The Deep Blue Sea (2011)

Terence Davies: The Deep Blue Sea (US/GB 2011) with Rachel Weisz (Hester Collyer) and Tom Hiddleston (Freddie Page).

Syvänsininen meri / The Deep Blue Sea (Swedish title).
    US/GB © 2011 The Deep Blue Sea Productions / UK Film Council. PC: A Camberwell / Fly Film Production. P: Sean O'Connor, Kate Ogborn.
    D+SC: Terence Davies - based on the play (1952) by Terence Rattigan - produced in Finland in 1954, 1955, and 1956 with the titles Syvä sininen meri and Rakastan sinua. DP: Florian Hoffmeister - digital grading by LipSync Post. PD: James Merifield. AD: David Hindle. Cost: Ruth Myers. Make-up and hair: Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou. VFX: LipSync Post. M: Samuel Barber: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 14 (1939), perf. Hilary Hahn & The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, cond. Hugh Wolff. S: Tim Barker. ED: David Charap. Casting: Jane Arnell. Loc: London.
    C: Rachel Weisz (Hester Collyer), Tom Hiddleston (Freddie Page), Simon Russell Beale (Sir William Collyer), Harry Hadden-Paton (Jackie Jackson), Ann Mitchell (Mrs. Elton), Sarah Kants (Liz Jackson), Barbara Jefford (Collyer's Mother), Jolyon Coy (Philip Welch), Karl Johnson (Mr. Miller), Mark Tandy (Edie and Ravenscroft Assistant), Stuart McLoughlin (man singing "Molly Malone" in the tube during the air raid).
    98 min.
    Released by Atlantic Film with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Janne Kauppila / Kajsa Wickström.
    2K DCP viewed at Maxim 1, Helsinki, 19 May 2012 (Finnish premiere weekend).

Technical specs from the end credits: Filmed on 35 mm with Panavision Cameras and Lenses - Lighting Equipment supplied by Panalux - Editing Equipment Hyperactive Broadcast, Arcimboldo - Originated on Kodak Motion Picture Film - Film Processing by Deluxe Soho.

Technical specs from the IMDb: Camera: Panavision Panaflex Cameras, Panavision Primo Lenses - Film negative format: 35 mm (Kodak Vision3 200T 5213, Vision3 500T 5219) - Cinematographic process: Digital Intermediate (2K) (master format), Super 35 (3-perf) (source format). - Aspect ratio: 1.85:1.

From Artificial Eye's excellent pressbook: "Rattigan's work is a sustained assault on English middle-class values; fear of emotional commitment, terror in the face of passion, apprehension about sex. Few dramatists have written with more understanding about the human heart" (Michael Billington).

Official synopsis: "Hester Collyer (Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz) leads a privileged life in 1950s London as the beautiful wife of high court judge Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell Beale). To the shock of those around her, she walks out on her marriage to move in with young ex-RAF pilot, Freddie Page (Tom Hiddleston), with whom she has fallen passionately in love."

"Set in post-war Britain, this adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s classic play, The Deep Blue Sea is a study of forbidden love, suppressed desire, and the fear of loneliness – but is at heart a deeply moving love story. Stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea, what - or whom - should Hester choose?"

"The story is told from Hester's POV, both in the present and in her memories of the past. The story takes place between 1949-1950, with one flashback to 1940."

Says producer Sean O’Connor: “This is an anti-heritage period film about what it was like to live in the 1950s. 1947 was the harshest winter on record, the country was bankrupt, we had famously won the war but lost the peace and we were living in a society of some privation and confusion and devastation – everything was dark and dirty and cold. We wanted to articulate how depressed and depressing it was in 1949 to honour the people who lived through that period.“

“We were influenced by films of that period too,” concurs producer Kate Ogborn, ”but rather than Brief Encounter which has a comforting glow we looked at Alexander Mackendrick’s Mandy, which is set in a world of bomb sites, and Robert Hamer’s It Always Rains on Sundays, about twenty-four hours in the life of a housewife played by Googie Withers, as well as the photographs by people like Bill Brandt who went into ordinary homes and documented people's lives."

“I don't think Terence does realism,” she continues. “His films are emotionally authentic to his memories, but they are more heightened than social realist films. The Deep Blue Sea looks ravishing, but it doesn't feel like we’ve ‘packaged’ the period. We're telling the story through the visuals and performances and it's very rich visually. Terence was also keen to give a softer look to the film so it's almost on the edge of focus and its look creates a tension with the raw emotional content.”

“Because I grew up in the 1950s, I know what the texture felt like,” says Terence Davies. “We were bankrupt after the war and everything was drab. You very rarely saw primary colours, except in Hollywood musicals and the red lipstick that women wore. If a woman wore a dress with some colour on it, she looked like a Hollywood movie star. I recognised what Hester has given up - a quite luxurious life for one drab room in a lodging house with no toilet.”

“I’m obsessed with Vermeer,” says Davies. “I love the glow you achieve when you switch on a red light in a drab room - you get a wonderful glow. In the scene we shot in Aldwych for the scene in the London underground station, we had little paraffin lamps causing little pools of like candles and very little else. It made it warm and cosy like a womb. And that warm glow makes what is an unbearable situation - waiting for the bombs to drop while you’re underground - bearable.”

Terence Davies showed production designer James Merifield a photo - sepia, smudged and reminiscent of the director’s childhood - and it provided the inspiration for Merifield’s designs. “I thought there was the opportunity to do something quite stylised, quite heightened but still true to the story which is obviously very real in terms of the performances,” says the designer. “So I followed this photograph and created the whole look with sepia tones, and took all the colours and de-saturated them.”

The result is an autumnal colour palette of brown, ochre, butterscotch and toffee in which splashes of colour may suddenly appear – the interior of a suitcase or a ruby red coat that Hester wears, for example. “If you put a primary colour against a saturated background, it becomes much warmer,” says Davies. “And because the main palette is saturated, you really notice the colour. I wanted to recreate something of the feeling of seeing that bright Technicolor at the movies - you’d think ‘Oh God, doesn’t that look wonderful!’ - and James and costume designer Ruth Myers knew exactly what I meant. They did a fabulous job.”

I find it impossible to relate properly to the movies of Terence Davies because of his passivity. At the same time I admire and respect him for his uncompromising work in the same spirit and level of ambition as artists such as Vermeer and Samuel Barber, central to The Deep Blue Sea. There is a top cast and artistic crew in the movie. Rachel Weisz gives a great performance as Hester Collyer, a character which belongs to the tradition of Anna Karenina, but Sir Collyer is a more understanding character than Mr. Karenin. Common for both stories is that it is impossible for the lady to live a life without sexual passion. The counterpart of Vronsky is the retired RAF pilot Freddie Page, more superficial and unstable than the Russian officer. Prominently used is Samuel Barber's violin concerto, which was also played at the set when the movie was made. It speaks of a passion that is muted and repressed in post-war London. As the pressbook says, the violin concerto has a similar role in The Deep Blue Sea as had Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto in Brief Encounter. Another connection to the Noël Coward - David Lean story and Anna Karenina is the scene at the tube where Hester contemplates suicide by throwing herself in front of the train. But then she remembers how the tube was a shelter during the Battle of Britain. And Freddie, a war survivor, many of whose friends died in the war, cannot understand how someone can consider suicide.

The Deep Blue Sea is a story of three people with a fundamental problem of mutual understanding and communication. Hester Collyer is a normal woman with healthy passions. Sir Collyer is a nice man, but he is already long past the age of such passions. Freddie Page is a nice man too, but for him a sex relationship does not imply anything else, although he is not abusing Hester, either, on the contrary, he helps her wake up as a woman and he is the first to bring her sexual fulfillment.

The visual look in the movies of Terence Davies is always very carefully considered. In this 2K DCP presentation the soft focus, the darkness, and the muted colour palette did not usually look very good. Perhaps the definition was too low, perhaps the challenges for a digital post-production were overwhelming. The close-ups of Rachel Weisz were beautifully lit in a way that was effective even in this presentation.  

The full music credits are beyond the jump break:

The Hunger Games

Gary Ross: The Hunger Games (US 2012). Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen.

Nälkäpeli / The Hunger Games (Swedish title). 

    US © 2012 Lions Gate Films, Inc. PC: Lionsgate / Color Force. P: Nina Jacobson, Jon Kilik. 

    D: Gary Ross. SC: Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins, Billy Ray - based on the novel (2008) by Suzanne Collins, translated into Finnish by Helene Bützow / WSOY (2010). DP: Tom Stern. PD: Philip Messina. AD: John Collins. Set dec: Larry Dias. Cost: Judianna Makovsky. Makeup: Nikoletta Skarlatos. Hair: Clare M. Corsick. SFX: Vince Acree. VFX: huge staffs at Pixomondo, Rhythm & Hues Studios, Hybride Technologies, Rising Sun Pictures, HALON, Proof, Inc., Digiscope, Clearcut FX. Muttation Character Design: Legacy Effects. PostVis Services: Proof, Inc. 3D Scanning: Gentle Giant Studios. Lidar Services: Lidar VFX. AN: Dino Athanasiou. M: James Newton-Howard. S: Lon Bender. ED: Stephen Mirrione, Juliette Welfling, Christopher S. Capp. Casting: Debra Zane. 

    Loc: North Carolina. 

    C: Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss Everdeen), Josh Hutcherson (Peeta Mellark), Liam Hemsworth (Gale Hawthorne), Woody Harrelson (Haymitch Abernathy), Elizabeth Banks (Effie Trinket), Lenny Kravitz (Cinna), Stanley Tucci (Caesar Flickerman), Donald Sutherland (President Coriolanus Snow), Wes Bentley (Seneca Crane), Toby Jones (Claudius Templesmith), Alexander Ludwig (Cato), Isabelle Fuhrman (Clove), Jacqueline Emerson (Foxface), Leven Rambin (Glimmer), Paula Malcomson (Mrs. Everdeen), Willow Shields (Primrose Everdeen), Dayo Okeniyi (Thresh), Amandla Stenberg (Rue), Jack Quaid (Marvel). 

    142 min

    Released by Nordisk Film with Finnish / Swedish subtitles. 

    2K DCP viewed at Tennispalatsi 11, Helsinki, 19 May 2012.

Technical specs from the IMDb: Camera: Arricam LT, Zeiss Ultra Prime, Angenieux Optimo and Canon Lenses, Arricam ST, Zeiss Ultra Prime, Angenieux Optimo and Canon Lenses, Arriflex 235, Zeiss Ultra Prime and Angenieux Optimo Lenses. - Laboratory: Technicolor, Hollywood (CA), USA. - Film length: 3.900 m - Film negative format: 35 mm (Kodak) (Fuji Eterna Vivid 250D 8546, Eterna Vivid 500T 8547). - Cinematographic process: Digital Intermediate (2K) (master format), Super 35 (3-perf) (source format). - Printed film format: 35 mm (anamorphic) (Fuji Eterna-CP 3514DI), D-Cinema. - Aspect ratio: 2.35:1.

A blockbuster movie based on a best-selling novel. There are antecedents in movies (and literature) such as La decima vittima, Blade Runner, and The Running Man, and in a broader sense, Death Watch. Death as entertainment in the reality television of the future is a subgenre of science fiction, and The Hunger Games is a strong new entry.

The Hunger Games also belongs to the dystopian Metropolis tradition of science fiction movies. There is a small ruling elite that lives in luxury, and a huge majority weakened by starvation. 

The elite disciplines the oppressed districts via a reality tv show where randomly chosen gladiators from the districts are required to fight each other in a forest arena, and the winner is allowed to survive.

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) comes from the poorest district, a coal-mining one. Jennifer Lawrence, who made a strong impression in Winter's Bone, creates a new kind of action heroine with both feminine and masculine traits. She is a real hunter but equally important is her highly developed sense of compassion. She refuses to become brutalized.

The manipulation of the games is decadent. There is camera surveillance everywhere, the nature is artificial, there are genetically engineered creatures, at the control board trees and animals can be made to emerge, and the rules of the game may be changed anytime.

The Hunger Games is a black satire of reality television, of the culture of humiliation, rampant greed, and the decadence of the overpaid elite. It is a vision of an utterly cynical world, a world not worth living in.

The score by James Newton-Howard is unusual and interesting.

The visual design of the Capitol of the nation of the future called Panem (as in "panem et circenses") is original, a kind of futuristic Rococo.

Although the movie has been shot on 35 mm photochemical film, there is a heavy digital video look due to the digital post-production. There is an emphasis on close-ups, extreme close-ups, and handheld camerawork, and the nature is often in soft focus, all this maybe to conceal the low definition in the visual quality. Maybe for the same reason the cutting is often so rapid that there is no time to examine the landscape in a long shot. In the killing scenes the cutting is lightning fast, impressionistic and almost abstract, maybe to avoid gore and sustain the PG-13 rating (instead of R).

These restrictions the director Gary Ross turns into an artistic vision. Although The Hunger Games is a blockbuster movie it has also aspects of an arthouse approach.

Happy End (Björn Runge 2011)

Björn Runge: Happy End (SE/DK 2011). Ann Petrén (Jonna).

Happy End. 

    SE/DK © 2011 Zentropa International Sweden AB / Trollhättan Film AB. P: Martin Persson, Madeleine Ekman. 

    D: Björn Runge. SC: Kim Fupz Aakeson. DP: Ulf Brantås – Fuji – Lab Nordisk. PD: Jette Lehmann. Makeup and hair: Camilla Karlsson. M: Ebba Forsberg. S: Hans Møller. ED: Lena Runge. 

    C: Ann Petrén (Jonna), Malin Buska (Katrine), Gustaf Skarsgård (Peter), Johan Widerberg (Asger), Peter Andersson (Mårten), Mariah Kanninen (Hanne), David Dencik (Richard), Fredrik Gildea (Zidan), Hanna Malmberg (Nina), Anna Azcarate (psykolog), Mattias Nordkvist (psykolog), Said Legue (Jamal), Helena Gezelius (nurse), Yvette Ramirez (nurse). 

    97 min

    Released by Cinema Mondo with Finnish subtitles by Anna-Leea Kaila.

    35 mm print viewed at Kino Engel, Helsinki, 18 May 2012.

Technical specs from the end credits: Ljus: EF Rental, David Medina – Kamera: Kameraten & Red Rental – Ljudutrustning: Enric, Henric Andersson – Passutrustning: Dagsljus AB – Råfilm: Fuji - Postproduktion: Utskjutning & postfacilitet: Filmek Teknik AB, Klippegangen ApS – Lab: Nordisk Film Shortcut Stockholm.

Swedish Film Database synopsis: "Happy End is a fairytale for adults. It’s about five people with an important liaison to one another, who are all avoiding to be truthful. They are living in a world of shadows, lined by lies and falsities and are only waiting for the truth to appear so that they may be able to continue their lives in another direction. Happy End is the third part of Björn Runge’s trilogy of liberation, commenced with "Daybreak / Om jag vänder mig om" and “Mouth to Mouth / Mun mot mun” about people who are trying to liberate themselves from destructivity."

Having just seen La Délicatesse with Audrey Tautou working in a French office of a Swedish company I continued the Swedish evening with Björn Runge's Happy End.

It is a multi-character study from the shadow side of the welfare society – in this movie an ill-faring society. It's about broken lives, solitude, and false appearances. A bit like recent Finnish multi-character films (Vuosaari, Kohta 18), there shines a light in the end of the tunnel in the desperate-seeming stories.

The movie is visually interesting and original. Ulf Brantås has shot it on 35 mm photochemical film, and the digital intermediate has been performed successfully. The test is the juiciness and the refined softness in the nature footage. The light in this movie is beautiful, although the stories are ugly.

La Délicatesse / Delicacy

Stéphane Foenkinos & David Foenkinos: La Délicatesse / Delicacy (FR 2011). Audrey Tautou (Nathalie Kerr) and François Damiens (Markus Lund).

Nainen, jonka nimi on Nathalie / Nathalie [Swedish title]. 

    FR © 2011 2.4.7. Films / StudioCanal / France 2 Cinéma. P: Xavier Rigault, Marc-Antoine Robert. 

    D: Stéphane Foenkinos, David Foenkinos. SC: David Foenkinos – based on his novel (2009). DP: Rémy Chevrin. PD: Maamar Ech-Cheikh. Set dec: Jimena Esteve. Makeup: Thi Thanh Tu Nguyen. Hair: Jane Milon. VFX: Cédric Fayolle. M: Émilie Simon. S: Vincent Vatoux. ED: Virginue Bruant. 

    Loc: Paris. 

    C: Audrey Tautou (Nathalie Kerr), François Damiens (Markus Lund), Joséphine de Meaux (Sophie, la meilleure amie de Nathalie), Bruno Todeschini (Charles Delamain, le Directeur Général), Mélanie Bernier (Chloé), Pio Marmaï (François, le mari de Nathalie), Ariane Ascaride (la mère de Nathalie), Christophe Malavoy (le père de Nathalie), Monique Chaumette (Madeleine, la grand-mère de Nathalie), Audrey Fleurot (la secrétaire de Delamain), Marc Citti (Pierre, le compagnon de Sophie), Vittoria Scognamiglio (la mère de François), Alexandre Pavloff (Benoît, un membre de l'équipe de Nathalie). 

    In French with some Swedish. 

    108 min

    Distributed by Future Film with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Janne Kauppila and ... Mas / Kajsa Wickström.

    2K DCP viewed at Kinopalatsi 6, Helsinki, 18 May 2012.

Technical specs from the IMDb: Camera: Aaton Penelope, Cooke S4 and Angenieux Optimo Lenses. –Laboratory: Arane-Gulliver, Paris, France. – Film length: 2985 m. – Film negative format: 35 mm. – Cinematographic process: Digital Intermediate (master format), Super 35 (3-perf) (source format). – Printed film format: 35 mm (spherical), D-Cinema. – Aspect ratio: 1.85:1.

IMDb synopsis: A Frenchwoman mourning over the death of her husband three years ago is courted by a Swedish co-worker.

The directors Stéphane Foenkinos and David Foenkinos are yet another set of brothers to become film directors. There are many such brothers in the history of the cinema since Skladanowsky, Lumière, Méliès and Pathé... but no sisters!

A well made romantic comedy which has also a dimension of tragedy and aspects of satire. When it branches out to farce, fantasy, and whimsy, the touch is no longer assured.

An excellent Audrey Tautou vehicle. She gives a deeply moving performance as the mourning widow. The theme of the power of love ("thanks to her I can be the best version of myself" confesses Markus) is honestly felt. The character of Markus Lund is not a very apt portrait of a Swede, but it is an interesting invention that his clumsy sincerity appeals to Nathalie more than the slick routines of the French seducers. 

The movie has been shot on photochemical 35 mm film, and the étalonnage numérique has been successfully performed.

Russian Libertine – Venäjän vapain mies

FI 2012. PC: Kinocompany Finland Oy. EX: Ari Matikainen. P: Liisa Juntunen.
    D: Ari Matikainen. SC: Ari Matikainen, Liisa Juntunen. DP: Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen – Canon 5D – released in D-Cinema. M: Janne Haavisto. S: Mikko Mäkelä, Tuomas Klaavo / Helsingin Elokuvaäänitys. Mixing: Pekka Karjalainen / Meguru Film Sound. ED: Harri Ylönen. Loc. Moscow.
    A documentary film featuring: Viktor Jerofejev / Viktor Erofeyev, Andrei Jerofejev / Andrei Erofeyev, Vladimir Sorokin.
    78 min. In Russian.
    The print viewed had Finnish credits, and subtitles in Finnish and Swedish. Liisa Viitanen (Finnish), Valeri Lieholm (English), Svetlana Melentijeva, Janne Kauppila.
    Released by Atlantic Film, 2K DCP viewed at Tennispalatsi 14, Helsinki, 17 May 2012 (week of premiere).

The official presentation: "Last winter Russians got tired with Putin's autocratic actions and went out into the streets to demand change. A hope for more righteous Russia has awakened, but the journey is a long one, and the weight of history exceptionally heavy. However, an idea for new Russia has been born, and continues to grow even at this very moment."

"One of the people fighting for change is a Russian author and dissident Victor Erofeyev. He loves his country and wants it to be more tolerant and open-minded. For decades now, he has been criticising the people in charge of Russia. He has also been in trouble with the state since the Soviet times, but does not let the fear hold him back. With his work he wants to encourage the Russians to take a critical look around and try to actively improve their own situation. Now this is finally happening."

"Russian Libertine brings the changes that shake the Russian society in front of our eyes and make them easier to understand. Victor's colourful story from a privileged child of a Soviet diplomat to a dissident who destroys his own family is full of surprises. It is a journey to today's Russia."

AA: Viktor Erofeyev admits that Putin has managed to establish a social contract with a freedom in the private sphere, but Erofeyev remains a passionate critic of Russia's backwardness, corruption and inability to change.

Erofeyev was born into a diplomat family and experienced France and Africa in his childhood and youth. The Soviet dream became a catastrophe, with lying, hypocrisy, cruelty and meanness rampant. The cult of Stalin was especially destructive.

During the Soviet Union there were two cultures, the Soviet culture and the anti-Soviet culture, and then came a third one, Sots Art and post-modernism, and their parody and irony finally melted Soviet culture.

"I killed my father", Viktor confesses: by launching the clandestine Metropol literary magazine he brought his father's illustrious diplomatic career into an abrupt finish. "My father lost everything".

But even worse was the conspiracy of silence, "friends" turning into informers. Erofeyev discusses the tradition of intimidation and violence in Russian culture. But father forgave and was Viktor's decisive supporter to the end of his days. Viktor is highly reserved about Russia's possibility to change, yet "something must be done".

A documentary movie with gravity, a filmed pamphlet about questions crucial for Russia. There is a threatening sound in the music track. There is a basic record digital video look in the imagery. 8 mm home movies are the source for the inserts in the flashbacks about Viktor's childhood in the 1950s. There is a general sense of a spirit that is broken but not destroyed, never giving up the fight.

Books on my nightstand (16 May 2012)

Jack Stevenson : Scandinavian Blue : The Erotic Cinema of Sweden and Denmark in the 1960s and 1970s. Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland & Company, 2010.

Veikko Huovinen: Luonnonkierto. Novelleja, pakinoita, lyhyitä erikoisia 1950-2001. [Natural Circulation. Short stories, causeries, special short prose]. Helsinki: Siltala, 2012. Veikko Huovinen (1927-2009) was a treasure in Finnish literature, a master of the language, a humorist, a satirist, a pacifist, an ecologist. The great writer also enjoyed great popularity, and all his life he also wrote short prose for magazines. This collection includes only stories that have never been published in a book before. There are  also texts that are published here for the first time. Among other things, Veikko Huovinen is a master of laugh-out-loud short comic prose. When my father once returned from Tampere in 1969 he had read during the train journey the humoristic collection of short prose Mikäpä tässä [untranslatable, means something like As Good As It Gets] and told that he had attracted the attention of the whole train car by laughing out loud. Since then, the family, at least we the sons, became Huovinen aficionados. Later we lived in Tampere, and at school, the Tampereen lyseo, our legendary Finnish teacher Pentti Kalela (aka Pote) had a test for every class to read aloud Huovinen's short story "Uuteen tukikohtaan" ["A New Bastion"]. Whenever the reader broke into laughter he had to pass the book on to the next reader, and the test was if the class was able to read the story to the end in one round. It never was. There are such stories in this posthumous collection, too: "Varjopuolia ja epäkohtia Euroopassa" ["Drawbacks and Weaknesses in Europe"] and "Kovat kisat" ["Tough Games"], for instance. On the whole, Veikko Huovinen is untranslatable. His work is such word gravy that it is impossible to convey into another language. This goes also for his deeply felt stories about the nature, about the deep Kainuu forest. They also reveal something about the onomatopoietic and magical character of (the Finnish) language. There are still Huovinen stories that have so far only been published in magazines. To the end of this blog entry I copy a list of such stories by Huovinen that we have kept in our family collection and that have as far as I know not been published in books.

Anton Chekhov / Anton Tshehov: Valitut novellit II [Selected Short Stories II] [1887-1903]. Selected by V. Kiparsky, translated by Juhani Konkka. Porvoo - Helsinki: WSOY, 1959. The second part of this Anton Chekhov collection comes up to his very last stories (The Bishop and The Bride). During his first seven years as a writer Chekhov published over 500 stories; during the last 16 years, less than a hundred. There is increasing gravity in his work, and it is rewarding to read these stories in chronological order. In this selection the very greatest ones are not included, as they were published in another set of two volumes; the only longer tales included here are Ward No.6 and The Black Monk. A child's viewpoint is important in Chekhov's new stage as an artist (At Home, During the Holy Week). A critical view of society is evident (Sleepy, A Case from a Doctor's Practice). Oppression in Siberia, in military service and in exile, is among the themes (Gusev, The Deported). There are three tales with aspects of horror and affinities with Poe and Balzac (A Bet, Ward No. 6, and The Black Monk). There is a classic caricature (The Man in the Case). Recurrent themes are the woman whom love passes by (The Story of Miss NN, Ionich), the hypocritical woman (A Princess), and the superficial woman (Anna on the Neck, Darling). Might The Story of a Head Gardener, about a self-sacrificing doctor, be Chekhov's fairy-tale self-portrait? There is a powerful cinema-like dream quality in certain passages of Sleepy. Might The Bishop have been one of the sources of inspiration for Ingmar Bergman's Winter Light? I cannot relate to Chekhov's melancholia and resignation although I find these stories among the greatest ever made.

487. Дома / Kotona, 1887 [At Home]
512. Отец / Isä ja poika, 1887 [A Father]
493. На страстной неделе / Piinaviikolla, 1887 [During the Holy Week]
536. Рассказ госпожи NN / Neiti NN:n kertomus, 1887 [The Story of Miss NN]
533. Поцелуй / Suudelma, 1887 [A Kiss]
538. Спать хочется / Nukuttaa, 1888 [Sleepy]
546. Пари / Vedonlyönti, 1889 [A Bet]
547. Княгиня / Ruhtinatar, 1889 [A Princess]
551. Гусев / Sotamies Gusev, 1890 [Gusev]
550. Воры / Varkaita, 1890 [Thieves]
566. В ссылке / Karkotettuja, 1892 [The Deported]
562. После театра / Oopperasta palattua, 1892 [After the Opera]
569. Палата No 6 / Sali n:o 6, 1892 [Ward No. 6]
597. Случай из практики / Eräs tapaus lääkärin elämästä, 1898 [A Case from a Doctor's Practice]
594. Человек в футляре / Koteloitunut ihminen, 1898 [The Man in the Case]
579. Рассказ старшего садовника / Ylipuutarhurin kertomus, 1894 [The Story of a Head Gardener]
573. Черный монах / Musta munkki, 1894 [The Black Monk]
577. Учитель словесности / Kirjallisuuden lehtori, 1894 [A Teacher of Literature]
585. Анна на шее / Anna kaulassa, 1895 [Anna on the Neck]
593. Ионыч / Jonytsh, 1899 [Ionich]
599. Душечка / Kullanmuru, 1899 [Darling]
604. Архиерей / Piispa, 1902 [The Bishop]
605. Невеста / Morsian, 1903 [The Bride]

Jack Stevenson: Scandinavian Blue. The Erotic Cinema of Sweden and Denmark in the 1960s and 1970s. Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland & Company, 2010.

Jack Stevenson (ed.): Fleshpot. Cinema's Sexual Myth Makers & Taboo Breakers. Manchester: Critical Vision, 2000.

Despite their colourful titles Jack Stevenson's books are sober and balanced accounts of little-studied aspects of film history. Denmark was the first country to abolish censorship in 1969 - restrictions to pornography were removed from the criminal code, and film control was restricted to ratings to those under 16 year old only without an authority to ban. Soon the Western world followed the Danish example. During a strange transition period films such as I Am Curious - Yellow and The Language of Love become the most successful foreign films in the U.S.A.

VEIKKO HUOVINEN STORIES not published in books, in our family collection:
Piru ja Pitch-Pine (Uusi Kuvalehti 27/1953)
Vanhat herrat pulputtavat (Uusi Kuvalehti 21/1953)
Ihminen ja eläin (Uusi Kuvalehti 12-13/1959)
Sikojen fonetiikkaa (Kuva-Posti 51-52/1959)
Sinisiä ajatuksia: Elämää suomalaismetsissä (Apu 7/1974)
Sinisiä ajatuksia: Metsän peitossa (Apu, heinäkuu 1974)

True Heart Susie

D. W. Griffith: True Heart Susie (US 1919). Robert Harron (William Jenkins), Clarine Seymour (Bettina), Lillian Gish (Susie May Trueheart).

Menlösa Susie. US 1919. P: D. W. Griffith. Griffith's Short Story Series. Original distribution: Paramount-Artcraft Pictures. D: D. W. Griffith. SC: Marian [Marion?] Fremont. DP: G. W. Bitzer. ED: James Smith. C: Lillian Gish (Susie May Trueheart), Robert Harron (William Jenkins), Walter Higby [Wilbur Higby?] (William's father), Loyola O’Connor (Susie's aunt), George Fawcett (the stranger, "the four-flusher" [= poker cheater]), Clarine Seymour (Bettina), Kate Bruce (Bettina's aunt), Carol Dempster (Bettina's chum), Raymond Cannon (Sporty Malone). 6213 ft / 1894 m /18 fps/ 92 min. The Griffith Project 583. A 35 mm DFI print viewed at Finnish Film Archive, Orion, Helsinki (I Love You, I Film You), 15 May 2012.

Revisited a marvellous D. W. Griffith movie which at first glance seems simple but is actually complex in a subtle and unobtrusive way. Top writers have commented on True Heart Susie, and in anticipation of seeing the movie I reread Tom Gunning's article in The Griffith Project Vol 10 (2006, edited by Paolo Cherchi Usai, perhaps the greatest monograph on any film director). 

Gunning reflects on the art of the close-up, how Lillian Gish as Susie creates "a soliloquy of facial expressions" in moments of profound disappointment. Gunning comments on the encounter of the two women, Susie and Bettina (Clarine Seymour) as being one "between a woman whose emotional repression has not yet hardened her heart and one whose thoughtless pursuit of immediate gratification still does not deserve the scorn of a joyless community". "Susie undergoes a recognition that Bettina possesses something Susie lacks - sexuality, an energy ('pep'), a connection with her physical and emotional needs that rural life has repressed in Susie". 

Gunning comments on the intertitle "A little unfaithful" preceding Bettina's death: "The ironic compassion of this phrase typifies the combination of distance and compassion that marks the narration of this film and which may constitute its most remarkable feature". "Throughout True Heart Susie, performance, editing, and narration create a point of view through which we profoundly share the experiences of the characters." "Nearness and intimacy mean overcoming a distance that one is fully aware of". 

I agree with Gunning that "Griffith's use of intertitles sets up an extremely sophisticated and complex narrative viewpoint". The last intertitle: "And we may believe they walk again as they did long years ago".

Like in Way Down East, Griffith has here the gift of portraying an old-fashioned story as a subtle metanarrative, in a perspective of tender irony. We may think the protagonists are foolish, but we are made to identify with them, and tua res agitur: the tale tells about ourselves, timeless stories of chances nearly missed, being given a decisive impact by an impostor, becoming aware of our true capabilities, not realizing who our true benefactor is, of love that is blind, that we may fail to appreciate a happiness that has grown too familiar, that love between childhood sweethearts may fade.

Aspects of the movie I had forgotten include: 

– William has to work his way through college and he becomes the target of school bullying by his rich schoolmates, but he stands up to his rights and fights for his honour. 

– "William's great, simple heart cannot see that all cannot be like himself": William is blind to the character of Bettina because he cannot realize that someone can be so superficial. 

– The comic theme about appearances. William grows a moustache "imitating his benefactor" (who we know is an impostor). Susie fights a "battle against the powder and the paint brigade" (against a much more superficial woman than herself). "Do you think you can improve on Lord's work?" asks her aunt.

The black and white print is as good as it gets. In the filmographic information of The Griffith Project Vol 10 there is a statement by Kevin Brownlow that all existing archival elements of True Heart Susie stem from the London archive's nitrate positive. The Copenhagen print (DFI) certainly does: it is a duplicate from London's National Film Library with a condescending introductory title probably added in the 1930s. Otherwise the intertitles are original. There is a good visual quality sufficiently often. There is a frameline situation with the intertitles. The source of the London print has been a print/prints with tinting/toning at least in some of the footage. The speed looks natural at 18 fps.

Animation in 2012

Peter Lord: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (GB/US 2012).

Until the 1980s it was normal that there was only one new animated feature film theatrically released per year in Finland, usually a Walt Disney production. During that, the first full decade of the home video era, there was still also one theatrically re-released Walt Disney classic during the other part of the year. 

But since the success and new confidence in Disney animations such as The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994), other producers got in the game in a big way. Until then in the Western world Walt Disney had been the only long-running producer of theatrical animated feature films. 

Now the Disney company got serious rivals. Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata's Studio Ghibli was established, and other talents of Japanese anime found global success. In Britain, Aardman Animations was launched with short films at first. Beavis and Butt-head and The Simpsons expanded to theatrical feature films. Tim Burton and Henry Selick made their first feature-length animations. Fox Animation Studios with Don Bluth and Gary Goldman was established to compete with Disney in 1994, as was DreamWorks Animation. Blue Sky Studios (the Ice Age series) also belongs to Fox. Pixar became a partner of Disney in 1995, and it became also at once the most visionary leader in animation along with Studio Ghibli. 

Nordic producers got in the game, too with Astrid Lindgren animations etc., and for the first time in Finland, as well, there was a continuity in feature-length theatrical animation production. In 1998, Michel Ocelot released his first animated Kirikou feature based on African imagery. A wide range of animations for grown-ups emerged, including Paprika, A Scanner Darkly, Beowulf, Persepolis, and Waltz with Bashir. Wes Anderson, Luc Besson, and Steven Spielberg debuted in animation.

In 2012, 86 feature-length animations are due, not all theatrically.

Animation is still expensive, and there seems to be a frantic fight for survival in the theatrical market. I hope there is room for everybody and that animation producers don't panic and overcrowd their movies with more action, more loud sound effects, more garish colours, more pop hits of a generation ago, and more hysterical characters who never seem at ease with themselves. I can't help wondering whether they are self-portraits of the producers of today's overcrowded theatrical animation marketplace.

Donald "Duck" Dunn 1941-2012

Donald Dunn made a mark with his groovy bass lines as a session musician for Stax Records in the 1960s. The self-taught Dunn did not copy others and created a unique sound of his own instead. Below is just the beginning of his discography at his website Duckdunn.com. He died with his boots on in Tokyo. His bass has been heard countless times in movies, and he himself appeared in the The Blues Brothers films.

Live performance: Time Is Tight (1969). Feels like team spirit.

Otis Redding (Pain In My Heart, 1964)
Wilson Pickett (In The Midnight Hour, 1965)
Booker T & The MGs (Soul Dressing, 1965)
Otis Redding (Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, 1965)
Mar-Keys (Great Memphis Sound, 1966)
Booker T & The MGs (In The Christmas Spirit, 1966)
Otis Redding (Otis Blue, 1966)
Wilson Pickett (Exciting Wilson Pickett, 1966)
Otis Redding (Soul Album, 1966)
Booker T & The MGs (And Now... Booker T & The MGs, 1966)
Guitar Showdown at the Dusk 'Til Dawn Blues Festival, 1966)
Eddie Floyd (Knock On Wood, 1967)
Albert King (Born Under A Bad Sign, 1967)
Otis Redding (Live In Europe, 1967)
The Mar-Keys/Booker T & The MGs (Back To Back, 1967)
Otis Redding & Carla Thomas (King & Queen, 1967)
Various Artists (Monterey International Pop Festival, 1967)
Booker T & The MGs (Hip Hug-Her, 1967)...

π / Pi

Pi (title in Finland) / Pi (title in Sweden). US 1998 © 1997 Protozoa Pictures. P: Eric Watson. D: Darren Aronofsky. SC: Darren Aronofsky - from a story by Darren Aronofsky, Sean Gullette, and Eric Watson. DP: Matthew Libatique - black and white - 1,66:1. PD: Matthew Maraffi. AD: Eileen Butler. Makeup: Ariyela Wald-Cohain. Art department: Sean Gullette, Sasha Noe (creator: vaccination gun), Gagan K. Sarch (graphics). SFX: Ariyela Wald-Cohain. VFX: Jeremy Dawson, Dan Schrecker (computer screen graphics), Christopher Dusendschon (in-show effects compositor). AN: Dan Moss (computer animation: java sequence). Title designer: Jeremy Dawson (main title sequence & credits, Sneak Attack). M: Clint Mansell. S: Brian Emrich. ED: Oren Sarch. Casting: Denise Fitzgerald. Loc: New York. C: Sean Gullette (Maximillian Cohen), Mark Marqolis (Sol Robeson), Ben Shenkman (Lenny Meyer), Pamela Hart (Marcy Dawson), Stephen Pearlman (Rabbi Cohen), Samia Shoaib (Devi), Ajay Naidu (Farroukh), Kristyn Mae-Anne Lao (Jenna). 84 min. A dvd distributed by Pathé / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, region code 2, letterboxed at 1,66:1, with hard of hearing English subtitles (1999). Viewed at home, Helsinki, 12 May 2012.

Technical specs from the IMDb: Camera: Bolex H16. - Laboratory: Bono Film Labs, Arlington (VA), USA. - Film negative format: 16 mm (Eastman Plus-X 7276, Tri-X 7278). - Cinematographic process: Super 16. Printed film format: 35 mm (blow-up). - Aspect ratio: 1.66:1.

I saw for the first time Pi, one of the most remarkable debut feature films ever, having missed it last week in our Darren Aronofsky retrospective. It is an experimental black and white film, completely original, and only in the sense of its originality comparable with David Cronenberg (before his present stage as a mainstream director) and David Lynch. Pi is an anxiety film with some links to traditions of psychological horror (Polanski) and cyberpunk (Videodrome). The theme of the anxiety of superior performance returns in Black Swan with some of the same visual motifs (growths from the body).

Max is a mathematic genius capable of calculations of large numbers in his head, competing with the pocket calculator of his little neighbour Jenna. Motifs in the movie (elaborated on its website www.pithemovie.com/gifpage.html) include: - The golden spiral (Pythagoras), the golden rectangle, the golden ratio. - The chaos theory. - NYSE (The New York Stock Exchange): a complex, interrelated and chaotic system which is manmade but staggeringly complex. Like pi, the story of the stock market lies in a vast string of numbers. If there is an order in this chaos, it remains thus far invisible. - The Go game as an expression of a complex and chaotic universe. - The Gammantria, the number theory of the Kabbalah: The Torah (= what Christians call the Old Testament) is just a long string of numbers. Some say that it's a code sent to us from God. - Migraine hallucinations.

From the movie's website: Pi Paranoia.

"Paranoia is the belief in a hidden order behind the visible."
- Anonymous

"Pi is both the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet and the symbol which represents the world's oldest mathematical mystery: the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter."

"The earliest known written record of the ratio comes from 1650 BCE Egypt, where a scribe calculated the value to be 3.16 (a mere 1% off the true value). Although now, we have methods to calculate the digits of pi (3.1415...) its exact value remains a mystery."

"Since 1794, when it was proven that Pi was both irrational and infinite, people have been searching for a pattern in the endless string of numbers."

"As it turns out, Pi can be found everywhere, from astronomy to probability to the physics of sound and light. To date it has been calculated to over 51 billion digits, so far with no discernible pattern emerging from its numbers. In fact, the first time that the sequence 123456789 appears, it is over 500 million digits into the ratio. Calculating the digits to millions of decimal places is now used to test computers for bugs in hardware and software (which is how Intel's Pentium found a chip bug a few years ago)."

"If you prefer to calculate Pi the old fashioned way, you're not alone. Hundreds of clubs have been formed to celebrate and calculate the ratio, many of which require a good deal of sequence memorization in order to join. The current world record for pi memorization was made in 1995, when a Japanese man recited 42,000 digits from memory in just over nine hours."

The mystery horror thriller plot is about Max's supercomputer with which he is able to discover a number of 216 digits which is the key to the mystery of the universe. Soon both Wall Street agents and orthodox Kabbalists are after him, but Max's computer crashes, there is a crash at the Wall Street stock exchange, too, Max's math teacher dies of a second stroke, and Max performs lobotomy on himself with a power drill, relieving himself from his migraine and his mathematical genius, no longer being able to participate in Jenna's pocket calculator contest.

There is a Jewish relevance to the story which can be vaguely linked with Kafka.

Pi is a movie about urban alienation and malaise (Unbehagen) in a culture of success. It is also a horror movie about extremism and extreme specialization as is Black Swan.

Pi was shot on a mini budget on 16 mm reversal stock. The movie has been printed at high contrast,  emphasizing its nightmare quality.

The Fireball

Tay Garnett: The Fireball (US 1950) with Mickey Rooney (Johnny Casar).

Tay Garnett: The Fireball (US 1950) with James Brown (Allan), Marilyn Monroe (Polly) and Mickey Rooney (Johnny Casar).

Kerskuri / Johnny gör sensation.
    US © 1950 renewed © 1977 Twentieth Century-Fox. PC: Thor Productions, Inc. (Bert E. Friedlob Productions). P: Bert E. Friedlob. 

    D: Tay Garnett. SC: Horace McCay - based on an original story by Tay Garnett and Horace McCoy. DP: Lester White - b&w - 1,37:1. AD: Van Nest Polglase. Makeup: Ed Voight. Hair: Agnes Flanagan. M: Victor Young. S: William R. Fox. ED: Frank Sullivan. 

    Studio: Motion Picture Center Studios (Hollywood).
    Loc: [Guam?]; Temple Street (Los Angeles, CA, Johnny's downhill ride).

    According to Tay Garnett's autobiography - Tay Garnett & Fredda Dudley Balling : Light Your Torches and Pull Up Your Tights. New Rochelle, New York : Arlington House, 1973 - "producer Friedlob owned the International Roller Speedway and wanted to make a film featuring it. Garnett's book implies that the film's skating sequences were shot during a tour of the Roller Speedway to Guam and Manila but a HR news item of 28 Nov 1949 reported that production was starting that day in San Diego. According to documents in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department at the UCLA Arts--Special Collections Library, a building in Balboa Park, San Diego may have been used for the skating sequences through mid-Dec 1949." (AFI Catalog Online).
    C: Mickey Rooney (Johnny Casar), Pat O'Brien (Father O'Hara), Beverly Tyler (Mary Reeves), introducing Glenn Corbett (aka Glen Corbett, not the better known Glenn Corbett) (Mack Miller), James Brown (Allan), Marilyn Monroe (Polly), Ralph Dumke (Bruno Crystal), Milburn Stone (Jeff Davis), Bert Begley (Shilling), Sam Flint (Dr. Barton), John Hedloe (Ullman).

    NB. Glen Corbett, birth name Lawrence Marvin Reynolds (1922-1997), tv and film career 1950-1956.

    NB. Glenn Corbett. birth name Glenn Edwin Rothenburg (1933-1993), film and tv career 1959-1992.

    NB. Both Corbetts appeared in Samuel Fuller films.
    2292 m / 84 min. Premiere: 16.8.1950.
    Finnish premiere: 22.12.1950.
    A WB Archive Collection dvd, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Warner Home Video 2010. Viewed at home, in Helsinki, 12 May 2012.

AFI Catalog Online: "The Roller Derby originated in the mid-1930s and consisted of separate teams of men and women attempting to pass each other, on a banked track, to win points. These roller skating "exhibitions" which, under different names and franchises, were characterized by staged fights and other sensationalized, fan-oriented antics, became a staple of early television programming and were popular into the 1970s."

Synopsis: Johnny (Mickey Rooney) escapes from Father O'Hara's (Pat O'Brien) orphanage, stumbles at a pair of roller skates found in a waste basket, experiences a dangerous downhill ride, gets a job as a dish-washer at a diner, discovers a roller skating rink, gets free lessons from a skating master, Mary Reeves (Beverly Tyler), and becomes a champion. He enjoys the wild life, becomes arrogant, and falls ill with polio, but Mary helps him get well again. At the comeback roller derby Johnny helps a young member of his team win instead of thinking about his own performance, winning Father O'Hara's trust and Mary's love.

There is a media aspect in the movie, with television exposure important for celebrity.

A Mickey Rooney vehicle based on a true story (see beyond the jump break), changed thoroughly to create a conventional sport star's rise-and fall-and rise again movie. Mickey Rooney truly is a fireball of electrifying energy, and he carries the picture. The experienced sports reporter Horace McCoy (there is a meta joke as Horace McCoy's byline in a column titled The Outlook appears in one of the montages) brings a dimension of authenticity to the picture, and there is a no-nonsense drive in Tay Garnett's direction. A montage sequence crystallizes Johnny's rise to stardom. A much more startling and interesting montage sequence charts Johnny's pain and suffering in rehabilitation as he has to learn everything again like a baby. There are visions, nightmares and dreams during Johnny's invalid period.

Not a masterpiece like The Lusty Men, but there is something of the same gritty sense of reality in The Fireball. The documentary sequences from the roller derbies and Johnny's ride down Temple Street are exciting.

Not an important Marilyn Monroe movie, but there is a Monroe connection in the orphanage in which the movie starts. "I don't even know if Casar is my real name", Johnny tells the tv reporter. "I'm just a kid left on the doorstep of somebody's home." It's part of Mickey Rooney's talent that he makes us realize that Johnny himself is a victim of his terrible character and that his greatest victory is that he transcends himself.

From the IMDb I learn that The Fireball was constantly seen on U.S. tv in the 1950s. In Finland it hasn't been seen since the premiere 62 years ago. Thanks to my American relatives I got to see this movie at last. The image is clean and the visual quality satisfactory.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: JEROD POORE ON HIS FATHER THE ROLLER SKATER:

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! 3D

Peter Lord: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (GB/US 2012).

The Pirates! Band of Misfits [U.S. title and the on screen title in Finland] / Pirates! [title in Finland] / Piraterna!.

    GB/US 2012. PC: Aardman Animations / Sony Pictures Animation. P: Julie Lockhart, Peter Lord, Carla Shelley, David Sproxton. 

    D: Peter Lord. Co-D: Jeff Newitt. SC: Gideon Defoe - based on his book The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists (2004). DP: Frank Passingham. PD: Norman Garwood. AD: Matt Perry. M: Theodore Shapiro. S: Adrian Rhodes. 

    C: Hugh Grant / Aku Laitinen (The Pirate Captain / Piraattikapteeni), Salma Hayek / Amira Khalifa (Cutlass Liz / Ahnas Lissu), Jeremy Piven / Stan Saanila (Black Bellamy / Musta Bellamy), Imelda Staunton / Jaana Saarinen (Queen Victoria / kuningatar Viktoria), David Tennant / Antti L.J. Pääkkönen (Charles Darwin), Martin Freeman / Riku Nieminen (The Pirate with a Scarf / Huivipiraatti), Lenny Henry (Peg-Leg Hastings), Brendan Gleeson / Juha Muje (The Pirate with Gout / Kihtipiraatti), Ashley Jensen / Susa Saukko (The Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate / Yllättävän kurvikas piraatti), Brian Blessed / Markus Bäckman (The Pirate King / Piraattikunkku), Russell Tovey / Samuel Harjanne (The Albino Pirate / Albiinopiraatti).

    88 min

    Released in Finland by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Finland. 

    2K DCP, 3D in XpanD, Finnish voice version viewed at Kinopalatsi 10, Helsinki, 12 May 2012.

The Finnish voice studio: Dubberman Finland Oy. Translation: Jari Siltakoski. D: Petri Hanttu. Prod. coord.: Jaana Ylikoski. S: Aku Hytönen.

Aardman Animation's first stop-motion clay animated feature in 3D, also extensively using computer graphics.

A parodic pirate animation about the vain Pirate Captain who wants to win the Pirate of the Year Award. Charles Darwin recognizes the captain's supposed parrot Polly to be actually the last living dodo. The captain sells Polly to Queen Victoria in exchange of a huge treasure. In the award event he is disqualified when it is revealed that he has also been pardoned by the Queen. The captain is reduced to knitting baby clothes on the streets of London until he realizes that his mission is to save Polly from Queen Victoria's exclusive flagship dinner with endangered species on the menu.

The movie is full of funny plot turns, witty ideas and visual gags, but there is even a sense of "more is more", that an already funny sequence has been filled with even more loud noise and funny aspects. I preferred the relaxed aspects of the movie such as the motif of the animated map with visual jokes.

The combination of traditional hand-made stop-motion puppet animation and CG effects such as the sea is successful. There was no problem with the 3D, and the image was bright enough.

The Lorax (2012) 3D

Chris Renaud: The Lorax (US 2012).

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (the complete title) / Lorax / Lorax.

    US © 2012 Universal Studios. PC: Illumination Entertainment. EX: Audrey Geisel. P: Chris Meledandri, Janet Healy. 

    D: Chris Renaud. Co-D: Kyle Balda. SC: Ken Daurio, Cinco Paul - based on The Lorax (1971) by Dr. Seuss. AN: Illumination Mac Guff (France). M: John Powell. ED: Claire Dodgson, Steven Liu, Ken Schretzmann. 

    Voice C: Zac Efron / Samuel Harjanne (Ted Wiggins), Taylor Swift / Pamela Tola (Audrey), Danny DeVito / Mikko Kivinen (The Lorax), Ed Helms / youth: Antti L. J. Pääkkönen, old man: Seppo Pääkkönen (the Once-ler / Kerskanen), Rob Riggle / Jarmo Mäkinen (Aloysius O'Hare / [in Finland:] O'Hari, the mayor of Thneed-Ville), Betty White / Anja Pohjola-Sirén (Grammy Norma, Ted's grandmother), Jenny Slate / Krista Kosonen (Mrs. Wiggins, Ted's mother). 

    86 min

    Released in Finland by Finnkino. 

    2K DCP, 3D in XpanD, Finnish spoken version viewed at Tennispalatsi 9, Helsinki, 12 May, 2012.

The first Universal Pictures film to include the 2012 centenary logo with a new version of the 1997 Jerry Goldsmith Universal theme reorchestrated by Brian Tyler.

An animation about the ecocatastrophe. All trees have been felled, and since there is no photosynthesis, bottled oxygen has become a vital necessity in the plastic town of Thneed-Ville. Beyond its walls there is only wasteland until the last Truffula seed is discovered.

A witty story with satirical points about man and environment, a synthetic way of life, the surveillance society, and greed in the little world of the family and the big world of the society.

Visually there are impressive new things in the thrilling rapid-shooting sequence and in effects involving glasses, bottles and mirrors. The visions of pollution and the plastic town are memorable. But the counter-image of the original paradise of nature does not look less synthetic in this movie.

I liked Despicable Me, but in this movie there is a feeling of trying too hard. I was looking forward to a sense of rhythm of alternating loud and quiet moments, but instead there was a relentless impatient feeling, a "more is more" concept.

No problem with the 3D, and the image was bright enough.

Les Émotifs anonymes / Romantics Anonymous

Jean-Pierre Améris: Les Émotifs anonymes / Romantics Anonymous (FR/BE 2010) avec Isabelle Carré (Angélique) et Benoît Poelvoorde (Jean-René).

Anonyymit romantikot / Franska nerver.
    FR/BE © 2010 Pan-Européenne - StudioCanal - France 3 Cinéma - Climax Films - Rhône-Alpes Cinéma - RTBF (Belgian TV). P: Nathalie Gastaldo and Philippe Godeau. 

    D: Jean-Pierre Améris. SC: Jean-Pierre Améris and Philippe Blasband. 

    DP: Gérard Simon A.F.C. Technical specs from the IMDb: Laboratory: Laboratoires LTC, St. Cloud, France. - Film negative format: 35 mm. - Printed film format: 35 mm, D-Cinema. - Aspect ratio: 2.35:1.

    Set Design: Sylvie Olivé A.D.C. Cost: Nathalie du Roscoat. Make-Up: Corine Maillard. Hair Styling: Jimmy Springard. 

    Original M: Pierre Adenot. Musical extracts include “I Have Confidence” (Rodgers/Richard/adapt. Lemarchand) sung by Isabelle Carré. “Les Yeux Noirs” (Yevgen Grebenka - Domaine Public, arr. Pierre Adenot, adapt. Elisabeth Anais) sung by Benoît Poelvoorde. 

    S: Jean-Pierre Duret, Marc Bastien, François Groult A.F.S.I. ED: Philippe Bourgueil. Casting: Tatiana Vialle. 

    C: Benoît Poelvoorde (Jean-René), Isabelle Carré (Angélique), Lorella Cravotta (Magda), Lise Lamétrie (Suzanne), Swann Arlaud (Antoine), Pierre Niney (Ludo), Stephan Wojtowicz (Psychologist), Jacques Boudet (Rémi), Céline Duhamel (Mimi), Grégoire Ludig (Julien), Philippe Fretun (Maxime), Alice Pol (Adèle), Philippe Gaulé (Philippe), Joëlle Sechaud (Joëlle), Isabelle Gruault (Isabelle), Claude Aufaure (Mr. Mercier), Philippe Laudenbach (Head of the Jury). 

    Loc: mostly Lyon (Rhône, Rhône-Alpes), Restaurant-piano-bar Le Cintra - 43 Rue de la Bourse, Lyon 2, Lyon (restaurant sequence), Château de Montgeroult - 9 Rue du Frochot, Montgenoult, Val-d'Oise (wedding sequence), Galerie Vivienne (Paris 2, Paris). 

    80 min

    Released by Cinema Mondo with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Outi Kainulainen / Markus Karjalainen. 

    2K DCP viewed at Kinopalatsi 5, Helsinki, 11 May 2012 (day of Finnish premiere).

The synopsis (from the pressbook): Jean-René is the boss of a chocolate factory and Angélique is a talented chocolate maker. They are both emotionally challenged people. Drawn together through a shared passion for chocolate, Jean-René and Angélique fall in love, but neither is able to express how they feel. Sadly, their crippling shyness is driving them apart. But eventually, they manage to overcome their lack of self-confidence, and risk baring their true feelings.

The English, Finnish (and the Swedish) titles of this movie are misleading. This is a movie about emotional people, people who are emotionally so highly charged and sensitive that they find normal life a constant obstacle race. Their emotions are so strong that they are almost paralyzing. Despite the pressbook's formulation they are not actually shy people, on the contrary, they may be very brave and determined in never giving up the fight.

The psychological basis of the movie is interesting and authentic, based on the real experiences of the director Jean-Pierre Améris and the female star Isabelle Carré. For them the cinema and the theatre are means to master their own emotional sensitivity.

The plot is about Jean-René (Benoît Poelvoorde),the owner of a small chocolate factory on the verge of bankruptcy because their product is too conventional. Angélique (Isabelle Carré), perhaps the greatest master confectioner of the country, has just lost her seven year contract because the exclusive dealer of her chocolates has died. Because of her emotivity Angélique has worked anonymously and the dealer was the only one who knew her identity.

Jean-René visits a psychologist to conquer his emotivity, and Angélique is a member of an Émotifs anonymes therapy group. Singing is also a means for both to master their excessive emotional sensitivity.

Jean-Pierre Améris has made a romantic comedy of a serious psychological handicap, using means of the fairy-tale, the hyperbole, exaggeration, and caricature. This is a difficult approach, but the result is successful. There is a certain affinity with Billy Wilder's film adaptation of Charles R. Jackson's novel The Lost Weekend. A bitter handicap is handled via comedy, yet without trivializing the subject-matter, and without losing sympathy for the humanity of the victims of the condition.

I am fascinated with cinema's obsession with the cancelled wedding, and Les Émotifs anonymes brings a new variation to it. The conclusion is about the wedding of Jean-René and Angélique, both of whom desert it. First Jean-René goes hiding, then he finds Angélique in a closet, and in the final image they both run away from us along the country road.

The movie has been shot on photochemical 35 mm film, and the digital post-production has been conducted well. I detected in the end credits company names such as Duboi, LTC, Scanlab and Ciné Stereo. I was going to visit the first screening but it was cancelled because of a technical error in the digital projection (the first such occasion I have experienced), and I visited the second screening instead. The cinema staff handled the situation with exemplary courtesy.

Kuin uni ja varjo / As Dream and Shadow...

Dröm och skugga. FI 1937. PC: Oy Suomen Filmiteollisuus. EX: T.J. Särkkä. D: Toivo Särkkä, Yrjö Norta. SC: Toivo Särkkä – based on the novel by Eino Railo (1935). DP: Theodor Luts. AD: Karl Fager. Makeup: Olavi Suominen. M: Martti Similä. Hymn 324 ("Mä matkamies olen waiwainen / Täynn' ompi waaroja retken"), "Olut on kaljan kaltaasta, mutta viina se menöö päähän", "Eri linja on tährillä, eri auringolla ja kuulla", "Tuuli se taivutti koivun larvan". S+ED: Yrjö Norta. Loc: Lapua. C: Ansa Ikonen (Eliina Ylitalo), Eino Kaipainen (Akseli Huhta), Jorma Nortimo (Yrjö M., student), Laila Rihte (Kerttu, maid at Talvitie), Ester Toivonen (Johanna Ylitalo), Siiri Angerkoski (mother Huhta), Aku Korhonen (father Huhta), Uuno Laakso (old man Luoma), Joel Rinne (Juho, master of Talvitie), Yrjö Tuominen (master of Ylitalo), Jalmari Rinne (provost). Helsinki premiere: 26.9.1937 Rex – certificate A-809 – K16. A KAVA print deposited by YLE, duration 110 min, viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Pohjanmaa), 9 May 2012.

An important early film in the development of the SF company and Toivo Särkkä, the second Pohjanmaa movie of the company.

There are two Ylitalo sisters. Eliina (Ansa Ikonen) is crippled and tuberculotic but full of life, and she enjoys a summer romance with a young surveyor from the city (Jorma Nortimo) in what may be her last summer. Johanna (Ester Toivonen) is serious and deeply religious and capable to become the mistress of a big farm.

There are two young rivals. Akseli (Eino Kaipainen) is the son of a little farm, but he is strong, fearless and hard-working, and Johanna and Akseli love each other. Juho (Joel Rinne) is the master of a big farm, and he tries to conquer Johanna via her father, but when Akseli seems to be winning, Juho gets violent and starts a drunken rampage.

The two main types of social events are the seurat (religious evenings) and the iltamat (dancing parties), both depicted with respect. The novel, based on the writer Eino Railo's youthful experiences, was set in the year 1904, but the film adaptation was transferred into the present, yet there are no radios, cars or references to contemporary politics.

The title of the movie is taken from the Finnish hymn then numbered 324, still in our hymn book as hymn number 622, dating back to 1656, and best known in its version from Lapua, where the action of the novel takes place and where the exteriors of the movie were shot.

The lyrics might be inspired by the Ecclesiastes: "Life here is like a dream and shadow, restless like surging rapids, vanishing into sand like water".

There are interesting things in the movie. The rivalry of Juho and Akseli is physically convincing. The relationship of the sisters Eliina and Johanna is unconventional. There is a touch of Buñuel in the tender way in which Eliina with her crutches is depicted, and also in the fate of Juho who gets blind in the climactic fire. The etiquette of the aitta (the daughter's private room in a storehouse separate from the main building but visible from it) is discussed: at night the suitor may knock at the daughter's door and may be permitted to enter. There are dimensions of realism in the crowd scenes (the Pohjanmaa people are keen in appearing in Pohjanmaa movies). It is nice to see an early appearance of Aku Korhonen and Siiri Angerkoski, essential members of the Särkkä / SF stock compay, as the parents of Akseli.

Unfortunately the movie is clumsily directed.

The print was clean. The visual quality was at times good, but there was no consistency in the definition of light, and at least partly the print was duped from used viewing prints.

Books on my nightstand 6 May 2012

Erkki Vettenniemi: Punaisen terrorin todistajat (2004).

Erkki Vettenniemi: Punaisen terrorin todistajat. Neuvostoliitto suomalaisten leirivankien muistelmissa [Witnesses of Red Terror. The Soviet Union in the Memoirs of Finnish Camp Prisoners]. Helsinki: SKS, 2004. Erkki Vettenniemi wrote his dissertation, Surviving the Soviet Meat Grinder (2001), in English and based on it wrote this Finnish edition of Finnish testimonies about Soviet prison experiences from 1918 till 1990. This work is an excellent account of a remarkable Finnish literary genre: first-hand testimonies of Soviet terror, a genre which has flourished since 1918 and among which were bestsellers such as The Gardens of Beriya (1957) and the memoirs of Aino Kuusinen (ex-wife of O. W. Kuusinen) (1972) and Taisto Huuskonen (1979). There were 38 such memoirs, plus a lot of other books with Soviet terror as one of the topics, plus fictional works, plus memoirs published in newspapers and magazines. This corpus is a weighty Finnish counterpart to Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, and the topics range from Solovetskaya (which Solzhenitsyn called the alma mater of the gulag) to Kolyma (the worst of them all). These memoirs would provide strong material for movies. Ceterum censeo: a Finnish Memorial should be established. See list of the books discussed below.

Erkki Vettenniemi (ed.): Suomalaisia vankileirien saaristossa [Finns in the Gulag Archipelago]. Helsinki: Art House, 2002. An anthology of Finnish gulag memoirs, a companion to Erkki Vettenniemi's dissertation (2001) and its Finnish edition (2004) commented above. The writers included: Cederholm, Kuortti, Helenius, Himiläinen, Flinkman, Nuorteva, Kuusinen, Togi, Piili, Kilkkinen, Punkka, Björkelund, Parvilahti, Multakari, Petrovskaja, Makara, and Huuskonen (see also list below for the full titles of the sources).

Anton Chekhov / Anton Tshehov: Valitut novellit I [Selected Short Stories I] [1880-1887]. Selected by V. Kiparsky, translated by Juhani Konkka. Porvoo - Helsinki: WSOY, 1959. Re-reading Chekhov, the king of the short story, starting from the beginning, his early days of humoristic short stories initially signed "Antosha Chekhonte". His first five years as a writer are sunny, light and humoristic, and then a gravity appears around 1885, often in short stories involving children such as "Oysters": the serious themes include disappointment, loss of illusions, and injustice. In "Dreams" there is both a pre-Chaplinesque tramp and a Siberian prison camp theme. The early short stories are often satirical, targets including bureaucracy, hypocrisy, corruption and the reverence of formal titles, positions and medals. Several stories belong to the sweet erotic tradition of A Thousand and One Nights, Decamerone and Les Contes drolatiques. Even in these short stories there is a rich sense of society and a full scope of life from childhood (Chekhov has a good psychological insight in a child's perspective) to old age. I seem to notice that Chekhov's early portraits of women are sometimes thin, clichéd and one-sided. The portrait of Susanna in "Slime" borders on the anti-semitic. There is a bias towards resignation and melancholy. Anyway already the early stories show the talent of the master in their wit, sharp detail, psychological insight and satiric touch. Incredibly, Anton Chekhov, who died at the age of 44, created over 600 works, his longer tales among the greatest ever written, and his plays still at the repertory everywhere. (A list of the stories in this volume is below.)

5. Папаша / Isäkulta, 1880 / [Dearest Daddy]
225. Ночь перед судом. (Рассказ подсудимого) / Yö ennen oikeudenkäyntiä, 1886 [The Night Before the Trial]

401. Гриша / Grisha, 1886
125. Злой мальчик / Ilkeä poika, 1883 [The Naughty Boy]
129. Приданое / Kapiot, 1883 [The Dowry]
144. Толстый и тонкий / Paksukainen ja Ohukainen, 1883 [The Fat and the Thin]
131. Дочь Альбиона / Albionin tytär 1883 [Albion's Daughter]
122. Смерть чиновника / Virkamiehen kuolema, 1883 [The Death of a Civil Servant]
135. Справка / Kysely, 1883 [An Enquiry]
409. Счастливчик / Onnenpoika, 1886 [A Lucky Man]
202. Хирургия / Hammaskirurgi, 1884 [A Dental Surgeon]
206. Хамелеон / Kameleontti, 1884 [A Chameleon]
222. Свадьба с генералом. (Рассказ) / Häät kenraalin kera, 1884 [A Wedding Banquet with a General]
229. Устрицы / Osterit, 1884 [Oysters]
327. Кухарка женится / Keittäjätär menee naimisiin, 1885 [A Cook Gets Married] 515. Злоумышленники. (Рассказ очевидцев) / Pahantekijä, 1885 [A Malefactor]
316. Гость. (Сценка) / Ikävä vieras, 1885 [A Guest]
351. Старость / Vanhuus, 1885 [Old Age]
306. Лошадиная фамилия / Hevosenkaltainen sukunimi, 1885 [A Horse-Like Family Name]
303. Налим / Made, 1885 [A Burbot]
348. Пересолил / Liikaa suolaa, 1885 [Overdone]
295. Дачники / Huvila-asukkaita, 1885 [Dacha Vacationers]
341. Сонная одурь / Unen horteessa, 1885 [In a Sleepy Stupor]
322. Отец семейства / Perheen isä, 1885 [Paterfamilias] 370. Неудача / Ei onnistunut!, 1886 [A Failure]
431. Несчастье / Onnettomuus, 1886 [A Misfortune] 
443. Житейская мелочь / Elämän pikkuseikka, 1886 [A Worldly Detail]
423. Хористка / Kuorotyttö, 1886 [A Chorus Girl] 
471. Ванька / Kirje isoisälle, 1886 [Vanka]
466. Произведение искусства / Taiteen tuote, 1886 [A Work of Art]
419. Страхи / Pelottavia tilanteita, 1886 [Fears]
413. В пансионе / Tyttöopistossa, 1886 [In a Girls' Boarding School]
392. Агафья / Agafja, 1886 [Agafya]
368. Ночь на кладбище. (Святочный рассказ) / Yö hautausmaalla, 1886 [A Night at the Graveyard]
421. Лишние люди / Tarpeettomia ihmisiä, 1886 [Superfluous People]
402. Любовь / Rakkaus, 1886 [Love]
438. В потемках / Pimeässä, 1886 [In the Dark]
417. Роман с контрабасом / Romaani bassoviulusta, 1886 [Romance with a Double Bass]
461. Событие / Surkea tapaus, 1886 [An Incident]
457. Мечты / Haaveita, 1886 [Dreams]
374. Детвора / Lapsia, 1886 [Kids]
388. Ведьма / Noita, 1886 [A Witch]
453. Тина / Susanna, 1886 [Slime]
381. Актерская гибель / Näyttelijän lähtö, 1886 [An Actor's Departure]
407. Знакомый мужчина / Tuttu mies, 1886 [A Familiar Man]
352. Горе / Suru, 1885 [Sorrow]
525. Беглец / Karkuri, 1887 [A Fugitive]
534. Мальчики / Poikia, 1887 [Boys]
476. Нищий / Kerjäläinen, 1887 [A Beggar]
522. Мститель / Kostaja, 1887 [The Avenger]
509. Неприятная история / Ikävä tapaus, 1887 [An Unfortunate Incident]
530. Дорогие уроки / Kalliita kielitunteja, 1887 [Expensive Language Lessons]
478. Добрый немец / Kunnon saksalainen, 1887 [A Good German]
520. Сирена / Seireeni, 1887 [The Siren]
531. Лев и Солнце / Leijona ja Aurinko, 1887 [The Lion and the Sun]
477. Враги / Viholliset, 1887 [Enemies]

The Finnish prison testimonies discussed by Erkki Vettenniemi:
1923  Heikki Välisalmi: 40 kuukautta Neuvosto-Venäjällä [40 Months in Soviet Russia]. Turku: Sosialistin Kirjapaino Oy.
1928  O.V. Itkonen: Maanpakolaisen muistelmia [Memoirs of an Exile]. Porvoo: WSOY.
1929  Boris Cederholm: Punainen painajainen [Red Nightmare]. Kuvia ja kokemuksia Neuvostoliitosta. Porvoo: WSOY.
1929  Kaarlo J. Hartikainen: Punaisten petojen luolissa [In the Caves of Red Beasts]. Suomalaisen työmiehen ja hänen vaimonsa omakohtaisia kokemuksia Neuvosto-Venäjältä ja sen vankiloista. Lappeenranta. - Second edition: Punaisten petojen luolissa. Jalan halki Venäjän. Kuvauksia Neuvostovenäjältä ja sen vankiloista. Pori: Otto Andersinin Kustannusliike.
1934 Aatami Kuortti: Pappina, pakkotyössä, pakolaisena. Inkeriläisen papin kokemuksia Neuvosto-Venäjällä [As a Priest, in Hard Labour, and in Exile. Experiences of an Ingrian Priest in Soviet Russia]. Porvoo - Helsinki: WSOY.
1935  Vilho Rantanen: Ristin ja Siperian tie [The Way of the Cross and of Siberia]. Kappale kahden Siperiaan karkoitetun ja Siperiasta paenneen inkeriläisen kohtalon tiestä. Jyväskylä - Helsinki: Gummerus.
1937  Juho Harri (= Kaarlo Hartikainen): Kirottujen tarina [The Story of the Damned]. Kertomus todellisesta elämästä. Porvoo - Helsinki: WSOY.
1944 Irja Niemi (= Kerttu Nuorteva): Neuvostokasvatti. Neuvostoelämän ääripiirteitä minä-muotoon kuvattuna [Raised in the Soviet Union. Extreme Characteristics of Soviet Life as a First Person Narrative]. Helsinki: Oy Suomen Kirja.
1957  Tauno Flinkman: Neljästi karkuteillä. Muistelmia 22 vuoden vankeusajalta Neuvostoliitossa [Four Times on the Run. Memories of 22 Years in Prison in the Soviet Union]. Helsinki: Tammi.
1957  Unto Parvilahti: Berijan tarhat [The Gardens of Beriya]. Havaintoja ja muistikuvia Neuvostoliitosta vuosilta 1945-1954. Helsinki: Otava.
1957  Martta Piili: Pakkotyövankina Siperiassa [As a Prisoner in Hard Labour in Siberia]. Jyväskylä: Kustannusliike Pohjola & Kumpp.
1964  Aatami Kuortti: Kirkossa, keskitysleirissä, korvessa [At the Church, at a Concentration Camp, in Deep Forest]. Porvoo - Helsinki: WSOY.
1964  Aino Salminen: Kuljin Stalinin Siperiaa [I Walked in Stalin's Siberia]. Pieksämäki: Akateeminen Kustannusliike.
1965  Aino Salminen: Paluu Stalinin Siperiasta [Return from Stalin's Siberia]. Pieksämäki: Akateeminen Kustannusliike.
1966  Boris Björkelund: Stalinille menetetyt vuoteni [My Years Lost to Stalin]. Elämäni vaiheet 1945-1955. Helsinki: WSOY.
1972  Aino Kuusinen: Jumala syöksee enkelinsä (Der Gott stürzt seine Engel) [God Plunges His Angels]. Helsinki: Otava.
1974  Boris Berin-Bey: Venäjän punainen lihamylly [Russia's Red Meat Grinder]. Turku: Veronica.
1979  Taisto Huuskonen: Laps Suomen [A Child of Finland]. Helsinki: WSOY.
198X  Fanni Helenius: Pitkä etappi [A Long Passage]. Kurikka.
1981  Oskar Himiläinen: Vieras isänmaa [A Strange Fatherland]. Inkeriläisen kohtalontie. Jyväskylä: Gummerus.
1983  Antti Makara: Rajat eivät pidätä [Boundaries Don't Restrain]. Tampere: Kustannuspiste.
1984  Taisto Huuskonen: Ennin tarina [The Story of Enni]. Helsinki: WSOY.
1989  Lyyli Ronkonen: Laps' Inkerin. Muistojen Inkeri Stalinin hirmuvallan alla [A Child of Ingria. Memories of Ingria under Stalin's Tyranny]. Ed. Markku Laitinen. Jyväskylä: Gummerus.
1989  Urho Ruhanen: Syytettynä suomalainen [A Finn Accused]. Lilja ja Urho Ruhasen elämäntien kirja. Ed. Juha Virkkunen. Oulu: Pohjoinen.
1990  Olavi Eskola: Siperian kierros [A Round of Siperia]. Inkeriläisen Juho Punkan elämäkerta. Vantaa: RV-kirjat.
1990  Eeva Mesiäinen: Maria Kajavan pitkä taival [The Long Journey of Maria Kajava]. Helsinki: Karas-Sana.
1990  Nikolai Multakari: Stalinin tarhoissa [In the Gardens of Stalin]. Turku.
1990  Lyyli Ronkonen: Inkeri - isänmaa kallis [Ingria - Beloved Fatherland]. Jyväskylä: Gummerus.
1993  Anna Petrovskaja: Kohtalokas kielto. Suomalaisnaisen järkyttävä elämäntie [A Fatal Ban. The Shocking Life Story of a Finnish Woman]. Ed. Sinikka Salokorpi. Jyväskylä: Gummerus.
1995  Kalle Lehto: Vastavallankumouksellinen [Counter-Revolutionary]. Helsinki: Tammi
1995  Lyyli Ronkonen: Ilon ja itkun Inkeri [Ingria of Joy and Tears]. Katri Kukkosen elämäntarina. Ed. Raili Kymäläinen. Helsinki: SLEV-kirjat.
1996  Toivo Kinnunen: Barabbaan vangit [Prisoners of Barabbas]. Lahti.
1996  Juha-Matti Martikainen: Kotiinpaluu. Jalo Heikkisen elämä [Homecoming. The Life of Jalo Heikkinen]. Helsinki: Otava.
1997  Hilma Kilkkinen: Pitkä matka Siperiaan [A Long Journey to Siberia]. Ed. Ritva Sievänen-Allen. Helsinki: Otava.
1998  Ulla Riutta: Johannes Togi - tuomittu pykälän 58 mukaan. Huikea selviytymistarina Uralin vankileireiltä [Johannes Togi - Convicted According to Paragraph 58. An Extraordinary Survival Story from the Ural Prison Camps]. Hämeenlinna: Päivä.
2000  Antti Virolainen: Hittolan neito. Kertomus inkeriläisten kuolemanmarssista Siperiaan ja evankeliumin muuttavasta voimasta [A Maid from Hittola. An Account of the Death March of the Ingrians to Siberia and the Transformative Power of the Gospel]. Saarijärvi.
2002  Armas Kumpulainen: Punaupseeri Mikko Kopran päiväkirja [The Diary of the Red Officer Mikko Kopra].  Jyväskylä: Gummerus.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – For the Elderly & Beautiful (on screen title and subtitle) / The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Finnish title) / Hotell Marigold (Swedish title in Sweden)
    GB © 2011 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, PM/IN Fund, LLC and Dune Entertainment III LLC in all territories except Brazil, Italy, Japan, Korea and Spain. © 2011 TCF Hungary Film Rights Exploitation Limited Liability Company, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, PM/IN Fund, LLC and Dune Entertainment III LLC in Brazil, Italy, Japan, Korea and Spain. PC: Blueprint Pictures. P: Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin. D: John Madden, SC: Ol Parker – based on the novel These Foolish Things (2004) by Deborah Moggach. DP: Ben Davis – Fuji film stock – filmed with Panavision cameras and lenses – color and prints by DeLuxe. PD: Alan MacDonald. AD: Peter Francis (superv.), Andrew Rothschild. Set dec: Tina Jones. Makeup and hair: Daniel Phillips. M: Thomas Newman. S: Ian Wilson. ED: Chris Gill. Casting: Michelle Guish, Seher Latif.
    Loc: Jaipur (and Udaipur) (Rajasthan, India).
    C: Judi Dench (Evelyn Greenslade, a widowed housewife), Bill Nighy (Douglas Ainslie, the long-suffering husband), Penelope Wilton (Jean Ainslie, the nagging wife), Maggie Smith (Muriel Donnelly, an ex-housekeeper with a head for figures, a racist having her hip replacement in India), Tom Wilkinson (Graham Dashwood, a high court judge who lived in India for his first 18 years, returning to find his lover), Ronald Pickup (Norman Cousins, an ageing playboy still living in the 1960s), Celia Imrie (Madge Hardcastle, a veteran of marriages, now looking for fun with a man at the distinguished club), Diana Hardcastle (Carol, Norman's discovery at the club), Dev Patel (Sonny Kapoor, the hotelkeeper), Tena Desae (Sunaina, his girlfriend), Lillete Dubey (Mother Kapoor).
    In English and Hindi.
    Released in Finland by FS Film with Finnish / Swedish subtitles.
    2K DCP viewed at Tennispalatsi 10, 5 May 2012.

Technical specs (IMDb): Film negative format: 35 mm (Fuji Eterna Vivid 160T 8543, Eterna Vivid 500T 8547, Eterna 500T 8573). Printed film format: D-Cinema.

Feelgood wish-fulfillment entertainment with a top cast.

The film starts well with satirical vignettes about senior people in England. Evelyn (Judi Dench) struggles to change her internet settings via a telephone help desk in India. Judge Graham Dashwood listens to his colleague's retirement speech and decides that "today's the day" to quit and go back to India. Douglas and Jean Ainslie (Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton) examine a retirement bungalow with hand rails and a panic button and decide to leave the country. The racist Muriel Donnelly (Maggie Smith) realizes that her best option is to go to India for an instant hip replacement. The 60-something Norman Wilton (Ronald Pickup) has an internet date with an attractive 30-something woman, and it turns out that Norman has announced himself to belong to the 25–40 age category. Madge Hardcastle (Celia Imrie) has had enough of unsuccessful marriages and instead of staying with her daughter decides to leave the country.

There are interesting themes with real substance in the movie and presumably in the novel on which it is based. The life arrangements of senior people are getting more and more important in many countries with the longer life expectancy. A widow whose husband dies and leaves nothing but debts. A couple who have risked their savings to their daughter's internet business. A lady with a hip injury facing impossible queues at the hospital.

The official plot about the dilapidated hotel which is nothing like the photoshopped photographs in the advertisements is just a framework for such stories. The story of the Kapoor family who is struggling to keep the hotel (or rather to close it) feels a bit clichéd. I have never been to India and cannot judge how authentic the account of life in Jaipur is, but the message is clear: the Europeans encounter an exciting, totally different way of life, and racist prejudices, including the caste prejudices of Indians themselves, are ridiculous. There are interesting chapters in the story. Evelyn finds the first job in her life as an adviser at the call centre in Udaipur. The racist Muriel makes awkward attempts to be nice to the hotel's cleaning lady who turns out to belong to the casteless. Madge tries to pass herself as Princess Margaret at the exclusive club. Graham, who is gay to the ladies' disappointment, finally meets again the lover of his youth.

The multi-character story is well handled with Evelyn's blog entries keeping strings together, and John Madden has a good sense of timing in comedy and satire. For three fourths of the duration the movie was better than I expected, but during the final quarter a wish-fulfillment mechanism brings all the stories to happy endings and the movie settles down to an easy entertainment mode.

The film has been shot on 35 mm photochemical film, the digital post-production has been executed well, and the movie looks good (conveying the vitality of India) even in a 2K DCP.