Film concert Blackmail silent version, The Hitchcock 9 version (2012), music composed by Neil Brand (2008), played by Oulu Sinfonia, conducted by Timothy Brock

GB 1929. D: Alfred Hitchock. A BFI 35 mm print [The Hitchcock Nine, BFI 2012, 2K restoration, printed from DI to 35 mm] with e-subtitles in Finnish, viewed at Iso Teltta / The Big Top, Sodankylä (Midnight Sun Film Festival), 14 June 2013

In the presence of Neil Brand, introduced by Peter von Bagh.

The Festival Catalogue: "Blackmail (1929) was Hitchcock's second breakthrough film and thereby confirmed what his “right” and “chosen” genre was. At the same time it masterfully integrated some main elements from his earlier, non-criminological works into a functioning form that signified an understanding of the ambivalent basic nature of an “unambiguous” domain."
   "The original layout is a classical one, even Simenonian in its plainness: despite having a police for a boyfriend, a woman ends up flirting with an artist she has met at a café, things get out of hand, and the artist gets semi-accidentally stabbed in the twilight of his studio. A coincidental bystander witnesses the homicide committed by the woman and starts blackmailing her."
   "Hitchcock's enduring obsession, the topic of “the wrong man” is an exceptionally ambiguous theme in this film. The police start chasing an innocent, yet otherwise dubious male character despite the fact that the actual murderer is the detective's girlfriend. The detective knows this all too well but at the same time allows his colleagues to chase the blackmailer and scapegoat straight to his death."
   "What is present at the very beginning with almost a documentary thoroughness is the sense of teasing that always interested Hitchcock. Picking someone up at a restaurant, flirting, mutual participation (the director clearly shows male chauvinist compassion: the man is entitled to his putt!), climbing up stairs (which later become a similar skeleton of guilt and an abstract summary as in Vertigo), and the geometry of human relations: this and only this is how it is supposed to happen."
   "The minute details and trivial settings are counterbalanced for the first time by a national monument, the British Museum, or as Raymond Durgnat put it, “an arcanum of timelessness, omniscience, and eternity - an absolute”. In view of the beginning of the film as well as its basic theme, this is the only proper culmination, as the institution is a greater embodiment of the fiction that man has constructed in order to hide his own limitations and moral volatility from himself as well as his fellow human beings."
   "The “execution” itself is like a scientific discovery that has the same kind of coldness as a fighter pilot's performance or Harry Lime's observations. In the final, comic elaboration with the ironic use of a public building, the sorry excuse for a human being - the small-time blackmailer and son of the streets - finds himself in the midst of the props of civilisation probably for the first time in his life."
   "In this sense, all subsequent similar sequences have been more abstract by nature. Hitchcock's vision personifies the humour of the situation - and the maximal unreasonableness of all human activity, in which the true culprits are always somewhere else." (Peter von Bagh)

I had seen Blackmail the silent version with the magnificent score by Neil Brand in its premiere screening in Bologna (Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2008).

In 2008 the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale played the score at the strength of 56 players. Now the Oulu Sinfonia interpreted it at a strength of 15 players. It still sounded great - and unique due to the Sodankylä Big Top experience. It was raining outside, but the screen was shining inside. Admittedly, the score is even more magnificent at the full strength of a big orchestra.

In 2008 the print of Blackmail the silent version was still the familiar all-photochemical one. Here I got to see for the first time the celebrated The Hitchcock Nine version (BFI 2012), digitally restored in 2K, and shown here in a 35 mm film print struck from the digital intermediate. The quality looked superb. The circumstances in the Big Top are not ideal for visual quality due to the orchestra lights, but the total experience more than compensates.

Blackmail has always looked good, and now it looks even better.

The true Hitchcock music sound started first in 1940 in Hollywood in Rebecca, after Hitchcock had already directed 24 films. David O. Selznick had to push Hitchcock into a full-blooded musical mood. Hitchcock still had misgivings about romantic emphases in movies... But probably Hitch liked Franz Waxman's work in Rebecca since they collaborated four times. Dimitri Tiomkin, Alfred Newman, Frank Skinner, Miklos Rozsa, Roy Webb, Richard Addinsell, Leighton Lucas, Bernard Herrmann, John Addison, Maurice Jarre, Ron Goodwin, and John Williams were composers with whom Hitchcock collaborated later, all good, but the best-known is deservedly Herrmann able to reach both Wagnerian depths in Vertigo and contemporary minimalism in Psycho.

It is a formidable bunch who created the Hitchcock sound, but Neil Brand rises to the challenge in this imaginative Blackmail score. It is very good music for this movie for someone who has never seen a Hitchcock film before, and it is also a fascinating reflection on the Hitchcockian music legacy for those who know their Hitchcock well. There are some quick coups d'œil: the famous Charles Gounod theme adapted to Alfred Hitchcock Presents when Hitchcock himself appears in the subway, harassed by the little rascal boy and some Herrmannian strings when Alice (Anny Ondra, the first true Hitchcock blonde) grabs a big kitchen knife to protect herself from the artist who has invited her to his studio and soon tries to have his way with her.

My only complaint: the Neil Brand score should also be available on the soundtrack of The Hitchcock Nine DCP's and prints of Blackmail, and it should be released on dvd.

The movie itself remains haunting and efficient. Alice has killed the artist in self-defense. Even today women cannot trust in justice in cases of sexual violence, much less then. Alice did what she had to to protect herself. In the movie-viewer's opinion she is guilty only of a minor thing: she had booked a double date both with her policeman boyfriend Frank and the artist.

But Alice is a woman with a conscience. She would want to confess, but Frank prevents it, and a blackmailer who falls to his death in British Museum becomes the culprit.

Blackmail is already an essential Hitchcock movie because of its sense of ambivalence and its unresolved sense of guilt.

The visual quality: this restoration looks great.

Risate di Gioia / The Passionate Thief (2013 restoration Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna)

Mario Monicelli: Risate di Gioia / The Passionate Thief (IT 1960).

Lemmenvaras. IT 1960. D: Mario Monicelli. Based on Racconte romani by Alberto Moravia. This print ran 106 min. A Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna print viewed at Cinema Lapinsuu with e-subtitles in English, Sodankylä (Midnight Sun Film Festival), 14 June 2013

A Gian Luca Farinelli masterclass with consecutive interpretation into Finnish by Elina Suolahti

From the Festival Catalogue: "The Passionate Thief by Mario Monicelli (1915–2010), one of the great masters of Commedia all'italiana who visited Sodankylä in1994, is a brilliant choice for one's screening list just because it is, uncannily, the only screen encounter of Totò and Anna Magnani – the two captivating superstars of Italian cinema! One can only guess at the reasons because the two friends often worked together on the stage. Perhaps the production crowd were inclined to consider that casting two box-office magnets for the same projects would be overdoing it?"   "Gioia “Tortorella” Fabbricotti (Magnani) is an underemployed run-of-the-mill film extra, Umberto “Infortunio” Pennazzuto (Totò) an unemployed and unlucky veteran actor, and Lello (Ben Gazzara) a young and virile pickpocket. The paths of the three cross during the New Year chaos that creates an excellent setting for both crime and romance. Besides the glamorous, glittering flurry of festivities in the prosperous salons, the magnificent (we are treated to a freshly restored top quality print!) the black-and-white cinematography also reflects many scenes of nocturnal Rome. Even at the Fontana di Trevi witnesses – only some months after Fellini's more famous contribution – a passionate nighttime incident."
   "The scriptwriting department – the story is based on two stories by Alberto Moravia – also employs the best forces in the land; besides Monicelli himself, both the legendary Age & Scarpelli team as well as Suso Cecchi d'Amico, whose filmography contains an amazing number of the top titles of Italian cinema."
   "Still, Monicelli's film is a supreme celebration above all because of its two leading stars. Wearing a blonde wig, Magnani as usual uninhibitedly puts in all her soul, her charisma, and her built-in pandemonium to serve the silver screen, and Totò shines in his older years' mode as the sorrowful clown where one can, even amidst the laughs, always sense a touch of authentic despair." (Lauri Timonen)

Peter von Bagh on Gian Luca Farinelli: "If the world's film archives are a solar system with increasing influence on the significant presentation of films, then Gian Luca Farinelli, the head of the Bologna film archive, is one of its centres of gravity, perhaps even the most important one of the moment. His archive and its laboratory are an important centre for the restoration work that is crucial for the preservation of film culture. The Chaplin estate entrusted them with the new prints of the master's works, and Bologna also houses the archives of Pasolini, Scorsese, and many other masters. The archive's publishing output – both in the form of books as well as DVDs – is broad: the activity forms a whole where working within the city and the surrounding province on the one hand and internationally on the other are inseparably one. The festival Il Cinema Ritrovato, which in June and July gathers together the world's leading film experts, archivists, historians and critics to view unknown and rarely seen film treasures, began in 1988 when both founders, Farinelli and Niccola Mazzanti, were in their twenties – a prime example of how film history has often been made by the very young, and on the other hand, of how many initiatives in film culture can be as important as the best films. A recent example of Bologna's restorative work is The Passionate Thief (Risate di Gioia, 1960), a masterpiece by Mario Monicelli – a director of importance to the archive, and a Sodankylä guest." (PvB)

The Festival website on the Masterclass with Gian Luca Farinelli: "As the subject of his Friday Master Class at the Midnight Sun Film Festival, Gian Luca Farinelli had chosen Mario Monicelli’s The Passionate Thief (Risate di Gioia, 1960). Farinelli is the director of Bologna’s film archive and this is his first time at the Midnight Sun Film Festival."

"Monicelli is a pioneer of Italian comedy films. Set in Rome, The Passionate Thief revolves around three characters: movie extra Tortorella (Anna Magnani), unemployed actor Umberto (Totò) and pickpocket Lello (Ben Gazzara). The three characters keep pumping into each other in various situations and dazzling parties on New Year’s Eve."

"According to Farinelli, The Passionate Thief has retained its power to amaze the viewer. He especially praised the fine acting in the film. Monicelli was a master at working with actors, Farinelli said. There were a lot of actors whose careers were greatly influenced by Monicelli. Gazzara, for instance, was considered more of a tragedian before The Passionate Thief, but Monicelli was able to see his comedic side. "

"Monicelli also discussed Totò, whom he considers one of Italy’s greatest actors. “Totò represents something that runs deep in the tradition of Italian performing. On one hand, seeing Totò act is like watching a documentary about a farce, but on the other hand there is something very tragic and mysterious about his humour.” Totò was an extremely popular theatre actor before Monicelli introduced him to movie-goers. “After seeing The Passionate Thief, Pasolini realized Totò’s movie star potential and cast him in Hawks and Sparrows (1966).”"

"Magnani was very pleased to get an opportunity to act in a Monicelli film, but he didn’t like acting alongside Totò, who reminded him of his own period in variety theatre. Still, Farinelli thinks there are some absolutely wonderful scenes in the film especially between Totò and Magnani: “It is like watching traditional variety theatre.”"

"Magnani was a son of a socialist, and he himself was also one. His journalist father wrote openly about the fascists’ wrongdoings, which led to the father being beaten up while his small son was present. “His whole life Monicelli strived to make films that would benefit Italy, which was being torn apart by contrasting factions,” Farinelli told the audience. In his films Monicelli attempted to show how Italy has repeatedly been led to the brink of destruction by crooks and villains. “Monicelli realizes this depiction in his movies in an extremely disciplined but very enjoyable fashion.” Farinelli discussed Monicelli’s fantastic ability to express tragedy in a comedy. The tragic veins in his films make it possible to deepen the characters’ attributes and humanity. "

"Before The Passionate Thief, Farinelli showed Daniele Ciprì’s and Franco Maresco’s short film A Silvio. Ciprì and Maresco hold Monicelli in high regard and according to Farinelli the “monsters” in their films can be seen as direct descendants of Monicelli’s characters." (The Festival website)
...

Further notes, by me:

Gian Luca Farinelli's introduction was excellent. Besides the remarks above he highlighted Mario Monicelli as "one of the great directors of the golden age of Italian cinema with works such as I soliti ignoti, La grande guerra, and Amici miei. He had the talent to get together an incredible cast, he was a master in casting, even to the point of directing career-changing performances."

"For instance Vittorio Gassman was known as a dramatic actor in Shakespearean roles for Luchino Visconti et al, an actor in the grande teatro di traditione. In Monicelli's direction there was the revelation of an extraordinary comedian."

"Monicelli combined for the first time Magnani and Totò – the greatest Italian actor. Ben Gazzara, from Actors Studio, had apparently nothing in common with them. He had done some alert roles for Otto Preminger, for instance. But together they were a terrific trio."

"Magnani had distanced herself from the tradition of the variety, and she had little desire to go back, having been the muse of Rossellini in L'amore, and having made an important Hollywood career."

"With Totò we go deep into the Italian culture of performance – it is like watching a documentary on the history of farce – going back to ancient Rome, Plautus – into something profound, tragic, mystic, and eternal. He was enormously successful in variety. No director before Monicelli really grasped his resources. The true breakthrough was Totò i Carolina, Monicelli's debut film as a solo director, the most censored film in the history of Italy."

"With Magnani Monicelli needed to work. He had to detach the mental structure Magnani had acquired in Hollywood. Even the colour of her hair had to be changed. Monicelli asked Totò to restrain himself in order not to leave Magnani in his shadow. The combined result is miraculous, like a documentary on variety theatre."

"The screenplay was strong, based on two stories by Alberto Moravia. Goffredo Fofi has remarked that the majority of Italian movies were based on Moravia - openly or not. Suso Cecchi d'Amico and the duo Age & Scarpelli wrote the script. Monicelli had an innate capacity to condense the subject to a few lines of dialogue, like: 
Totò: May I invite you to a pizza?
Magnani: Got any money?"

"Monicelli had the talent to keep the rhythm going, the whole, the flow."

"Monicelli was 8 years old when the Fascists murdered the MP Giacomo Matteotti. When the newspaper edited by Monicelli's father exposed them, the Fascists destroyed its printing house and beat up the father. – After WWII the father committed suicide, and the corpse was discovered by Mario."

"Monicelli had a marvellous talent to bring tragedy inside comedy, to show profoundly a character's traits."

"He had on his desk a motto from I pensieri by Giacomo Leopardi, the greatest name in Italian poetry:"

"Terrible and awful is the power of laughter: who has the courage to laugh is the master of others. Nobody can find an inner shelter from such laughter. Who has the courage to laugh has all the power on earth". [What I was able to jot down; the original text is in Pensieri / passage 4391 / 23 Settembre 1828]

"Mario Monicelli committed suicide two years ago, and the epitaph he ordered on his grave is: 'Mario Monicelli has never visited the Maldives."

"The surprise short before the feature film is made by two Sicilians, Marisco and Cipri, who had made movies together for a long time. Cinico TV was a special break that used to be shown after the news, presenting only monstrous figures. Marisco and Cipri received a letter from Mediaset, Berlusconi's company, suggesting a short congratulation when Berlusconi had been appointed Prime Minister. The name 'A Silvio' is a variation on Giacomo Leopardi's famous poem 'A Silvia'".

Cinico TV: A Silvio. 1992. A greeting to Berlusconi in the style of Le Pétomane.

Peter von Bagh reminisced on Mario Monicelli's visit to Sodankylä in 1994.

"He seemed sad. It was raining. For the first time with a major guest everything had been ruined, I thought. Years passed. I evaded him. Four years ago Paolo Mereghetti wrote two whole spreads about him in Corriere della Sera, and there Monicelli stated that Sodankylä had been 'the best event where he had ever been in his life'. I met him for lunch one year before his death. This was further proof of the fact that great humorists are extremely melancholy."

A further remark from Gian Luca Farinelli:

"Risate di Gioia was made one year after La dolce vita. It was shot in the summer, but it was supposed to be December. Monicelli had a high regard for Fellini, and in his movie he created a humoristic riposte to Fellini in his scenes at the two fountains, including the Fontana di Trevi, already showing the influence of La dolce vita on American tourists. There is something in common – the night, Rome – yet contrary."

A great comedy about Lello the master thief (Ben Gazzara), his absent-minded partner Umberto (Totò), and Gioia (Anna Magnani), who always makes a mess of Lello's perfect plans.

All the events of the night of the New Year celebrations – a dance, a dinner, a fine party at a palazzo of Germans, a spree with an American tourist, even a visit to the church – are for Lello but opportunities for theft. Either the inept Umberto or the exuberant Gioia – or both – manage to spoil everything for him.

The most devastating humiliations take place in front of the Germans and again at the church ("stolen from the Madonna!"), and it is Gioia who gets to carry the blame and the guilt although it is the wily Lello who has used her as his scapegoat. It is Gioia who goes to jail.

There are satirical scenes from the subway train conductor's home (his lunch box being prepared), a laundry, Cinecittà (Anna Magnani as an extra in a Biblical epic with a single line of dialogue: "Miracolo! Miracolo!"), and in Umberto's home (Umberto is a professional in insurance fraud).

A wonderful and surprising comedy, which in the true tradition of commedia all'italiana is often more serious and disturbing than drama.

The print is excellent.

3X3D

FR/PT 2013. D: Peter Greenaway (Just in Time), Jean-Luc Godard (Les trois désastres / The Three Disasters), Edgar Pêra (Cinesapiens). 2K DCP from Urban Distribution in 3D viewed with Dolby 3D glasses with English subtitles at Cinema Lapinsuu, Sodankylä (Midnight Sun Film Festival), 14 June 2013

The Festival Catalogue: "Jean-Luc Godard's (born 1930) career spans through some of the most visually beautiful shots in cinema (Jean Seberg's face that conveys every possible Faulknerian nuance of happiness and suffering, Brigitte Bardot's proudly perky and rebellious but patriotic bottom clad in Tricolor... ), but, on the other hand, also a lot of the most appalling, provoking and senseless video musch one could produce with 'My First Sony'. The thought of him stepping out of his heavy cloud of cigar smoke to coquet around with the neo-retro 3D medium that is mainly a machine gun for capitalist, commercial spectacles (of course we do remember for example the wonderful contributions by Vincent Price and Alfred Hitchcock) is both a painfully logical and a disturbingly perverted twist."
    "Naturally also involved is Peter Greenaway (born 1942), another amiable nutcase snob par excellence. He, too, has questioned the classical forms of cinema in his works as well as many of his even more theoretical comments for a long time, but, besides, he happens to be also one of the most cultured people when it comes to a more comprehensive and profound knowledge of the history of visual arts."
    "The Portuguese Edgar Pêra (born 1960) is a multi-talent who has made more than a hundred productions not only in film but also in the fields of television, dance, art galleries, the Internet, film concerts, and other media. He is a more unknown character to us who still know so little about the world of cinema, but this does not mean he is not a force to reckon with. A telling fact is that he is known in cinema circles as 'the most stubbornly individualistic Portuguese film-maker'."
    "Anything can be expected from this threesome and their new wild joint venture in three parts and three dimensions. Godard's episode The Three Disasters studies the historical memory of 3D. Greenaway's Just in Time criss-crosses in historic connections spanning over 900 years. And Pêra's Cinesapiens sums up in fast-forward the various formats of film watching from cave paintings through the introductions of sound and colour to the very latest technological developments."
    "So here is a treat with special dimensions - of which there are certainly more than three - and it is fresh out of Cannes!" (Lauri Timonen)

Three explorations into 3D.

Peter Greenaway's Just in Time is a space odyssey: a journey into the depth of architecture, surrounded by virtual reality, with a sense of sacred space, "an immaterial church". Flying transparent writing is a central element in this expensive spectacle which is also a voyage into history. I failed to get this beyond the superficial level.

Jean-Luc Godard's Les trois désastres is a 3D essay into the fabric of Les Histoire(s) du cinéma. The theme: Mémoire historique (holocaust, revolution). There is a low definition, even denatured, video look in the images themselves, and the 3D effect is used for the collage in depth: several images are superimposed on top of each other. The images and the sentences are like incantantions, and a figure like Godard, himself, appears in extreme close-up as a mad sage.

Nanook of the North - Ivan the Terrible - Nuit et brouillard - Nosferatu - Othello (Welles) - The Great Dictator - Madame de... - splatter - Tystnaden? - Tarkovsky? - It's Always Fair Weather - Il deserto rosso - Johnny Guitar - cave paintings - Barefoot Contessa - Arsenal? - The Lady of Shanghai

Mémoire historique - Passeport du réel - Reality lingers between ghosts - Les dés-astres - Lettres et néant - Les mots sont la présence, n'est pas - Reality in reality - Vol la Wittgenstein - Numérique une dictature - Tale told by dogs - Le temps mort - The vain glory of command - Happy times - Pages blanches

Edgar Pêra's Cinesapiens is a lightweight coda to the episode film, from cavemen to the train coming to the station until today.

A playful collection of approaches and experiments. Godard's multi-layered 3D superimpositions can become an interesting model for a new kind of collage.

No problem with the technical quality of the 3D presentation.

Silmäterä / The Princess of Egypt

Jan Forsström: Silmäterä (2013) with Emmi Parviainen (Marja) and Luna Leinonen Botero (Julia).

Ögonstenen.
     FI 2013. PC: Making Movies Oy. P: Kaarle Aho, Kai Nordberg.
     D+SC+ED: Jan Forsström. DP: Päivi Kettunen - DCP: James Post, Tommi Gröhn. AD: Vilja Katramo, Okku Rahikainen. Cost: Kirsi Gum. M: Lau Nau. S: Micke Nyström, Mika Niinimaa, Svante Colerus.
    C: Emmi Parviainen, Luna Leinonen Botero, Ylva Ekblad, Mazdak Nassir, Bahram Peivastegan, Miika Soini, Terhi Suorlahti.
    Loc: Siilitie 9 and 13, Helsinki.
    90 min.
    Distributor: Atlantic Film.
    2K DCP with English subtitles viewed at Cinema Lapinsuu, Sodankylä (Midnight Sun Film Festival), 13 June 2013

In the presence of Jan Forsström.

The Festival Catalogue: ""The centre of 25-year-old Marja's (Emmi Parviainen) life is her 7-year-old daughter, Julia (Luna Leinonen Botero). Marja works nights, so she can spend her days with Julia, playing, being silly and telling stories about The Princess of Egypt and her mother."
    "The harmony of the pair's home is disturbed when they come across Kamaran (Mazdak Nassir), an Iranian immigrant who realizes that he must be Julia's father. Kamaran and Marja have had a brief affair after which Marja didn't tell him about her pregnancy. Kamaran wants to connect with his daughter and, together with his brother and his wife, begins to pressure Marja."
    "Marja fears that Kamaran is planning to abduct Julia. To protect her daughter Marja is ready to go to extremes."" (Press material).
    "The Princess of Egypt is the debut feature film of the director, Jan Forsström, previously known for his screenwriting talent (The Visitor, Last Cowboy Standing, The Good Son). The film, inspired by true events, is a story of a mother's love and xenophobia stemming from insecurity. Fresh acting faces bring to the film a documentary-like realness that the subject calls for. Emmi Parviainen throws herself amidst issues of motherhood with strength and sensitivity. Mazdak Nassir, an award-winning film-maker who some might also recognize as the interpreter of our festival's morning discussions, is also convincing as the 'familiar stranger' who rattles the family balance." (Lauri Timonen)

Jan Forsström told in his introduction that the film was finished on Wednesday last week, and the premiere will take place in September.

In the Q&A after the film Jan Forsström answered to the question whether Silmäterä has been inspired by the recent family killings. A: Here nobody dies. Q: Why did you direct yourself this time, why could you not give this script to someone else to direct? A: It is based on details in true life cases of over ten years ago. They have been in my rear pocket. They have been brewing little by little. Q: Casting? A: Emmi Parviainen was able to project the warmth of motherhood. The seven-year-old Luna Leinonen Botero is a natural talent, and both her parents were supportive. We spent a lot of time together before the film was shot. There are a lot of friends and acquaintances. I see myself more as a screenwriter. Q: The location of Siilitie in Eastern Helsinki? A: The location was selected because of budget reasons. It is the same one as in 21 Ways to Destroy a Marriage, but you cannot recognize it. Q: Editing? A: The editor in me is more severe than the director. I cut the beginning. I take breaks to keep a distance. - We did a lot of rehearsing. The film was shot in chronological order. Emmi also played the police (seen from the back) to make Luna feel more comfortable.

Marja's work as a newspaper deliverer at night and in the early morning hours before dawn brings her into fleeting contact with many kinds of night people. Finland is one of the most or maybe the most newspaper-driven country of the world. We get to see Marja delivering Helsingin Sanomat in broadsheet; in January 2013 that newspaper shrunk, alas, into the tabloid format.

Marja is a single mother, the parent of Julia. The Finnish title of the movie, Silmäterä, is in translation The Apple of the Eye, meaning Julia. The English title, The Princess of Egypt, refers to Julia's favourite fairy-tale, one that her mother has invented for her. (But her father is Iranian).

The movie starts from Marja's viewpoint. We are alarmed when Julia speaks with Kamaran, an Iranian, who starts to realize that he is Julia's father.

Little by little we get to realize the diminished circumstances of Marja and Julia's life. It is full of love and little else. Dinner: fries and ketchup.

There is a friendly lady (Ylva Ekblad) upstairs; apparently a stewardess. She lets Marja and Julia stay in her apartment understanding their concern for Kamaran. She may be in love with Marja.

Our viewpoint starts to change when Marja buys an illegal handgun and when Marja and Julia run rampant in the elegant apartment of the stewardess.

Slowly we realize that Marja is deranged, and working night shifts does not make her condition any better. Marja is losing control of her life. She starts to resort to her gun. She brings home a canister of petrol, spreads it all over the hall and starts a vigil, believing Kamaran's people are out to get Julia.

But even Julia gets afraid of her mother, and in the finale Marja herself realizes that she needs professional help and brings Julia to the police, to safety from herself.

There seems to be a trend of portraits of crazy women in Finnish cinema.

There is a fine sense of rhythm and tension in Silmäterä. The flow is compelling, the editing is assured. The sound design is captivating.

I like the natural, lively colour design in the cinematography. I have little to complain in the digital presentation. Only in the forest footage the limits of digital are displayed.

La Cina è vicina / China Is Near

IT 1967. D: Marco Bellocchio. This print 109 min. A Cineteca Nazionale (Roma) print viewed with e-subtitles in English at Koulu / The Kitisenranta School, Sodankylä (Midnight Sun Film Festival), 13 June 2013

In the presence of Marco Bellocchio interpreted by Elina Suolahti.

The Festival Catalogue: "Like Fists in the Pocket, also China Is Near features a chilling landscape that reflects a petty, unwell and introverted community, in which the modes of behaviour repeat themselves with a viral resilience. All rebellion is doomed to fail and there is no room for revolutionary thought."
   "The film tracks the efforts of middle-class Vittorio to succeed in the local election. Perhaps the greatest of all adversaries is his underage little brother. Camillo is a profound supporter of the Maoist ultra left wing, but still he does not manage to shake the foundations of power by violent means. Bellocchio gives the theme of a failed revolution - a kind of an impotence of the ideological side of life - a pronouncedly satirical form, which is coloured by radical shock effects, such as the idea of an ailing, underage girl being gang raped as a politically justifiable manoeuvre. During the making of the film, Mao's ideology was strongly present also in Italy as a consequence of the Chinese Cultural Revolution that began in 1966. The dual plot of the film is partly melodramatic and partly political, concerning both class divisions and party politics."
   "Clodagh J. Brook wrote a book on the director, defining the fascinating and multi-dimensional result as follows: ”If we did not know that Bellocchio was a left-wing sympathizer, this film could easily be read as a piece of anti-left propaganda - showing the left as fragmented, ineffectual, and morally hypocritical.”" (Lauri Timonen)

In his words for introduction Marco Bellocchio stated that "this film is entirely different than Fists in the Pocket. It is about politics, in modo diverso, in another way, quasi farsesca, farcically. Fists in the Pocket is a tragedy, China Is Near is a farce. From the Italian political parties it deals with the entire Left. Around 1966 there was a Socialist party, a Communist party, and a Maoist extremist party. I hope you will be able to navigate. I hope it will not be boring."

Bellocchio stayed to see the film, and commented afterwards: "It has been a long time since I have seen this movie myself. The events discussed here may be rather unknown for you. At that time there was still class struggle in Italy. There was a petit-bourgeoisie, a working-class, and an aristocracy. The situation has changed. The political parties reflected the current class struggle which hardly exists anymore. This comedy farce deals only with the Left, the four Leftist groups. It was released in 1967, shortly before the great protests of the student movements, which also led to terrorism among certain groups. The Maoist group was tiny and had rather a folkloristic character back then. First later came the period of violent terrorism."

Q: The reception? A: "It was a success with the audience. It dealt with political conflicts in a juicy fashion. Also critics lauded the movie. Outside Italy the success was more limited than had been the case with Fists in the Pocket".

Q: The name of the movie? A: "It was the name of a book, written by a journalist, and I asked for permission to use it. It was a slogan of a tiny group. The Maoist slogan does not correspond to reality - it is irrational, absurd, paradoxical - it was not a threat. And of course, in Italian prononciation, the title is a rhyme - La CINA è viCINA."

"The Miniature Schnauzer was in fashion with sophisticated families. The actress who played Elina had brought her own dog to the set, and that's how it was introduced into the movie."

"The Leftist parties had already given up on their radical, revolutionary demands, and become more focused on matters of administration."

"The entire party system has changed in Italy. There is not a trace of the traditional party system. Partito Democratico is the only traditional party, founded after the Communist Party."

"A social mission for a film was a way of thinking in the 1960s, but I think differently. For instance in Bella addormentata I was not thinking about a message about euthanasia."

Q: Did the print do justice to the film? A: "Unfortunately it was very mediocre, and did not convey the work of the great cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli."

I have no way of knowing how much of this movie is a caricature and how much it reflects reality. The central figure, Vittorio, is a Socialist professor who seems to be a stranger in his own life. The middle-class compagno openly admits in a party event that he has already been active in four parties.

Much of the action is sabotage. There is a riot in a political speech event; the professor loses his temper in a revelatory way when a rascal boy steals his notes; in the ensuing riot the professor's car is demolished. There is a sequence with a time bomb; it explodes without harming people. In the conclusion big dogs are introduced into the party conference, and a cat is installed on the professor's shoulder...

The private lives of Vittorio and his sister are a mess. Vittorio seduces his secretary Giovanna. Elena is well-known for her ways of free love, but their accountant Carlo makes her pregnant, and although there is a sequence in an abort clinic, Elena decides to keep the baby. Inspired by this, Giovanna gets pregnant, too (by Carlo), and lets Vittorio think the baby is his. Thus both Giovanna and Carlo marry themselves into the family mansion.

Camillo, the teenage brother of Vittorio and Elena, is a Maoist, but it is rather a matter of pranks and quirky ideas about "sex as politics". There is an affinity with the world of Godard's La Chinoise in this dimension of the movie.

In the character of Vittorio there are affinities with Tony (Edward Fox) in The Servant. Also here the "servants" are the more vital and focused characters.

In the funny conclusion Elena and Giovanna perform exercises for expecting women together.

Like in Fists in the Pocket, the commento musicale by Ennio Morricone introduces an interesting dimension, and also here there is a strong opera theme, a big crowd scene from one of the epic operas of Giuseppe Verdi as Vittorio and Elena visit their opera box. The room echo of the post-synchronization has a distancing effect.

The visual quality of the print: low definition, duped look, not quite sharp.

Romanssi / Romance (2013)

FI © 2013 Reppufilmi. D: Anssi Mänttäri. A Reppufilmi 2K DCP with English subtitles by Mikko Lyytikäinen viewed at Iso Teltta / The Big Top, Sodankylä (Midnight Sun Film Festival), 12 June 2013

Presented by Anssi Mänttäri. "Vielä yöllä tietokone raksutti" - last night the computer was still rattling away with this movie. There was a technical glitch with the first file, but another one was soon on its way and quickly installed. "I imagined this would be a romantic comedy, but then we realized it is not romantic neither a comedy. The genre is Mänttäri genre."

The Festival Catalogue: "The founding father of the brainchild that is the Midnight Sun Film Festival and also the King of Finnish alternative cinema, Anssi Mänttäri, gazes into the mysteries of love in his most recent film, Romance."
   "A man meets a woman on the street and is convinced that they've had shared moments of happiness several years ago. However, the woman can't recall their common past and is forced to play a guessing game with the stranger."
   "The setting of several encounters between the couple is Bar Mendocino, which is located in downtown Helsinki. It appears nestled in the light of neon signs and snow that slowly descends. Mänttäri's blues-filled world is constructed upon subtle snapshots of some philosophical moments. It follows the path of the protagonists, but dares to digress occasionally."
   "The harmonious swing of this movie sneaks under the skin of the spectator in quite a seductive manner. The essence of love is likely to remain yet a mystery but as always, Mänttäri's approach on the subject is warm and humane." (LT)

The male protagonist has a surefire pick-up line: "we have had an affair years ago". The movie is based on flashbacks of memory exercises about various affairs over the years, but finally there is no memory match between the man and the woman. In the conclusion the female protagonist overhears the man applying the pick-up line to the next woman. Herself, she has been obsessed by a memory of a pianist in Bar Mendocino ten years ago, and as she is leaving the place in a disillusioned mood she suddenly overhears the familiar sound of the pianist ("Tuuli tuo unohduksen" = "The Wind Will Bring Oblivion"). There is a ray of hope in the unhappy ending.

I liked: - The unique Anssi Mänttäri approach. - The funny memory sketch flashbacks. - The interesting cast of characters. - The witty dialogue. "You know nothing about solitude until you have married."

Until the recent digital turn Anssi Mänttäri's movies had a good visual quality. Now it is low definition digital.

I pugni in tasca / Fists in the Pocket (in the presence of Marco Bellocchio)

Marco Bellocchio: I pugni in tasca / Fists in the Pocket (IT 1965) with Lou Castel (Alessandro) and Paola Pitagora (Giulia).

IT 1965. D: Marco Bellocchio. Print: 108 min. A Cineteca Nazionale print with e-subtitles in English viewed at Cinema Lapinsuu, Sodankylä (Midnight Sun Film Festival), 12 June 2013

The official opening screening of the Festival, presented by Marco Bellocchio and Marino Masé introduced by Peter von Bagh.

The Festival Catalogue: "Marco Bellocchio's Fists in the Pocket is still an amazing debut that strikes mercilessly into the core of bourgeois family values and Catholic moralism. A family living in the isolation of Northern Italian mountains is thoroughly decadent. One of the children - young, rebellious and epileptic Alessandro as played by Lou Castel - decides to clean up the mess and gradually starts eliminating the other family members, so that his big brother, who is the only sane person in the group, could have a normal life."
   "The built-in cold provinciality of the director's own childhood landscape (the Emilia-Romagna region) created the canvas for the themes of incest, suffocation, madness and death that the director paints with harsh strokes: brother Leone is feebleminded, Ale and his mentally fragile sister Giulia flirt incestuously, the whole scheme is getting out of hand…"
    "Common family dinners are the focal point of the satirical attack, and the family's cold and insensitive mother - a character that appears also in many subsequent Bellocchio films - is blind (in this case also concretely, not forgetting the power of the allegory)."
   "Despite its small budget, Fists in the Pocket received some of the best reviews of the year of its release, being a success also at the box office. Tellingly, the film's original working title was “Igiene familiar” (“Family Hygiene”). Its candid touch carries a rebellion against institutions and authorities, a trait that was strong with so many other coeval 60s filmmakers (Bertolucci, Ferreri, Godard, etc.)" (Lauri Timonen)

AA: I see for the first time Marco Bellocchio's explosive and anarchic debut film about the mad son Alessandro set to destroying his own family, starting with murdering his blind mother and then killing his little brother suffering from epilepsy (like Alessandro) and mental retardation. Meanwhile, Alessandro cultivates an incestuous affair with his mentally unbalanced sister Giulia.

This movie is like a spell, an incantation, an act of exorcism. Evil spirits run rampant. The Dostoyevsky connection would be Demons (Besy); its Swedish title is Onda andar (Evil Spirits); the Finnish title is Riivaajat (Tormenting Spirits). 

Bellocchio stages his horrible tragedy with great psychological power yet without exaggeration. In fact, the characters suffer from lethargy. The post-synchronization provides a perhaps unintentional distancing effect. Ennio Morricone's music brings a haunting special dimension, and the climax is dominated by Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata.

In the history of Italian cinema Bellocchio's film stands out as an extremely harsh attack towards conventional, pretty, and idealized views of family life. Bellocchio is a contemporary of Bertolucci and Pasolini, but there is more fury in Bellocchio's cinema. There is an affinity with the contemporary movies of Nagisa Oshima.

The print is complete and clean but with a duped and low contrast look. I hesitate to say this, but the Criterion Collection dvd looks superior.

Ajomies / The Driver / [The Trackmaster] (2013)

FI 2013. PC: Aamu. D+SC: Jarkko T. Laine, Jani-Petteri Passi. Digital intermediate: Generator Post. 2K DCP with English subtitles by Aretta Vähälä viewed at Cinema Lapinsuu, Sodankylä (Midnight Sun Film Festival), 12 June 2013

The Festival Catalogue: "The leisurely environment of an almost lethargic horsetrack provides a superb setting to Jarkko T. Laine and J-P Passi's Ajomies, which premieres at this year's Midnight Sun Film Festival. The filmmakers have bravely left their story - centring on a trackmaster (Matti Laine) caught between two women - clean of any superfluous modern frills. At home plans are being made for a shared future, while at the track's maintenance pit passions flare, and in no time the fumbling trackmaster finds himself at the centre of a slowly developing chaos. On top of everything he is plagued by that most Finnish of maladies: indecision."
   "Laine and Passi have cast Ajomies with newcomers and the film achieves a charmingly languid atmosphere that can without a doubt be partly contributed to Auli Mantila, who also worked on the film. The loop of the racecourse almost seems to become a visual metaphor of those circular arguments that rattle our everyday lives, and which are also shaken by many signs of the insufficiency of time as the story progresses." (Lauri Timonen)

I liked: - The documentary account of the professionalism at the horsetrack and at its maintenance garage. - The authentic detail of the milieu and the lifestyle of the protagonists. - The authors have a good ear for dialogue.

The movie is anti-dramatic due to the male protagonist who is helpless, passive, and mostly reacting to circumstances. The two women are the active ones, yet this is the man's story. Also the other male characters seem lost, and their almost fatal crash seems symbolic.

There is a disregard to visual quality in this movie which is in low definition.

Käsilaukku / The Handbag

FI 2013. PC: Elokuvayhtiö Aamu. P: Jussi Rantamäki, Auli Mantila. D: Mikko Myllylahti. SC: Auli Mantila. DP: Juice Huhtala. Digital post: Generator Post. Cost: Sanna Levo. M: Antti Tuomivaara. S: Jussi Rantala. ED: Tuula Mehtonen. C: Sinna Virtanen, Elias Keränen, Auli Mantila, Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Heikki Vilja, Jenny Dahlström, Konsta Väänänen, Patrick Mitzner, Tea Selin. 27 min. 2K DCP from Elokuvayhtiö Aamu with English subtitles by Aretta Vähälä viewed at Cinema Lapinsuu, Sodankylä (Midnight Sun Film Festival), 12 June 2013

The Festival Catalogue: "The new filmic short story by Mikko Myllylahti (b. 1980), known as a poet and short film maker, is about a hotel cleaner who finds a handbag. The young woman, whose own romantic aspirations happen to be shattered, finds herself clinging to a letter found inside the bag. The next phases of this leading motive, which has repercussions in many directions and many people's lives, drive the cleaner to see an older woman, the owner of the handbag. The troubles of a more mature relationship and betrayals criss-cross captivatingly in the web of coincidences..."
    "Auli Mantila, who wrote the screenplay and, once again, gives a subtly intensive performance, brings to a fairly ordinary story a dramaturgic wit, freshening up the narration and wiring up the tensions between characters with electricity and sparks."
    "Why do people write each other letters anyway? Aren't words basically just knives hidden in a piece of paper?" (Lauri Timonen)

What I liked in this movie belonging to The Finnish Short Film Story Project (2012): - The feeling of tension is skillfully developed. - The performances are fine. - The sound world is intriguing.

The key scene is the intervention of the husband (Hannu-Pekka Björkman) to the action of the young hotel maintenance woman (Sinna Virtanen) who has had the notion of intervening in the lives of the married couple by exposing the husband to the love letter she found in the wife's (Auli Mantila) handbag. "Rakkaus ei ole mitään romantiikaa. Toinen ihminen on aiheuttamansa tuskan arvoinen." ("Love has nothing to do with romanticism. Another person is worthy of the pain she's inflicting.")

There is a trend of portraits of unbalanced young women in the Finnish cinema.

The visual quality: low definition look.

Los amantes pasajeros / I'm So Excited!

Matkarakastajat / I'm So Excited! ES 2013 © 2012 El Deseo. D: Pedro Almodóvar. 90 min. Preview of a Future Film release with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Janne Kauppila, Sofia Deniz / Heidi Nyblom Kuorikoski. 2K DCP viewed at Cinema Lapinsuu, Sodankylä (Midnight Sun Film Festival), 12 June 2013

The English title is from the song "I'm So Excited" by Pointer Sisters.

The Festival Catalogue: "Screening in Sodankylä before its official Finnish premiere, Spanish maestro Pedro Almodóvar's new absurd comedy takes place on board a plane flying from Madrid towards Mexico City. Up in the air it becomes apparent that the plane is headed for trouble. Fear of death takes over the cabin, along with liquor. Soon enough both passengers and crew members alike begin to open up with irrevocable honesty about their feelings as well as their secrets…"
   "I'm So Excited, filled with Almodóvar regulars such as Cecilia Roth and Lola Dueñas, has been called the Spanish director's return to the world of his anarchistic, hilariously funny and uninhibitedly profane 1980s comedies, where all flowers had equal right to bloom brightly. Naturally, well-established stars Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas also pop by for a cameo."
   "Almodóvar has always had the charming ability to combine moments of soulful melodrama and high octane emotion with cheeky, palate-cleansing adult humor straight from the heart of alternative culture. Every now and then the film flies near the beloved airplane movies of the Zucker/Zucker/Abrahams group, but on the other hand, Almodóvar's crashlanding-bound aircraft can also be taken as a metaphor for Spain's current struggle to stay economically afloat."
   "And naturally, while gasping for their last breaths, the passengers put together one last orgy in true Almodóvarian spirit: death is best faced with the happiest facets of life, preferably with your pants around your ankles!" (Lauri Timonen)

A sex comedy with a musical production number inspired by the ZAZ Airplane! movies with parodies of gay stereotypes like in La Cage aux folles, this is something new from Pedro Almodóvar. Not one of his movies of the most profound substance but a genre piece like The Skin I Live In. We were laughing out loud in this first screening of the Midnight Sun Film Festival.

I liked: - The limited animation credit sequences. - The hyperbright colour schemes. - The funny repartee. - Visual inserts such as the close-up of the rotating turbine. - The facial studies of the sleeping passengers. - The "I'm So Excited!" production number. - The emergency landing conveyed only via sound and shots of the empty airport halls. - The sequence of the emergency evacuation of the airplane in the giant foam bubbles along a rubber landing gear.

In a farcical and parodical way this movie is also about the situation of Europe with references to the recent revelations of epic financial fraud, the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sex scandals and the Russian (and Mexican) way of disposing with enemies. - On board the plane to Mexico there is a bank director trying to elope after the criminal circumstances of his bankruptcy have been exposed. - There is also an infamous dominatrix Madame who has started right after the Franco era and has reportedly collected a video library of the top 600 of Spain (but says later it is but a rumour that she keeps spreading). - Further there is a hitman who says his next hit would be the last; the hit should be the Madame, but he "never kills a woman". After retirement he plans facial surgery ("I'll miss my nose").

Steven Soderbergh has made a Liberace movie, Behind the Candelabra. Even more I would have looked forward to Pedro Almodóvar's view of the pianist. "Martha, Martha, you worry so much, but only one thing counts". Love. Tenderness is the Almodóvar hallmark behind the candelabra, the surface glitter, the madness, the twisted plots, the brilliant colour, the fathomless sex drive. Nothing else matters.

The digital look is used as a means of expression. Pedro Almodóvar is reinventing his bright, loud and bold colour world in digital.

The Great Escape

Gesprengte Ketten / Suuri pakoretki / Den stora flykten.
    DE/US © 1963 Mirisch-Alpha. PC: The Mirisch Company, Inc.; Alpha Corp. Original distributor: United Artists Corp.
    P+D: John Sturges. SC: James Clavell, W. R. Burnett – based on the non-fiction book (1950) by Paul Brickhill. DP: Daniel L. Fapp – colour by DeLuxe – Panavision. AD: Fernando Carrère. Set dec: Kurt Ripberger. Props: Frank Agnone. SFX: Paul Pollard. Cost: Bert Henrikson. Makeup: Emile LaVigne. M: Elmer Bernstein. S: Harold Lewis – Westrex Recording System. ED: Ferris Webster.
    Production: 4.6.–late October, 1962, Bavaria Studios, Geiselgasteig, Germany. Technical consultants: C. Wallace Floody, Paul Brickhill.
    C: Steve McQueen (Captain Virgil Hilts USAAF, "The Cooler King"), James Garner (Flight Lieutenant Bob Hendley DFC RAF, "The Scrounger"), Richard Attenborough (Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett DFC RAF, "Big X"), James Donald (Group Captain Ramsey DSO MC RAF, "The SBO [Senior British Officer]"), Charles Bronson (Flight Lieutenant Danny Velinski DSC DFC RAF, a "tunnel king"), Donald Pleasence (Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe RAF, "The Forger"), James Coburn (Flying Officer Louis Sedgwick RAAF, "The Manufacturer"), Hannes Messemer (Oberst von Luger, "The Kommandant"), David McCallum (Lieutenant-Commander Eric Ashley-Pitt DSC RN, "Dispersal"), Gordon Jackson (Flight Lieutenant Andy 'Mac' MacDonald RAF, "Intelligence"), John Leyton (Flight Lieutenant William 'Willie' Dickes RAF, a "tunnel king"), Angus Lennie (Flying Officer Archibald 'Archie' Ives RAF, "The Mole"), Nigel Stock (Flight Lieutenant Denis Cavendish RAF, "The Surveyor"), Robert Graf (Werner, "The Ferret"), Jud Taylor (First Lieutenant Goff USAAF), Harry Riebauer (Hauptfeldwebel Strachwitz, "The Security Sergeant"), William Russell (Flight Lieutenant Sorren RAF, "Security"), Robert Freitag (Hauptmann Posen, "The Adjutant"), Ulrich Beiger (Preissen, Gestapo), George Mikell (SS-Obersturmführer Dietrich), Lawrence Montaigne (Flying Officer Haynes RCAF, "Diversions"), Robert Desmond (Flying Officer 'Griff' Griffith RAF, "The Tailor"), Til Kiwe (Frick, "The Ferret"), Heinz Weiss (Kramer, "The Ferret"), Tom Adams (Flight Lieutenant 'Dai' Nimmo RAF, "Diversions"), Karl-Otto Alberty (SS-Untersturmführer Steinach).
    Helsinki premiere: 30.8.1963 Bio Rex, released by: UA United Artists Pictures Inc. – re-release: 21.3.1975 Adams – telecasts: 23.12.1994 MTV3, 28.12.2010 Yle TV2 – vhs: 1983 Scanvideo, Musiikki Fazer – PCA 20399 – VET 66300 – K16 – 4780 m / 175 min.
    A vintage KAVA print deposited by UIP (MGM-UA) with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Bror Labart / Stina Labart viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (50 Years Ago), 9 June 2013

I saw this most popular of the WWII prison camp movies for the first time. It belongs to a distinguished genre. Jean Renoir, himself an officer of the French Air Force and a POW veteran, directed the best of them, La Grande Illusion, about WWI.

Noteworthy aspects in The Great Escape include:

1. The focus on professionalism. These prisoners remain soldiers also in prison, and their mission is to cause maximum trouble to the Germans.

2. The absence of hate. The Germans and the Allied are enemies, but it's all strictly professional, and there is no ad hominem aspect in the relationship.

3. It is not a matter of mutual respect, though. The Allied do not respect the Germans who let Hitler and the Gestapo reign the way they do.

4. Oberst von Luger (Hannes Messemer) is a victim, too. He knows how it all will end, and he would like to have the war play itself out without further trouble. The Allied prisoners decide otherwise. Almost all the fugitives are finally executed by the Gestapo, as is apparently Oberst von Luger.

5. The Great Escape is a fantastic account of a big, elaborate, and professional organization. It is a secret organization, and in that sense The Great Escape resembles big caper movies. Every little link is vital in the huge chain. Any mistake can become fatal. The pressure can become too much to bear. Weaknesses need to be acknowledged. Panic, anxiety, claustrophobia, and weakening eyesight are among the problems that have to be dealt with. Craziness has to be acknowledged, too: on the Fourth of July everybody gets drunk with moonshine liquour. The Great Escape is a study in the organization of labour and in leadership seen from an exceptional angle.

6. There is a documentary passion in the detail.

7. The cast is excellent. Steve McQueen may be the star, but Richard Attenborough's understated performance as the project leader of the prison break is the most memorable.

8. There are no women in main roles or supporting roles. There is no romantic interest.

9. The rhythm and the mise-en-scène also express the concept of professionalism (first think, then act). This is an action film where the action is not expressed via exaggerated speed or editing.

10. There is an American bias. While the movie is largely based on facts, in reality none of the fugitives were American. Of the actors Donald Pleasence was an actual RAF and POW veteran.

11. I was struck by the focus on intelligence in this legendary spectacle.

The print viewed has been in heavy use with "rain" pouring in the heads and the tails of the reels. The colour is intact, and the print gives an ok cinema experience of the epic.

Pași spre lună / First Steps to the Moon

Pași spre lună / First Steps to the Moon. Photo from the IMDb.

Kohti Kuuta / First Steps to the Moon / Steps Towards the Moon. RO 1963. PC: Studioul Cinematografiul Bucuresti. D+SC: Ion Popescu-Gopo. DP: Stefan Horvath. AD: Marcel Bogos. Cost: Nelly Merola. Makeup: Alexandru Popescu. M: Dumitru Capioanu. Song: "E pur si muove".
    Characters and performers: A flight passenger to the Moon (Radu Beligan), Troglodytes, Prometheus (Florin Piersic), Cupid, The Woman on the Moon, Mercurius (Grigore Vasiliu-Birlic), The Caliph of Bagdad (Ovidiu Teodorescu), Artemis (Irina Petrescu), Dracula (Ion Manu), The Alchemist, Galileo Galilei (George Demetru), Leonardo da Vinci (Emil Botta), La Gioconda (Eugenia Popovici), Cyrano de Bergerac, Baron von Münchhausen (Marcel Anghelescu), Jules Verne. - More performers: Horia Caciulescu, Horia Serbanescu, Liliana Tomescu.
    After the two opening introductory captions there is no such dialogue or text in the film that requires translation.
    A special screening in Helsinki: 21.8.1964 Scala, released by: Suomi-Filmi – VET 69676 – S – 1645 m / 60 min.
    A vintage KAVA print deposited by Suomi-Filmi, no subtitles required, viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (50 Years Ago), 9 June, 2013

A flight of fancy, a comic science fantasy.

A satire on the space age: a traveller to the Moon decides to have a shave on the airport, and when he plugs his electric razor in the socket, the entire airport goes dark. In the darkness the protagonist stumbles until he falls into the bottom of a cave and follows the mankind's history of the dreams of flying and awareness about outer space: Prometheus, Cupid, Mercurius, flying carpets of Bagdad, Artemis, a winged batman Dracula, an alchemist, Galilei, Leonardo, Cyrano, Baron Münchhausen, Jules Verne...

The concept seems to be that dreams of flying are what separate us from cavemen.

The main story is a dream. When the framing story continues the electricity having been plugged on again, the traveller recognizes the mythological dream figures in his fellow passengers. The dream Woman of the Moon also emerges in flesh and blood.

There are some funny ideas in the movie: - When the hero helps Prometheus fight the eagle he also gets to readjust Prometheus's fake beard. - The hero's roasted ducks are eaten with a healthy appetite by Mercurius and the Caliph of Bagdad. - There is a run in the flying carpet, and the hero and Artemis meet on the thread. - Leonardo da Vinci pretends to be painting La Gioconda, but he is actually making sketches of flying machines.

There are also rather tired jokes such as the Italian-style pop song "E pur si muove" production number to the scene of Galilei at the stake and the hero's regression to using Galilei's telescope to peek a woman undressing for a swim. There is a feeling of inspiration in the beginning, but it starts to evaporate towards the conclusion.

The music is often magnificent, and versatile with the pop insert, some The Shadows -style instrumental rock (known in Finland as rautalanka), and a famous Romanian theme.

Much of the action takes place against a black background, like in space.

The print is complete and flawless, and it has been shown perhaps only a couple of times before. The visual quality is good but not like it has been struck from the negative.

The Burglar

The Burglar. Dan Duryea, Martha Vickers.

Murto yössä / Brott i natten / Inbrottstjuven. US © 1957 Columbia Pictures Corp. PC: Samson Productions, Inc. Distribution Company: Columbia Pictures Corp. P: Louis W. Kellman. D: Paul Wendkos. SC: David Goodis - based on his novel (1953). DP: Don Malkames. AD: Jim Leonard. Makeup: Josephine Cianelli. Hair: Gary Elliot. M: Sol Kaplan. Bassoon solo: S. Schoenbach of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Song: "You Are Mine," music and lyrics by Bob Marcucchi and Pete DeAngelo, sung by Vince Carson. Sound Engineer: Ed Johnstone; Re-Recording Engineer: Albert Gramalla; Supervisor Sound Editor: Norman Kasow; Sound Effects: John Peckham; Re-Recording: Dichter Sound Studios. ED: Herta Horn, Paul Wendkos. Technical Advisor: Captain Maurice R. Pilner (Philadelphia Police Department).
    C: Dan Duryea [(Nat Harbin)], Jayne Mansfield [(Gladden)], Martha Vickers [(Della)], Peter Capell [(Baylock)], Mickey Shaughnessy [(Dohmer)], Wendell Phillips [(Police captain)], Phoebe Mackay [(Sister Sara)], and Introducing Stewart Bradley [(Charlie)], Frank Orrison, Sam Ebber, Ned Carey, John Boyd, Michael Rich, George Kane, Sam Cresson, Ruth Burnat, John Facenda (News commentator), Frank Hall (News reporter), Bob Wilson (Newsreel narrator), Steve Allison (State trooper), Richard Emery (Harbin as a child), Andrea McLaughlin (Gladden as a child).
    Produced: late Jul--late Aug 1955. Loc: Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Brigantine (New Jersey), Atlantic City (New Jersey).
    Helsinki premiere: 22.11.1957 Allotria, Edison, released by Columbia Films Oy Ab. – VET 47600 – K16 – 2470 m / 90 min
    A SFI-Filmarkivet print (Inbrottstjuven) with Swedish subtitles by Tore Metzer viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Carte blanche à Tapani Maskula), 7 June, 2013

An original big caper story, fundamentally a "vanitatum vanitas" story like all the classics of the genre. 

Paul Wendkos's debut fictional feature is still impressive to watch for several reasons. This is obviously a film meant by the director to be a showcase of what he can do. The screenplay by David Goodis based on his novel is a solid genre piece with twists.

Paul Wendkos served in the Navy in WWII and had already made a documentary feature called Dark Interlude (1953).

The approach to violence is serious. Nat Harbin is a professional burglar. He never carries a gun and always avoids violence, rather using his brains, patience, and psychology. He even takes risks by simply leaving the room when threatened at gunpoint.

The documentary impulse is strong. The Rififi-style account of the burglary, which needs to be conducted in fifteen minutes, emphasizes professionalism. Also the account of the police detective work seems authentic: the patience in trying to identify Nat from photographs in the criminal register, and the police draughtsman's slow progress in getting closer and closer by drawing new versions of Nat's facial features.

The movie was largely shot on location. There is a unique perspective to the Philadelphia monuments when seen from the shadowy viewpoint of Nat, a fugitive from the law. Atlantic City becomes a hiding place because a wanted man can best hide in great anonymous crowds.

There is a special satiric insight into news information media. The pre-credit sequence is a pastiche newsreel from which Nat learns about the rich spiritualist Sister Sarah and her fabulous emerald necklace. The burglary itself needs to be conducted during the 15 minute newscast of John Facenda of whom Sister Sarah is a devotee. I like the subtle media satire in these sequences.

I also like the refined satire of the spiritualism of Sister Sarah, reputedly a seer into our spiritual unconscious, yet unable to recognize Gladden as a spy sent by the burglars' gang.

The cinematography by Don Malkames is constantly exciting, ranging from solid documentary insight to expressive views such as the long shadows of the burglars on Sister Sarah's lawn and the "subjective" viewpoint of the safe deposit box as Sister Sarah discovers that her emeralds are gone. When rogue cops start to round up the burglar's gang their faces are not shown. The conclusion at the Steel Pier auditorium is visually powerful. There are also impressive instances of the subjective camera, such as in the tragic ending when the rogue cop shoots Nat.

Train shots are used as rhytmical, recurrent inserts.

The big band jazz score by Sol Kaplan is full of excitement, even going over the top, but it works.

Paul Wendkos elicits unusual performances from his actors. Jayne Mansfield is "plain Jayne" here. Dan Duryea shakes his usual smirk off.

Jayne Mansfield, hired by the producer Louis W. Kellman, got her first starring role as Gladden in The Burglar shot in the summer of 1955. The release of the film was intentionally delayed into 1957, when Mansfield had expectedly become a big Broadway and Hollywood star. She acts here in low key, in contrast to her Tashlinesque breakthrough roles. Gladden has fallen in love with Nat, her protector, but the feeling is not reciprocated, since Nat feels he's like a big brother to her. But "I'm a woman, flesh and blood, I've got feelings, and night after night I have needed attention". Gladden is easy prey to the Atlantic City boyfriend Charlie, who is actually one of the rogue cops who are after the emerald loot.

The crime intrigue is not the main point of the movie. The Burglar is a psychological story of Nat Harbin, an orphan, rescued from the orphanage by a stepfather, Gerald, who turned out to be a burglar. Gerald taught Nat everything, including the code of no violence ("No gun. You do a job, you do it clean".). He made Nat give him a word to "always take care" of his daughter Gladden. Three years later Gerald was shot during a burglary. There is even something Gatsbyesque in the Nat-Gerald relationship. Perhaps something even more intimate ("it went deeper than that"), but the Della relationship at least partly covers such assumptions.

Nat has become a good reader of people, with a strong insight in psychology. When he meets Della at the bar he soon gets to hear her full life story. Although Della is an accomplice of the rogue cops she would be willing to step on Nat's side if he would want so. Made during the Production Code The Burglar comes close to recognizing certain facts of life whose presentation was banned by the Code. ("I was 17. I went to Chicago, city of opportunity. Sir Galahad ran a model agency, that's what he called it. There was a bunch of creeps with cameras." - "I met an eligible bachelor, a nice guy. We got married, we were happy. Then some joker showed him one of the special photographs. He did not even bother to hit me.").

Martha Vickers gives one of the unusual performances in The Burglar. She had been Carmen Sternwood in Howard Hawks's The Big Sleep, but Della is a much more complex and interesting character. "Who hurt you?" is Nat's question to Della, who comes from a broken home, a big family in a two room apartment in Youngstown, Ohio.

Nat's daring intrigue in Atlantic City, seemingly crazy, is based on strong psychological intuition and a chess sense. A strategy without violence from his side.

The Orson Welles inspiration, evident in the opening (bringing to mind Citizen Kane), is reconfirmed in the ending, which takes place at the fairground and at a gallery of horrors (evoking The Lady from Shanghai). These are hommages, not cases of imitation.

There is much to admire in The Burglar, but the strongest contribution is that of Dan Duryea as the protagonist Nat. This is the best performance I have seen from Duryea. He was always good as a sneering, creepy figure in many classic films noirs, for instance in films by Fritz Lang. There is nothing of the sort here. Nat Harbin is a tragic figure, caught in a career and a lifestyle of crime, trying to prevent violence, trying to protect Gladden from the advances of his accomplices, a conflicted character who seems to be halfway wanting to get caught, of which even the police has a hunch.

Dan Duryea plays Nat straight, without a sneer. His Nat Harbin is a memorable portrait of suffering and agony.

The definition of light is fine and does justice to the ambitious cinematography of Don Malkames in this vintage print.

The Finnish Chamber of Films 90 Years

The Finnish Chamber of Films (Suomen Filmikamari r.y.) is the central organization of Finnish film business associations. It was founded on 11 January, 1923, and until 1940 it was called Suomen Biografiliitto r.y. Members include The Finnish Film Exhibitors' Association (154 cinemas, 285 screens) and The Finnish Film Distributors' Association (23 members). It also houses the office of The Central Organization of Finnish Film Producers (49 companies). The President is Mr. Juha Mäkelä, the Vice-President Ms. Liisi Jauho, and the Chief Executive Officer is Mr. Tero Koistinen.

Filmikamari has had a central role in film politics. It launched the nationwide Finnish film (self-)censorship on its premises, and it has been instrumental in the founding of the Finnish Film Archive, the Finnish Film Foundation, the School Film Association, and Favex.

Today Filmikamari celebrates its 90th anniversary at the Astoria Hall, which from 1920 until 1987 served as a cinema known as Astoria, Empire, Astor, Takatie, and Takaportti. (In its last phase the cinema presented its regular evening repertoire as Astoria. Also known as The Back Door, it showed X-rated daytime fare with a special entrance.)

Industry awards were given to the film producers Timo Koivusalo and Markus Selin and to the cinema enterpreneurs Kimmo Lohman (Kauniainen, Vantaa) and Toivo Reijonen (Kirkkonummi), and to Merja Tolvanen, who has for a long time been responsible for accounting and statistics at Filmikamari.

There were many veterans present with experience dating back to the post-WWII years, a golden age of cinemas. There were cinema families with a continuity of three generations, some of them since over a hundred years. There were participants from all over the country.

The times have been difficult and turbulent for cinema owners since the late 1950s, and even more difficult since the 1980s, but the last years have been a turning-point to the better thanks to digitalization. This party is a celebration of the fighters and the survivors who believe that movies belong to the cinema, that nothing can surpass the engrossing audience experience of a good movie on a screen larger than the living-room wall.

Programmes at TIFF Cinematheque / TIFF Bell Lightbox (Toronto)

Werner Schroeter: Palermo oder Wolfsburg (DE 1981). Nicola Zarbo (Nicola).

TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West, Toronto.

JUNE-AUGUST 2013
A Century of Chinese Cinema, guests: Chen Kaige, Johnnie To, Jackie Chan. Curator: Noah Cowan.
Jacques Demy. Curator: James Quandt
Paradise regained: Demy's favourites (JQ)
Leos Carax (JQ)
The Free Screen: experimental
Rebel Yell: a new generation of Turkish women filmmakers. Curator: Rasha Salti
Canadian Open Vault: Canadian classics
Toga! The Reinvention of American Comedy
Endless summer: the birth of the blockbuster
New releases

JANUARY-APRIL 2013
Spotlight Japan. Japanese Divas (curator: James Quandt). 100 Years of Nikkatsu (Todd Brown). 1980s Japanese Cinema (JQ).
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva (JQ)
L.A. Rebellion: creating a new black cinema (Cameron Bailey).
Alexei Guerman (JQ)
Hollywood classics (JQ)
The Free Screen: experimental
Barbara Hammer
Canadian Open Vault
Keanu Reeves
Comic Book Heroes
New releases

OCTOBER 2012-JANUARY 2013
Designing 007. Fifty years of Bond style. Exhibition and films
Beyond Bond. The other secret agents
Magnificent obsession. The Films of Werner Schroeter (JQ)
Indian Expressionism (Meenakshi Shedde)
Nicolás Pereda (Brad Deane)
The Free Screen: Jordan Belson, Gregory J. Markopoulos, Robert Beavers
Dickens on Screen (Adrian Wootton)
Hollywood Classics: restorations (JQ)
George A. Romero (Colin Geddes)
Birth of a villain: the slasher villains (Todd Brown)
Countdown to Armageddon
New releases

JUNE-AUGUST 2012
First Peoples Cinema. 1500 nations, one tradition. A global survey of the work of indigenous filmmakers (Jesse Wente)
New Lebanese cinema (Rasha Salti)
Summer in France (JQ)
Mia Hansen-Løve (Brad Deane)
James Ivory: elegant pairings (Noah Cowan)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: the blonde in 1950s Hollywood cinema (JQ)
The Free Screen: Bruce Baillie, Jonathan Schwartz
Canadian Open Vault
Schwarzenegger Stallone: the rise of beefcake cinema
New releases

Missä on missä? / Where Is Where?

Eija-Liisa Ahtila: Missä on missä? / Where Is Where? (FI 2008).

© 2008 Crystal Eye – Kristallisilmä Oy

CREW: Written & directed by EIJA-LIISA AHTILA Cinematographer ARTO KAIVANTO Set designer KAISA NIVA Set decorator PETE NEUVONEN Costume designer MARI SAVIO Editor HEIKKI KOTSALO Sound designer PETER NORDSTRÖM Production manager RIITTA-LEENA NORBERG, KATI NUORA Producer ILPPO POHJOLA

PRODUCTION: Developed with the support of the MEDIA Programme of the European Community; Production sponsored by DIGITAL FILM FINLAND, FINNLAB, MUTASEN ELOKUVAKONEPAJA; Financial support ARCADI, ARTS COUNCIL OF FINLAND, AVEK, CITY OF HELSINKI CULTURAL OFFICE, FRAME, GRETA & WILLIAM LEHTINEN FOUNDATION, JEU DE PAUME, NIILO HELANDER FOUNDATION, FINNISH MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, FINNISH FILM FOUNDATION, MINISTRY FOR FOREIGH AFFAIRS OF FINLAND; In co-operation with YLE/TV1; Funded in part through the donations of THE RINGIER COLLECTION and THE ELLIPSE FOUNDATION

CAST: Poet KATI OUTINEN Death TOMMI KORPELA Priest LEEA KLEMOLA Adel ALAEDDIN ALAEDDINE Ismael TAHA MUHAMMAD RGUIBI Doctor MATEUS TEMBE, CARLA ARGENTATO Guard MEHDI KANANI French boy EVAN MILLER

4-image split screen film - camera negative 35 mm - cinema format 35 mm - Kiasma: HD file, codec H. 264 - 1:1,85 - Dolby Digital 5.1 - 51 min

In Finnish with English subtitles. Viewed at the exhibition Eija-Liisa Ahtila: Parallel Worlds (Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, 19 April - 1 September, 2013), Helsinki, 1 June 2013

Kiasma official exhibition introduction: Eija-Liisa Ahtila: Parallel Worlds 19.4.–1.9.

"Eija-Liisa Ahtila has since the early 1990s introduced new creative idioms into moving image art. Using images, sounds and stories, she constructs installations that embody alternating viewpoints. The viewer is swept into the stories. In her most recent works, Ahtila addresses the themes of globalisation as well as relations between humanity, animals and nature."

"Kiasma has several works by Ahtila in its collections. One of the highlights of the exhibition is Where Is Where?, which was donated to the museum by the Kiasma Foundation in 2008. The work is now seen in Helsinki for the first time."

"The exhibition book sheds light on the background of the works on show, as well as the themes in Eija-Liisa Ahtila's work that range from biopolitics to posthumanism."

"The exhibition is organised by Moderna Museet, Stockholm in collaboration with Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki."

Crystal Eye Production information: "WHERE IS WHERE? is a one-hour, split-screen film based on a real incident that took place during the Algerian War of Independence. As a kind of consequence of and reaction to atrocities committed by the French, two Algerian boys kill their friend – a French boy of their own age. The story told in four simultaneous images starts in the present day, as Death enters The Poet's house. With Death's help, The Poet begins to investigate this incident from the past, which is gradually interwoven with events from the present. The mist over the back garden of the Poet's house clears to reveal the white rowing boat that has appeared in the swimming pool. In it sit the two Algerian boys, Adel and Ismael."

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

"The theme of WHERE IS WHERE? is colonialism and the presence of two different cultures. Its starting point is a real event that took place in Algeria at the end of the 1950s. At that time, Algeria was still under French rule and was involved in a long struggle for independence from the mother country. The situation was extremely violent, both because of recurrent assassination attempts by the resistance movement and because of the French government's harsh countermeasures. As one consequence of and reaction to the barbarous acts committed by the French, two Algerian boys killed their friend, a French boy of the same age."

"Although the film's starting points are based in reality, at the heart of the story is the relationship this event has with today's situation. The narrative starts from the present moment, which is gradually interwoven with what the boys did and the events in Algeria. Thus, the murder committed by the boys is seen, on the one hand, in the light of the current world situation and, on the other hand, in a way that attempts to put the conflicts between western and Arab cultures into historical perspective. The events are, nevertheless, approached from the viewpoint of an individual person and filtered through her."

"The story has three main characters: Adel and Ismael, the Arab boys who committed the murder, and a European poet, a woman of about 40. The story opens with Death entering the woman's house. The experience of death is compared to finding oneself in a new country and to a calling into question of existence and identity. The woman starts, with the aid of words from her profession of poet, to clarify what happened, while also running through elements involved in the event, such as the different religions, guilt and sameness, and a search for what they have in common. Gradually the focus shifts from the woman's world to the boys' reality. The murder is taken out of the time of its occurrence and brought into the present day. A mist clears from the back garden of the house to reveal a boat that has appeared in the swimming pool, in it sit Adel and Ismael. The poet is shifted to the background, and what the boys say and the inevitability of what they did – with its causes and consequences –take centre stage."

"The events in the film take place in a constructed, fictive event reality within the film and in a theatre-like, referential set. The point of this is both simply to inject life into the narrative, and to investigate the way the different levels of the fictive narrative function together. The film's narrative mode is thus experimental; it attempts to provide information not just in a traditionally direct way with the aid of what happens on the screen, but also by adding to the impact of the images and sounds. The aim is for the expressive elements in the moving image to work not just as subordinate to the story, but so that they will carry independent, sensory information (for example, a scene with Sufi dancers, landscapes in different countries, or singing scenes). The idea of this is to bring a looseness, a personalness and emotionality to the story, and to break down traditional chronologicality, but without losing track of the plot. The idea of the actors' presence also operates along the same lines: for example, in the dialogue between Death and the Poet, in addition to the information given by the words, the focus is on what happens in the face and body (and obviously in the contacts and what happens between the actors)."

Missä on missä? is being screened almost non stop in the Eija-Liisa Ahtila exhibition at Kiasma. Every hour a new screening starts. The movie is so intensive that it is a good idea not to watch anything else during the visit.

The four screens of the presentation surround the entire screening space, but they are separate screens at a certain distance from one another. The presentation is not a panorama, not an Abel Gance style triptych, not Magirama, not Cinerama, not Woodstock, and not IMAX. The viewer cannot see everything at once but must be in constant motion. There is always one screen which carries the main weight, and other screens accompany it. Sometimes the same action is divided between two screens, which then form a CinemaScope style continuum.

Affinities range from Jean Cocteau to Fritz Lang, Grace Jones (A One Man Show), and Michael Haneke (Caché).

Words are important. They are recited blankly but carry a lot of weight. Made two years before the Arab spring, Missä on missä? has no direct relevance to its events. It operates on a more general level. The children are reacting as senselessly as Meursault did in L'Étranger. The children are both executors and victims in a world of oppression and violence. The children are perpetrators of the lex talionis as preposterously as the grown-ups.

The title "where is where?" refers to death, among other things, and Death, in person, appears,  impersonated by Tommi Korpela, who brings to mind Bernhard Goetzke in Der müde Tod. Another cinematic affinity would be to Körkarlen / The Phantom Carriage by Victor Sjöström. A further affinity exists with the Kalevala, its Tuonela (Hades) concept, and The Swan of Tuonela as imagined in music by Sibelius.

The screening space is beyond the black curtain to the left of the orientation space to the Eija-Liisa Ahtila exhibition. I had to ask the personnel twice "where is where?" to find my way.

I liked Eija-Liisa Ahtila's Me/We, Okay and Gray (1993) immediately, and Love Is a Treasure (2002) I rank not only in my list of the best Finnish films but I also included it in my MMM Film Guide 110th anniversary of the cinema selection of the best 1100 films of all time. Ahtila's later films do not possess the same immediate impact on me. They are works to study and to reflect on.

The four screen film has actually been shot on photochemical 35 mm film with real professionalism. For obvious reasons the film is screened digitally.

Song for Marion / Unfinished Song

Paul Andrew Williams: Song for Marion / Unfinished Song (GB/DE 2012) starring Vanessa Redgrave (Marion), Terence Stamp (Arthur).

Laulu Marionille / En sång för Marion. 

    GB/DE © 2012 Steel Mill Pictures. EX: Christian Angermayer, Marc Hansell, Sean Kelly, Tara Moross, Alistair Ross, Ricky Sans, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein. P: Ken Marshall, Philip Moross.

    D+SC: Paul Andrew Wiliams. DP: Carlos Catalán - camera: Arricam LT - negative format: 35 mm (Kodak Vision3 250D 5207, Vision3 200T 5213, Vision3 500T 5219). PD: Sophie Becher. AD: Keith Slote. Set dec: Stella Fox. Cost: Jo Thompson. Makeup: Lucy Cain. M: Laura Rossi. S: Srdjan Kurpjel. ED: Dan Farrell. Casting: Buffy Hall, Vicky Wildman. 

    C: Vanessa Redgrave (Marion), Terence Stamp (Arthur), Gemma Arterton (Elizabeth), Christopher Eccleston (James), Orla Hill (Jennifer), Anne Reid (Brenda). 

    Loc: Newcastle upon Tyne. 

    93 min. 

    Released by Scanbox Finland Oy with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Jaana Wiik / Nina Ekholm. 

    2K DCP viewed at Kinopalatsi 3, Helsinki, 1 June 2013

From the pressbook: "Academy Award-winner Vanessa Redgrave and Academy Award nominee Terence Stamp lead the cast of Song for Marion, a deeply touching, funny and uplifting British comedy drama that is as heart breaking as it is heart warming."

Summary

"A grumpy old man learns to love life again after joining his ill wife’s unconventional community choir."

Short Synopsis

"A feel-good, heartwarming story about how music can inspire you. Song for Marion stars Terence Stamp as Arthur, a grumpy pensioner who can’t understand why his wife Marion (Vanessa Redgrave) would want to embarrass herself singing silly songs with her unconventional local choir. But choir director Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton) sees something special in the reluctant Arthur and refuses to give up on him. As she coaxes him out of his shell, Arthur realizes that it is never too late to change and, aged 70, Arthur finally dares to unlock his emotions and reach out to his estranged son, James (Christopher Eccleston)."

Director's Statement
Paul Andrew Williams
The motivation behind this project

""Song for Marion" is an incredibly affecting project and possibly the most personal script I've written. Not because the characters are all relatable to me, (some aspects in the film certainly), but the fact that I have tried to make elements of the film personal to everyone. Ever since I started writing I have always tried to bring truth and the natural complexity of human nature to my characters, never more so than now."

"I often wondered what would make a tough old man, come out of their shell and be prepared to open oneself up. A father and grandfather who is grumpy and difficult and hard to extract emotion from. What makes a certain generation unhappy unless they are being unhappy or making everyone else unhappy?"

"To have emotions buried inside, with the ability to see life a bit brighter, so I wanted to explore what would bring it all out."

"The film hints at the relationship between my grandfather and grandmother, the love and duty of their generation and how the working-class "normal person" deals with emotion, loneliness and loss. And how, maybe, by the end they could possibly come out of it all, with a smile and a dance."

"My Grandfather, loved my Gran. In fact I would say she was the one positive thing in his life that had any effect on him. He would do anything for her, and she for him. She accepted him for all his moaning and bitterness because she could see that underneath it all, he was a good man. He had taken care of her, been there for her, made her laugh and every now and again dipped his toe into romance for her."

"When she got every type of cancer she could, he looked after her, nursed her and loved her with something totally unconditional. When she eventually died, he was in great pain and for the first time in his life he sobbed and sobbed and sobbed."

"I was inspired by seeing how my grandfather cared for my grandmother, the sacrifices he made, and the effect of the hammer blow of losing someone you've spent every night with for fifty years. And how the fear of admitting one's frailties or needs, can eat someone up and destroy those around them."

"Perhaps, with a troubled father son relationship, like Arthur and James, once the one thing that they both did love had gone, would they crumble and give up? Or could there be something that might force them to change their outlook on life, and want to be better? Perhaps a group of old, unashamed pensioners dancing round the room like kids and singing at the top of their voices..."

OAP = Old Age Pensioners.

The starting-point is the same as in Michael Haneke's Amour, and in both films music is essential, but the approach is diametrically opposite in this feelgood entertainment movie. Yet both are about what it really means to love "for better or for worse" during the final months of a terminal illness.

Song for Marion is a comedy, and the best and the most daring comedy grows from serious themes. Here the themes include death (of Marion) and solitude (of her widow Arthur).

The old age pensioners refuse to become gloomy, and instead they start to sing improbable songs introduced into their choir repertory by the inspired music teacher Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton). Songs like "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life", "The Ace Of Spades", "Let's Talk About Sex", and "Love Shack".

The psychology in these surprising selections is profound and makes sense. Near death you want to celebrate life.

For any blues fan there is no discrepancy of old age pensioners singing songs like this. We think about John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, and Muddy Waters.

The highlights of the movie are the two solos. Vanessa Redgrave gets to sing "True Colors" (quite differently than Cyndi Lauper). In the conclusion Terence Stamps gets his solo, singing Billy Joel's "Lullaby (Good Night, My Angel)". There is an American bias in the song selection.

The name is Song for Marion, but the film is really the story of Arthur, an emotionally challenged man (the Finnish word is tunnevammainen) who commits every possible blunder with the choir members, Marion's friends, the choirmaster Elizabeth, and his own son James whom he keeps insulting. Arthur only manages to connect with his granddaughter (in a memorable scene he is chased away from the playground, believed to be who knows what). Beneath his gruff conduct his devotion for Marion is unconditional.

The father's howl beyond the door after the death of Marion is the most touching scene of the movie.

The performances and the song numbers are impressive. 

Unfortunately questions of style remain. At times the approach is predictable, patronizing, mawkish, and mushy. The core of the movie is firm, but a heavy sugar-coating (a Weinstein touch?) weakens the impact.

The movie has been shot on 35 mm photochemical film, and the digital intermediate has been conducted so well that I was not able to tell the difference.