National Film Registry of the Library of Congress: the selections of 2012

Maurice Tourneur: The Wishing Ring (US 1914) starring Vivian Martin. Amazing Grace: "I once was lost, but now I'm found".

 

The National Film Registry of the Library of Congress has been reinforced with 25 fresh selections from the entire history of the American cinema (excepting the last decade). It is perhaps the most inspired of such endeavours anywhere and a model for everybody.

From the official news bulletin: "The excitement of national football; the first black star of an American feature-length film; the visionary battle between man and machine; and an award-winning actress born yesterday are part of a kaleidoscope of cinematic moments captured on film and tapped for preservation. The Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today named 25 motion pictures that have been selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. These cinematic treasures represent important cultural, artistic and historic achievements in filmmaking."

""Established by Congress in 1989, the National Film Registry spotlights the importance of preserving America’s unparalleled film heritage," said Billington. "These films are not selected as the ‘best’ American films of all time, but rather as works of enduring importance to American culture. They reflect who we are as a people and as a nation.""

"Spanning the period 1897-1999, the films named to the registry include Hollywood classics, documentaries, early films, and independent and experimental motion pictures. This year’s selections bring the number of films in the registry to 600."

There are acknowledged masterpieces and hit films such as 3:10 to Yuma (1957), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Born Yesterday (1950), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Dirty Harry (1971), The Matrix (1999), Sons of the Desert (1933), Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), and The Wishing Ring (1914).

There are other highly regarded films that have stood the test of time like A Christmas Story (1983), A League of Their Own (1992), and Slacker (1991), and landmarks of the African American experience: The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973), and Uncle Tom's Cabin (1914).

The wide variety of American non-fiction and experimental cinema (and film experiments!), as well as films made outside the normal distribution channels, are represented by The Augustas (1930s-1950s), The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Title Fight (1897), Hours for Jerome: Parts 1 and 2 (1980-82), The Kidnappers Foil (1930s-1950s), Kodachrome Color Motion Picture Tests (1922), The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair (1939), One Survivor Remembers (1995), Parable (1964), Samsara: Death and Rebirth in Cambodia (1990), and They Call It Pro Football (1967). I had not even heard of all of the films in this group before, but having read the newsletter, I would love to see all.

The well-written newsletter is beyond the jump break in its entirety.

2012 NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY
3:10 to Yuma (1957)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
The Augustas (1930s-1950s)
Born Yesterday (1950)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
A Christmas Story (1983)
The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Title Fight (1897)
Dirty Harry (1971)
Hours for Jerome: Parts 1 and 2 (1980-82)
The Kidnappers Foil (1930s-1950s)
Kodachrome Color Motion Picture Tests (1922)
A League of Their Own (1992)
The Matrix (1999)
The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair (1939)
One Survivor Remembers (1995)
Parable (1964)
Samsara: Death and Rebirth in Cambodia (1990)
Slacker (1991)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)
They Call It Pro Football (1967)
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1914)
The Wishing Ring; An Idyll of Old England (1914)

Den skaldede frisør / Love Is All You Need

DK © 2012 [seven companies]. PC: Zentropa Entertainments29 Aps. In co-production with: Lumiere & Co., Slotmachine, Zentropa International France, Film I Väst, Zentropa Entertainments Berlin, Zentropa International Sweden, DR, Sveriges Television, Arte France Cinéma, Network Movie, ZDF, Arte and Longride with support from The Danish Film Institute, 60/40, The Swedish Film Institute, Eurimages, Nordic Film & TV Fund, Canal+, Cine+. P: Sisse Graum Jørgensen, Vibeke Windeløv. D: Susanne Bier. SC: Anders Thomas Jensen - story: Susanne Bier, Anders Thomas Jensen. DP: Morten Søborg - filmed on ARRI Alexa - Codex - 2,35:1. Digital colorist: Peter Hjorth. PD: Peter Grant. Cost: Signe Sejlund. Make-up: Daniel Parker. VFX supervisor: Lars Werner Nielsen Lalo. M: Johan Söderqvist. Theme song: "That's Amore" by Dean Martin and others. S: Eddie Simonsen, Anne Jensen. ED: Pernille Bech Christensen, Morten Egholm. C: Pierce Brosnan (Philip), Trine Dyrholm (Ida), Molly Blixt Egelind (Astrid), Sebastian Jessen (Patrick), Paprika Steen (Benedikte), Kim Bodnia (Leif), Christiane Schaumburg-Müller (Tilde), Micky Skeel Hansen (Kenneth). Loc: Sorrento (Naples, Campania), Sant'Angelo (Salerno, Campania), Herlev (Copenhagen). Original in Danish and English. 112 min. Released by Atlantic Film with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Maria Wiren-Malo. 2K DCP viewed at Kinopalatsi 9, Helsinki, 15 Dec 2012.

The official presentation: "Love Is All You Need is a warm, funny, life-affirming meditation on the birth pangs of starting a new life. Set at a wedding in the fantastically beautiful surroundings of Sorrento, Italy, Love Is All You Need stars Golden Globe nominee Pierce Brosnan as Philip, father of the groom, and Trine Dyrholm as Ida, mother of the bride. As the union of their respective children bumpily approaches, the clashes, collisions and pratfalls among the wedding guests force Philip and Ida to reconsider the true significance of family, love and happiness."

"The Academy Award and Golden Globe winning team of director Susanne Bier and writer Anders Thomas Jensen has delivered yet another triumph with a masterly blend of humour, sensitivity and sincerity. Love Is All You Need is the fifth entry in their unfailingly successful collaboration, following ‘Open Hearts’ (Elsker dig forevigt - 2002), ‘Brothers’ (Brødre -2004), Academy Award nominee ‘After the Wedding’ (Efter brylluppet - 2007) and the Academy Award and Golden Globe® winning ‘In A Better World’ (2010). Love Is All You Need marks Bier and Jensen’s return to their respective roots in the comedic tradition, but with the tempered and profound approach that has become the trademark of these two masters of the emotional drama."

A feelgood entertainment movie in the tradition of Avanti!, Under the Tuscan Sun, Mamma Mia! and so on, with explicit tributes to the models and predecessors. Robert Altman's A Wedding may also belong to the models.

The new twist in this life-affirming entertainment film is the fact that the female protagonist Ida (Trine Dyrholm) is battling against a malignant cancer. In the beginning she is bald (the Danish title means: The Bald Hairdresser) and she has lost one of her breasts.  But life goes on and in Italy there is the wedding of her daughter. The father of the groom is Philip (Pierce Brosnan) who is also rethinking his life.

Love Is All You Need is yet another example of the cinema's obsession with the cancelled wedding. The wedding is cancelled at the last moment because it turns out that the groom is gay. (Like in A Wedding.)

It does not bother me that much of the material is recycled. But I'm not totally confident that the film-makers themselves find the story irresistible.

The Sorrento landscapes would offer rich possibilities for enchanting cinematography. There is, however, a low definition video approach in the visual quality. Surprisingly, even in close-ups the definition is low. The nature looks unnatural, the eyes are too electric blue, and the sweetening button has been used too much in the digital colour manipulation.

Step Up Revolution 3D

Scott Speer: Step Up Revolution (US 2012) with Ryan Guzman (as Sean Asa) and Kathryn McCormick (as Emily Anderson),

Step Up 4: Miami Heat / Step Up: Revolution [FI] / Step Up Revolution [SE]. 

    US © 2012 Summit Entertainment, LLC. P: Erik Feig, Jennifer  Gibgot, Garrett Grant, Adam Shankman, Patrick Wachsberger. 

    D: Scott Speer. SC: Amanda Brody - based on the characters by Duane Adler. DP: Karsten Gopinath (as Crash). Technocrane operator: Joe Cuzan. DI: Technicolor. PD: Carlos Menéndez. AD: Charles Daboub, Jr., Caleb B. Mikler. Set dec: Helen Britten. Cost: Rebecca Hofherr. Makeup: Whitney James. Hair: Patricia McAlhany Glasser. SFX: Bruce E. Merlin. Montage sequence & graphic design: Café Noir. VFX: Piastro VFX. Additional VFX: Wildfire VFX. Main title sequence: The Ant Farm. M: Aaron Zigman. CH: Jamal Sims, Christopher Scott, Chuck Maldonado, Travis Wall. S: Michael J. Benavente. - Sound editorial: Soundelux. - ED: Matt Friedman, Avi Youabian. Casting: Joanna Colbert, Richard Mento. 

    Loc: Miami Beach. Filmed in Florida. 

    98 min

    Released by Nordisk Film with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Jaana Wiik / Nina Ekholm. 

    2K DCP in 3D viewed with XpanD at Kinopalatsi 10, Helsinki, 15 Dec 2012.

Cast from Wikipedia:
Ryan Guzman as Sean Asa, Emily's love interest and the leader of the MOB.
Kathryn McCormick as Emily Anderson, a gifted dancer
Misha Gabriel as Eddy, Shaun's best friend who co-leads the MOB with Sean. He and Sean work as waiters at Dimont Hotel during the day, but he gets fired for being late to work one day.
Peter Gallagher as William "Bill" Anderson, a real-estate tycoon and Emily's father, as well as Sean and Eddie's boss.
Stephen "tWitch" Boss as Jason, a member of the MOB and The Pirates as he was in the 3rd movie and had returned to Miami after being in New York.
Chadd "Madd Chadd" Smith as Vladd
Tommy Dewey as Trip, Bill's protege
Cleopatra Coleman as DJ Penelope
Megan Boone as Claire, Sean's sister who is a single mother with a young daughter
Sean Rahill as Iris
Seyfo in the MOB
Adam Sevani as Robert "Moose" Alexander III. He makes a cameo in the film, Moose gets a call from Jason to come to Miami and help him and The MOB which he does and brings some of The Pirates.
Mari Koda as Kido. She makes a cameo, her character appears with the rest of The Pirates along with Moose.
Brendan Morris as Neighborhood Kid/Dancer (also part of the MOB)
Phillip "Pacman" Chbeeb in The Mob
Justin "Jet Li" Valles in The Mob
Glenn Mataro in The Mob
Celestina Aladekoba in The Mob
Angeline Fioridella Appel in The Mob
Mia Michaels as Olivia
Bebo in the MOB
Darlene Vee De Ocampo as Vee, Member of AUSS

Technical specs from the IMDb: Camera: Red Epic, Zeiss Ultra Prime and Angenieux Optimo DP Lenses - Laboratory: DeLuxe, Hollywood (CA), USA, Technicolor, Hollywood (CA), USA (digital intermediate) - Film negative format: Redcode RAW - Cinematographic process: Digital Intermediate (2K) (master format), Redcode RAW (5K) (dual-strip 3-D) (source format) - Printed film format: 35 mm (anamorphic) (Fuji Eterna-CP 3514DI), D-Cinema (also 3-D version) - Aspect ratio: 2.35 : 1.

Synopsis from Wikipedia: "The Mob sets the dancing against the vibrant backdrop of Miami. Emily arrives in Miami with aspirations of becoming a professional dancer and soon falls in love with Sean, a young man who leads a dance crew in elaborate, cutting-edge flash mobs, called "The Mob". When Emily's wealthy father threatens to develop The Mob's historic neighborhood and displace thousands-of people, Emily must work together with Sean and The Mob to turn their performance art into protest art, and risk losing their dreams to fight for a greater cause."

AA: In the history of the musical, Step Up Revolution belongs to the Gene Kelly - West Side Story tradition.

The plots of musicals are usually conventional, frameworks onto which one can hang brilliant production numbers. Step Up Revolution is based on the rich girl, poor guy formula. There is a reconciliation that stops the revolution in the end: the rich dad promises not to demolish the Miami quarters important to the people, and Nike offers a lucrative deal to the innovative dancers.

Step Up Revolution is dynamic, energetic, anti-realistic, electrifying, and full of bold compositions. There are instances of slow motion and jump cutting. Most importantly, the production numbers are vigorous, original, and each one is different, while there is a common flash mob identity: in each happening, a new artwork displaying the mob logo is created. The flash mob numbers are produced always in a new and different situation in the city. They are recorded instantly on mobile phone cameras and sent to the web. The first number is a dance on top of the cars on the coast highway. Other situations include an art gallery opening, a top restaurant, a board meeting, and a demolition site.

There is a division of labour among the Mob: Eddy the hacker, Penelope the DJ, Jason the FX, Mercury the street artist, Iris the video, Sly the stunts, and one for parkour.

Memorable dance production concepts include: painted camouflage dancers, fiber optic ballerinas, pirate dancers, business suits with the shower of dollar bills, gas masked dancers, the extremely dangerous trampoline number, the RoboCop dance, and a beautiful romantic number. Fusion dance may be one of the keywords.

Beneath the conventional plot and the wish-fulfillment ending there are strong ideas: "sometimes it's good to break the rules", "guys like us are invisible in our own city", "enough with performance art, it's time for protest art", "we were born here; give us a voice", "it's not about the contest, it's about giving the voice to those who are not heard".

The visual quality of the 3D was very effective and assured in XpanD. The creators of this film take advantage of the fantastic and anti-realistic features of 3D.

Nightmare - painajainen merellä / [Nightmare at Sea]

Nightmare - en mardröm på havet. FI 2012. PC: FremantleMedia Finland Oy. P+D: Marko Äijö. SC: Tiina Tanskanen - story: Teemu Salonen, Tiina Tanskanen. DP: Antti Takkunen. PD+cost: Kristiina Saha. Make-up: Jenni Aejmelaeus, Karoliina Viinikari. M: Karl Sinkkonen. Theme tune: "Kyynel kuuluu mereen" ["The tear belongs to the sea"] by Vague Musik, singer: Karoliina Kallio. S: Sami Kiiski. ED: Marika Sahlman. C: Sara Säkkinen (Peppi Kuula), Venla Savikuja (Heidi Aaltonen), Tero Tiittanen (Sergei Kuula), Mikko Parikka (Jiri Viitamäki), Markku Pulli (Joonatan Sievinen), Karoliina Blackburn (cruise hostess Tessa Nylund), Sara Lohiniva (Oona Kiviranta), Sampsa Tuomala (Sampo Kaukovaara), Patrik Borodavkin (Miro Holm), Kasimir Baltzar (Max Grigorieff). Loc: MS Princess Maria cruise ferry (St. Peter Line). 74 min. Released by FS Film with Swedish subtitles by Markus Karjalainen. 2K DCP viewed at Tennispalatsi 6, Helsinki, 15 Dec 2012.

Excerpts from the production information: Marko Äijö: "We set off to break immemorial petrifications of movie-making". "Whom can we trust when we cannot trust anyone". "There is only one studio-shot scene in the movie, and it has been divided into two". "It was beyond the means available to stop two happily smiling Japanese tourists who walked in the middle of a perfect set-up as the camera was rolling and the actors were giving their all. Fortunately digital post-production has been invented." "The schedule from the story idea to the premiere was eleven months. During the same period of time we also realized 180 episodes, each of 21 minutes duration, of the Salatut elämät [Secret Lives] series. Thus we can state that the schedule for the feature film of 75 minutes was downright sumptuous."

Excerpts from the remarks of Tero Kartastenpää on his Lily site: "A person can experience many feelings simultaneously, derision and sympathy." "When the leading babe Peppi Kuula panics in a jacuzzi about her missing travelling companion Oona one can't help but laugh at Peppi and simultaneously worry with her." "Salatut elämät could not have been successful in the 1970s. Such social trash pumped on overdrive would have been discarded as unconvincing and depraving. The old generation would not have understood an ambiguous way of seeing." (The excerpts have been copied from Kalle Kinnunen's article "Peppi Kuula merihädässä" in his blog "Kuvien takana", 7 December, 2012).

The Finnish Wikipedia's plot synopsis: "The newlywed 21-year-old Peppi Puolakka embarks on a cruise with her fresh husband and friends. During the sea cruise she meets old friends who bring to mind unhappy things from Peppi's past. Then strange things start to take place and members of the entourage start to disappear. Peppi realizes that the disappearances are a revenge for the drug-related death of Tobias Nylund in which Peppi had a share. The situation gets sticky when even the best friends seem to have a motive to hurt Peppi."

The Finnish Wikipedia's summary of the critical feedback: "The critics have mostly endowed it with one star. It has been characterized as 'insanely bad' and 'unconvincing', and its screenplay has been called 'indifferent'." (All translations are mine.)

Salatut elämät (known as "Salkkarit" among the fans) is the first original Finnish daily tv soap opera drama. Its first episode was transmitted on 25 January, 1999, on the MTV3 channel. On 28 December, 2012, the 2385th episode was transmitted. There have been 15 seasons so far. The production house since 2002 is FremantleMedia Finland Oy. (Information from Finnish Wikipedia).

There was anticipatory laughter in the audience even before the film started. Although the ambiguous way of seeing may be new, this movie also belongs to an old tradition in Finnish cinema, starting with the Pohjanheimo films in the 1910s, continuing with the Kivimäki productions in the 1940s, the Aarne Tarkas conveyor belt in the 1950s and the 1960s, and the Visa Mäkinen productions in 1979-1991. Ponterosa I have yet to see. The production is based on the quickie approach, and the handling is lacking in depth and psychological realism. The spiritual hollowness is pervasive, but there is an energic, dynamic drive in the storytelling.

Memorable features: - The satire of the rampant alcoholism on board. - The wooden, somnambulistic performance style, going through the motions. - The satire of the PowerPoint presentation of the Jardin marketing event. - The scene with the do-it-yourself zombie film viewed on a laptop. - The centrality of drugs: the past drug tragedy gives the motive for the horrible events on the ship. "Without drugs we might not exist". - The love story: "You are the best thing that has ever happened to me". Peppi and Sergei bring out the best from each other, but the other couple, "we bring out the worst in each other". - "You are stark raving mad". "Determined, I would say". - "It is hard to believe that all this has really happened". - "I will always save you". - The plot is like from a teenage splatter movie minus the splatter: nobody dies. "You can't trust the waves" are words in the concluding song. The last image: we see the hand of the killer emerging from the water and grabbing the lifeboat.

Digital video look.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 3D HFR

Peter Jackson: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (US/NZ 2012) starring Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins).

Hobitti: odottamaton matka / Hobbit: en oväntad resa.
    US/NZ © 2012 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. (US, Canada & New Line Foreign Territories). © 2012 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (All Other Territories). PC: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and New Line Cinema present a WingNut Films production. P: Peter Jackson, Carolynne Cunningham, Zane Weiner, Fran Walsh.
    D: Peter Jackson. SC: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro – based on the novel The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (1937) by J. R. R. Tolkien. DP: Andrew Lesnie – filmed in 3D using Red Epic cameras & 3ality stereo rigs – shot in 3D 48 fps – released in HFR (High Frame Rate) 3D, other 2D and 3D formats, and IMAX. PD: Dan Hennah. Conceptual designers: Alan Lee, John Howe. Cost: Ann Maskrey, Richard Taylor, Bob Buck. Makeup and hair designer: Peter Swords King. Armour, weapons, creatures, and special makeup: Weta Workshop / Richard Taylor. VFX: Weta Digital / Joe Letteri. VFX supervisor: Eric Saindon. AN supervisor: David Clayton. M: Howard Shore. "Song Of The Lonely Mountain" perf. Neil Finn. ED: Jabez Olssen.
    C: Ian McKellen (Gandalf the Grey), Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins), Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield), James Nesbitt (Bofur), Ken Stott (Balin), Sylvester McCoy (Radagast), Barry Humphries (Great Goblin), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), Ian Holm (Old Bilbo), Christopher Lee (Saruman), Hugo Weaving (Elrond), Elijah Wood (Frodo), Andy Serkis (Gollum / second unit director), Aidan Turner (Kili), Dean O'Gorman (Fili), Graham McTavish (Dwalin), Adam Brown (Ori), Peter Hambleton (Gloin / William Troll), John Callen (Oin), Mark Hadlow (Dori / Bert Troll), Jed Brophy (Nori), William Kircher (Bifur / Tom Troll), Stephen Hunter (Bombur).
    Loc: New Zealand, studios: Miramar, Wellington. Post-production: Park Road Post Production (Wellington).
    Released by FS Film with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Eeva Heikkonen / Emilia Nilsson.
    2K DCP in 3D HFR in Dolby 3D viewed at Tennispalatsi 1, Helsinki, 14 Dec 2012 (week of premiere, the first 3D HFR movie).

Technical specs from the IMDb: – Camera: Red Epic, Zeiss Ultra Prime and Angenieux Optimo Lenses – Film length: 4647 m (9 reels) – Film negative format: Redcode RAW – Cinematographic process: Digital Intermediate (2K) (master format), Redcode RAW (5K) (dual-strip 3-D) (source format) – Printed film format: 35 mm (anamorphic) (Kodak Vision 2383), 70 mm (horizontal) (IMAX DMR blow-up) (also dual-strip 3-D) (Kodak Vision 2383), D-Cinema (also 3-D version). – Aspect ratio: 2.35 : 1.

The official synopsis: "From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” the first of a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien." 

"The three films tell a continuous story set in Middle-earth 60 years before “The Lord of the Rings,” which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in the blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar-winning “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.”"

"The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome Dragon Smaug.  Approached out of the blue by the Wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of 13 Dwarves led by the legendary warrior Thorin Oakenshield.  Their journey will take them into the Wild, through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins, Orcs and deadly Wargs, as well as a mysterious and sinister figure known only as the Necromancer."

"Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain, first they must escape the Goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever…Gollum."

"Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of ingenuity and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities... A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know."

I'm jotting down these comments on 4 January 2013, three weeks after seeing the film. The Hobbit continues its phenomenally successful run. Already when I saw the movie I was familiar with the mostly unkind reviews it has been getting.

I am not a Tolkienist and have not even read his books (when I became aware of them I found myself outside the magic circle and could not even find anymore the back door in the wardrobe leading to Narnia). But I belong to the admirers of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy: it is the greatest achievement in the current golden age of fantasy cinema, a vastly better film than the Chronicles of Narnia series (judging by the first Narnia episode: I have not seen the rest). I selected Ian McKellen as Gandalf as the cover image to my book MMM Elokuvaopas (MMM Film Guide) of the 1100 best films of cinema history.

I have seen the The Lord of the Rings movies only in the cinema. We the fans were happy that Peter Jackson had pulled it off. He had made his lifelong dream come true. But the cinema version of The Lord of the Rings was not flawless. There were aspects in the chopped narrative that made us sense that the true, full version to be released on dvd would be definitive. The visual world was too dark and bleak on the screen, perhaps to cover up problems in the design.

Now critics complain that The Hobbit is too long, deliberate, and thorough. But I feel that this is the rhythm and the approach that Peter Jackson has wanted all along, even for the The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In The Hobbit he was able to spread his wings as he wanted.

Of the visual world the complaint has been that it looks unnatural, plastic, and artificial. I agree, but this is my general view of the entire digital cinema. Perhaps these qualities are enhanced in The Hobbit, but fundamentally I don't find it worse.

Memorable features: – The battle of the stone giants. – The invisibility effect of the ring. – The butterfly messenger. – The cones as fireballs. – The tree on the edge of the abyss. – The life-saving eagles. – The score is magnificent. – I like the sense of humour in the dialogue. – I like the Bildungsroman aspect: how the little Bilbo grows up to become a hero. – I like also the turning-point where Bilbo refuses to kill Gollum.

The visual quality: I sat on the first row on the huge Tennispalatsi 1, and for the first time in that cinema 3D looked bright and clear, more so with the glasses on than without. But I cannot review the HFR effect because there were other changes in the presentation, as well. Instead of XpanD the Tennispalatsi 1 was now equipped with Dolby 3D. I suspect there were also other changes to make the image look brighter (lamps, windows, etc.). Anyway, even the magnificent landscape panoramas looked bright and clear with the detail, and the 3D impression was flawless. Unnatural and uncanny, yes, but not more than has been habitual in digital cinema.

Worth reading: Kristin Thompson's blog article, 16 January 2013
And J. Hoberman in The New York Review of Books, 19 December 2012 http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/dec/19/tolkien-vs-technology

The Master (2012)

The Master. Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lancaster Dodd.

Mestari.
    US © 2012 Western Film Company LLC. Presents: The Weinstein Company. PC: A JoAnne Sellar / Ghoulardi Film Company / Annapurna Pictures production. P: JoAnne Sellar, Daniel Lupi, Paul Thomas Anderson, Megan Ellison.
    D+SC: Paul Thomas Anderson. DP: Mihai Malaimare, Jr. – 65 mm Studio Camera – Kodak Motion Picture Film – Filmed in Panavision – Fotokem. Fotokem 65 mm Lab Services. Negative cutter (65 mm): Simone Appleby; negative cutter (35 mm): Rick Gordon). Digital film services producer: Jason Pelham. DCP colorist: Walter Volpatto. PD: Jack Fisk, David Crank. Set dec: Amy Wells. Cost: Mark Bridges. Makeup: Kate Biscoe. Hair: Miia Kovero. SFX: Michael Lantieri. VFX: Method Studios: Dan Glass – Gregory D. Liegey. CG supervisor: Nordin Rahhali. M: Jonny Greenwood – London Contemporary Orchestra – conductor: Hugh Brunt. Woodwind Ensemble Trio. Jazz Trio. Score mixed at: Abbey Road Studios. Soundtrack listing: see beyond the jump break. S: Christopher Scarabosio. Post prodcution sound services: Skywalker Sound. ED: Leslie Jones, Peter McNulty. Casting: Cassandra Kulukundis.
    C: Joaquin Phoenix (Freddie Quell), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Lancaster Dodd), Amy Adams (Peggy Dodd), Laura Dern (Helen Sullivan), Ambyr Childers (Elizabeth Dodd, Lancaster's daughter), Rami Malek (Clark, son-in-law of Lancaster Dodd), Jesse Plemons (Val Dodd, Lancaster's son), Kevin J. O'Connor (Bill William), Christopher Evan Welch (John More).
    V.A. Hospital – Capwell's Department Store: Salinas, California – The Boat: Lynn, Mass. – New York – Philadelphia – Band: England. Loc: California, Hawaii, Vallejo, Mare Island, The USS Potomac.
    137 min (production notes) - 144 min (IMDb).
    Released by Future Film with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Janne Staffans. 2K DCP at 137 min viewed at Cinema Andorra, Helsinki, 14 Dec 2012 (preview).

Technical specs from the IMDb: - Camera: Panavision 65 HR Camera, Panavision System 65, Hasselblad and Kowa Lenses, Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2, Panavision Ultra Speed Z-Series MKII and Zeiss Jena Lenses, Panavision Panaflex System 65 Studio, Panavision System 65, Hasselblad and Kowa Lenses. - Laboratory: DeLuxe, Hollywood (CA), USA (35mm processing and photochemical timing), FotoKem Laboratory, Burbank (CA), USA (65mm dailies, processing and photochemical timing). - Film negative format: 35 mm (Kodak Vision3 50D 5203, Vision3 250D 5207, Vision3 200T 5213, Vision3 500T 5219), 65 mm (Kodak Vision3 50D 5203, Vision3 250D 5207, Vision3 200T 5213, Vision3 500T 5219). Cinematographic process: Panavision Super 70 and Spherical (some scenes). Printed film format: 35 mm (Kodak Vision 2383), 70 mm (partial blow-up) (Kodak Vision 2383), D-Cinema. - Aspect ratio: 1.85:1.

Production information: "In the wake of World War II, a restless America emerged. It was a time of unprecedented national growth and aspiration, but also of rootlessness and lingering disquiet – and the combustion of these contrasting elements sparked a culture of seeking and questing that continues into the 21st Century. Young men returning home from the incomprehensible darkness of war forged a shiny new world of consumerism and optimism. Yet, many longed for to find more from life, longed to grasp onto something larger than themselves, something to halt the anxiety, confusion and savagery of the modern world."

"Paul Thomas Anderson’s sixth feature film, The Master, unfolds a vibrantly human story inside this atmosphere of spiritual yearning on the cusp of 1950. The film follows the shifting fortunes of Freddie, portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, a volatile former Naval officer unable to settle down into everyday life, and the unpredictable journey he takes when he stumbles upon a fledgling movement known as The Cause. Coming to The Cause as an itinerant and outsider, Freddie will ultimately become a surrogate heir to its flamboyant leader: Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Lancaster Dodd. And yet, even as The Cause probes the mastery of human emotions, the camaraderie between Freddie and Dodd will mount into a fierce and intimate struggle of wills."

"The first feature film shot using 65 mm film stock in several decades, The Master is brought to life by a devoted cast and crew who have crafted a visually alluring and emotionally provocative portrait of three people pursuing a vision of betterment." (Production information).

More from the production information: "With The Master, Anderson became intrigued by the birth of a new kind of patchwork American family that arose out of the upheaval of World War II: those of alternative spiritual factions and newly established religions. From Eastern asceticism to Dianetics, the early 1950s became a time when many began to build grass roots communities devoted to realizing grand visions of human potential."

"“It was fertile ground for telling a dramatic and engaging story,” Anderson says of his fascination with this time of cultural upheaval and spiritual adventurism. “Going back to the beginning of things allows you to see what the good intentions were; and what the spark was that ignited people to want to change themselves and the world around them. Post-World War II was a period when people were looking forward to the future with great optimism but, at the same time, dealing with quite a lot of pain and death in the rear view mirror.”"

"He continues: “My father came out of World War II and was restless his whole life. It's been said that any time is a good time for a spiritual movement or religion to begin, but a particularly fertile time is right after a war. After so much death and destruction, people are asking ‘how come?’ and ‘where do the dead go?’: two very important questions.”"

"“It became Freddie’s tale,” says JoAnne Sellar. “In a sense, Freddie is the classic outsider who comes into a community and changes it – and what results is a kind of tragic love story between Freddie and Master. Freddie longs to be part of something bigger than himself, yet can’t commit. And Master yearns for Freddie to be the son he never had, yet can’t quite make that work.”"

Editor Leslie Jones: "We had to prepare the finished film for both a 70 mm and 35 mm release, which was like working on two separate movies. And because Paul likes to do a film finish we were cutting negative and timing photo chemically, so it was very time consuming.”

When I write these remarks on 4 January, 2013, three weeks after seeing the film, The Master has been voted as number one in many polls of the best movies of 2012.

I like Paul Thomas Anderson's first films, such as Boogie Nights and Magnolia, and I look forward to seeing at last his debut movie Hard Eight. We will screen it at Cinema Orion this spring in our tribute to Anderson.

I found Punch Drunk Love hard to digest and found myself appreciating There Will Be Blood at a certain distance, recognizing its wonderful cinematography and innovative score - but as a whole it was not a very compelling experience for me.

The Master is also hard to take. Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) is a war invalid of the psyche. He has lost his direction of life, he is an alcoholic, he is volatile, violent, and dangerous. It is difficult for him to commit to work, and his capacity to form relationships is seriously deficient. He is a deranged, deeply disturbed man. Joaquin Phoenix's performance is magnificent.

Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is leader of a spiritual movement ("The Cause"), a charlatan who according to the confession of his son "is making this all up as he's going on". In the cinema similar figures have appeared in Frank Capra's The Miracle Woman, starring Barbara Stanwyck, and Richard Brooks's Elmer Gantry, starring Burt Lancaster, based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis. Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance is one of his best. He avoid the slimeball mode and plays Dodd as a businessman with colourful but always well controlled characteristics.

Paul Thomas Anderson is at his strong, familiar ground portraying "The Cause" as a family, the actual Dodd family at the center. As others have noticed, Amy Adams as Ms. Dodd is the Lady Macbeth of this story.

Psychologically, Freddie the drifter is a lost son looking for a family into which to belong, but also hoping to establish a family of his own (he comes too late to propose in a touching scene where he is informed that his sweetheart has been married three years ago). Lancaster is a father figure who starts to see in Freddie a son figure, but Freddie is an unpredictable, violent, and skeptical son, and their ways must part.

I find it hard to relate to The Master. I don't expect to relate to any of the characters (neither the madman nor the swindler), but I'd look forward to relate to the viewpoint of the director, and this I fail to find.

Memorable features: - The sand woman in the beginning and the conclusion. - The Rorschach test. - The factual aspects in the account of the veteran's hospital, inspired by John Huston's Let There Be Light, among others. - The job as a photographer in the 1940s. - The outrageous bluff in Dodd's "spiritual movement" which is also a kind of a spoof and a game for grown-ups. The spiritual hunger is so great that there is also a demand for surrogates. - "The time travels" under hypnosis. - The dignified ladies strip their clothes in the spiritual sessions. - Ms. Dodd to her husband: do what you want as long as I don't get to know. - Ms. Dodd on Freddie: "perhaps he's past help or insane". - The self-spoofing dimension of the movement: in the rock in the desert there is a casket with the Master's unpublished work. - Although the Master is a fake, he is not wrong all the time. He does touch spirituality for instance in the motorcycle test in the desert. - Lancaster to Freddie: "you can't take this life straight".

Jonny Greenwood's score is very interesting, and besides, there is an evocative period song compilation score. I did not know previously or had not paid attention before to Jo Stafford's interpretation of "No Other Love", a beautiful song arrangement of Frédéric Chopin's Étude No. 3 in E. I didn't even recognize the Chopin source at once, although it is one of the most popular music themes in the cinema. The tune has later been called "Tristesse", but it was interestingly used by Robert Youngson as the music theme of his series of tributes to comedy classics, starting with The Golden Age of Comedy. Perhaps it was the contrast that made the music theme selection so effective. In Anderson's film the song conveys the sense of something familiar that has been lost, or a sense of loss in general. Freddie has lost his mind and his grip on life. He loses his illusions on Lancaster Dodd, the swindler's counterfeit spirituality, and the family based on a fake. Dodd's world is like the woman of sand, an Ersatz creation that feels exciting only in the lack of the real thing. Freddie is deranged, but perhaps he'll find his life again.

The 2K DCP presentation conveyed much of photochemical feeling of the cinematography. There is a sense of grandeur in the period scenes and the nature scenes. The choice of the magnificent 65 mm format in the cinematography has not directed the film into a spectacle mode, on the contrary. Much of the movie has been shot in close-ups.

Pirkanmaa Film Center 30th Anniversary (in 2012)

Kehräsaari by the Tammerkoski Waterfalls was the home of the Pirkanmaa Film Center and its cinema Niagara. – H. Liljeroosin villankehruu- ja värjäystehdas [H. Liljeroos Wool Spinning and Dyeing Factory] (est. 1871) designed by Lambert Pettersson. – Photo: Methem (Mikko J. Putkonen): oma teos, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16894028 

Juha Viinikainen, Liina Härkönen: Elokuvan lumoamat: Pirkanmaan Elokuvakeskus 1982–2012 [Spellbound by Cinema: Pirkanmaa Film Center 1982–2012]. Tampere: Pirkanmaan Elokuvakeskus r.y., 2012.

Based in the historical center of the city of Tampere, "by the waterfall" (like in the Busby Berkeley production number), with Cinema Niagara as its venue, Pirkanmaan Elokuvakeskus (PEK, Pirkanmaa Film Center) celebrated its 30th anniversary today. PEK is one of the most important centers of film culture in Finland, highly regarded as an exhibitor of a magnificent screening programme second to none in our land, distributor of a wide range of quality films, and also active in many other sectors of film culture. The anniversary celebration was a great opportunity to meet many cinéastes, professionals, experts and aficionados who are or have been active at PEK. An inspired talkoo (work party) spirit has been essential in the breakthrough, success and survival of PEK's activity.

There is a current boom now in PEK which has undeniably benefitted from digitalization. A documentary film such as Tuntematon emäntä [The Unknown Farm Mistress] has received very good attendance results because it has been easy to distribute the DCP to dozens of venues. Attendance at Cinema Niagara is booming because thanks to the DCP availability it can now show any film immediately without having to wait for weeks, months or even years.

The history booklet of PEK, written by Juha Viinikainen and Liina Härkönen, is a valuable contribution to the writing about Finnish film culture. It offers a good summary of the main facts, it is written with a great sense of humour, and, most importantly, it catches the special spirit that has been carrying PEK through all kinds of hardships.

Miesten välisiä keskusteluja / Conversations Between Men

Jarmo Lampela: Miesten välisiä keskusteluja / Conversations Between Men (FI 2013). Aarni Kivinen (Kaihua) and Juha Kukkonen (Kari Mairisaari).

Diskussioner mellan män. 

    FI 2013 © 2012 Vegetarian Films. P: Ilkka Mertsola. 

    D+SC: Jarmo Lampela. DP: Aarne Tapola - Hannu Kettunen, Pekka Uotila, Jarmo Lampela - Teppo Airaksinen, Juice Huhtala. Colour Definition: Grade One (Petri Falkenberg). AVID work flow supervisor: Jussi Lohijoki. AD+Cost: Tero Viller. Cost advisor: Niina Pasanen. M: Juha Potka. Songs: Paleface: "Merkit", "Miten historiaa luetaan", "Ikivanhat tekosyyt". Timo Hietala: "Ciao Innocente". S: Patrick Boullenger, Juha Potka - S design: Patrick Boullenger - S editing: Patrick Boullenger, Peter Nordström. ED: Kauko Lindfors, Juho Karhunen. 

    C: Juha Kukkonen (Kari Mairisaari, writer), Iina Kuustonen (Noora, journalist), Noora Geagea (Satu, photographer), Pihla Penttinen (Sanna, actress), Aarni Kivinen (Kaihua, director), Santtu Karvonen (Vertti, valomies), Jussi Anttonen (Lindfors, boxaaja), Rea Mauranen (Maria Koivikko, book editor), Jukka-Pekka Mikkonen (Kivimaa), Jarkko Tiainen (Lahti, actor), Meri Nenonen (Merkel, actor), Jani Kiiskilä (Pekkarinen, actor), Salome Ala-Könni (chorus girl), Carl Alm (Ahlqvist, book editor), Ville Tiihonen (Risto, orthopedic surgeon), Ursula Salo (Lotta, journalist), Rebekka Uotila (Hantta, Mairisaari's daughter), David Kozma (Ivica, pizzeria owner), Jari Virman (Drako, cook), Mikko Myllylahti (Myllylahti), Timo Tuominen (Oinaanlahti, sculptor), Ivan Gjurašić (poet in Croatia), Jeffry Okeke (bottle collector), Jyrki Nousiainen (Javarus, publishing manager), Mamadou Diop (umbrella seller), Lena Dal Pozzo (woman in the park), Peter von Bagh (Book Fair interviewer). Vertti (Mairisaari's cat). 

    116 min

    2K DCP with Swedish subtitles [by Katriina Mattila?] viewed at Niagara, Tampere, 12 Dec 2012 (preview at the PEK 30 Years Party).

From the production information: "A film that is in its director's words: more than we set off to make, at least something different. A film that I would like to market as a film rated 30 because it is actually inspired by Kylävaara and Tervo [two Finnish writers]. A film for the elusive grown-up audience. A film the making of which felt like a play for grown-ups. A film whose crew intends to make at least 20 films together within the next 25 years."

"Discussions Between Men is director Jarmo Lampela's comeback to the screen after a hiatus of almost ten years, since the making of Eila (2003). Lampela, who for the last five years has worked as a professor of film directing, may be remembered by his films Joki [The River, 2001], and Sairaan kaunis maailma [Freakin' Beautiful World, 1997]. Besides teaching he has managed to create numerous documentaries, tv series, and screenplays."

"Made professionally, albeit on an indie production model, the film stars Juha Kukkonen (currently active in Yle: Elämää suurempaa [Bigger Than Life]), Rea Mauranen (also in Tie pohjoiseen [Road North], Kotikatu), Aarni Kivinen (MTV: Roba), and Pihla Penttinen (Ryhmäteatteri: Eduskunta [The Parliament])."

"'I have written so much shit, but that I won't write no more.' - Kari Mairisaari"

"The writer Kari Mairisaari (Juha Kukkonen) has reaped success and tabloid visibility. However, he is experiencing trouble in giving birth to his ninth novel, meant to be a political satire on the True Finns, and he has lost the meaning and the mission of his writing. Not even his private life can provide any stability. Yet Mairisaari challenges his established authorship and steps on new paths. The background research hurts him both physically and spiritually."

"The writing starts to proceed, and soon there is no trace left of the merry-making of the artist's bohemian lifestyle. 'What does a young man who has taken the life of another feel after what he has done?' - the theme of guilt and men who have experienced the Balkan war, the character of the novel called Vlatko with a true-life model, the cook Grako (Jari Vilman) transport Mairisaari with their stories even abroad. Among the worst hardships is the serious illness of the trusted mainstay, the book editor Koivikko (Rea Mauranen). Understanding is needed both from old friends, the director Kaihua (Aarni Kivinen) and the ex-wife (Ursula Salo) as well as from new ones, such as the actress Sanna (Pihla Penttinen)."

"Discussions Between Men is an account of challenges of creating art, and of human encounters and the meaning of friendship. It takes a curve around the football field, the pub and the writer's chamber to strange worlds which however are one and common to all. Armed with humour the film ventures to approach the great questions of life, guilt and atonement. Discussions Between Men, which even women had better find out - to understand." (My translation.)

AA: Jarmo Lampela enters the territory of Anssi Mänttäri, Matti Ijäs, and Maunu Kurkvaara, among others, in this portrait of a writer-pig who is a narcissistic and repulsive lout, abusing others, neglecting himself, too, and lacks basic communication skills in much of his real life.

That is only the starting-point. Facing a crisis, the writer Mairisaari finds new inspiration in the most serious theme he has ever handled and proceeds via many hardships to write his magnum opus, called Grand Hotel Park, on the Balkan war. He resists commercial pressure to speed up his writing ("we got to publish it by the Fathers' Day", "otherwise you'll miss the chance of a Finlandia Prize"). Grand Hotel Park is so different from anything that Mairisaari has written before that even his ex-wife says that "it was hard to believe at first that it is written by you".

The hardest touchstone is the cook Draco who refuses to meet Mairisaari but finally, in a situation of extreme pressure and even a threat of violence, he reveals: "it does not end... I hit him in the stomach... he died all day". "I wake up every night... there is no freedom... it never ends".

Memorable features: – The debilitating illness of the book editor Maria Koivikko who loses half of her brain in a surgery. – The lowbrow political satire in the theatre sequences. – The satire of the shallow financial calculations in book publishing. – Peter von Bagh as the interviewer of Mairisaari at the Book Fair. – Mairisaari's next project about the African dream: the African worker driving back home through Europe in his own car.

The low definition quality and the occasional ugliness seem intentional devices in the ars povera approach.

Reading Chekhov's plays

Anton Chekhov: Three Sisters (RU 1901). The front cover of the first edition of Three Sisters published 1901 by Adolf Marks, St Petersburg. Обложка первого отдельного издания пьесы (1901 г.) с портретами первых исполнительниц в Художественном театре: М. Г. Савицкая (Ольга), О. Л. Книппер (Маша) и М. Ф. Андреева (Ирина). В роли Андрея — В. В. Лужский. https://www.loc.gov/rr/european/yudin/yudin-dash.html The "Gennadii Vasil'evich Yudin Collection" at the Library of Congress http://feb-web.ru/feb/chekhov/texts/sp0/spd/spd-117-.htm Author: Not identified. Public domain. Image from Wikipedia. Please click on the image to expand it.

Anton Chekhov (Anton Tshehov): Neljä näytelmää [Four Plays]. Helsinki: WSOY, 1960. Foreword: Eino Kalima. RU
    Чайка. Комедия в четырех действиях / Chaika / Tshaika / Lokki / The Seagull. 1896. Translated by Jalo Kalima.
    Дядя Ваня. Сцены из деревенской жизни в четырех действиях / Djadja Vanja / Dyadya Vanya / Vanja-eno. Kuvia maalaiselämästä. Neljä näytöstä. / Uncle Vanya. 1897. Translated by Eino Kalima.
    Три сестры. Драма в четырех действиях / Tri sestry / Kolme sisarta. Nelinäytöksinen näytelmä / Three Sisters. 1901. Translated by Eino and Jalo Kalima.
    Вишневый сад. Комедия в 4-х действиях / Vishnovyi sad / Vishnevoy sad / Kirsikkapuisto. Nelinäytöksinen komedia / The Cherry Orchard. 1903. Translated by Eino Kalima.

My old notes from: Sophie Laffitte: Anton Tshehov (Anton Tchekhov par lui-même, FR 1955). Helsinki: Weilin+Göös, 1963. Translated by Jaakko Ahokas.

Ilya Ehrenburg (Ilja Ehrenburg): Tshehovia lukiessa (Перечитывая Чехова [Rereading Chekhov], SU 1960. Helsinki: Otava, 1977. Translated by Martti Anhava.

Martti Anhava: "Hulluutta vailla" ["Without Madness"]. In Parnasso 6-7/2012, published on 5 Dec 2012. An essay on Черный монах / The Black Monk, and Палата No 6 / Ward No. 6.

"Critic's Notebook" by Ben Brantley, republished by International Herald Tribune 1-2 Dec 2012, is dedicated to the current wave of Anton Chekhov revivals on the stages of New York and London. "I can't remember a year in the theater as crowded with productions of Chekhov's chronicles of lonely lives as 2012 has been", he writes. There have been five very different interpretations of Uncle Vanya, for instance, and also various new reflections on the "despair master" who "managed to redefine the nature of theater with a mere five plays". But "more often the guiding spirit seems to be a desire to get as close as possible to Chekhov". "There's something about the clarity in Chekhov's ambiguity - his quiet insistence that life is comic and tragic at once in a world without heroes or villains - that is making today's artists identify with him with a new, illuminating fierceness".

"You can understand an affinity by young writers today for characters who have the energy of youth and no means of channeling it", writes Ben Brantley. "Chekhov may resonate most piercingly in an era of transition, when ideologies are in flux and the notion of a secure family home is under siege."

"The idleness of unemployment; the sense that the old forms of expression are outmoded (but no consoling sense of new forms to come); the friction that comes from generations of families being crowded together, by necessity, under one roof; a distrust of ready-made ideologies: These are all as characteristic of our own time as they were of Chekhov's provincial pre-revolutionary Russia".

Chekhov has been very much present on English-speaking stages since the beginning, "he has been nearly as abiding a part of the Western repertory as Shakespeare. In 1995 I marveled in The New York Times that Chekhov's plays were regularly 'being taken apart and reassembled like Lincoln Log houses in a kindergarten' by avantgarde artists."

"Such productions were, by and large, distancing intellectual exercises, suitable to an age when deconstruction had yet to become a dirty word. More earnest, straightforward (and often star-studded) presentations of Chekhov that showed up in the succeeding years often felt almost as alienating, though for the different reason that the performers seemed to have arrived from clashing schools of acting." "Desperately updated versions" "simply registered as strained". Such liberties were routinely taken with Shakespeare, but Chekhov's plays "in my opinion the greatest since Shakespeare (and before Beckett) in their balancing of life's contradictions - are less able to withstand the assaults of bad or misguided acting."

"With Shakespeare the poetry can rise above the clutter of all manner of conceptual layering". "Chekhov, no matter how adept the translation, needs to exist in a specifically felt present in which all the performers share."

"I had pretty much concluded, in a fitting mood of Chekhovian resignation, that my richest experiences of him would be limited to quiet tête-à-têtes with Anton on the page" Ben Brantley confesses. "The possibility of there being in my lifetime a fully staged Seagull or Three Sisters that effortlessly integrated comedy and tragedy (and vice versa) felt about as remote as those sisters ever making it to Moscow". Yet during the last decade he has seen performances that have become his gold standard for acting Chekhov.

The director Sam Gold had reportedly told his cast that "Chekhov is never more thrilling than sitting in your living room, reading it aloud. But when it goes to performance, it somehow loses that. So how can we recreate the experience of people just living the play?"

According to Ben Brantley, "'just living the play' is perhaps hardest when a play is closest to real life". Chekhov "cuts so close to the bone that performers may instinctively try to distance themselves from their characters through actorly exaggeration".

His comment on Chekhov's despair: "There's exhilaration whenever an artist achieves the kind of clarity of vision that Chekhov does, when you look up at a stage and see a brighter mirror than you've ever found on a wall".

When I was bitten by a big Chekhov bug in the spring I first read as many of his short stories and great tales as I could find in Finnish translation. Now I have also read his four great plays, the ones that changed the history of the theatre. They are marvellous to read, but they are really meant to be staged, and Chekhov was a genius as a playwright because he understood the intensity that can be created with rhythm, with waiting, with silence. He wrote his plays in defiance of the currently popular "well-made plays" with their clever plot mechanisms, and also in defiance of the entire Aristotelean tradition of tragedy. There is a tremendous tension in his great plays - they are about life and death - but they are largely based on a special understanding of latent force fields. They are about the calm before the storm.

I am not a theatre-goer, and not proud about that, but I'm happy that as a schoolboy I had the chance to see a production of Uncle Vanya directed by Eino Kalima (1882-1972) who had studied in Moscow and in St. Petersburg in 1904-1908 and brought with him a first-hand knowledge of the way Chekhov was originally produced. He and his brother Jalo Kalima were also the translators of the first Finnish-language edition of the four great plays in book form.

The four great plays are on the surface about disappointment, disillusionment, and humiliation. Yet there is also a sense of life, love, hope, energy, talent, and passion without outlet. Classical tragedy is about greatness of spirit gone horribly wrong due to a fatal flaw in the character. Chekhov refuses to follow the rules of classical tragedy, but there is at the bottom a parallel sense of greatness with which we can identify, and his unique contribution is "the sublime of the disappointment" because we realize what a huge loss is involved when the young poet puts a bullet through his brain in The Seagull, Uncle Vanya toils all his life for the sake of a worthless professor, the three sisters never get to Moscow, and the cherry orchard is ruined. Riffing with Ben Brantley's formulations above, it's the lucidity of the insight which makes his works so rewarding.

In my current Chekhov enthusiasm I have even re-read my schoolboy notes of Sophie Laffitte's fine study Tchekhov par lui-même. It was a good introduction and summary before Martti Anhava published in Finnish extended editions of Chekhov's letters and notebooks. Ilya Ehrenburg read Laffitte's book, too, and wrote a very nice book of his own, Rereading Chekhov, as a riposte. Ehrenburg has fine pages on Chekhov's social conscience which he sees as a key to his character. (Laffitte took for granted Chekhov's remarks of his personal coldness ignoring the fact that Chekhov was notorious for his exaggerated modesty.) For Ehrenburg, Chekhov is a painter of hushed, muted, and mixed colours in earth tones (in Finnish murretut värit; there seems to be no translation). He has good observations on Chekhov as an innovator in literary forms. Chekhov's brevity was of a new kind, entirely different from Maupassant. Yet Chekhov's brevity was not a matter of confinement: it was essential for Chekhov to spread his wings as widely and freely as possible.

And that is one reason why Chekhov's tales of madness (Ward Number Six and The Black Monk) are frightening in a unique way. The sober attitude of a doctor and the matter-of-fact approach to the world of nightmares are in contrast to the Edgar Allan Poe tradition. In the new issue of Parnasso the leading Finnish literary magazine Martti Anhava reflects on the intriguing case of Anton Chekhov, "the paragon of common sense" being fascinated in psychopathology.

Robin (2012)

Robin. FI © 2012 Solar Films Inc. EX: Jesse Fryckman. P: Jukka Helle, Oskari Huttu, Markus Selin. D: Inari Niemi. SC: Inari Niemi, Oskari Sipola. DP: Joonas Pulkkanen. DCP: Post Control. M: from Robin's albums Koodi (2012) and Chillaa (2012) - record label: Universal Music Group - songs see beyond the jump break. S: Juha Hakanen. ED: Oskari Sipola. Narrator: Inari Niemi. Featuring: Robin Packalen, Jimi Constantine, Niko Koivuhovi, Minna Koivisto, Samuel Johansson, Krippe. Locations: see beyond the jump break. 82 min. Released by Nordisk Film with Swedish subtitles by Markus Karjalainen. 2K DCP viewed at Tennispalatsi 2, Helsinki, 8 Dec 2012.

A documentary on the 13-14 year old Robin (Robin Packalen, *24 August, 1998) who became a huge pop star when his single "Frontside Ollie" was released on 16 January 2012 in iTunes. Robin is also a sportsman interested in sailing, taekwondo, rollerskating and downhill skiing. He has always loved singing, and he also plays the piano and the guitar. In 2008 Robin won the song contest Staraskaba, and in 2009 he was the representative of Finland in the New Wave Junior song contest in Moscow, singing his interpretation of Europe's "The Final Countdown".

"Frontside Ollie" refers to a skateboard trick. Despite the title the song is in Finnish.

From the production information: "Robin is a movie about an ordinary schoolboy in an extraordinary situation: a feature film, two albums, four singles, four music videos and dozens of wild gigs during the same year! How does it feel to perform for a crowd of thousands of fans who know the lyrics to every song? How does it feel when the girls are screaming your own name? Can one get used to clicking mobile phone cameras and autograph seekers? How does it feel when you get to do what you have always wanted to do? The documentary follows Robin's sold-out summer tour and the rushed production of a new album while Robin himself wants to participate increasingly in songwriting." (My translation.)

An engrossing documentary on the breakthrough of a Finnish teenage pop artist and his first big tour. Robin is a sunny person and a born performer. I even thought for a moment about the young Al Jolson and the wonderful Tex Avery parody about him: "I Love To Singa". There is the similar irresistible quality of a born entertainer in the 13-14 year old Robin. It seems that Robin is being well taken care of, and there is in him a great promise of a long and happy career.

A hallmark of the best tour documentaries is the understanding of the artist's rapport with the audience. That is why I like David Mallet's documentaries with AC/DC, Tina Turner, U2, and many others. Inari Niemi has created an affectionate fan movie about Robin. It is a video tour diary and scrapbook but it is also well structured: it is the story of a development and also a story about the facing of the crisis of the voice break just in the middle of the breakthrough. The conclusion is particularly engrossing. We can feel the warmth between Robin and his audience, his touching the hands of the fans in the front row and the special feature of young mothers with babies on their shoulders visiting the concert. Robin is seen as a life force, as an emanation of the joy of life.

I do not exactly belong to the target audience, but I was impressed by the pure and strong quality of Robin's voice. He really can sing, and I look forward to what he will have to offer.

The visual quality of the presentation: compilation quality.

The Angels' Share

Enkelten siivu / Änglarnas del. GB/FR/BE/IT © 2012 Sixteen Films Ltd, Why Not Productions S.A., Wild Bunch S.A., Urania Pictures, Les Films du Fleuve, France 2 Cinéma, British Film Institute. P: Rebecca O'Brien. D: Ken Loach. SC: Paul Laverty. DP: Robbie Ryan - Camera: Arricam LT, Zeiss Master Prime Lenses - Film negative format: 35 mm (Kodak DeLuxe) - Cinematographic process: Digital Intermediate (2K) (master format), Super 35 (source format) - Release format: DCP - Aspect ratio: 1.85:1. Digital post-production: Len Brown, Molinare. PD: Fergus Clegg. AD: Zoe Wight. Makeup: Karen Brotherston. Prosthetics supplier: Kristyan Mallett. VFX: Sav Akyüz. M: George Fenton. S: Ray Beckett, Andrew Caller, Ian Tapp. ED: Jonathan Morris - edited on film. Casting: Kathleen Crawford. C: Paul Brannigan (Robbie), John Henshaw (Harry), Gary Maitland (Albert), Jasmin Riggins (Mo), William Ruane (Rhino), Roger Allam (Thaddeus), Siobhan Reilly (Leonie). Loc: Scotland - Glasgow, Mitchell Lane (Glasgow), Balblair Distillery (Edderton, Highland), Edinburgh, Arrochar (Argyll). Thanks: Inver House Distilleries, Burn Stewart & Ian MacLeod, and the staff of Balblair, Deanston and Glengoyne distilleries. Released by Cinema Mondo with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Arto Vartiainen / Joanna Erkkilä. 2K DCP viewed at Kinopalatsi 7, Helsinki, 8 Dec 2012 (weekend of Finnish premiere).

According to IMDb and Wikipedia the language spoken is English, but I would not have understood it without subtitles. Maybe at least part of the dialogue might be in Scottish English?

"The angels' share" means the 2% of the alcohol that disappears annually from the whisky because the casks are breathing.

Wikipedia synopsis: "In the opening scenes, the protagonists are sentenced to hours of community service. During his first community service session Robbie (Paul Brannigan), under the guidance of Harry (John Henshaw), is interrupted and taken to the hospital by Harry as his girlfriend, Leonie (Siobhan Reilly), has gone into labour. At the hospital Robbie is assaulted by two of his girlfriend's uncles. Harry takes Robbie back to his house, where Leonie calls to tell Robbie that his son, Luke, has been born. Harry insists that he and Robbie celebrate, and brings out a vintage whisky."

"Harry takes the group to a distillery as a reward for their good behaviour, where they learn what "the angels' share" is. Afterwards, the tour guide gives them each a dram of whisky and asks them to smell it, and Robbie is complimented on his ability to identify flavours. At the next community service session, Harry approaches Robbie and asks if he'd like to come to a whisky tasting session in Edinburgh. Robbie, in turn, invites the other members of the group, where they learn about a cask of priceless whisky, the "malt mill", set to go on auction soon, and Robbie is passed a card by a whisky collector, Thaddeus (Roger Allam)."

"After they leave, Mo (Jasmin Riggins) reveals she spotted and stole documents detailing the warehouse in which the "malt mill" is kept. Robbie agrees to meet with a victim of his former violent crimes, Anthony (Roderick Cowie) gives a heartbreaking performance recollecting the attack to a horrific flashback. After realising that he can't continue living under threat of assault on himself and his family, he begins planning to steal the malt mill, with his community service partners. They secure an invitation to the tasting and auction during which Robbie hides in the warehouse overnight and covertly witnesses Thaddeus attempting to bribe Angus Dobie (David Goodall) into selling him some of the whisky before the cask goes on auction. Dobie refuses and the two leave, after which Robbie siphons some whisky from the cask into empty Irn Bru bottles and then tops it up with cheaper whisky from an adjacent cask. At the auction, the group see Thaddeus outbid by an American, who tastes the cask, and is apparently happy with the slightly diluted blend."

"Afterwards, Robbie approaches Thaddeus and negotiates a sale of three bottles for £250,000. They plan to make the exchange in Glasgow, and so begin the trek home, but inadvertently break two of their four bottles during an encounter with the police. Robbie gets furious, but goes ahead with meeting Thaddeus, and negotiates a sale for £100,000 and a permanent job far away from Glasgow. Robbie reveals to his friends, that he didn't sell two bottles, but one. The scene cuts to show Harry coming home to find a bottle of Irn Bru sitting on his kitchen table next to an open window, with a note thanking him and presenting his "angels' share" next to a newspaper piece showing a photo of the payback group next to the cask. He smells the bottle and rejoices at the malt mill inside."

"In the final scene, we see Robbie and Leonie leave for Stirling in an immaculate old Volkswagen Type 2, having made temporary goodbyes to the rest of the group. After they leave, the rest of the group resolve to go get wasted. The film ends with The Proclaimers' "500 Miles" playing."

I have seen recently seen two new French movies, Rust and Bone, and The Intouchables, with which The Angels' Share resonates. Also here we meet a young, violent man (here: Robbie), who has been caught in a web of crime and violence, and who seems to face a desperate circle with no way out.

In the most powerful sequence of the movie, Robbie has to face a victim of his violence, a young man to whom he has inflicted permanent damage.

Meanwhile, Robbie and Leonie's baby has just been born, and Robbie learns about the baby's vulnerable brain which is not yet fully formed; "the rest depends on us".

The woman, Leonie, changes Robbie, and even more powerfully, the child changes the father. Robbie starts to grow up into a man.

Robbie has been convicted into hard labour in community service, not in prison. The guard and leader, Harry, is a tough, sympathetic, no-nonsense man who invites the convicts to a tour in a whisky distillery. Robbie's special talent in whisky tasting starts to emerge.

Ken Loach is at his best in the realistic account of Robbie's desperate circumstances. The vivid, compelling and never condescending approach in stories like this is a hallmark in Loach's oeuvre since the beginning - since Poor Cow and Kes.

New to Ken Loach's films is the Ealing style big caper comedy related to the ingenious whisky robbery.

Shot on 35 mm photochemical film, the digital intermediate to The Angels' Share has been processed with good taste, reproducing the warm and vibrant film sense in the digital projection. If "an angels' share" of the film feeling has gotten lost in the digital process, I did not notice it.

The Angels' Share: Ken Loach: greetings to the Helsinki International Film Festival 2012

Ken Loach wins the Jury Prize 2012 at Festival de Cannes for The Angels' Share, 27 May 2012. Ken Loach © AFP. Photo: Festival de Cannes. 

Thank you to the festival for showing the film and thank you for coming to watch it.

This is a wee story about a few young people in Glasgow. They are typical of millions across Europe. No jobs, nowhere decent to live, and told they are of little value.

They may not know much but they know they are being cheated.

As you get to know Robbie and his friends, I hope you remember that behind the statistics are people we would smile with and maybe cry for.

In the meantime – ‘cheers!’ – as we say when we drink a glass of whisky!

Here’s to the festival.

Ken Loach

Faust (2011)

Aleksandr Sokurov wins the highest prize for the best film: the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival in 2011.

RU © 2011. PC: Proline Film. P: Andrey Sigle. 

    D: Aleksandr Sokurov. SC: Aleksandr Sokurov, Marina Koreneva - book: Yuri Arabov - based on the play (Faust [I] 1808) by J. W. von Goethe. DP: Bruno Delbonnel - Camera: Arricam LT, Zeiss Master Prime and Angenieux Optimo Lenses, Arricam ST, Zeiss Master Prime and Angenieux Optimo Lenses - Laboratory: Barrandov Laboratore, Prague, Czech Republic (dailies), Generator Post, Helsinki, Finland (digital intermediate), Technicolor, London, UK (prints) - Film negative format: 35 mm (Kodak Vision3 500T 5219) - Cinematographic process: Digital Intermediate (master format), Spherical (source format) - Printed film format: 35 mm, D-Cinema - Aspect ratio: 1.37:1, 1.85:1 (final scene). Digital colour editing: Peter Doyle. PD: Elena Zhukova. Cost: Lidiya Kryukova. SFX: Kamil Jaffar. VFX: Alexey Goussev - Algous Studio. AN: Benjamin Swiczinsky. M: Andrey Sigle. S: Makar Akhpashev. ED: Jörg Hauschild. Casting: Kristin Diehle. 

    C: Johannes Zeiler (Heinrich Faust), Anton Adasinsky (Moneylender), Isolda Dychauk (Margarete), Georg Friedrich (Wagner), Hanna Schygulla (Moneylender's "Wife"), Antje Lewald (Margarete's Mother), Florian Brückner (Valentin), Sigurður Skúlason (Faust's Father), Maxim Mehmet (Valentin's Friend), Andreas Schmidt (Valentin's Friend), Oliver Bootz (Valentin's Friend), Katrin Filzen (Margarete's Maidservant), Prodromos Antoniadis (Notarius). 

    Studio: Barrandov Studios (Prague). 

    Loc: Czech Republic (Kutná Hora, Ledec nad Sázavou, Lipnice nad Sázavou, Tocnik Castle); Iceland. 

    Deutsche Originalfassung. 

    140 min. 

    Festival premiere: 8 Sep 2011 Venice - Golden Lion.

    Finnish premiere: 23 Nov 2012 - released by Atlantic Film with English subtitles (n.c.). 

    2K DCP viewed at Cinema Engel 1, Helsinki, 7 Dec 2012

Synopsis from Wikipedia (English): "Heinrich Faust (Johannes Zeiler) is eaten up by his longing for enlightening. He seeks to understand the very nature of life and how it makes the world go round. Driven by his burning desire for cognition he even unearths corpses and rummages in their guts just to localize the home of the soul."

"While he keeps on telling himself "in the beginning was the word" he gets to know the racketeer Mauricius (Anton Adassinsky, playing a worldly version of Mephistopheles), who eventually contradicts him: "In the beginning was the deed". In spite of being amorphic Mauricius considers himself superhuman. Faust's obscure new friend takes him to the twilight zones of their small town."

"In a bath his attention is caught by the young Margarete (Isolda Dychauk), called Gretchen. Later the two new friends are entangled in a carousal. During a subsequent brawl Faust accidentally kills Gretchen's brother Valentin. Faust becomes obsessed with Gretchen who appears to embody the beauty of blooming life. He indulges himself in thinking that studying her would be reasonable as a part of his research about what makes all the difference between life and death. When the aging Faust has become irreversibly infatuated with Gretchen, Mephistopheles offers him to let him have her."

"Faust cannot resist the idea of spending a night with Gretchen. Yet Mauricius demands nothing less than Faust's soul in return. Faust even has to sign the contract with his own blood. Now living on borrowed time, Faust can hit on Gretchen but he is haunted by penitence and fear. Finally Faust cannot bear Mauricius' nihilistic comments anymore. Overwhelmed with wrath he puts Mauricius down and finds himself lost in the middle of nowhere."

Synopsis from Wikipedia (German): "Eine deutsche Stadt im 19. Jahrhundert: Der Gelehrte Heinrich Faust versucht dem Geheimnis des Lebens auf den Grund zu kommen. Dafür untersucht er mit seinem Famulus Wagner Leichen nach dem Versteck der Seele. Durch finanzielle Schwierigkeiten gezwungen, wendet Faust sich an den alten Wucherer Mauricius Müller, der sich fortan als die Verkörperung des Teufels entpuppt. Dieser verspricht ihm Hilfe, führt Faust aber erst einmal durch die obskure Stadt. Nebenbei verliebt sich der Gelehrte in die junge Wäscherin Margarete. Völlig fasziniert von ihrer Schönheit, glaubt er durch sie den Zusammenhang von Leben und Tod zu verstehen. Während eines Kneipenbesuchs mit Mauricius tötet Faust einen Soldaten, ohne dabei zu wissen, dass es sich um den Bruder Margaretes handelt."

"Am Ende unterschreibt Faust einen sittenlosen Vertrag mit dem teuflischen Pfandleiher, damit er zum Tausch gegen seine eigene Seele eine Nacht mit Margarete verbringen kann. Dabei wird er jedoch von Ängsten und Schmerzen heimgesucht, weshalb er beschließt die nihilistischen Kommentare des Mauricius nicht mehr weiter hinzunehmen. Faust begräbt diesen symbolisch unter einem Steinhaufen und findet sich schließlich mitten im Nirgendwo wieder, mit den Worten: „Dahin! Weiter! Immer weiter!”"

AA: Since the 1970s Aleksandr Sokurov has been embarked on a life-long, personal journey through Russian and Western history and culture. He has created a series of elegies to figures from Chaliapin to Tarkovsky, historical reflections from Lenin to Hirohito, impressions of classic works from Flaubert and Shaw to Dostoyevsky, and views of colossal cultural phenomena like the Eremitage and Faust.

Some of Sokurov's works I have found uniquely moving (starting with The Lonely Voice of Man and the first Elegy), others I have managed to approach on a surface level only. My first acquaintance with Sokurov's Faust belongs to the latter category.

Although linked with Sokurov's historical trilogy Molokh, Telets, and Solntse, it's completely different. The trilogy was produced in an ascetic, minimalistic, extremely reduced style. Faust may be Sokurov's biggest budgeted film, and the production values are visible in the rich-looking account of the epoch. There are elaborate long views and panorama shots, and accurate-looking reconstructions of buildings, vehicles, tools, and clothes, and magnificent scenes shot on location in the Czech Republic and Iceland (perhaps the same waterfalls as in Ridley Scott's Prometheus?). Vermeer and other Dutch masters have been the inspiration for the impressive cinematography and production design. The imagery keeps changing from one sequence to the next. Surprisingly for Sokurov, there are even affinities with the work of Jeunet & Caro, but Sokurov has displayed surrealistic and expressionistic dimensions before in his film adaptations of Heartbreak Hotel and Days of Eclipse. There are colour filters, distorting lenses, and expressions of digital artifice, in a blatant act of distanciation from the Bazinian photochemical film pact with reality and truth. Sokurov's Faust is no Shroud of Turin (but neither was Murnau's Faust, which Sokurov's film at times seems to comment). Sokurov's Faust seems also to have been inspired by the film adaptations of The Student of Prague by Stellan Rye and Henrik Galeen.

This Faust is weird, odd, macabre, mad, eccentric, and restless - perhaps in reflection of the soul of Faust, himself. Even naturalism is included in the film's eclectic range of styles. The film starts with splatter imagery in the account of Faust's activity as a doctor performing autopsy, looking for the secret of the soul in a corpse. There is also pornographic imagery in the vaginal speculum current of the story. The seduction of Gretchen after Faust's pact with the Devil is portrayed in terms of a descent into a slimy river, a central image being das Schamhaar (the German word for pubic hair in literary translation is "shame hair"). After the seduction, monsters appear.

The movie is dedramatized. The great lines of dialogue are recited without emotion. The dramatic turning-points are performed with understatement. The climaxes are played for anticlimaxes.

The film is talkative, and there is a lot of monologue, but the text is not from Goethe. The basic plot is from the Renaissance legend, and the Gretchen story from Goethe. This is the common ground to Gounod and Murnau, among others. There is nothing from "the great world" of Goethe's Faust II here. But there are certain philosophical elements of Goethe's Faust and Mephisto: the reflection on "In the beginning was the word" / "In the beginning was the deed". Mephisto, the spirit of perpetual negation, is "ein Teil von jener Kraft, die stets das Böse will und stets das Gute schafft" [a part of that deep force that always strives for evil, and always manages to create something good].

Memorable features: - Andrey Sigle's score. - The lighting inspired by Dutch masters. - "Life has lost its value." "The word dies before it leaves the pen."- The Icelandic scenes in the conclusion. - "Where are you going?" "There - forward - always forward". - Faust buries Mephisto under the rocks, but Faust has already been thoroughly contaminated. There is no salvation, and salvation is unthinkable in this universe. "Ewige Einsamkeit. Keine Rettung" [Eternal solitude. No salvation].

Faust has been shot on photochemical 35 mm film, but it has been digitally manipulated in an elaborate post-production process. There is no realistic colour, and nature is denatured.

Intouchables / The Intouchables

Olivier Nakache & Éric Toledano: Intouchables (FR 2011). François Cluzet (Philippe) and Omar Sy (Driss = Idriss Bakari).

Koskemattomat / Intouchables [Swedish title in Finland] / En oväntad vänskap [Swedish title in Sweden].

    FR dépôt légal 2011 Quad Productions / Gaumont / TF1 Films Production / T... / . P: Nicolas Duval-Adassovsky, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou. 

    D+SC: Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano – based on the book Tu as changé ma vie... by Abdel Sellou – based on the book Le second souffle (2001) de Philippe Pozzo di Borgo. 

    DP: Mathieu Vadepied – Camera: Aaton Penelope, Panavision Primo Lenses, Arri Alexa, Panavision Primo Lenses (some night scenes), Arriflex 435, Panavision Primo Lenses – Film length: 3065 m – Film negative format: 35 mm (Fuji Eterna Vivid 250D 8546) – Cinematographic process: Digital Intermediate (2K) (master format), Super 35 (3-perf) (source format) – Printed film format: 35 mm, D-Cinema – 1.85:1. 

    PD: François Emmanuelli. Set dec: Olivia Bloch-Lainé. Cost: Isabelle Pannetier. Makeup: Thi Thanh Tu Nguyen. Hair: Catherine Duplan. M: Ludovico Einaudi. - Chopin, Schubert, Carl Maria von Weber (Der Freischütz), Vivaldi, Telemann, Händel, Bach, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mozart. – Earth, Wind & Fire, George Benson, Terry Callior, Nina Simone & Hal Mooney. S: Jean Goudier. ED: Dorian Rigal-Ansous. Casting: Gigi Akoka. 

    C: François Cluzet (Philippe), Omar Sy (Driss = Idriss Bakari), Anne Le Ny (Yvonne), Audrey Fleurot (Magalie), Clotilde Mollet (Marcelle), Alba Gaïa Kraghede Bellugi (Elisa), Cyril Mendy (Adama), Christian Ameri (Albert), Grégoire Oestermann (Antoine). 

    Loc: L'hôtel d'Avaray (Paris); Cabourg (Calvados). 

    112 min

    Released by Scanbox Finland Oy (from The Weinstein Company) with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Scandinavian Text Service. 

    2K DCP viewed at Kinopalatsi 2, Helsinki, 7 Dec 2012.

Credits in English, the movie in French.

Inspired by the true story of Philippe Pozzo di Borgo and Abdel Sellou, discovered by the film-makers in the documentary film À la vie, à la mort (2003).

Official synopsis: "A rich quadriplegic, living in a mansion in Paris, requires a live-in carer. A young offender turns up for an interview, but he is not really looking to get the job. However, to his surprise, he is hired. The two men then develop a close friendship."

First-rate well-made feelgood entertainment based on a true story.

The themes are eternal. What does all the wealth matter when the health is gone? Can there be a way out of the vicious circle of poverty, deprivation, crime, and lack of education? The Intouchables seems like a wish-fulfillment tale of the invalid finding a new love and the small-time criminal from the projects getting a new start in life. But the story is real.

The foundation of the film is the brilliant humoristic ensemble playing of François Cluzet and Omar Sy as the improbable friends. The performances of the entire ensemble are very good. The protagonists enjoy being themselves despite their desperate circumstances, and we enjoy spending two hours in their company. They are fighters and heroes of their own lives, making the most of it.

Memorable features: - "Aucune pitié" = "No mercy", "that's what I want". - The movie might be compared with Driving Miss Daisy, but it's completely different. - "The wheelchair is not the worst. Life without Alice is." - The Intouchables, like Rust and Bone, belongs to the current of contemporary films with an interesting documentary dimension about modern medicine. Philippe's troubles include phantom pains at night. - Philippe's epistolary romance. - Philippe can experience intensive sexual satisfaction via touching the ears. - The fascination of speed: cars, wheelchairs, and paragliding. - The images during the end credits of the real-life models.

Shot on film, close-ups and interiors look fine after the digital intermediate, but the juicy sense of reality is missing in much of the nature footage.

Sight & Sound: The Best of 2012

Paul Thomas Anderson: The Master (US 2012) with Philip Seymour Hoffman (Lancaster Dodd), Joaquin Phoenix (Freddie Quell) and Amy Adams (Peggy Dodd).

1. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, US)

2. Tabu (Miguel Gomes, PT/DE/FR)
3. Amour (Michael Haneke, FR/DE/AT)
4. Holy Motors (Leos Carax, FR/DE)
5. Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin, US)
= Berberian Sound Studio (Peter Strickland, GB/DE)
7. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, US)
8. Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu, RO/FR/BE)
= Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg, CA/FR/PT/IT)
= Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, TK/BA)
= This Is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmaseb, IR)

Source: Sight & Sound, January 2013