, IT 1960)
Pikkupeura, Pasi : Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, US 1959)
Pipinen, Marjo : Shortbus (John Cameron Mitchell, US 2006)
Pirhonen, Jokke : The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, US 1979)
Pirhonen, Kari : Conan the Barbarian (John Milius, US 1982)
Pitko, Matti : Uuno Turhapuro armeijan leivissä (Ere Kokkonen, Fi 1984)
Pitkäjärvi, Antti : Big Fish (Tim Burton, US 2003)
Pitkänen, Aino : Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, FR 2001)
Pitkänen, Henrik : Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, IT/FR 1971)
Pitkänen, Jaakko : Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1968)
Pitkänen, Mikko : A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, GB 1971)
Pitkänen, Sybila : Himalaya – l'enfance d'un chef (Eric Valli, FR/CH/GB/NP 2000)
Pitkänen, Vappu : The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, US 1940)
Pohjola, Ilppo : The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1974)
Pohjonen, Manu : The Fly (David Cronenberg, US/GB/CA 1986)
Pohjonen, Sanna : Matador (Pedro Almodóvar, ES 1986)
Poijärvi, Sari : The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, US 1965)
Poisuo, Mikko : One Hundred and One Dalmatians (Walt Disney, US 1961)
Pokkinen, Eija : Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Luchino Visconti, IT 1960)
Polojärvi, Antti : Vernon, Florida (Errol Morris, US/DE 1981)
Poussu, Tarmo : Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, GB/US 1975)
Press, Inessa : Dirty Dancing (Emile Ardolino, US 1987)
Puhakka, Auli : Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1982)
Pulkkinen, Herkko : The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, US 2008)
Pulkkinen, J. P. : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Pulkkinen, Leanna : Kill Bill : Volume 1 (Quentin Tarantino, US 2003)
Pulkkinen, Pirjo : Prawdziwy koniec wielkiej wojny (Jerzy Kawalerowicz, PL 1957)
Pulkkinen, Salla : Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, FR 2001)
Pulkkinen, Yrjö : Prawdziwy koniec wielkiej wojny (Jerzy Kawalerowicz, PL 1957)
Pulli, Ilkka : Limelight (Charles Chaplin, US 1952)
Pulli, Markku : Scarface (Brian De Palma, US 1983)
Pumpanen, Viivi : The Godfather Trilogy (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1972, 1974, 1990)
Puttonen, Seppo : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Pyhälä, Mikko : Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, US 1941)
Pyykkö, Marja : Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, US 1975)
Päivinen, Laura : Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, AU/US 2001)
Pöysti, Lasse : From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, US 1953)

R

Rahikainen, Esko : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Raitio, Risto : The Blues Brothers (John Landis, US 1980)
Raittila, Hannu : The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, US 1925)
Rajala, Aino : Cría cuervos (Carlos Saura, ES 1975)
Rajala, Elina : Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, FR 1967)
Rajala, Panu : La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, FR 1937)
Rajala, Vilho : High Fidelity (Stephen Frears, US 2000)
Ranin, Matti : La Charrette fantôme (Julien Duvivier, FR 1939)
Rannikko, Petri : Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam, GB 1975)
Ranta, Joonas : Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, US 1936)
Rantala, Maikki : Vozvrashtsheniye (Andrei Zvyagintsev, RU 2003)
Rantanen, Silja : La terra trema (Luchino Visconti, IT 1948)
Rantasila, Mari : The Piano (Jane Campion, NZ/AU/FR/US 1993)
Rasa, Risto : Der Himmel über Berlin (Wim Wenders, DE 1987)
Rautalin, Mikko : Koeputkiaikuinen ja Simon enkelit (Spede Pasanen, FI 1979)
Rautio, Ilse : Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, US 1982)
Rautkallio, Hannu : Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, DE 1981)
Rautoja, Sirkka : Jeremiah Johnson (Sydney Pollack, US 1972)
Reenpää, Anni : The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, US 1995)
Reenpää, Antti : Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, US 1992)
Reenpää, Eliisa : Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen, ES/US 2008)
Reenpää, Sulamit : Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, US 1939)
Reenpää, Timo : Kaidan (Masaki Kobayashi, JP 1964)
Reinikka-Railo, Hely : Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, US 1959)
Repo, Jannu "J. R." : The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, IT/ES/DE/US 1966)
Riekki, Liisa : Ragtime (Milos Forman, US 1981)
Riihimäki, Tapio : City Lights (Charles Chaplin, US 1931)
Riihiranta, Lilli : Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen, US 1952)
Rimminen, Mikko : Blue in the Face (Wayne Wang & Paul Auster, US 1995)
Ringaciu, Dorin : Stalker (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1979)
Rinne, Heikki : Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, US 1959)
Rinne, Kirsi : The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, US 1973)
Rinne, Matti : Amarcord (Federico Fellini, IT 1973)
Rislakki, Jukka : North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1959)
Ritala, Merja : A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, GB 1971)
Riuttu-Sillanpää, Katja : The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, US 1995)
Roinila, Tarja : Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1982)
Romppainen, Katariina : La strada (Federico Fellini, IT 1954)
Roos, JP : Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1954)
Rosenqvist, Juha : Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, US 1982)
Rosma, Juha : Zerkalo (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1974)
Rossi, Jukka : Top Gun (Tony Scott, US 1986)
Routti, Irmeli : Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, US 1939)
Ruohonen, Laura : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Ruotsalainen, Heli : The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Peter Jackson, NZ/US 2001–2003)
Rusanen, Johanna : Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, US 1939)
Ruuskanen, Tytti : Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall, US 1990)
Ruutu, Raul : Star Wars (George Lucas, US 1977)
Räisänen, Maatsi : Mon oncle (Jacques Tati, FR 1958)
Rämö, Matti : Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1968)
Römpötti, Harri : Shi gan (Kim Ki-duk, KO 2006)
Röyhkä, Kauko : Cul-de-sac (Roman Polanski, GB 1966)

S

Saalasvuo, Leena : Matador (Pedro Almodóvar, ES 1986)
Saarela, Niko : Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, US 1975)
Saarela, Olli : Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg, GB/CA/US 2007)
Saarela, Saara : Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, US 1936)
Saarenmaa, Laura : Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1954)
Saari, Inga : Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, US 1939)
Saari, Joakim : Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, US 1959)
Saari, Naim : Le grand bleu (Luc Besson, FR 1988)
Saari, Terhikki : Risto Räppääjä ja polkupyörävaras (Mari Rantasila, FI 2010)
Saari, Torvald : The Young Lions (Edward Dmytryk, US 1958)
Saarikoski, Pentti : La strada (Federico Fellini, IT 1954)
Saarimaa, Henri : Drumline (Charles Stone III, US 2002)
Saarinen, Aatos : Good Will Hunting (Gus Van Sant, US 1997)
Saarinen, Esa : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Saarinen, Lasse : Ran (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1985)
Saarinen, Merja : Marius et Jeannette (Robert Guédiguian, FR 1997)
Saarinen, Mikael : 2001 : A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, GB/US 1968)
Saaritsa, Joel : The Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers (Peter Jackson, NZ/US 2002)
Saaritsa, Leo : Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1979)
Saaritsa, Pentti : Le Bal (Ettore Scola, FR/IT/DZ 1983)
Saaritsa, Sakari : 4 luni, 3 saptami si 2 zile (Cristian Mungiu, RO 2007)
Saaritsa, Sini : Once (John Carney, IE 2007)
Saikkonen, Veli-Matti : Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1982)
Salakari, Juhana : The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, IT/ES/DE/US 1966)
Salama, Hannu : Roma, città aperta (Roberto Rossellini, IT 1945)
Salama, Outi : Into the Wild (Sean Penn, US 2007)
Salko, Sakari : Touchez pas au grisbi (Jacques Becker, FR 1954)
Salmi, Jari : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Salmi, Markku : Listen to Britain (Humphrey Jennings & Stewart McAllister, GB 1942)
Salminen, Eppu : The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, IT/ES/DE/US 1966)
Salminen, Esko : The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, GB 1948)
Salminen, Jukka : Kahdeksan surmanluotia (Mikko Niskanen, FI 1972)
Salminen, Kari : Year of the Dragon (Michael Cimino, US 1985)
Salo, Carita : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Salo, Elina : L'Âge d'Or (Luis Buñuel, FR 1930)
Salo, Heiju : Ashes and Snow (Gregory Colbert, US 2005)
Salo, Jukka : Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, US 1989) +
Salo, Matti (Helsinki) : Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, GB 1947)
Salo, Matti (Oulu) : : Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, FR 2001)
Salo, Pekka (Orimattila) : Tuntematon sotilas (Edvin Laine, FI 1955)
Salo, Pekka (Sipoo) : Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, GB 1962)
Salo, Ritva : Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, IT/GB/US 1965)
Salo, Sami : Gladiator (Ridley Scott, US 2000)
Salokannel, Anja : Nattvardsgästerna (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1963)
Salokannel, Juhani : La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, FR 1939)
Salonen, Tiina : Samsara (Pan Nalin, US 2001)
Salovaara, Jaakko : Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Steven Spielberg, US 1989)
Salovaara, Kyösti : Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1968)
Sammalkorpi, Tarleena : The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, US 1993)
Santapukki, Simo : Rock 'n' Roll High School (Allan Arkush, US 1979)
Santos, Antonio : La strada (Federico Fellini, IT 1954)
Sarjala, Jukka : The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, US 1940)
Sarmanto, Heikki : Dama s sobatshkoi (Josif Heifitz, SU 1960)
Sauli, Anneli : Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, US 1946)
Saure, Hilpi : Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir, US 1989)
Sauri, Pekka : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Sauro, Riitta : The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, GB/JP/US 1992)
Schatz, Roman : Good Bye Lenin! (Wolfgang Becker, DE 2002)
Schubert, Carla : Otto e mezzo (Federico Fellini, IT 1963)
Schultz, Victoria : Notre musique (Jean-Luc Godard, FR 2004)
Schusterman, Eric : The Thing from Another World (Christian Nyby, US 1951)
Sedergren, Jari : Nora inu (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1949)
Segerstam, Hannele : Babettes gæstebud (Gabriel Axel, DK 1987)
Segerstam, Leif : Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, GB 1973)
Seitajärvi, Juha : Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, FR 1964)
Seitajärvi, Sari : The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Peter Jackson, NZ/US 2001–2003)
Selander, Jaakko : King Arthur (Antoine Fuqua, US/GB/IE 2004)
Selin, Markus : Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1979)
Selkokari, Antti : Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, US 1982)
Sellgren, Hanna : Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, FR 2001)
Seppo, Aino : The Third Man (Carol Reed, GB 1949)
Seppälä, Arto : La Mariée était en noir (François Truffaut, FR 1967)
Seppälä, Jaakko : La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, FR 1928)
Seppälä, Jouko : Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1983)
Seppälä, Pertti : Stalker (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1979)
Shepherd, Susanna : Amarcord (Federico Fellini, IT 1973)
Sihvola, Juha : Lone Star (John Sayles, US 1996)
Sihvonen, Tero : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Siika-aho, Matti : Zerkalo (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1974)
Siikala, Helinä : Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1952)
Siili, JP : Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1968)
Siitonen, Matti "Fredi" : The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, US 1925)
Silius, Raimo : Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, FR 1961)
Sillanpää, Esa : Tuntematon sotilas (Edvin Laine, FI 1955)
Sillanpää, F. E. : City Lights (Charles Chaplin, US 1931)
Siltala, Aleksi : Barton Fink (Joel Coen, US 1991)
Siltala, Jari : The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, US 1979)
Siltala, Juha : Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (Terry Jones, GB 1983)
Siltala, Leila : Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1979)
Siltala, Touko : Amarcord (Federico Fellini, IT 1973)
Silva, Miguel Freitas : Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, IT 1988)
Silva, Olivia : August Rush (Kirsten Sheridan, US/KO 2007)
Silvennoinen, Heikki : Koirankynnen leikkaaja (Markku Pölönen, FI 2004)
Silvo, Satu : The Piano (Jane Campion, NZ/AU/FR/US 1993)
Simes, Iida : Roma (Federico Fellini, IT 1972)
Similä, Olavi : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Simola, Eeva : Trois couleurs : Rouge (Krzysztof Kieslowski, FR/PL/CH 1994)
Simola, Terhi : Manhattan (Woody Allen, US 1979)
Simonsuuri, Kirsti : Viaggio in Italia (Roberto Rossellini, IT 1953)
Sinisalo, Kati : Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, FR 1965)
Sinko, Matti : Les quatre cents coups (François Truffaut, FR 1959)
Sinnemäki, Aino : Nosferatu : eine Symphonie des Grauens (F. W. Murnau, DE 1921)
Sinnemäki, Anni : The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, US 1979)
Sinnemäki, Anssi : La caduta degli dei (Luchino Visconti, IT/DE 1969)
Skyttä, Antti : Cape Fear (Martin Scorsese, US 1991)
Smedberg, Jan : Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Brooks, US 1958)
Smedberg, Jan : Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, GB/US 1963)
Snellman, Anja : Amarcord (Federico Fellini, IT 1973)
Snellman, Laila : The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, US 1965)
Sohlberg, Kari : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Sohlberg, Konsta : Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1954)
Soila, Tytti : Jägarna (Kjell Sundvall, SE 1996)
Soinio, Olli : Tokyo monogatari (Yasujiro Ozu, JP 1953)
Soiniola, Tarja : La Fille sur le pont (Patrice Leconte, FR 1999)
Sokka, Sinikka : Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, FR 1961)
Somppi, Tero : Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, US 1994)
Sorjonen, Jussi : Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, FR 1959)
Sorva, Helena : Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, DK/DE/NL/IT/GB/FR/SE/FI/IS/AR/NO/TW/BE 2000)
Spanggaard, Holger : The Matrix (The Wachowskis, US 1999)
Spolietan, Alain : The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci, GB/IT/FR 1987)
Steffa, Liisa : Eva (Joseph Losey, FR/IT 1962)
Stenberg, Eira : Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, US 1936)
Stenius, Caterina : Otto e mezzo (Federico Fellini, IT 1963)
Stenman, Petri : Vals im Bashir (Ari Folman, IL/FR/DE/US/FI/CH/BE/AU 2008)
Stewen, Kaarle : The Dead (John Huston, GB/IE 1987)
Stiller, Ruben : Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, US 1982)
Strandberg, Per-Olof : Playtime (Jacques Tati, FR 1967)
Stranius, Pentti : Skvernyi anekdot (Aleksandr Alov & Vladimir Naumov, SU 1966)
Suhonen, Alpo : Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, FR 1965)
Suhonen, Pekka : La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, FR 1939)
Sundstedt, Kjell : Padre padrone (Paolo Taviani & Vittorio Taviani, IT 1977)
Sundström, Hans : A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, GB 1946)
Suni, Annikki : Love Streams (John Cassavetes, US 1984)
Suni, Jetro : La montaña sagrada (Alejandro Jodorowsky, MX 1973)
Suolahti, Elina : Il tempo si è fermato (Elina Suolahti, IT 1959)
Suolanen, Roope : The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (Stephen Hillenburg, US/IT/MX/AU/GB/ES 2004)
Suomi, Juhani : Hilman päivät (Matti Kassila, FI 1954)
Suonio, Antti : Witchfinder General (Michael Reeves, GB 1968)
Suoranta, Johannes : The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky, US 2006)
Suortti, Niko : The Butterfly Effect (Eric Bress & J. Mackye Gruber, US/CA 2004)
Suosalo, Martti : Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Luchino Visconti, IT 1960)
Susi, Nanna : Trois couleurs : Bleu (Krzysztof Kieslowski, FR/PL/CH 1993)
Susiluoto, Jarni : Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, FR 1985)
Sutela, Heli : Lilja 4-ever (Lukas Moodysson, SE 2002)
Suuntamaa, Teemu : Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovski, IT/SU 1983)
Suurnäkki, Pekka : The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, IT/ES/DE/US 1966)
Suurpää, Anna-Liisa : Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
Suurpää, Matti : Boudu sauvé des eaux (Jean Renoir, FR 1932)
Suutari, Virpi : Moi, un noir (Jean Rouch, FR 1958)
Suvanto, Leena : Ladri di biciclette (Vittorio De Sica, IT 1948)
Svartström, Niina : My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant, US 1991)
Svensson, Martin : Pi (Darren Aronofsky, US 1998)
Syrjänen, Petri : Contact (Robert Zemeckis, US 1997)

T

Taanila, Mika : Je t'aime, je t'aime (Alain Resnais, FR 1968)
Tahvanainen, Helga : Tonari no Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, JP 1988)
Tainio, Liisa : Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1982)
Taipale, Ilkka : The General (Buster Keaton, US 1926)
Taipale, Petri : Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (Kim Ki-duk, KO 2003)
Taipale, Vappu : La vieille dame indigne (René Allio, FR 1965)
Taiveaho, Satu Kirsikka : Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, US 1993)
Takala, Sari : Sooloilua (Lauri Nurkse, FI 2007)
Talvio, Raija : Popiól i diament (Andrzej Wajda, PL 1958)
Tammi, Eero : Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie (Wojciech Has, PL 1964)
Tamminen, Juho : Crash (Paul Haggis, US 2005)
Tanner, Riikka : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Tanskanen, Katja : Kulkurin valssi (Toivo Särkkä, FI 1941)
Tanttu, Antti : Zerkalo (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1974)
Tapiovaara, Nyrki : À nous la liberté (René Clair, FR 1931)
Tapola, Matti : Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, US 1936)
Tarkka, Hanna : La Trilogie marseillaise (Marius, Fanny, César) (Marcel Pagnol, FR 1931, 1933, 1936)
Tarkka, Janne : The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1963)
Tarkka, Minna : The Parallax View (US 1974)
Tarkka, Pekka : Smultronstället (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1957)
Tarkka, Ulla : Notting Hill (Roger Michell, GB 1999)
Taskinen, Ari : Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, US 1982)
Tastula, Maarit : Gloria (John Cassavetes, US 1980)
Teivainen, Teivo : Arvottomat (Mika Kaurismäki, FI 1982)
Tennilä, Esko-Juhani : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Terttula, Eugen : La terra trema (Luchino Visconti, IT 1948)
Tervasmäki, Jaakko : Sunrise (F. W. Murnau, US 1927)
Tervo, Jari : Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, US 1958)
Tervo, Jouni : Les années lumière (Alain Tanner, CH 1981)
Teräsvuori, Vertti : Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
Tiira, Alice : Heinähattu ja Vilttitossu (Kaisa Rastimo, FI 2002)
Tiira, Juha : Babettes gæstebud (Gabriel Axel, DK 1987)
Tikka, Eeva : The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Peter Jackson, NZ/US 2001–2003)
Tikka, Pia : 4 luni, 3 saptami si 2 zile (Cristian Mungiu, RO 2007)
Tikka, Taneli : Fight Club (David Fincher, US 1999)
Tikkanen, Märta : Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, FR 1959)
Tikkanen, Petteri : Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam, GB 1975)
Timonen, Juha : Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, US 1959)
Timonen, Lauri : Porte des Lilas (René Clair, FR 1957)
Timonen, Rauni : Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, FR 1959)
Timonen, Senni : Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (Kim Ki-duk, KO 2003)
Timonen, Topi : The Apartment (Billy Wilder, US 1960)
Tirronen, Lumi : Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, US 1984)
Tiusanen, Timo : The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, US 1940)
Toikkanen, Antti : North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1959)
Toivanen, Pekka : Sleeper (Woody Allen, US 1973)
Toiviainen, Riitta : Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, US 1959)
Toiviainen, Sakari : Tokyo monogatari (Yasujiro Ozu, JP 1953)
Toivonen, Kari-Pekka : A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, US 1951)
Tokazier, Hillel : Grandma's Boy (Harold Lloyd, US 1922)
Tolvanen, Juhani : Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US 1942)
Tuliara, Pekka : The Quiet Man (John Ford, US 1952)
Tuomala, Maria : The Third Man (Carol Reed, GB 1949)
Tuomi, Ville : Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, US/DE 2009)
Tuomikoski, Eero : Une femme est une femme (Jean-Luc Godard, FR 1961)
Tuominen, Hannele : Babettes gæstebud (Gabriel Axel, DK 1987)
Tuominen, Jukka : Todo sobre mi madre (Pedro Almodóvar, ES 1999)
Tuominen, Taija : 2046 (Wong Kar-wai, HK 2004)
Tuomioja, Erkki : Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö (Aki Kaurismäki, FI 1990)
Tuomivaara, Hanna : The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, US 1997)
Tuori, Kaarlo : Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1954)
Tuppurainen, Allan : Hable con ella (Pedro Almodóvar, ES 2001)
Tuuli, Markku : The Searchers (John Ford, US 1956)
Tuurna, Markku : Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh, GB 1995)
Tuusvuori, Jarkko S. : Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell, US 1997)
Tynjälä, Janne : The Patriot (Roland Emmerich, US 2000)
Tyyri, Jouko : The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, US 1940)
Tähtelä, Yrjö : Ladri di biciclette (Vittorio De Sica, IT 1948)
Törhönen, Lauri : Amarcord (Federico Fellini, IT 1973)
Törmänen, Eija : Det sjunde inseglet (Ingmar Bergman, SE 1957)

U

Udd, Eirik : A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, US 1951)
Uschanov, Tommi : Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, GB 1966)
Utrio, Kaari : The Cruel Sea (Charles Frend, GB 1952)
Uusitalo, Kari : Hon dansade en sommar (Arne Mattsson, SE 1951)

V, W

Waarala, Hannu : Zerkalo (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1974)
Vaaramo, Aarni : Kokaku kidotai (Mamoru Oshii, JP 1995)
Wahlforss, Mikael : La battaglia di Algeri (Gillo Pontecorvo, IT/DZ 1965)
Vahtera, Hannele : Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, US 1959)
Vainio, Mika : Zerkalo (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1974)
Vainio, Tero : Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, US 1978)
Vakkuri, Juha : Szegénylegények (Miklós Jancsó, HU 1965)
Valin, Michael : The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, US 1943) P: Val Lewton
Valjakka, Timo : À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, FR 1960)
Valkeapää, Jukka-Pekka : The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1972)
Wallén, Raisa : Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, US 1994)
Wallenius, Jarmo : 2001 : A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, GB/US 1968)
Wallgren, Thomas : Täältä tullaan elämä! (Tapio Suominen, FI 1980)
Vallinkoski, Seija : Little Big Man (Arthur Penn, US 1970)
Valo, Tuomas : The Ninth Gate (Roman Polanski, FR/ES 1999)
Valpola, Heikki : The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, US 1940)
Valtonen, Kari : Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, US 1982)
Valtonen, Puntti : One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (US 1975)
Vanamo, Tinja : Labyrinth (Jim Henson, GB/US 1986)
Vanhanen, Matti : Notting Hill (Roger Michell, GB 1999)
Vanne, Ilkka : The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, US 1973)
Wanner, Katri : Los santos inocentes (Mario Camus, ES 1984)
Varis, Mikko : The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, US 1940)
Varis, Tuula-Liina : Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, FR 1961)
Varjola, Markku : Le Plaisir (Max Ophuls, FR 1951)
Vase, Kai : Orphée (Jean Cocteau, FR 1950)
Vennamo, Meri : Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, FR 1961)
Vesala, Timo : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966)
Vesikansa, Jyrki : Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, US 1941)
Vesterinen, Juhani : Abbott and Costollo Meet the Mummy (US 1955)
Westerman, Kristian : Out of Rosenheim (Percy Adlon, DE 1987)
Wickholm, Erkki : Gabriel, tule takaisin (Valentin Vaala, FI 1951)
Vidović, Antti : Longitude (Charles Sturridge, GB/US 2000)
Vidović, Boris : L'avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, IT 1960)
Viertola, Helena : Letjat zhuravli (Mikhail Kalatozov, SU 1957)
Vihinen, Heikki : Idi i smotri (Elem Klimov, SU 1985)
Wiik, Marita : My Dinner with André (Louis Malle, US 1981)
Wikgren, Berndt : Il postino (Michael Radford, IT/FR/BG 1995)
Vikström, Erik : Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, US 1993)
Vila, Alberto : Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, FR 2001)
Wilde, Mironel de : Baraka (Ron Fricke, US 1992)
Vilén, Tiina : Girl With a Pearl Earring (Peter Webber, GB/LU/FR/BE/US 2003)
Viljamaa, Janne : Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, US 1994)
Vilkuna, Maria : Sodrásban (István Gaál, HU 1963)
Williamson, Laila : Utomlyonnye solntsem (Nikita Mikhalkov, RU 1994)
Vilppula, Ahti : The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1972)
Virkkula, Simopekka : Ladri di biciclette (Vittorio De Sica, IT 1948)
Virtanen, Jukka : Andrei Rubljov (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1966) +
Virtanen, Leena : Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, FR 1964)
Virtanen, Pertti "Veltto" : 2001 : A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, GB/US 1968)
Wirtavuori, Sanna : Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, US 1941)
Visapää, Laura : The Hours (Stephen Daldry, US 2002)
Vuollo, Päivikki : Fa yeung nin wa (Wong Kar-wai, HK 2000)
Vuori, Suna : Zerkalo (Andrei Tarkovski, SU 1974)
Vuorinen, Pertti : L'albero degli zoccoli (Ermanno Olmi, IT 1978)
Vuoristo, Antero : Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1968)
Väisänen, Hannu : My Dinner with André (Louis Malle, US 1981)
Väisänen, Merja : Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, IT/US 1968)
Välkesalmi, Kimmo : Trois couleurs (trilogie) (Krzysztof Kieslowski, FR/PL/CH 1993–1994)
Väntänen, Kyösti : Blow Out (Brian De Palma, US 1981)
Väänänen, Kari : 2001 : A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, GB/US 1968)
Yliannala, Kari : La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, FR 1928)
Ylikangas, Heikki : Täällä Pohjantähden alla (Edvin Laine, FI 1968)
Ylänen, Helena : Les Enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné, FR 1945)
Ylänen, Jouko : The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1972)
Yrjölä, Ola Jan Kristian : The Party (Blake Edwards, US 1968)
Yrttimaa, Touko : Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, GB 1966)

Z

Zyskowicz, Ben : Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, US 1993)

Å

Ådahl, Björn : My Dinner with André (Louis Malle, US 1981)

Monday, June 13, 2011

Finlandia-katsaus newsreels online

KAVA (the National Audiovisual Archive of Finland) has put the complete set of the country's most prominent series of newsreels, the 700 Finlandia-katsaus newsreels (1943-1964) online on the Elonet website.

It is an important historical source. For instance Finlandia-katsaus 573 covers President Kekkonen's meeting with President Kennedy during his visit to the United States 16 October - 3 November, 1961. We witness confident attitudes in a turbulent time in the Cold War 50 years ago. That year, the Soviet Union had detonated nuclear test bombs at the Novaya Zemlya, including the biggest ever above ground, the Tsar Bomba, the shock wave of which broke windows in Finland. If I die of cancer one day, it may be because of it; never in my lifetime have I received so much radioactive radiation as then. Chernobyl was peanuts in comparison. A month after visiting Kennedy, Kekkonen visited Nikita Khrushchev.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Gunnar Fischer 1910-2011

Gunnar Fischer is dead according to Dagens Nyheter.

His place in film history is secure on the strength of his work with Ingmar Bergman: Hamnstad (Port of Call, 1948), Törst (Thirst, 1949), Till glädje (Ode to Joy, 1950), Sånt händer inte här (These Things Don't Happen Here, 1950), Sommarlek (Summer Interlude, 1951), Kvinnors väntan (Secrets of Women, 1952), Sommaren med Monika (My Summer with Monika, 1953), Sommarnattens leende (Smiles of a Summer Night, 1955), Det sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal, 1957), Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries, 1957), Ansiktet (The Face, 1958), and Djävulens öga (The Devil's Eye, 1960). He had a rich, dark, magical touch, completely different from Sven Nykvist's.

He also worked with Arne Sucksdorff: Pojken i trädet (The Boy in the Tree, 1961), and he was the first to shoot Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson together in the Knut Hamsun movie Kort är sommaren (Pan, 1962), which inspired Ingmar Bergman for Persona.

He worked also with Finnish directors in Sweden such as Jörn Donner (Vittnesbörd om henne / A Testimony About Her, 1963), and Åke Lindman (Is / Ice, 1971). He even worked with Jacques Tati (Parade, 1974).

He shot some of the most famous images in cinema history in The Seventh Seal. Now he has finished his last game of chess.

Singin' in the Rain

Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Helsinki Day), 12 June 2011.

First revisited the ending of the Helsinki documentary programme (Helsinki Aesthetics) compiled by Ilkka Kippola and Jari Sedergren, ending with Jaakko Talaskivi's spoof documentary Helsinki-katsaus 1988 including a review of the city's pissoirs.

Then revisited the beginning of Singin' in the Rain. "Dignity, always dignity". Singin' in the Rain is one of the greatest musicals, and as usually in musicals, the production numbers are the thing. I have always had difficulties with the clichéd parodical account of the transition from silent to sound film in Singin' in the Rain. The colour is still fine in this 1988 Urania photochemical re-release print.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Peter von Bagh: Junassa / [On a Train] (a book)

Printed in the EU: Love Kirjat / WSOY, 2011.

Peter von Bagh is the most incredible guy I know in the field of international film culture. Only one of his many activities is that of a writer. Almost annually he publishes a telephone directory sized book, mostly about the cinema but also about Finnish cultural history and popular music. Some of the latest have been some of his biggest and best, especially Tähtien kirja [The Book of the Stars, 2006], one thousand pages in small print with some of his best writing.

Junassa is different, a hard cover pocket book with an essay approach. It is a reflection of the profound parallels between railway travel and the cinema: a new sense of the categories of space and time, a new way of seeing the world, covering essential dimensions of modern life. There are many literary connections here from Walt Whitman and Marcel Proust to several Finnish writers who wittily observed the shock of the new that the railways brought to the backwoods of our country.

Good summer holiday reading - especially on a train.

Some of my favourite train movies discussed in Peter's book: La Bête humaine, Shanghai Express, La Bataille du rail, The Train (1964), Ostře sledované vlaky (Closely Observed Trains), Night Mail, Pociag (Night Train), Strangers on a Train, The Narrow Margin (1952), Human Desire, Un flic, Wild Boys of the Road, The General, Palm Beach Story.

Some of my other favourite train movies: Méliès: Le Voyage à travers l'impossible (antithesis to the Lumière arrivals of trains), Tengoku to jigoku (High and Low), Daybreak Express, Man of the West, Turksib, Rotaie (Rails), Our Hospitality, The Railrodder, Source Code, Calino chef de la gare, and my all-time favourite: Petchki-lavotchki (Happy Go Lucky).

There would be many interesting subway films, too, but they don't belong here because this book is about seeing the world.

Interestingly, the Russian masters were fascinated by trains. Dostoyevsky's The Idiot inspired Patricia Highsmith for Strangers on a Train. Trains are central in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and also in the Kreutzer Sonata, and in the films based on them.

La Tête en friche / My Afternoons with Margueritte


Jean Becker: La Tête en friche / My Afternoons with Margueritte (FR 2010) with Gérard Depardieu (Germain Chazes) and Gisèle Casadesus (Margueritte).

Päivät Margueritten kanssa / Mina eftermiddagar med Margueritte. 
    FR © 2010 ICE3 / K.J.B. Production / France 3 Cinéma / Studio Canal / DD Productions. [EX: Gérard Depardieu]. 
    P+D: Jean Becker. SC: Jean Becker, Jean-Loup Dabadie - based on the novel (2009) by Marie-Sabine Roger - references to Albert Camus: La Peste; Romain Gary: La Promesse de l'aube [and Luis Sepúlveda: Le Vieux qui lisait des romans d'amour / Un viejo que leía novelas de amor, tbc]. DP: Arthur Cloquet. M: Laurent Voulzy. S: Vincent Montrobert. ED: Jacques Witta. Casting: Colomba Falcucci. 
    Loc: Pons (Charente-Maritime). 
    Cast: Gérard Depardieu (Germain Chazes), Gisèle Casadesus (Margueritte), Sophie Guillemin (Annette, bus driver), Maurane (Francine, la patronne du café), Patrick Bouchitey (Landremont), Jean-François Stévenin (Jojo), François-Xavier Demaison (Gardini), Claire Maurier (Jacqueline, Germain's mother). 
    82 min
    Released in Finland by Atlantic Film with Finnish subtitles only by primetext, La Peste by Juha Mannerkorpi checked by Jukka Mannerkorpi, La Promesse de l'aube by Ulla-Kaarina Jokinen. 
    A 35 mm print viewed at Kinopalatsi 9, Helsinki, 11 June 2011

Technical specs (IMDb): Camera: Arricam LT, Cooke S4 Lenses. - Film negative format: 35 mm (Kodak Vision3 250D 5207, Vision3 500T 5219). - Cinematographic process: Digital Intermediate (master format), Super 35 (3-perf) (source format). - Printed film format: 35 mm (anamorphic). - Aspect ratio: 2.35:1.

La Tête en friche is a labour of love from Jean Becker and Gérard Depardieu. It is the story of the slow-witted, almost illiterate Germain, believed dyslexic, who meets on his favourite park bench Margueritte, 95 years, who opens the world of books for him. Although Germain is not handsome, he has an affair with the beautiful bus driver Annette who wants a baby with him because she knows Germain is full of love. Germain takes care of his mother Jacqueline who suffers from dementia. Germain is a "quatorze juillet baby", the product of a one night stand with a soldier who fell in Algeria. Germain has been unwanted from day zero, harassed at home, bullied at school not only by his schoolmates but especially viciously by his teacher. The slow-witted but good-natured Germain is still bullied by almost everybody.

The peripeteia of this story is when Margueritte reads to Germain Roman Gary's novel La Promesse de l'aube. The words mean deeply for him, and the experience is a turning-point in his life. He finds a motivation to learn to read, to understand his identity in a more deeply meaningful way, to process experiences and memories, to take his life in his own hands, and to help Margueritte who has been evicted from her relatively good circumstances. His mother has finally died, and he examines the pathetic box of childhood memorabilia (complete with his umbilical cord) with a healthy sense of disrespect. He inherits his mother's house, but that is small compensation to the fact that there was never a loving look, a loving word in his childhood.

Based on a novel by Marie-Sabine Roger, Becker and Dépardieu have created a film of strong feelings and well-rounded characters. The performances are first-rate, including Gisèle Casadesus (*1914, a Comédie-Française veteran) and Sophie Guillemin (*1977) as the women who make Germain's life worth living. Having lost his good looks Dépardieu now performs with the fine, quiet command of his presence only.

Visually there is a disregard of style and beauty. The film has been shot on 35 mm and the print screened was in 35 mm. Perhaps because of the digital intermediate the image was often soft, sometimes even with a dreary video look, although many close-ups and interior shots are ok. Yet the movie manages to impress with the sunny warmth of the Charente-Maritime surroundings.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Midnight Sun Film Festival 15-19 June 2011

International guests at the Midnight Sun Film Festival 15-19 June include:
Michael Chapman
Souleymane Cissé
Atom Egoyan
Tony Palmer
Apichatpong Weerasethakul

as well as:
Ahmet Boyacioglu
Gilles Charmant
Denis Côté
Don Edkins
Kate Ogborn
Athina Rachel Tsangari

Founding fathers presenting their new films:
Peter von Bagh
Aki Kaurismäki
Mika Kaurismäki
Anssi Mänttäri

Finnish guests:
Zaida Bergroth
Elina Knihtilä
Raimo O. Niemi
Jukka Virtanen

Masterclasses by:
Nick James
Olaf Möller

Silent film concerts:
Metropolis - a new score by Cleaning Women with Nara Ali Omar (vibraphone, perc), Gudmund Rotevatn (organ, synth), and Ivan Afanasyev (sound effects)
The Battleship Potyomkin (Edmund Meisel score by Silva Sound Creators)
Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück (music by Silva Sound Creators)

Silva Sound Creators = ex-Prima Vista = Günter Buchwald (violin, piano), Frank Bockius (perc), Romano Todesco (double bass).

Thursday, June 09, 2011

The Front



Musta lista / Den svarta listan.
    US © 1976 Devon Company. Distributor: Columbia. P: Charles H. Joffe, Jack Rollins, Martin Ritt, Robert Greenhut (ass.prod.) / Charles H. Joffe. D: Martin Ritt. SC: Walter Bernstein. DP: Michael Chapman. AD: Charles Bailey, Robert Drummheller. M: Dave Grusin. "Young At Heart" (Carolyn Leigh, Johnny Richards) perf. Frank Sinatra. ED: Sidney Levin. Cost: Ruth Morley. Make-up: Robert Jiras, Philip Leto.
    C: Woody Allen (Howard Prince), Zero Mostel (Hecky Brown), Herschel Bernardi (Phil Sussman), Michael Murphy (Alfred Miller), Andrea Marcovicci (Florence Barret), Remak Ramsay (Hennessey), Marvin Lichterman (Myer Prince), Lloyd Gough (Delaney), David Margulies (Phelps), Joshua Shelley (Sam), Norman Rose (Howard's attorney), Charles Kimbrough (committee counselor), Danny Aiello (Danny La Gattuta), Georgann Johnson (tv interviewer), Scott Mckay (Hampton), David Clarke (Hubert Jackson).
    95 min. A vintage print with Finnish [good] and Swedish subtitles.
    Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Woody Allen), 9 June 2011.

An excellent satire and serious comedy about the black list in New York television in 1953. The director Martin Ritt, the screenwriter Walter Bernstein, and the actors Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, and Lloyd Gough have credit designations "blacklisted in 19.." in the same way as during wartime film credits were endowed with military ranks.

Woody Allen plays a small-time bookmaker, Howard Prince, who does not hesitate to come to the rescue of his blacklisted screenwriter friend as a front. Soon there is a whole group of writers whom he fronts. Finally he cannot escape the House Un-American Activities Committee, turning the hearing into a farce, and his final comment is an intentional expression of contempt.

There are many great scenes. The script editor Florence Barret: "you are the only writer I know who doesn't want to talk about writing". The gas chamber in the concentration camp flashback has to be changed because the sponsor is a gas company. The "practically illiterate" Prince turns into a schoolmaster for the real authors: "the key word is substance". The tragedy is crystallized in the story of Hecky Brown who turns into a traitor and commits suicide. The awakening of Howard Prince is believable. He is a gambler and a swindler but he also has a core of integrity.

Shot by Michael Chapman in a realistic style with warm hues. The vintage print looks ok.

P.S. 17 June, 2011 at the Porttikoski Falls (Sodankylä) I told Michael Chapman I had seen The Front the week before and thanked him for the cinematography. He had unhappy memories of it and blamed himself for the concept of trying to make the film look like 1950s television. I reassured him that the film looks fine and the unsuccessful touches he was referring to would be minor.

I liked also the opening montage of early 1950s newsreels, a way of bringing in a lot of period imagery without having to put that into expensive and superfluous art direction.

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Niskavuori


Matti Kassila: Niskavuori (FI 1984). Esko Salminen (Aarne Niskavuori), Rauni Luoma (Loviisa Niskavuori), Satu Silvo (Ilona Niskavuori née Ahlgren).

FI 1984. PC: Skandia Filmi Oy, Matti Kassila Ky. P: Kaj Holmberg. 
    D+SC : Matti Kassila – based on the plays Niskavuoren naiset (1936) and Niskavuoren leipä (1938) by Hella Wuolijoki. DP: Pertti Mutanen – Fujicolor – 1,66 – lab: MTV-elokuvalaboratorio. M: Rauno Lehtinen. AD: Matteus Marttila. Cost: Leila Jäntti. S: Johan Hake. ED: Tepi Salokari. 
    Loc: Hämeenkyrö, Ylöjärvi, Nurmijärvi, Hauho, Sipoo, Kirkkonummi, Helsinki. 
    Cast: Rauni Luoma (Loviisa, the old mistress of Niskavuori), Esko Salminen (Aarne Niskavuori), Satu Silvo (Ilona Ahlgren), Maija-Liisa Márton (Martta Niskavuori), Tuomas Mattila (the master of Simola), Martin Kurtén (Dr. Warelius), Esko Roine (pharmacist), Aarno Sulkanen (farm manager), Eila Pehkonen (Sandra Marjanen), Elina Hoffrén (Serafiina Marjanen), Pentti Marttinen (provost), Helen Elde (the provost's wife), Matti Tuominen (the master of Marttila), Salme Karppinen (the mistress of Marttila), Esko Nikkari (the master of Nikula), Rauha Puntti (the mistress of Nikula), Elina Pohjanpää (Saima Niskavuori), Ismo Kallio (Matti Niskavuori), Esa Saario (Kaarlo Niskavuori), Seppo Kolehmainen (teacher Vainio), Paula Siimes (Anna-Liisa Niskavuori), Ulla-Sisko Tamminen (Salli), Keijo Lindroos (Nieminen), Anja Jaakkola (milkmaid), Eeva Mäkinen (Aliina), Eero Saarinen (Aliina's fiancé), Pekka Valkeejärvi (son of Nieminen), Eeva Aitta (lita). 
    120 min
    A vintage print distributed by Finnkino with Swedish subtitles by Eirik Udd. 
    Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Hella Wuolijoki), 8 June 2011.

I saw Matti Kassila's interpretation of the Niskavuori saga for the first time. Of the five Niskavuori plays he has selected the two that take place in the 1930s and that are immediately linked with one another. 

Writing about the film Anu Koivunen has approached it as a Finnish heritage film and a nostalgia film. The approach seems justifiable, but I think what matters most is the continuous, fundamental excitement about the saga. 

Hella Wuolijoki's plays have been constantly in demand in the Finnish theatre since their premiere, and there seems to be no end to new interpretations. I think there are many reasons to this. The plays are good drama, they offer great roles for actors, and the dialogue is sharp. They are also a saga of agrarian Finland from the 1880s till the 1940s. Nostalgia, why not, but also processing our essential recent past. The roots of many of us are in the agrarian countryside.

The Niskavuori saga is also an original contribution to themes of gender politics. It is a saga of matriarchy, where the master of the house is being crushed "under the female scepter". This is about a tradition of matriarchy that exists beyond female emancipation and women's liberation.

Matti Kassila's film focuses on this twin conflict: The matriarch Loviisa vs. the young master Aarne, and the matriarch Loviisa vs. the young emancipated Ilona. It is powerful drama, and Rauni Luoma (in her last role), Esko Salminen, and Satu Silvo (in her debut movie role) are memorable.

My favourite peripeteia in Finnish fiction is the one in the play Niskavuoren leipä [The Bread of Niskavuori] where old mother Loviisa comes to Helsinki to visit Aarne and Ilona who have escaped to the city. Loviisa gives Aarne a reikäleipä, a classic Finnish round rye bread with a hole in the middle. Peter Kubelka might discover meanings for this showcase of "food as metaphor". It emanates a force that Aarne cannot resist, and changes the course of the Niskavuori saga.

The scene was well interpreted by Emma Väänänen and Tauno Palo in Edvin Laine's film Niskavuoren Aarne, and now Rauni Luoma and Esko Salminen rise to the occasion.

The heavily-used vintage print has a soft definition, with fine detail missing.

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Les deux Anglaises et le Continent / Anne and Muriel


François Truffaut: Les deux Anglaises et le Continent / Anne and Muriel (FR 1971) with Jean-Pierre Léaud (Claude Roc), Kika Markham (Anne Brown) and Stacey Tendeter (Muriel Brown).

Englantilaiset naiset / De engelska damerna / Två engelska kvinnor.
    FR © 1971 Les Films du Carrosse. P: Marcel Berbert.
    D: François Truffaut. SC: François Truffaut, Jean Gruault – based on the novel (1956) by Henri-Pierre Roché. DP: Nestor Almendros – Eastmancolor – 1,66. AD: Michel de Broin. M: Georges Delerue. S: René Levert. ED: Yann Dedet. LOC: near Cherbourg, train scenes in the Jura region. Commentary read by: François Truffaut.
    CAST: Jean-Pierre Léaud (Claude Roc), Kika Markham (Anne Brown), Stacey Tendeter (Muriel Brown), Sylvia Marriott (Mrs. Brown), Mario Mansart (Mrs. Roc), Philippe Léotard (Diurka), Irène Tunc (Ruta), Mark Peterson (Flint), David Markham (fortune-teller), Georges Delerue (the Roc family's business lawyer), Marcel Berbert (art gallerist), Annie Miler (Monique de Montferrand), Christine Pellé (Claude's secretary), Jeanne Lebre (Jeanne), Marie Irakane (maid), Sophie Jeanne (Clarisse), Jean-Claude Delbert (English policeman).
    Premiere version: 132 min. General distribution version: 118 min. Version originale française with passages in English.
    Released in Finland in the general distribution version by Suomi-Filmi with Finnish / Swedish subtitles.
    Viewed at Cinema Orion (François Truffaut), Helsinki, 7 June 2011.

I saw for the first time this François Truffaut film that I had believed minor but which is deeply felt in every detail.

Les deux Anglaises et le Continent – I write the last word with a capital letter because Anne and Muriel call Claude with the nickname "Le Continent" – is a companion piece to Jules et Jim. Truffaut became a friend of the writer Henri-Pierre Roché (1879–1959) and had access to his diaries and correspondence. Truffaut read Roché's work dozens of times till he knew it largely by heart. Roché's novels are based directly on his own experiences 50 years ago. In Jules et Jim, two men love the same woman. In Les deux Anglaises, the two Englishwomen love the same man. Claude Roc was Roché's pseudonym. For Truffaut, it was the most serious film he'd made so far. He also instructed the actors before the shooting that it's "Marcel Proust in love with the Brontë sisters".

The motto of Jules et Jim the film was actually from Les deux Anglaises the novel:
– Tu m'as dit: je t'aime.
– Je t'ai dit: attends.
– J'allais dire: prends-moi.
– Tu m'as dit: va t'en.

The story takes place in 1908–1923, from la Belle Époque to after WWI, like Jules et Jim. "15 years passed like a breath". The last sentence of dialogue by Claude: "J'ai l'air vieux aujourd'hui".

Having seen this 118 min general distribution version I now look forward to seeing the original 132 min version because I realize that Truffaut's Proustian and Ambersonian ambitions would need more breathing space.

The opening credits are a tribute to books. The end credits are a tribute to the wonderful and vibrant actors of this film. Les deux Anglaises et le Continent is full of life also because there is an important place for old people and children. Sources reveal that even Truffaut's own little daughters make an appearance.

Les deux Anglaises et le Continent is not brilliant like Jules et Jim but it is a film that can reward several viewings.

On display was a vintage, worn, 40-year-old print. The colour is slightly faded but Truffaut and Almendros' colour palette of mauve, orange, and ochre can still be appreciated. The quality of fine, soft detail is missing; perhaps there was one generation too many to begin with when this print was struck.

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Hal Roach: Female Comedy Teams (2-dvd, Edition Filmmuseum 2011) and Leo McCarey: Max Davidson Comedies (2-dvd, Edition Filmmuseum 2011)


Cover art photo: Patsy Kelly and Thelma Todd in Babes in the Goods (US 1934, D: Gus Meins).

Cover art photo: Leo McCarey: Why Girls Say No (US 1927) with Ann Brody, Max Davidson and Spec O'Donnell. 

Antti Alanen
For The Journal of Film Preservation
5 June 2011

Antti Alanen
More Hal Roach Gravy

Hal Roach: Female Comedy Teams. Dvd 1: Feed 'Em and Weep (1928), A Pair of Tights (1929), The Pajama Party (1931), On the Loose (1931), Show Business (1932), Asleep in the Feet (1933). Dvd 2: The Bargain of the Century (1933), Beauty and the Bus (1933), Babes in the Goods (1934), Maid in Hollywood (1934), The Misses Stooge (1935), Top Flat (1935). Filmmuseum München 2011. Edition Filmmuseum 57

Leo McCarey: Max Davidson Comedies. Dvd 1: Why Girls Say No (1927), Jewish Prudence (1927), Don't Tell Everything (1927), Should Second Husbands Come First? (1927), Flaming Fathers (1927). Bonus: Hurdy Gurdy (1929). Dvd 2: Call of the Cuckoo (1927), Love 'Em and Feed 'Em (1927), Pass the Gravy (1928), Dumb Daddies (1928), Came the Dawn (1928), The Boy Friend (1928). Bonus: The Itching Hour (1931). Filmmuseum München 2011. Edition Filmmuseum 58

B&w, 1,33:1, DD 2.0, original in English, with German subtitles, region code 0 (all regions), new scores for the silents by Günter A. Buchwald, Joachim Bärenz, and Christian Roderburg.

The Hal Roach studio was "the lot of fun", the best of Hollywood's comedy studios especially in the late 1920s, but its library has been passed from hand to hand, much has been lost, and famous titles are often released from battered sources. Important materials have been transferred to Germany, and that is why great Hal Roach dvd releases have been first published there, including the best Laurel and Hardy box sets.

Now Edition Filmmuseum presents two new Hal Roach dvd sets that have been edited in Filmmuseum München with loving care. They have tracked down the best surviving elements and prepared a music track for the silent films. There is full filmographic information, a collection of new essays, and a wealth of bonus material including scripts and stills. 

Hal Roach was famous for his team spirit and for his great comedy teams. Our Gang and Laurel and Hardy were his biggest hit series, and he was always looking for new teams. Hal Roach: Female Comedy Teams is an introduction to an important part of that search with many little known films on display. Hal Roach wanted to create a "female Laurel and Hardy" team, and interestingly, Stan Laurel was also instrumental in discovering female talent for Hal Roach, such as the truly funny Anita Garvin.

The teams are all different. Anita Garvin and Marion Byron (A Pair of Tights) are the most inspired one, but they only made three films. Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts (The Pajama Party) are completely different. Thelma is always enterprising, ZaSu is an personification of insecurity. The chemistry changed profoundly when Thelma Todd was paired with Patsy Kelly, a tough dame from Brooklyn (Maid in Hollywood). For us these films tell their unique comic versions of the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression when Hal Roach's irrepressible women crashed others' parties as uninvited guests and tried to "act like they act".

Max Davidson (1875-1950) had a long career in the theatre and in the movies, and for a few years in the 1920s he starred in a series of films that are among the best of the golden age of comedy. Alas, those films were forgotten for decades. Only one of them, Call of the Cuckoo (1927) was re-released, and that was only because Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Charley Chase appear in cameo roles in it. A turning point was the Forgotten Laughter retrospective in Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in 1994, when William K. Everson's 16 mm print of Pass the Gravy (1928) was screened and elected the funniest film of the retrospective.

A major forgotten comic talent was re-discovered. Max Davidson's Flaming Fathers (1927) deserves comparison with Jacques Tati's Les Vacances de M. Hulot. Jewish Prudence (1927) belongs to the same black tradition of Jewish self-irony as Billy Wilder's The Fortune Cookie. For once Max Davidson had a dream team. Leo McCarey was the supervisor, Stan Laurel was among the screenwriters, and George Stevens was the main cinematographer. 

The middle-aged, cantankerous Max Davidson played a Jewish Papa. His beautiful daughter (often played by Martha Sleeper) caused him unending disappointment by falling in love with an Irish boy. Max's sons were hardly doctor-lawyer material. One of the sons (presented in an intertitle as "love's biggest mistake") is often played by Spec O'Donnell, who looks a bit like Alfred E. Neuman of the Mad Magazine.

Although Max Davidson comedies were hugely popular, after two years the series was abruptly terminated. MGM was the distributor, and Nicholas Schenck and Louis B. Mayer were annoyed by explicitly Jewish comedy. Hal Roach and Leo McCarey, producers of Max Davidson's masterpieces of Jewish humour, were Catholic Irishmen. Paolo Cherchi Usai writes: "That his films parody ethnic particularities without even a tinge of racism is what bestows Davidson with greatness. As is the case with all truly intelligent film comedies, the parody also mocks cultural and ethnic prejudices".

The whole popular Hollywood cycle of Jewish films came to an end in the late 1920s. It had started with Humoresque (1920), and The Jazz Singer (1927) was a late landmark. For 30 years ethnic Jewish themes were avoided in mainstream Hollywood. When explicit Jewish comedy became popular again in the 1960s, Max Davidson had been forgotten. Although much of his work has been lost forever, fortunately many titles survive, collected for the first time on this precious dvd set. 

ABSTRACT

Edition Filmmuseum presents two Hal Roach dvd sets edited in Filmmuseum München with loving care. They have tracked down the best surviving elements and prepared a music track for the silent films. There is full filmographic information, a collection of new essays, and a wealth of bonus material including scripts and stills. Hal Roach: Female Comedy Teams collects in one dvd set the studio's efforts to create "female Laurel and Hardy" teams - Anita Garvin and Marion Byron, Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts, and Thelma Todd with Patsy Kelly. The veteran actor Max Davidson starred for a few years in the late 1920s in a series of films that are among the best of the golden age of comedy. His films were forgotten for decades, but in Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in 1994, Pass the Gravy (1928) was elected the funniest film of the retrospective, and a Max Davidson revival started. Although much of Davidson's work has been lost forever, many titles survive, collected for the first time on the dvd set Leo McCarey: Max Davidson Comedies.


...
INTRODUCTION AT THE EDITION FILMMUSEUM HOMEPAGE:

Female Comedy Teams
Edition Filmmuseum 57

Trying to find a counterpart to his very successful comedy team Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, producer Hal Roach made several attempts to combine two female comedians. The first team with Anita Garvin & Marion Byron did only three films before both actresses separated. Nevertheless, their A PAIR OF TIGHTS is today seen as one of the greatest silent two reel comedies ever done. At the beginning of the 1930s the teaming of platinum blonde Thelma Todd with shy ZaSu Pitts and later with clumsy Patsy Kelly was a more fruitful idea, resulting in a series of sound shorts which ran successfully for five year until Todd's mysterious death in 1935. This series produced some great films of timeless fun that can easily compete with the best comedies of Laurel & Hardy. The 2-disc DVD set will present a selection of the best shorts in restored versions, most of them have never been released on DVD before.

Die Filme

Feed 'em and Weep - USA 1928 - Directed by: Fred L. Guiol - Cinematography by: George Stevens - Cast: Anita Garvin, Marion Byron, Max Davidson, Edgar Kennedy, Charles Hall, Frank Alexander - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: December 8, 1928

A Pair of Tights - USA 1929 - Directed by: Hal Yates - Cinematography by: George Stevens - Cast: Anita Garvin, Marion Byron, Edgar Kennedy, Stuart Erwin, Spec O'Donnell, Charles Hall, Edgar Dearing - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: February 2, 1929

The Pajama Party - USA 1931 - Directed by: Hal Roach - Cinematography by: Walter Lundin - Cast: Thelma Todd, ZaSu Pitts, Elizabeth Forrester, Eddie Dunn, Donald Novis, Lucien Prival - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: Oktober 3, 1927

On the Loose - USA 1931 - Directed by: Hal Roach - Cinematography by: Len Powers - Cast: Thelma Todd, ZaSu Pitts, John Loder, Claud Allister, Billy Gilbert, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: December 26, 1931

Show Business - USA 1932 - Directed by: Jules White - Cinematography by: George Meehan - Cast: Thelma Todd, ZaSu Pitts, Anita Garvin, Monte Collins, Paulette Goddard, Charles Hall - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: August 20, 1932

Asleep in the Feet - USA 1933 - Directed by: Gus Meins - Cinematography by: Art Lloyd - Cast: Thelma Todd, ZaSu Pitts, Anita Garvin, Billy Gilbert, Eddie Dunn, Kay Lavelle - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: January 21, 1933

The Bargain of the Century - USA 1933 - Directed by: Charley Chase - Cinematography by: Art Lloyd - Cast: Thelma Todd, ZaSu Pitts, Billy Gilbert, James Burtis, Harry Bernard, Fay Holderness - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: April 9, 1933

Beauty and the Bus - USA 1933 - Directed by: Gus Meins - Cinematography by: Hap Depew - Cast: Thelma Todd, Patsy Kelly, Don Barclay, Eddie Baker, Tiny Sanfort, Charles Hall - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: June 19, 1933

Babes in the Goods - USA 1934 - Directed by: Gus Meins - Cinematography by: Kenneth Peach - Cast: Thelma Todd, Patsy Kelly, Jack Barty, Arthur Houseman, Charles Hall, Fay Holderness - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: February 10, 1934.

Maid in Hollywood - USA 1934 - Directed by: Gus Meins - Cinematography by: Franci Corby - Cast: Thelma Todd, Patsy Kelly, Constance Bergen, Don Barclay, Eddie Foy Jr., Billy Gilbert, Charles Hall - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: May 19, 1934

The Misses Stooge - USA 1935 - Directed by: James Parrott - Cinematography by: Walter Lundin - Cast: Thelma Todd, Patsy Kelly, Herman Bing, Esther Howard, Rafael Storm, Henry Roquemore, Harry Bowen - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: April 20, 1935

Top Flat - USA 1935 - Directed by: William Terhune, Jack Jevne - Cinematography by: Art Lloyd - Cast: Thelma Todd, Patsy Kelly, Grace Goodall, Fuzzy Knight, Ferdinand Munier, Gary Owen - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: December 21, 1935

About the Thelma Todd comedies

By necessity, the primary business of the Hal Roach Studios lay in the production of film comedy, but the organization's secondary and supporting purpose, the creation of successful teams and ensembles, represents the most significant part of its historical legacy. Probably the most recognizable on-screen teams in the company's history are Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang, but very nearly from the beginning, Roach relied upon human interaction and the chemistry of individual talents in order to produce characters that audiences found believable, resulting in highly successful pictures. From wildly popular box office attractions made in the late teens by Harold Lloyd, Snub Pollard and Bebe Daniels, to second-tier, 1920s product featuring the likes of the 'Spat Family,' (Sidney D'Albrook and Laura Roessing) or 'Hunky-Dorey' (Earl Mohan and Billy Engle), the ensemble process at Roach resulted in consistently high quality short subjects that did not rely necessarily upon blue-ribbon star recognition.

By 1931 Roach had already attempted to team Anita Garvin and Marion Byron in three female situational comedies, but the teaming did not garner the expected appeal. In an effort to further exploit what he perceived to be a concept with a reasonable amount of box office potential, Roach set into motion the creation of a new female team intended to imitate the highly successful pairing of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. To that end, he engaged the talents of actress ZaSu Pitts and teamed her with Thelma Todd, who had been under contract to the studio for three years appearing in support of featured comedians such as Charley Chase, Laurel and Hardy and Harry Langdon. One of the featured players in Eric Von Stroheim's 1924 feature Greed, ZaSu Pitts had worked in the film industry since 1917. By the early thirties, however, her comedic performances had completely overshadowed the substantial dramatic abilities she possessed and Pitts was reduced largely to B-list character roles. Thelma Todd had come to Roach in 1928 after having been dumped from starring features by First National Pictures subsequent to what she would later describe as an ugly 'casting couch' incident.

The Pajama Party is the third entry in the series and the second of three films to be personally directed by Hal Roach. In content and basic construction the film is pretty well representative of a typical Pitts-Todd adventure. ZaSu is the awkward, stumbling comic foil while Thelma counters as the mostly straight-playing eye candy. Together the Girls are meant to be taken as average, single young women negotiating the world of boyfriends, employment and life's simple tasks, all the while being subjected to a not-so-average parade of indignities, embarrassments and peculiar misfortunes most commonly of the slapstick variety. The film is a simple comedy of errors in which Thelma and ZaSu find themselves invited into the home of a wealthy society matron who has run their car off of the road and into a pond. Soaked to the gills, they are invited to stay the night where they crash the hostess' party in no small way. Pitts and Todd were supported by a talented cast, which included tenor Donald Novis, Elizabeth Forrester, Lucien Prival and Roach stalwarts Charlie Hall and Eddie Dunn. A memorable sequence comes at the beginning of the short when Novis and friends croon the song 'Thanks to You' as a part of a radio broadcast. Thelma Todd sits quietly by and observes. Her innate charm and genuine personality, however, add a bit of warmth to the scene. In many respects, it is the gentle force of moments spent out of character on the part of Thelma Todd that make the films far more engaging than they would otherwise be.

The fifth short in the Pitts-Todd series is On the Loose, which was also directed by Hal Roach. Most of the Pitts-Todd and Todd-Kelly shorts utilized plots that were so simple and character development so minimal that the films can be more readily assessed by directorial style. This entry is a pleasure in that respect, however, in that the whole of the action amounts to an incredibly well told joke replete with a punch line delivered by none other than Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. It is a wonderful tribute to Roach's compositional talents and one of the best of the seventeen original films. Every turn of the action is stitched together neatly with the next using strands of recurring gags and catch phrases. In the film, Thelma, the far more world-wise and savvy of the two girls, guides ZaSu through yet another dreary date at New York's Coney Island. The outing has been arranged by an English swell who, after accidentally ruining their dresses and replacing them with pricey, custom designs, promises to take them someplace 'smart and original' to show off the new finery. At the end of the film, Messrs. Laurel and Hardy show up at the girls' door and offer their own invitation to the now hated pleasure park. After seeing the short, Robert Lynch, General Manager for MGM's Philadelphia office, would write to Roach: 'Dear Hal, I just looked at the Pitts-Todd comedy called On the Loose, and, I don't have to tell you that the gag of bringing Laurel-Hardy in on the tail end of that comedy just makes it a riot.' In many ways the note is a progress report on the reception of Roach's second attempt at female counterpart to his biggest team while ZaSu and Thelma may have been good, audiences preferred the original item.

Another departure from the average Pitts-Todd endeavor comes with Show Business, which is the tenth short in the series and debuted in theaters during August of 1932. The short was directed by Jules White in his only appearance at the Roach Studios and it is certainly a memorable effort and stands out as, probably, the most comedically violent entry in the series. The cast of supporting players is also somewhat unusual as it includes Monty Collins he of the sliding forehead - and Josephine the capuchin monkey. Anita Garvin turns in a bravura performance as a temperamental actress who is at constant odds with her surroundings much of which are influenced by the vaudeville act of Pitts and Todd and their trained monkey. As always, the plot is purely situational. The action centers around a conflict of personality between Anita, ZaSu and Thelma, a fair degree of it being channeled vicariously through the antics of Josephine the monkey the same animal that played opposite Buster Keaton (in The Cameraman, 1928) and Harold Lloyd (A Sailor-Made Mam, 1921), among others. The film is an exercise in the kind of clothes-tearing, knockdown, loud, screaming slapstick for which White could usually be counted upon. It is the kind of comedy that Thelma (by her own admission) was most comfortable with and she and ZaSu bear up to the bouncing they take with a fair degree of aplomb. Anita Garvin would later recall a bitter struggle with the monkey during a scene shot in her private compartment at the end of the Pullman car. She is fighting with the animal as it clings tightly to her back and is terrified by its unwanted presence or so we are asked to believe. In reality, Garvin was obliged to hold the monkey in place as it struggled to free itself from her grasp and urinated all over her night gown.

If Asleep in the Feet is not the best short in the Pitts-Todd series, it is certainly the most charming. It was directed by Gus Meins, who would later deliver eleven of the twenty-one Todd-Kelly efforts. The action centers around the simple notion of raising twenty dollars to help a fellow tenant make the rent by working for an evening as 'taxi dancers' at a local dance hall. Asleep in the Feet is brimming with heart, music and dance, yet succeeds comedically despite these distractions. In fact, it incorporates them so well that it provides, arguably, the best accommodation ever crafted for the individual qualities of both ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd. A wonderfully amusing scene results as an ultra-goofy ZaSu, spiffed up in cartoon-character lipstick and weirdly appointed eyelashes, struts around the dance floor, awkwardly regurgitating the anything-but-seductive words: 'boop-oop-a-doop.' Thelma barely has time to register her horrification as she dodges the persistent and unwanted attentions of Eddie Dunn the Department of the Navy's local representative by ducking in and out of the ladies' changing room. Meins gives both women an opportunity to shine and, at the same time, illustrates, rather nicely, the warmth and friendship between the two that existed off camera. ZaSu Pitts once said that she and Thelma needed only to make eye contact during a scene for the two to erupt in laughter, subsequently ruining take upon take. That connection between the two women is best summed up in the parting shot as Thelma embraces a tearful ZaSu and offers a reassuring laugh.

Entry number sixteen in the Pitts-Todd catalog is The Bargain of the Century, which was directed by Charley Chase. The influence of Charley Chase upon early screen comedy is pervasive and merits far more discussion than is possible here in these brief notes. Suffice it to say that his wealth of experience manifests itself in this case as a tightly wound and beautifully timed short. A song-and-dance man by trade, Chase usually conveyed comedy with a sense of rhythm. Though most notable in his silent work where whole scenes can be counted like music, there are some good examples to point to in this film. In an early scene, which takes place at a department store white sale, the dress shirt of Officer Butterworth, played by Otto Fries, is ripped out from under his jacket. Rather than simply tearing away in one, fell swoop, the shirt tugs away gradually in beats. In another instance, Fries, Thelma and series regular Billy Gilbert are sitting at a table eating ice-cream. For reasons too complicated and wordy to explain here, Thelma and Fries begin dumping spoonfuls of their own ice-cream into Gilbert's dish at rhythmic intervals. The intensity is built carefully and gradually to delightful effect at one point you can almost imagine the Anvil Chorus as an accompaniment to the action. The Bargain of the Century is full of such examples and in every instance they appear quite natural and not the least bit forced in their execution.

In mid-1933, ZaSu Pitts and Hal Roach failed to come to terms on a renewal of the comedienne's contract and, ultimately, Pitts decided to leave the fold. Roach felt that the series merited continuation and so the search for a new comedic foil was undertaken. That task resulted in the acquisition of Patsy Kelly. Kelly's smart-mouthed and tough (but nevertheless dumb) persona differed greatly from that of the plain-ditsy Pitts. That departure in tone is reflected in the construction of the films at a variety of levels. The working premise for the Todd-Kelly shorts centers around Thelma's natural ambition and Patsy's well intentioned, but disastrous, interference. In all, twenty-one shorts were made in this series between 1933 and 1935 and the plots ranged in concept from grand quests for fame and riches to simply getting a new car home in one piece. Predictably, the girls seldom meet with complete success. In each instance, Thelma's innate drive for achievement meets with that immovable force known as the Kelly spirit.

Further clouding their relationship is the knowledge of Patsy's real-life sexuality, which seems, at times, to influence the dialog and action. Though no suggestion of such a relationship between the two characters is ever overtly made (these kind of things were rarely discussed at the average American dinner table during the 1930s), there is an appreciable tension lurking below the surface. Clearly, there is more to Patsy's demeanor than the gruffness of your typical 'tough Irish dame from Brooklyn,' and her pet names for Thelma, most notably 'toots,' speak, at the very least, of an unrequited interest in her blonde friend. Thelma, for her part, seems largely oblivious to Miss Kelly's deeper affections, being usually preoccupied by the ever-increasing tide of general difficulty associated with Patsy's friendship. In the end, nothing ever comes of Patsy's interests real or imagined on our part.

Beauty and the Bus was the first short produced in the series. In this film, Thelma and Patsy win a brand-new Ford V-8 roadster at a movie theater raffle. The object of the plot is to get the car home in one piece. Needless to say, this does not happen. In fact, the mere presence of Patsy Kelly results in the wholesale destruction of an entire neighborhood of vehicles. As a first outing, the film is a remarkably good example of a typical Todd-Kelly comedy, which indicates three things about the series: 1.) the strength of the performers' personalities would carry the films; 2.) the dynamic between Todd and Kelly was a simple one requiring little development; 3.) the A-list writers were busy with Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang and Charley Chase. From the outset, the Todd and Kelly interrelationship is practically chiseled in stone. Even the technical staff employed for the first half of the series' run are fairly constant, with Gus Meins at the directorial helm for the first nine comedies. It seems likely that Roach wanted to provide a degree of constancy and foundation for the new team which had not necessarily been present during the production of the Pitts-Todd films. Wiped away with the departure of Pitts, however, was the sentiment in Todd's performance. No great bond of friendship would ever really manifest itself in the Todd-Kelly two-reelers as it had in the previous pairing. Nonetheless, Beauty and the BusS is a well-made comedy that makes good use of the Roach Studios' 'All-Star' cast members as supporting actors.

Babes in the Goods is a real treat for fans of the Hal Roach Studios' all-purpose inebriate, Arthur Housman. Story ideas meted out to Todd and Kelly were even less complicated than those prepared for Pitts-Todd and this short springs from a fine example of that condition. Fortunately, not much is needed by the ensemble of Todd, Kelly and Housman to put it over. Thelma and Patsy are window demonstrators at a department store who, through no fault of their own, oddly enough, are locked in the display window overnight. Arthur Housman plays a drunken spectator who turns up at rush hour and decides to make a night of it. In all, Housman, whose career in film began with Edison in 1912, would make three appearances opposite the team and in each instance his performance is both substantial and noteworthy. His reactions to the difficulties of Todd and Pitts in Babes in the Goods are priceless and represent the bulk of comedic material in the second reel of the short. Thelma and Patsy (who eventually wind up reduced to their underwear) are, quite literally, window dressing for Arthur's performance. When Thelma and Patsy are given funny things to do in this short, the gags seem terribly contrived and forced. Even though the soil may not have been a very fertile environment for sophisticated comedy and intricate gags, the short does make excellent use of character and even relies upon visual techniques standard in the making of silent comedy.

If sentiment ever found a place to live in a Todd-Kelly film, it must have taken up residence in Maid in Hollywood. The film industry is something that director Gus Meins must have cared deeply about, for everything to do with Maid in Hollywood is well thought out and well executed everything except the title, that is, because, apart from the reference to Hollywood, it makes exactly zero sense with respect to the plot. The film begins with a sobering perspective on Hollywood rejection. Thelma Todd has been unsuccessful in her attempts to make good in the movie industry and is facing a return home as a proven failure. From that tiny scrap of plot, Meins convinces us to invest some measure of hope in the film's potential. Moving forward through the action we love all there is to love, dislike all the right people and dread every moment when Patsy jeopardizes Thelma's last shot at success. Maid in Hollywood is a gem of the first order. In addition to a well-conceived and well-acted film, we are treated to a formidable dissertation on the art of effective sneezing by a certain Herr Wilhelm Gilbert. An outstanding supporting cast, which includes Don Barclay, Charley Rogers, Eddie Foy, Jr., Billy Bletcher and Constance Bergen, make this short one of the best in the entire series.

The Misses Stooge is one of those odd, mid-thirties Roach shorts that doesn't quite know just what it wants to be, meanders awkwardly through its plot commitments and then crashes before our eyes in a heap of exhausted ideas. The film is full of gags that seem to begin as elaborate devices, but, ultimately, take the action nowhere. It is a frustrating film in that no plot element is ever resolved in fact, it concludes in a frenetic, incoherent jumble. Director James Parrott, the younger brother of comedian Charley Chase, directed five of the Todd-Kelly titles in all. The Misses Stooge was his last directorial assignment at Roach. Glimpses of brilliance exist in this short, but that is all they are all too brief excursions into the surreal world of silent comedy physics. Parrott seems to have one foot planted firmly on those shores, but can't seem to bring the other down to solid footing in the realm of the real world in an effort to make it all work. None of the independent parts add up to a single sum and the result is an unbalanced, wandering film. On a brighter note, Parrott does extract some delightful interplay between Thelma and Patsy, and Herman Bing is a real hoot in the supporting role of Sazarac the Magician as he contends with both the Girls' wild antics and his own character's ineptitude as an illusionist.

Thelma Todd's favorite poem was something called "The Barrel Organ" by Albert Knopff. She memorized the lengthy composition and recited it during a high school class on girls' elocution. In Top Flat we are subjected to a few poems the Roach writers have ascribed to her character's pen. The verse is deliberately bad, but, if nothing else, it gives us an opportunity to hear Thelma recite poetry. It does not amuse Patsy, however, and this leads to another regular theme in the Todd-Kelly vehicles: the parting of the ways. Thelma, having taken umbrage at Patsy's criticism, storms out of the apartment the two share. At some undisclosed point in the future, she takes a job as a French maid at a penthouse on Fifth Avenue. Through a chance meeting with her old pal and a series of erroneous assumptions, Thelma leads Patsy to believe that she has sold her poetic work at a fabulous price. Patsy determines Thelma's address surreptitiously and shows up unannounced one evening with a pair of rowdies. A particularly memorable feature in this film occurs during a scene where the four principals are gathered around the piano and singer/comedian Fuzzy Knight performs an abridged version of his musical vaudeville act. The act is engaging enough, but watching Thelma Todd's reactions during this sequence results in yet another out-of-character boost to the scene. She seems to be getting a real kick out of his act just when she ought to be angriest with the roughnecks' antics. Patsy is at her manic best in this two-reeler and infuses just about every scene she enters with tension and energy. It may occur to the viewer that just as Thelma Todd seemed to be hitting her stride during the final months of the Pitts-Todd films, so does Patsy here in the last of the Todd-Kellys.

By the time Top Flat was being filmed, Todd was already planning for life after Roach as a restauranteur and businesswoman. She had determined to leave Roach upon the expiration of her contract. Another version of events suggests that Roach had decided not to renew her services. In either instance, it is unlikely the Todd-Kelly team would have survived. Her unexplained death, however, in December of 1935 secured her future as a sensational Hollywood tragedy a goldmine for the unscrupulous ghouls in the tragic blonde business. Roach would revive the notion of the female team again and in one such instance, interestingly enough, Patsy and ZaSu were engaged during the 1950s for a series of television programs that were intended in the same spirit as the Pitts-Todd and Todd-Kelly shorts this time featuring the trials and tribulations of a pair of middle-aged spinsters. Sadly, the Kelly-Pitts (or Pitts-Kelly) show did not materialize, though a handful of costume stills do exist.

Dave Stevenson


DVD features (2-disc DVD)
DVD 1

Feed 'em and Weep 1928, 16'
New score by Günter A. Buchwald (piano & violin)
A Pair of Tights 1929, 19'
New scores by Joachim Bärenz (piano) and Christian Roderburg (percussion)
The Pajama Party 1931, 20'
On the Loose 1931, 20'
Show Business 1932, 19'
Asleep in the Feet 1933, 18'
Work in Progress: The Restoration of GOING GA-GA 5'
ROM section with essays, documents and stills
DVD 2

The Bargain of the Century 1933, 19'
Beauty and the Bus 1933, 17'
Babes in the Goods 1934, 19'
Maid in Hollywood 1934, 19'
The Misses Stooge 1935, 18'
Top Flat 1935, 19'
20-page bilingual booklet with essays by Anke Sterneborg, Dave Stevenson and Cole Johnson
Edited by: Filmmuseum München
DVD authoring: Ralph Schermbach
DVD supervision: Stefan Drössler

First edition December 2010, Second enhanced edition January 2012

Reviews
Jordan Young on Los Angeles Examiner, February 22, 2011
John Sinnott on DVDtalk, February 26, 2011
Carl Bennett on Silent Era, February 2011
Stuart Galbraith on DVDtalk, March 24, 2011
Leonard Maltin on Movie Crazy, April 14, 2011

TV Format: 4:3 (PAL)
Original format: 1.33:1
Audio format: Music score - Dolby Digital 2.0 (Stereo)
Language: English Intertitles
Subtitles: German
Region code: 0 - All Regions

...

Max Davidson Comedies
Edition Filmmuseum 58

Max Davidson (1875-1950) is one of the numerous forgotten Hollywood supporting actors who acted in innumerable movies. His heyday was in the late 1920s when he was engaged at the Hal Roach Studios for a series of Jewish comedies which belong to the best and funniest shorts the studio ever produced. The 2-disc DVD set presents all the existing comedies as well as Davidson's first sound film and documentation of the lost films with rare scripts and more than 300 unpublished stills. All films focus on Davidson as the henpecked Jewish family father who has to struggle with his good-for-nothing son(s) and a daughter who falls in love with a non-Jewish boy.

The Films
Why Girls Say No - USA 1927 - Directed by: Leo McCarey - Written by: Stan Laurel, Hal Roach - Cinematography by: Frank Young - Cast: Max Davidson, Marjorie Daw, Creighton Hale, Spec O'Donnell, Ann Brody, Oliver Hardy, Jess Devorska - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: February 20, 1927

Jewish Prudence - USA 1927 - Directed by: Leo McCarey - Written by: Hal Roach, Stan Laurel - Cinematography by: Len Powers - Cast: Max Davidson, Johnny Fox, Martha Sleeper, Gaston Glass, Jess Devorska, Eugene Pallette - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: May 8, 1927

Don't Tell Everything - USA 1927 - Directed by: Leo McCarey - Written by: Hal Roach - Cast: Max Davidson, Spec O'Donnell, Jess Devorska, Lillian Elliott, James Finlayson - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: July 3, 1927

Call of the Cuckoo - USA 1927 - Directed by: Clyde Bruckman - Written by: Leo McCarey, Hal Roach - Cinematography by: Floyd Jackman - Cast: Max Davidson, Spec O'Donnell, Lillian Elliott, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, Charley Chase - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: Oktober 15, 1927

Should Second Husbands Come First? - USA 1927 - Directed by: Leo McCarey - Written by: Hal Roach - Cast: Max Davidson, Spec O'Donnell, Lillian Elliott, David Butler - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: Oktober 23, 1927

Flaming Fathers - USA 1927 - Directed by: Leo McCarey - Written by: Hal Roach, Hal Roach - Cast: Max Davidson, Martha Sleeper, Tiny Sandford, Lillian Leighton, Eddie Clayton - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: December 18, 1927

Pass the Gravy - USA 1928 - Directed by: Fred Guiol - Written by: Leo McCarey, Hal Roach - Cinematography by: George Stevens - Cast: Max Davidson, Spec O'Donnell, Martha Sleeper, Bert Sprotte, Gene Morgan - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: January 7, 1928

Dumb Daddies - USA 1928 - Directed by: Hal Yates - Written by: Leo McCarey, Hal Roach - Cinematography by: George Stevens - Cast: Max Davidson, Spec O'Donnell, Viola Richard, Edgar Kennedy, Thelma Hill, Gene Morgan - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: February 4, 1928

Came the Dawn - USA 1928 - Directed by: Arch Heath - Written by: Leo McCarey, Hal Roach - Cinematography by: George Stevens - Cast: Max Davidson, Gene Morgan, Polly Moran, Viola Richard, Charles Dorety - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: March 3, 1928

The Boy Friend - USA 1928 - Directed by: Fred Guiol - Written by: Leo McCarey, Hal Roach - Cinematography by: Len Powers - Cast: Max Davidson, Marion Byron, Bill Elliott, Edgar Kennedy, Fay Holderness - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: November 10, 1928

Hurdy Gurdy - USA 1929 - Directed and written by: Hal Roach - Cinematography by: George Stevens - Cast: Max Davidson, Ann Brody, Edgar Kennedy, Thelma Todd, Oscar Apfel - Produced by: Hal Roach Studios - Premiere: May 11, 1929

The Itching Hour - USA 1931 - Directed by: Lewis R. Foster - Written by: Edgar Vincent Durling, Frank Gay - Cast: Louise Fazenda, Max Davidson, Spec O'Donnell, Harry Bernard, Fern Emmett - Produced by: Larry Darmour Productions - Premiere: February 1, 1931

About Max Davidson

Squinting through his beady eyes, Max Davidson peered out at a world in which he was forever bedeviled by incompetent tradesmen, larcenous businessmen, and most of all... his own family. Playing an old world Jew adrift in a land of goyim, Davidson was a comedian whose stock-in-trade was the stereotypical European Jew. His full beard, shaggy hair, bowler hat, and dark clothes from an earlier century, marked him as an immigrant. His characterization was a catalogue of hand gestures, winces, beard strokes, and shrugs. He played Ginsbergs, Cohens, Gimplewarts, and Weinbergs. He portrayed rag men, junk men, pawnbrokers, and most often, tailors. Jokes about stinginess, greed, and pork were all part his comic repertoire. The character was not original. Comic and/or villainous Jews had precedents in literature and stage stretching back to Shylock and beyond.

A case could easily be made that Davidson and his films should be tossed into the "Moran & Mack" dustbin of justly forgotten ethnic comedians. But the actor could and often did transcend that genre. There's something more to his character that attracts us.

He played a fish out of water. Davidson's character was struggling to adjust to mainstream America and his comedy grew out of the gulf between his old world manners and the new world that his children were born into. It was a tension that millions of Americans in the 1920's were either experiencing or witnessing. Between 1877 and 1927 the Jewish population in the U.S. rose from 229,000 to 4,228,000. The earlier wave of Jewish immigrants were succeeding in various trades and professions, but later arrivals (most of whom came from Poland or Russia) struggled to rise from utter poverty in urban ghettos. In a 1927 feature, Pleasure Before Business, Max makes a bad bet at the racetrack. His line, "If my bet ain't canceled, we'll be immigrants again.", must have resonated with millions of new Americans.

A small man (5'4" and 130 lbs.), Davidson was not an athletic comedian, but used his face and hands to garner most of his laughs. Rarely the perpetrator of mayhem, his forte was in reacting to the chaos around him. It's no wonder he found his artistic home at Hal Roach Studios, where directors knew that an actor's reaction to a gag could get a bigger laugh than the gag itself.

Max Davidson is best remembered for his wonderful series of shorts made for Hal Roach between 1927 and 1929. Like much of the Roach product of the era (or at least those shorts other than Laurel & Hardy's or Our Gang's) are lost. But surviving gems like Jewish Prudence, Don't Tell Everything, Should Second Husbands Come First? (all 1927) and Pass the Gravy (1928) rank among the funniest two-reelers ever made.

Robert Farr

DVD features (2-disc DVD)
DVD 1

Why Girls Say No 1927, 23'
Jewish Prudence 1927, 21'
Don't Tell Everything 1927, 23'
Should Second Husbands Come First? 1927, 21'
Flaming Fathers 1927, 25'
Hurdy Gurdy 1929, 20'
New scores by Joachim Bärenz, Christian Roderburg and Günter A. Buchwald
24-page bilingual Booklet with essays by Richard W. Bann, Steve Massa, Stewart Tryster and Stefan Drössler
DVD 2

Call of the Cuckoo 1927, 19'
Love 'em and Feed 'em 1927, 9', tinted
Pass the Gravy 1928, 25'
Dumb Daddies 1928, 15'
Came the Dawn 1928, 17', tinted
The Boy Friend 1928, 20'
The Itching Hour 1931, 19'
New scores by Joachim Bärenz, Christian Roderburg and Stephen Horne
Scripts, cutting continuities, stills and lobby cards of all the lost Max Davidson comedies as ROM features
Edited by: Filmmuseum München
DVD authoring: Ralph Schermbach
DVD supervision: Stefan Drössler

First edition March 2011, Second edition September 2011

Reviews
Richard W. Bann: Max Davidson - Blow by Blow, January 1, 2011
Carl Bennett on Silent Era, March 2011
Allen John on Allen John's Attic, March 27, 2011 (in French)
Leonard Maltin on Movie Crazy, April 14, 2011
David Cairns on MUBI Europe, July 7, 2011

Friday, June 03, 2011

Melancholia

Melancholia / Melancholia. DK/SE/FR/DE © 2011 Zentropa Entertainments / Memfis Film / Zentropa International Sweden / Slot Machine / Liberator Productions / Zentropa International Köln [tbc]. EX: Peter Garde, Peter Aalbæk Jensen. P: Meta Louise Foldager, Louise Vesth. D+SC: Lars von Trier. DP: Manuel Alberto Claro. PD: Jette Lehmann. Visual effects supervisor: Peter Hjorth. Visual effects by: Platige Image. Cost: Manon Rasmussen. Makeup + hair: Dennis Knudsen. Music: from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. S: Kristian Eidnes Andersen. ED: Molly Marlene Stensgaard. Loc: Västra Götaland (Sweden). Cast: Kirsten Dunst (Justine), Charlotte Gainsbourg (Claire), Kiefer Sutherland (John), Charlotte Rampling (Gaby), John Hurt (Dexter), Alexander Skarsgård (Michael), Stellan Skarsgård (Jack), Brady Corbet (Tim), Udo Kier (wedding planner). 137 min. Original in English. Released in Finland by Nordisk with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Jaana Wiik / Saliven Gustavson. DCP 2K viewed at Tennispalatsi 7, Helsinki, 3 June 2011 (day of Finnish premiere).

Technical specs (IMDb): Camera: ARRI ALEXA, Phantom HD Camera (some scenes). - [Film negative] format: ARRIRAW. - Cinematographic process: ARRIRAW (source format), Digital (high-speed shots). - Printed film format: 35 mm. - Aspect ratio: 2.35:1.

Melancholia has received good reviews in Finland. An especially intelligent and well-written one is by Juha Rosenqvist at the Film-o-Holic web magazine (in Finnish).

Melancholia is an apocalyptic poem. The opening is a haunting slow-motion vision about the end of the days. On the soundtrack there is Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, the favourite of Luis Buñuel. The formality of the castle and the garden brings to mind L'Année dernière à Marienbad of Alain Resnais. There is a reproduction of a Brueghel painting that was a favourite of Andrei Tarkovsky's. Everything reminds me of something I've seen or heard before, but Lars von Trier creates a vision of his own.

At the extravagant wedding party there is everything except love and happiness. This sequence is yet another example of the cinema's strange obsession with the theme of the cancelled wedding. The wedding has taken place, but the wife, Justine, rejects her husband on wedding night, and the husband leaves her. Justine announces to her boss her suggestion for the company tagline - "nothing" - and is fired on the spot.

Justine is deranged. She senses the impending apocalypse as the planet Melancholia is about to collide with the Earth.

Melancholia brings to mind another Danish film about the end of the world, Verdens undergang (Nordisk 1916, D: August Blom). There is something similar in the sense of boredom and nothingness.

The visual look of the film is a typical transitional digital one at least on the 2K DCP on display. The nature looks slightly denatured, and there is a sense that we are dead already. There is a lot of annoying handheld camerawork, which has plagued Trier's films at least since Breaking the Waves. Again I think that the point of the camera swaying is to distract us from noticing the void.

I spent a lot of time looking elsewhere and thinking about the brilliant media strategy of Peter Aalbæk Jensen and Lars von Trier. Their production is a high profile example of conceptual art, films with sometimes slight substance, but produced with fine talent and high professionalism and marketed with brilliant insight in scandal and media coverage.

Nevertheless Melancholia is a memorable representative of the contemporary cinema of despair.

The Academy Presents: The War Film Collection

Leonard Maltin has written on his hugely readable website a column with the headline "Hollywood Goes to War" about the abundant World War II archive that The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has opened on its website. Many top Hollywood artists made a tremendous contribution to the war effort, including John Ford, who interrupted his Hollywood career which had just risen to its most fruitful stage in 1939. His and others' contributions are on display on The War Film Collection site.

Screening the Poor 1888-1914

Another link to Luke McKernan's website The Bioscope: he has written an extended review of an innovative two-dvd set from Edition Filmmuseum: Screening the Poor 1888-1914, with early films and magic lantern images of social realism. The dvd set has been curated by Martin Loiperdinger and Ludwig Vogl-Bienek. I have not seen the dvd set but I know many of the films, and this way of displaying them does seem to make sense.