Awara / The Vagabond (1951)

Raj Kapoor: आवारा / Awara / The Vagabond (IN 1951) with Raj Kapoor (Raj Raghunath) and Nargis (Rita).

आवारा / Katkera rakkaus (Finnish 1955 release title). 

    IN 1951. D: Raj Kapoor. Story: K. A. Abbas, V. P. Sathe. SC: K. A. Abbas. DP: Radhu Karmakar. ED: G. G. Mayekar. AD: M. R. Achrekar. M: Shankar Jaikishen. Songs: Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra. 

    C: Prithviraj Kapoor (Raghunath padre), Nargis (Rita), Raj Kapoor (Raj Raghunath), K. N. Singh (Jagga), Shashi Kapoor (Raj da giovane), Cuckoo, B. M. Vyas (Dubey, il padre di Rita), Leela Misra (la cognata di Raghunath), Baby Zubeida (Rita da giovane), Leela Chitnis (Leela Raghunath). 

    P: Raj Kapoor per R. K. Films. 

    35 mm. 168 min. B&w. Hindi version with English subtitles. 

    From:  Toronto International Film Festival Bell Lightbox. Courtesy of TIFF Bell Lightbox, as part of “Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema” curated by Noah Cowan and organized by TIFF, IIFA, and RK Films, with the support of the Government of Ontario
    Dream sequence choreography: Madame Simkir.
    Introduced by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.
    Viewed with e-subtitles in Italian by Sub-Ti at Cinema Jolly (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato, 29 June 2014)
    Precede
INDIAN NEWS REVIEW NO. 550. IN 1959. 35 mm. 9’. B&w. Versione hindi / Hindi version. From: Films Division of India. - Dalai Lama in India. Sound missing, e-subtitles in Italian and English. Low contrast.

Kumar Shahani (Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2014, catalogue and website): "Indian cinema stepped out into the world with Awara, which captivated audiences not only in India but in Soviet Russia, China, and the Arab countries as well. The hugely popular title song "Awara hoon" (I’m a vagabond) represents a first outing for the character, loosely modelled on Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp that Raj Kapoor played in subsequent films. The film’s plot, which has been described as an ‘Oedipal melodrama’, deals with a respectable judge who turns his pregnant wife out of his house, suspecting her of infidelity. Their son Raju grows up in the slums to become a rootless vagabond who lives by his wits. Falling in love with the judge’s ward, he comes into conflict with his father, played in the film by Raj Kapoor’s own father, the veteran Prithviraj Kapoor."

Turning Modern Mythology on Its Head

"The apprehension of beauty brings both danger and desire. The danger becomes the Chorus and desire becomes Oracular. Of epic history is born peasant tragedy. The redemption, of course, is in love. It rises above the medieval arches of oppressive regimes, hewn in stone, alien to the nation. The heavy black tones weigh down upon all who see freedom. Outside is the real abode of the savage jungle."

"The fragrant lotus that embeds the feminine, also brings forth the spirit of the wild Awara."

"Thus the personal poetry of Raj Kapoor, vagabond-flâneur, surrounded by kitschy signals of heaven and hell, the mythical imperatives of mass communication, iconised both as rebel and dictator."

"The phenomenal success of both Chaplin and Raj Kapoor lies perhaps in the fact that both of them identified themselves with the disenfranchised, finding in them the truth and beauty of simplicity
and innocence. They inverted the processes of identification that mainstream cinema manufactured to formula. Raj Kapoor was harassed by his distributors to fracture his own telos later on in life when he carried his autobiographical concerns into the wide sweep of history, just as Chaplin, in a manner, was exiled from the State that proclaimed the law of the Father."

"The destiny of the patriarch seems to be the destruction of his beloved and their progeny, as it is of the state to annihilate its own people, equal in moral terms, unequal in every other. Raj Kapoor made his own father Prithviraj play this figure, an act of daring that no other Oedipus of our times may have undertaken. He made the father apologize to all citizens of the world for the blind rule of Law, albeit to the wounded, shrouded mother in death’s throes."

"The scenes of adolescent love in Raj Kapoor’s films have all the innocence and freshness of first love, the first kiss, the first consummation, like an illumination, the discovery of the other that is
the fountainhead of knowledge without guilt or remorse."

"Perhaps therein lies the felicity of his address to every human heart, across the ideological divides, cultural differences and learned prejudices that hide our sacred nudity from ourselves and those
whom we love." Kumar Shahani (Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2014, catalogue and website)

AA: A melodrama, a musical, a dream play.
    A film of delirium, naivism, and atavism.
    The melodrama element resembles early 1900s British bestsellers by Hall Caine (filmed by Maurice Tourneur, Victor Sjöström, and Alfred Hitchcock) and the first film by Carl Th. Dreyer, The President. They are about a judge who has committed the supreme crime.
    The story is about a twin injustice: the judge Raghunath (Prithviraj Kapoor) throws out his wife who he suspects of having gotten pregnant by the bandit Jagga.
    The son Raj (Raj Kapoor) then grows up in the slums of Bombay, and although his mother sacrifices everything to give him a good education, he is thrown out of the school because he is fatherless, lives in the slum, and polishes boots to finance his education. Even Rita, his best childhood friend, is moved elsewhere. Behind both deprivations - school and Rita - is probably Raghunath. Society gives Raj no chance. He is bullied and harassed and lands in the criminal gang of nobody else than Jagga.
    12 years later he rediscovers (in extremely embarrassing circumstances) Rita (Nargis) who is now Raghunath's stepdaughter and also studying law to become "a lawyer, a magistrate, a judge".
    A story of twin symbolic parricide: Raj finally kills Jagga who has been his father-educator, and tries to kill Raghunath, the biological father who disowned him and did his utmost to sabotage him.

The camera is mobile, the approach is oneiric, the crane is roaming in the vast spaces.
    Hunger can make one mad. In her hunger, also mother gets delusional. When the son tries to steal bread (Les Misérables), the police catches him, and that's the start of the spiral of crime.
    The dance at the underword café is an Indian counterpart to the Parisian Apache dance.
    The palace of Raghunath and Rita is full of gorgeous nude statues of full-figured women.
    "He never spares criminals". - "Let God spare him."
    Prithviraj Kapoor looks like Tauno Palo, the greatest Finnish star.
    The song to the moon is the memorable dual love anthem.
    The climax of the film is Raj's long nightmare sequence, an astounding musical production number.
    There are obvious Charles Chaplin hommages, for instance to A Dog's Life, but Chaplin should never be imitated... The English title of this film could more fittingly be The Tramp.
    At Rita's birthday party Raj's life as a thief is brutally exposed. "A necklace without a box." "A box without a necklace".
    The last straw: Raghunath drives accidentally over his ex-wife's head. She dies at the hospital bandaged like a mummy.
    "The law does not follow the heart." "The heart does not follow the law".

A tinted print, mostly sepia, for a while blue. It looks like it has been struck from challenging, sometimes worn sources. Not brilliant, with joins, yet giving an engrossing experience of a passionate film.

The Man I Love (William A. Wellman, 1929)

Mies jota rakastan. US 1929. D: William A. Wellman. Story and dialogue: Herman J. Mankiewicz. SC: Percy Heath. DP: Henry W. Gerrard. ED: Alyson Shaffer. C: Richard Arlen (Dum-Dum Brooks), Mary Brian (Celia Fields), Baclanova (Sonia Barondoff), Harry Green (Curly Bloom), Jack Oakie (Lew Layton) P: David O. Selznick per Paramount Famous Lasky Corp. 35 mm. 74'. From: Universal Pictures
    Theme song: "Celia" (Richard A. Whiting, Leo Robin).
    Viewed with e-subtitles in Italian by Sub-Ti at Cinema Jolly (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato), 29 June 2014 

Gina Telaroli (Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2014, catalogue and website): "When the appropriately named Dum Dum Brooks (Richard Arlen, in his fourth of five collaborations with Wellman) is able to convince his girl, Celia, to marry him (on their first date) and go to New York where he hopes to make it big as a boxer, the two find themselves riding in the same boxcar as the horses, which Dum Dum thoughtfully arranged in order to cut costs. When they finally embrace, down in the hay while a record plays, Wellman pans away from them and up to a horse, who simply stares into the frame. A good minute passes by as the camera stays front and center on the white nag. Suddenly the music stops, the horse glances away, and Wellman returns to the record player and its silently spinning needle, which for obvious reasons has been neglected. It's classic Wellman, focusing not on the plot but on what is happening right around it, as well as never losing focus on what his characters are up against, which in this case is their small town origins and the total doofiness of Dum Dum. The supporting cast provides pitch perfect color to the somewhat basic story of a country boy gone bad in the city, with Jack Oakie poking around in the background and audiences hearing Baclanova's thick Russian accent for the first time. The Man I Love was Wellman's second foray into sound, after the split sound/silent Chinatown Nights, and instead of letting the need to record dialogue limit him, he effortlessly strips down the picture and its action with moments like the one described above. He moves his camera away from what is forced, the placement of the actors, or conversely focuses on nothing but what is happening, as when Celia sits with Dum Dum after his fight in the empty boxing arena. Their bodies glisten in the darkness as they discuss what would happen if Dum Dum were to make it big. They stare into each others eyes as Celia sets her course (and the movies) and lovingly says, "I'll still be sorry you're a fighter, but you're the man I love". Gina Telaroli (Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2014, catalogue and website)

AA: An early entry in the film career of David O. Selznick and Herman J. Mankiewicz as well as in William A. Wellman's. A happy but lightweight contribution of theirs into early sound cinema. Witty and fluent, just slightly lethargic at times. Visually, there are dull passages, perhaps due to the clumsiness of early sound cinematography. The approach is humoristic:
    Richard Arlen as the timid boxer Dum-Dum.
    Mary Brian as the good-humoured record-store seller Celia.
    Leslie Fenton as "the new impressionistic poet" Carlo Vesper, Sonia's former lover.
    Olga Baclanova as the vamp Sonia Barondoff, "the hottest dish of the New York society" of whom Dum-Dum has never heard of. Sonia compares simultaneously the biceps of Dum-Dum and Carlo. At her party, she sings a Russian romance.
    The manager is obviously jealous when Celia enters Dum-Dum's life. In the couple, Celia is the brains, taking over Dum-Dum's deals and affairs. Enters Sonia and almost destroys everything.

As described above by Gina Tenaroli, the honeymoon in the horse car of the train to New York is a highlight of the picture.
    The Man I Love is a romantic comedy, but the boxing scenes are all business, well made, without any sound effects at all in this early sound film.

The print has perhaps been produced from challenging sources which are worn, duped, and soft at times, perhaps even blown up, but there are also enough passages of good visual quality to make it possible to appreciate Henry W. Gerrard's cinematography.

You Never Know Women

Venäläistä verta / Maschere russe. US 1926. D: William Wellman. Story: Ernest Vajda. SC: Benjamin Glazer.  DP: Victor Milner. C: Florence Vidor (Vera), Lowell Sherman (Eugene Foster), Clive Brook (Norodin), El Brendel (Toberchik), Roy Stewart (Dimitri), Joe Bonomo (il forzuto), Irma Kornelia (Olga), Sidney Bracey (manager). P: Adolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky per Famous Players Lasky Corp. 35 mm. 71'. B&w. From: Library of Congress per concessione di Paramount Pictures
    Electric piano: Antonio Coppola
    The name above the title: Florence Vidor in You Never Know Women. With Eugene Pallette (party guest, n. c.).
    Viewed with e-subtitles in Italian by Sub-Ti at Cinema Jolly (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato), 29 June 2014

Gina Telaroli (Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2014, catalogue and website): "This 1926 Wellman silent was, according to the director himself, "My last chance", after he and B.P. Schulberg made a self proclaimed "incredibly atrocious" picture called The Cat's Pajamas. Always one for an over elaborate false start, Wellman opens with a construction worker raising a beam just as it's about to fall on a passing woman (Florence Vidor). The construction worker miraculously saves her but a rich gentleman (Eugene Foster) in a nearby car, upon noticing the woman's good looks, swoops in and takes the credit. She's part of a famed Russian vaudeville troupe, and Wellman redirects our attention to their exploits, crafting a nuanced exploration of performance, on stage and in life. This focus on theater gives Wellman one of his first chances to explore his obsession with the politics of identity and the physicality of labor. He combines the two in an impressive tracking shot of the entire cast (of both the movie and the troupe) taking off their masks on a brightly lit stage in a very dark theater, only to reveal clown make up underneath. The film marks the screen debut of vaudevillian El Brendel, who would appear the next year in Wings as Herman Schwimpf and provide a much needed (and very Wellmanesque) comedic antidote to the prestigious aviation melodrama. Here he also plays the funny man, offsetting a plot centered on a love triangle with the support of a performative duck. When the curtain came down, this last chance turned out to be Well man's breakout success as he said: "The gods smiled: it won artistic award of the year, and the bum got a twenty five dollar a week raise and Wings for his effort"." Gina Telaroli (Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2014, catalogue and website)

Antonio Coppola apologized for the electric piano, perfectly tuned but failing in the emotion of the interpretation.

AA: The circus world (including vaudeville) was an obsession during the silent era, at the latest since The Four Devils / De fire Djævle / Die vier Luftakrobaten (DK 1911, based on the novel by Herman Bang, D: Alfred Lind, Alex Christians, Robert Dinesen, Christian Rosenbaum, better than the 1920 remake by A. W. Sandberg, remade again as late as 1928 by Murnau). The world of magicians, clowns, dancers, acrobats, wild animals, varieties and fairgrounds inspired great artists, including Lubitsch, Curtiz, Sjöström, Chaplin, Browning, Dupont, Robison, Hitchcock, Lang, Murnau, and Sternberg. The approach to the circus world was at its most profound in Weimar Germany. E. A. Dupont built an international career on variations of Varieté. The most popular plot line was already introduced in The Four Devils: the triangle drama combined with perilous feats of acrobats with their salto mortales, risking their lives on the trust of the split second reactions of other team players. A favourite character besides the acrobat was the clown (at the latest since Sandberg's Klovnen, DK 1917, with Psilander) and its most heartbreaking interpretation was in the first major German sound film Der Blaue Engel by Emil Jannings (who also excelled as the acrobat in Varieté). "The world as a circus" was a tempting concept for the cinema during the silent age ever since Edison (who started with Buffalo Bill's Wild West circus acts) and Méliès, and of course, ever since.

William A. Wellman's breakthrough into the big league of Hollywood was also a drama of magicians, dancers, acrobats, clowns, and animals.
    The triangle tragedy plot stems from the Four Devils tradition.
    The acts of the Russian vaudeville troupe are brilliant. The action on stage and backstage is displayed in affectionate detail. The non-circus action sequence in the beginning (the falling beam almost crushing Vera at the construction site) is also thrillingly directed.
    This is a Florence Vidor vehicle. She is elegant, glamorous, and charming, her Vera character one of dignity. "These are my people. I love them".
    Norodin (Clive Brook), the brooding lover, is a Houdini style escape artist, a master of chains, locks, coffins, and underwater rescues. He invents new magic acts, such as an ingenious disappearence act. He is also a brilliant knife-thrower.
    El Brendel is perfect as the clown Toberchick with his bespectacled duck.
    Lowell Sherman plays yet another variation of his blasé and callous millionaire cad character, famous at least since Way Down East.
    There are original scenes of comedy, such as the troupe setting the millionaire's dinner table with flying saucers.
    There are also moments of melancholy reflection, both for Vera and Norodin.

A well-made entertainment, a display of many of Wellman's strengths, yet not quite one of the actual masterpieces of the circus genre. My favourite scene is towards the end: everyone believes Norodin has drowned into the ocean in his most dangerous stunt, but the show must go on. We observe the expressions of Vera, Toberchik, and the duck. "Sometimes you don't know your love until it's too late".

The print is fundamentally good, giving a true sense of the original concept of Victor Milner's cinematography. There are slight occasional nitrate or water damage marks from the source material, and for a moment there is a duped quality, but on the whole this is a great print.

Peter von Bagh: William Wellman, between Silent and Sound (ll Cinema Ritrovato 2014 introduction)

A Star Is Born (1937). Fredric March, Janet Gaynor

"Our American Masters’ retrospective adds William Wellman (1896-1975) to the company of von Sternberg, Capra, Ford, Hawks, Walsh and Dwan, once again presenting all the silents, the early sound films and some of the later masterpieces."

"The scarcity of silent Wellman prints is a sad fact: You Never Know Women, in 1926 already his 12th film, shows an insid­er’s view, like Wings (1927) about fliers and war; Beggars of Life (1928) is a touching prelude to the Depression-era roads, leading to great Wellman territory in the period ‘before the Code’, when he created many of the era’s lasting, most hard-hit­ting films. His was a personal moral, outside the fake morality that society was preaching. He could handle any genre beyond categories. His sense of scenery and weather was as beautiful as Ford’s (who voted for wind, when Wellman’s specialty seemed to be rain), and his sense of adventure, physical action and men in war could have the same depth as the best films of Hawks or Walsh."
 
"Wellman’s most blessed characteristic was his irreverence, the fullness of which shines in the totally absurd Nothing Sacred (1937, rare among the greatest screwball comedies to have an aggressively rural-moronic content). Wellman’s comedies were as tough as his action films: a certain tendency to mingle charac­teristics from quite unrelated genres is typical for him."
 
"Wellman’s output is large enough to be almost beyond reach; any selection is bound to leave out remarkable films. A nice surprise is in store because the classics and the relatively unknown films are equally and deeply satisfying. Thus, among Wellman’s westerns The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) is one of the most famous and greatest studio films ever, with its shadow play of justice and claustrophobic sets reflecting the horror story of violence pouring out of the depths of decent citizens; Yel­low Sky (1948) belongs to the fraternity of Greed (1924) and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), a violent film with almost no action (the shoot-out is ghostly, with horse’s shad­ows conveying what happened during the final power game); Westward the Women (1951), a film about a hard journey, is kill-or-be-killed in a way that makes most other westerns look tamely romantic."
 
"Every step into another genre creates a different tone. Wellman’s original A Star Is Born (1937) matches Cukor’s later master­piece as an inspired insider’s view of tinsel town pain. The very wonderful Good-bye, My Lady (1956), a juvenile film about a boy and a dog – and nature, a swamp, a family – shows how every stage of life requires loss for the individual to become transformed truly and fully into a meaningful new phase."
 
"For many, this series will be a revelation considering that even now almost no general film history book even mentions such dazzling films as Other Men’s Women (1931) or Midnight Mary (1933). Even good writers tend to experience Wellman’s career without enough appreciation when all his films are taken as a series. Let me predict that our selection will produce just the opposite sensation – plain, growing enthusiasm..." (Peter von Bagh, Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2014, catalogue and website)

Programme curated by Peter von Bagh

Morgen beginnt das Leben / Life Begins Tomorrow

La vita comincia domani / [Domani comincia la vita]. DE 1933. D: Werner Hochbaum. SC: Carl Behr. DP: Herbert Körner. ED: Marianne Behr. AD: Gustav A. Knauer, Alexander Mügge. M: Hansom Milde-Meißner. C: Erich Haußmann (Robert), Hilde von Stolz (Marie), Harry Frank (il violinista), Walter von Lennep (cantante), Etta Klingenberg (la ragazza del caffé), Edith Schollwer (la cameriera), Gustav Püttjer (l'uomo della giostra). P: Ethos-Film GmbH. 35 mm. 76'. From: Österreichisches Filmmuseum
    Presented by Peter von Bagh, introduced by Alexander Horwath.
    Viewed at Sala Scorsese - Cinema Lumière, Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato, 29 June 2014

Joachim Schätz (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2014, catalogue and website): "The chronicle of a fearful day. After five years in prison, Robert is set free. His wife Marie means to pick him up, but coincidence intervenes. They search for each other, they repeatedly miss each other, and along the way, Robert comes to doubt Marie's fidelity and the promise of a better tomorrow."

"One everyman, one everywoman, and the joys and accidents of modern city life: director Hochbaum and scenarist Carl Behr tap into the vein of contemporaneous city films like Paul Fejos' Lonesome (1928) or Gustav Machatý's From Saturday to Sunday (1931), but their outlook is much darker. Arriving in German cinemas the summer after the Nazi takeover, their film has been fruitfully read as "a symptom of transition, an expression of the general anxiety neurosis of 1933" (Karsten Witte). From Robert and Marie's experiences, Hochbaum weaves sophisticated montages of image and sound, inner and outer world, impressions and recollections. Rather than being content with showcasing late-1920s avant-garde film techniques, Morgen Beginnt das Leben's tour de force of sequence shots, rhythmic editing and wordless storytelling achieves a purposeful, fierce portrait of disturbance and disorientation. Instead of the working masses, an escalating montage collects the ex-convict's vicious, gossiping neighbors. When the camera is attached to a merry-go-round, the result is not exhilaration à la Jean Epstein, but an eerie gliding movement prying Robert. The door at home won't open, the streets are full of noise and sinister whispers, and in the cafe where he used to work, Robert is overcome by memories of the manslaughter he committed on impulse."

"As witnessed by Hochbaum's "chained camera" (Bert Rebhandl) breathlessly trailing its protagonist, select moments of blissful oblivion stand out all the more: a waitress warbling a hit song, a bellhop bobbing to background music. Such reprieves provide the film with its pockets of light, rather than the fortunate lastminute resolution that follows desperation - the first in a string of untrustworthy happy endings in Hochbaum's œuvre." Joachim Schätz (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2014, catalogue and website)

In his introduction Alexander Horwath singled out Morgen beginnt das Leben as the last great example of German interwar cinema.

AA: A fine lyrical film about the difficulty of returning to normal life after five years in prison. The violinist Robert Sand has attacked the restaurant owner who tried to take advantage of his wife Marie, killing him accidentally in the struggle. Marie's alarm clock is out of service and she misses the crucial appointment when Robert is released. Due to misunderstandings, Robert starts to fear the worst.

Morgen beginnt das Leben is largely a stream of consciousness film. The main narrative takes place within one day, but flashbacks cover the entire chain of events.

Hochbaum is still in possession of the great secret of the German silent cinema, and as a rule he tells the story purely visually.

Herbert Körner the cinematographer knows how to use the moving camera. Forward tracking shots are eloquent. In the dance sequence the camera dances along like in a Max Ophuls film. There are fluent long takes, there are extreme close-ups. There is no sign of early-sound-film clumsiness. A long shot from a high angle covers the release from prison. Superimpositions abound in the mist of the memory.

There are bravura sequences such as the whip pans covering the trains taking Robert and Marie to their opposite directions. Marie is following the reverse trajectory towards the prison. Fine moments of the subjective camera include the memorable one from which we follow the going-ons at the dancing restaurant from behind the violinist's hands, and in the mirror at the opposite wall we see "us" as the violinist. Witty shots include the prisoner's round at the prison yard, with a clock superimposed in the middle. Hochbaum and Körner belong to the poets of rain.

Morgen beginnt das Leben starts also to feel like an hommage to Weimar cinema, paying respect to many favourite visual motifs, affectionately catalogued by Siegfried Kracauer in From Caligari to Hitler: - the canary in its cage (Der Blaue Engel) - the fairground - the carousel - the lonely little girl and the friendly man immediately under suspicion (M) - the formidable Berlin policeman stopping the traffic chaos with an imperious gesture - "the circle as a symbol of chaos" - the high angle shot of the staircase (M among others) - the lonely man's cognac (M) - "the feet that walk" - "Im Namen des Gesetzes" / "Im Namen des Volkes" (M) - the elliptical court sequence (M) - the prisoners' round (Varieté). The only annoying device is the montage of the gossips, favoured by Fritz Lang and tiresome also in his films. The entire concept, of course, also brings to mind Franz Biberkopf's release from prison in Berlin Alexanderplatz. I'm not saying that Hochbaum is a copycat, but the amount of such reference points brings further weight to Alexander Horwath's claim of Morgen beginnt das Leben as the last great achievement of Weimar-style German cinema.

Hochbaum knows how to create psychological tension, and the suspense keeps growing until the final release.

The print has been struck from difficult source materials. There are passages of fine visual quality. Elsewhere there are soft passages and missing black levels.

Joachim Schätz: Werner Hochbaum. A Man Between (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2014 introduction)

Razzia in St. Pauli

"After years in prison, a man stands on the doorstep of his former apartment. He rings the bell, but nobody’s home to open the door, just a canary singing inside. The ex-convict’s heart sinks, yet a moment later he starts ringing again: not so much hoping to be let in, but rather to strike up a musical conversation with the bird. This short scene from Werner Hochbaum’s Morgen beginnt das Leben gives as succinct an impression as any of its director’s distinctive style and mood: Hochbaum’s is a cinema of melancholy, even despair, mingled with spirited moment to moment playfulness."

"In his life (1899-1946) as well as in his filmmaking, the German director was very much a man on the threshold – between avant-garde ambitions and popular opportunities, between political involvements and poetic idiosyncrasies, between recognition and oblivion. Lauded by national and international critics of his time and passionately rediscovered in the 1970s – film historian Ulrich Kurowski singled him out as “the most important German filmmaker after Murnau, Lang, Lubitsch and Ophuls” – Hochbaum still remains in the margins of film history. He’s not exactly a well-kept secret, but a persistent one."

"That elusiveness is partly due to a life full of ruptures and reversals that inform his work and complicate neat attributions: at age thirty, when Hochbaum finished his feature debut, the strike drama Bruder, he had already experienced World War I as a volunteer and become embroiled in a ludicrous treason lawsuit. Bruder was commissioned and financially supported by Hamburg’s Social Democratic party organization, which also had given Hochbaum his start as a film critic. In the local party newspaper, Hochbaum drew extensively on the writings of Bela Balasz and the films of Walter Ruttmann. Their joined influence can be witnessed best in his baffling first two sound features Razzia in St. Pauli and Morgen beginnt das Leben: working from minuscule budgets and minimal stories, both films explore textures and rhythms of the everyday with a fluency reminiscent of French impressionist filmmaking. They championed an ideal of ecstatic cine-formalism just as it was about to disappear from German screens for good."

"Hochbaum himself kept working in Germany after the Nazi takeover, but his career breakthrough came with two Austrian co-productions: the award-winning Die ewige Maske and Vorstadtvariete, the moving adaptation of a darkly Viennese, antimilitarist Felix Salten play. This double succes d’estime facilitated a career crafting elegant genre fare that suddenly came to a halt in 1939. Soon after realizing the propaganda assignment Drei Unteroffiziere, Hochbaum was banned from his profession by Joseph Goebbels. The swastika flag flying at the end of Drei Unteroffiziere remains the final image from a Hochbaum film. He died of tuberculosis in 1946 while preparing the resistance drama Der Weg im Dunkeln. A fitting epitaph to a working life of both doggedness and political compromise, the title roughly translates: “The Way through the Darkness”."

Joachim Schätz (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2014 introduction in the programme catalogue and on the website)

Ned med Vaabnene! / Lay Down Your Arms!

CENTO ANNI FA / A HUNDRED YEARS AGO
CAPITOLO 1: GIÙ LE ARMI! IL PACIFISMO E LA GUERRA 1914-1918
CHAPTER 1: LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS! PACIFISM AND WAR 1914-1918

Mariann Lewinsky (Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2014, catalogue and website): "This chapter, dedicated to the War of 1914-1918, consists of four anti-war films, plus Addio Giovinezza!, remade in 1918 in commemoration of the author and film director Nino Oxilia, killed in the war at the age of 28."

"“Religion is no justification for the stake, nor patriotism for mass murder, nor science for the torture of animals.” This quote by Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914; Nobel Peace Prize 1905) is a message from the progressive 19th century. Her novel Die Waffen nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms!, 1889) was translated into twenty-seven languages, and Suttner became a leading figure of the international peace movement, fighting for disarmament and the establishment of International Courts of Arbitration."

"The pacifists’ aim was – then, as now – that conflicts be resolved through negotiations, so wars would no longer occur. The occupation of Libya by Italy in 1911-1912 was the first war to be covered systematically by the cinema, with Cines producing blueprints for propaganda documentaries and dramas that have since been remade countless times."

"(If I were granted three wishes, one of them would be the total ban of the colonialist rescue plot from cultural production, starting with Cabiria.) For films and newsreels from the the so-called
“Great War”, consult the hundreds of hours now accessible on the European Film Gateway website. If you want to learn what really happened, try autobiographies." Mariann Lewinsky (Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2014, catalogue and website)

[Giù le armi!]. DK 1914. D: Holger-Madsen. Based on the novel by Bertha von Suttner (1889). SC: C. Th. Dreyer. DP: Marius Clausen. C: Philip Bech (Grev von Althaus), Augusta Blad (Martha), Johanne Fritz-Petersen (Rosa), Alf Blütecher (Arno von Dotzky), Olaf Fønss (Fr. von Tilling). P: Nordisk Films Kompagni. [2K?] DCP. 65’. B&w. From: Det Danske Filminstitutt.
    The novel was translated into Finnish as Aseet pois by Alli Nissinen (Helsinki: Otava, 1895).
    Presented by Mariann Lewinsky. Grand piano: Maud Nelissen.
    Viewed at Cinema Lumière - Sala Mastroianni, with e-subtitles in Italian and English (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato), 29 June 2014

Madeleine Bernstorff: "The Danish anti-war film Ned med Vaabnene! was to be premiered at the Third International Peace Conference in Vienna in September 1914. Nordisk had acquired the rights to Suttner’s bestseller, and Carl Th. Dreyer wrote the script for director Holger-Madsen."

"The film’s prologue, showing Suttner at her desk in Vienna, was shot in April 1914, shortly before her death that June. Ned med Vaabnene! depicts an officer’s family and the growing consciousness of the protagonist, Martha von Althaus, for the pacifist cause; it presents impressive war scenes and tableaux of wounded soldiers. As predicted by Suttner, the film was banned in several countries by
the censors. In Germany it was only released during the November Revolution of 1918-19, when for two short months some distributors sympathized with the strong anti-war sentiments of the Revolution and handled such topics, with the slogan “new films for new times”." (Madeleine Bernstorff, Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2014, catalogue and website).

AA: We cinephiles are proud of the many anti-war films made by high profile artists, and there is a special status of pride for the major anti-war features made even before WWI started. Alfred Machin's Maudite soit la guerre (1914) is one of them, and Ned med Vaabnene! is another.

The priceless Bertha Suttner vignette is seen first: the formidable lady working in her study, a few months before her death, and before the start of the world war. The "dramatis personae" credit sequence is charming, with further vignettes of the leading players in character, at their little routines, and with children at play.

Soon the borderline between play and reality starts to blur. The little son is celebrating his birthday party dressed as a drummer boy, equipped with toy guns. Later on there is a more alarming scene where the little boy "plays war" with the family dog, harassing it cruelly. The family is military, the father Arno von Dotzky is a soldier, there is a war, and soon the father is no more. The country is unnamed, but it might be Austria. The action is undated, but there are contemporary cars. The shooting locations might include Copenhagen and Denmark more generally.

Martha, who has become a pacifist (she pointedly refuses to toast yet another war), remarries after four years, yet again with an officer, Friedrich von Tilling. In the new war Friedrich is severely wounded, but after thrilling experiences he returns safely home.

The tragedy does not end there. A cholera epidemic, another consequence of the war, breaks out and enters the family house. First, the maid, then the sister Rosa perish. Rosa's fiancé is despaired. The final declaration of the military family, now turned pacifist: down with weapons!

The story is told mainly in the early cinema mode with long takes, long shots, and deep focus. There are fluent pans and tracking shots (including forward and backward tracking shots), three-shots and medium shots.

The sense of composition is strong and memorable: the Red Cross barn being blown up by the enemy, the long takes of the dozens of wounded soldiers, the shot from the top of the moving train the roof of which is full of wounded ones, and the final tableau of the pacifist handshake.

This is an epic film in which the scenes of war and its aftermath convey its horror convincingly. We see the infantry, the cavalry, and the artillery in action.

The performances are largely restrained, but towards the end I paid attention to moments of overacting. Holger-Madsen was a talented director, but there are also clumsy aspects in this film.

One can appreciate the fine definition of light of the cinematographer Marius Clausen in this screening. The source material has often been good, with occasional instances of damage in the source. The speed feels natural, and the DCP has been produced well.

Bharat mata / Mother India

The beginning of the story: Radha (Nargis) as the happy young bride at the joyous communal wedding ceremony. The cost of the wedding is exorbitant. The entire tragic family saga revolves around paying back the sum to the evil landlord Sukhilala.

मदर इण्डिया / Madre India. IN 1957. D: Mehboob Khan. Dial.: Wajahat Mirza, S. Ali Raza. DP: Faredoon Irani. ED: Shamsuddin Kadri. AD: V. H. Palnitkar. M: Naushad. Songs: Shakeel Badayuni. C: Nargis (Radha), Sunil Dutt (Birju), Raaj Kumar (Shamu), Rajendra Kumar (Ramu), Kanhaiyalal, Mukri (Sukhilala), Jilloo, Kumkum (Champa), Chanchal, Sheela Naik (Kamla). P: Mehboob Khan per Mehboob Productions. 35 mm. 172’. Col. Hindi version with English subtitles. From: BFI – National Archive
    Opened by Gian Luca Farinelli, introduced by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.
    Viewed with English subtitles on print and e-subtitles in Italian by Sub-Ti at Cinema Jolly, Bologna (Il Cinema Ritrovato), 28 June 2014

Saaed Mirza (Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2024, catalogue and website): “All Hindi films come from Mother India”, an Indian screenwriter once remarked. Exuberantly rich in incident and spectacle, director Mehboob Khan’s film has acquired the status of a national epic over the years. The film unfolds the saga of a peasant woman, whose courage and determination symbolizes the endurance of the nation itself. The rural landscapes of India, the rhythms of village life and the changing seasons are brought alive by evocative colour cinematography in rich earth tones."

The Epic Journey of a Nation

"Mother India was made in 1957, exactly ten years after India gained Independence. Though the film begins a generation before that momentous occasion, strangely enough, it never actually reveals
the face of the colonizing power. Rather, it delves into the rhythm of an agricultural civilization that has existed since time immemorial. And representing this timelessness is Radha, played by Nargis, who combines the characteristics of both Mother Courage and Mother Earth."

"Through her, we traverse the epic journey of a country from darkness to light. Radha’s story begins with her as a young bride who, along with her farmer husband, struggles to make ends meet. Theirs
is a journey of a little happiness and much struggle and sorrow, since most of what their land produces is taken by the village landlord. When Radha and her husband try to fend for themselves
by cultivating a piece of barren land, catastrophe strikes. The husband loses both his arms in an accident, and Radha has to pawn her jewellery to the landlord in order to fend for their three children."

"Later, she will also lose her land to him. Though at this point the film revolves around the theme of an unjust agrarian system, of land and the struggle to make it yield, other factors come into play. The disappearance of Radha’s husband one day, because he cannot bear the humiliation of his incapacity; the death of Radha’s youngest child in a flood. Through all this, we see the saga of Radha, and her indomitable spirit, as the years pass and her two young boys become men."

"The only reference to India becoming a nation comes when Radha appeals to fellow villagers who are attempting to flee the ravages of a great flood, not to abandon their lands and to have faith that
things will change. The villagers return, and in a symbolic shot, regroup into the contours of the map of India. The year is 1947 and India is free."

"The saga now shifts to Radha’s struggle on two fronts: one, to till the land with the help of her sons, and the other, more personal, to tame the rebellious spirit of her younger son who harbours deep anger against the scheming landlord who brought such grief upon his family. In all of this, Radha maintains a stoic dignity that arises from the values ingrained within her. These are the values of a traditional India that has seen a series of destabilizing onslaughts, and yet has held fast and remained unchanged."

"The film ends in independent India, where Radha is invited to inaugurate a small dam that will finally bring water to the parched fields. Hopefully, this is a new beginning that will change the lives of people who have been oppressed for so long." (Saeed Mirza, Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2014, catalogue and website)

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur's introduction (my notes): "This is the first time a retrospective from the Golden Fifties of Indian cinema has been mounted. The films are vanishing - the original negatives do not survive, and the prints are not in good condition. 
    The 1950s were a time of hope and aspiration, of social idealism.
    A new breed of film-makers emerged. 
    In 1952 the first Indian film festival was arranged. In it, Ladri di biciclette was screened, shot on location, showing true human struggle. That was an important revelation.
    The new film-makers had come from small villages to cities, directors such as Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt. They all migrated with a new sense of hope. 
    It was not easy to choose from a heritage of 70.000 Indian films (at the count of 2013) made in 32 languages, and in the 1950s in three major centers: Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, in Hindi, Bengali, and other languages.
    The selection of 8 films represents all those three major centers.
    Mehboob Khan was a silent film actor who founded a film company of his own; its emblems were the hammer and the sickle.
    Mehboob Khan shared the vision of Nehru. Mehboob died in 1964 at 57, in the same year as Nehru.
    They shared the new vision, the new myth of India. In the newsreel before the feature there is also evidence of that Nehruvian vision. Also an important topic in the newsreel is the visit of Danny Kaye to encourage children to get vaccinated.
    We have lost so many Indian films. Most of them are gone. Now there is a new awakening." Shivendra Singh Dungarpur's introduction (my notes)

AA: The mother of Indian cinema.

There is a magnificent flow in this epic of Indian struggle and reconstruction. There is an affinity in the approach to Soviet kolkhoz musicals of Pyriev and Alexandrov.

This is a musical melodrama with both celebration songs of life and laments of life's hardship. It mixes realism and fairy-tale with equal conviction.
    There is the splendour of the wedding, and the Festival of Colours, the excess and abundance of the musicals.
    The characters are based on stock figures, almost caricatures, elevated to myth.
    The terrible mother-in-law figure.
    The exploiter-landlord-moneylender Sukhilala whose evil knows no bounds.
    The long-suffering mother. A great performance by Nargis.
    The prodigal son who turns into a tramp, a village lunatic, and a bandit. Birju is very well acted both as the child actor and the actor of Birju as a young man.
    Radha the mother has protected Birju to the end, also when there is a mob out to torch Birju. From the sea of fire mother rescues Birju one final time. There is an atavistic force in these scenes. Birju becomes a bandit leader. There is a bloodbath as Birju comes to wreck the wedding of Rupa. That is the last straw. Radha shoots her own son. Birju gives his mother the bracelets, the symbol of what it was all about.
    But in the conclusion there is new hope. A dam is opened, and the water fertilizes the fields.

The realistic element is strong. It is the tragedy of the little farmer financially chained to the landlord-exploiter in a system we in Europe call feudal. The scenes of ploughing, pioneering, removing large stones, and the work montages (starting already during the opening credit sequence) are powerful. This is also a story of illiteracy and loss of education: the farmers are not able to check Sukhilala's cooked account books. Despite the melodramatic-musical mode the performances of the characters and the family tensions are realistic and believable. This is also the story of Radha's lost love, the husband becoming crippled, having lost his both arms. Radha never ceases to miss him.

A few days ago I saw a Swedish film about the conditions in the Swedish countryside in the 1930s, Den enfaldige mördaren, and watching this was struck by the affinities.

The reconstruction of Bharat mata has been conducted from difficult source materials. The opening credits state that it has originally been a print by Technicolor based on Gevacolor negatives, but the colours in the sources available have faded.

Anyway this is an engrossing and unforgettable experience. One of the rare films that achieve the level of myth. The myth of the rebirth of India. And also a psychoanalytical myth of mother and son.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur: The Golden '50s. India's Endangered Classics (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2014 introduction)

Bharat mata / Mother India. Nargis as Radha with her precious wedding bracelets and her young husband in the early days of happiness.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur (Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, 2014, catalogue and website)

"I was a child of the 70s, but I lived and breathed the cinema of the 1950s. On summer evenings, my grandfather would bring those wonderful prints and screen them for us with his projector: the magical dream sequence of Raj Kapoor’s Awara, the poetic intensity of Guru Dutt’s films and the universal truth captured in the stillness of Bimal Roy’s narratives. To me cinema was vibrant and breathing, and Kaagaz ke Phool made me want to become a filmmaker."

"India in the 1950s was a country newly born, freed from the shackles of colonialism, full of hopes and aspirations. Industrialization and Partition made migration a way of life. The cities beckoned with dreams of opportunity and prosperity, but also with the reality of exploitation, crime and slums. This age saw the birth of a new breed of filmmakers who turned their backs on mythology and historical dramas. Their narratives leaned heavily towards social commentary, as leftist artists were drawn to cinema, viewing it as a powerful evangelical medium. Italian neo-realism found its way to Indian shores, and Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves struck a chord with Indian filmmakers who discovered that the reality of the human struggle was a universal truth. Bimal Roy (1909-1966), Raj Kapoor (1924-1988), Guru Dutt (1925-1964), Mehboob Khan (1907-1964), S. S. Vasan (1903-1969) and Ritwik Ghatak (1925-1976) were among these ‘rebel’ filmmakers who made the 1950s the most glorious chapter in the history of Indian cinema – truly the Golden Age."

"It was difficult for me to choose just eight films from the three major film industries of the time – Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. Chandralekha (1948), Awara (1951), Do Bigha Zamin (1953), Ajantrik (1957), Mother India (1957), Pyaasa (1957) Madhumati (1958) and Kaagaz ke Phool (1959): each of these eight films represents an innovation in thought, form or style. In keeping with the tradition at the time, I have also picked eight newsreels to precede each of the feature films. These are an important record of the time, presenting a historical context for the films in the retrospective."

"These films represent a rich and varied cinematic heritage that is in danger of becoming extinct. 1700 silent films were made in India of which only 5 or 6 complete films remain. Tragically, we have lost our first sound film Alam Ara (1931). By 1950, India had lost seventy to eighty per cent of its films and this has been the result of a widespread and complacent belief that film will last forever. We now realize that these eight classics too are in imminent danger of being lost to the world if urgent steps are not taken for their preservation and restoration. Screening these films is not just a reminder of a singular cinematic legacy, but one that is endangered and must be saved." Shivendra Singh Dungarpur (Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna,2014, catalogue and website)

Programme curated by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Film Heritage Foundation
In collaboration with National Film Archive of India e Films Division, Government of India

Il cavaliere misterioso / The Mysterious Knight (1999 restoration Cineteca Nazionale)

Riccardo Freda: Il cavaliere misterioso / The Mysterious Knight (IT 1948). Giacomo Casanova (Vittorio Gassman) helps Catherine the Great (Yvonne Sanson) with her riding boots.

IT 1948. P: Dino De Laurentiis per Lux Film.

    D: Riccardo Freda. SC: Riccardo Freda, Mario Monicelli, Steno. DP:  Rodolfo Lombardi - b&w. AD: Piero Filippone, Nino Novarese. M: Alessandro Cicognini. ED:  Otello Colangeli.

    C: Vittorio Gassman (Giacomo Casanova), Maria Mercader (Elisabetta), Yvonne Sanson (Caterina II), Gianna Maria Canale (la contessa Lehmann), Elli Parvo (la moglie del doge), Antonio Centa (fratello di Casanova), Giovanni Hinrich (il grande inquisitore), Tino Buazzelli (un congiurato).

    96 min

    Not released in Finland.
    1999 restoration by Cineteca Nazionale.

    35 mm print from:  CSC – Cineteca Nazionale.
    Viewed with e-subtitles in English by Sub-Ti, Cinema Jolly, Bologna (Il Cinema Ritrovato), 28 June 2014

Jacques Lourcelles (Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2014, English translation for the catalogue and the website): "After Don Cesare di Bazan and the first Aquila nera, which took Italian adventure films back to their tough, picaresque and dynamic roots, unlike the soft embellished style of the fascist period, Freda completed Il cavaliere misterioso, a story with a much more personal tone and one of his masterpieces."

"His virtuosity led him to include an original portrait of Casanova (his seventh film, Gassman is the most distinct and credible Casanova ever seen) in a wide-ranging adventure story whose sequences are at times inhabited by an obscure and enigmatic progression of a detective story, an unusual and distressing atmosphere of an almost imaginary story (the scenes in Vienna), not to mention that climax of intrigue and frosty marivaudage which Freda uses to show us his vision of the 18th century."

"He brightly creates his own personal universe: a world of treachery, plotting and cruelty in which honesty is always lacking, illuminated with elegance."

"As always in his films, the formal aspect (sets, costumes, photography) is treated with extreme care but never as an end in itself. It is always wonderfully connected to a dynamic conception of the cinematographic story. In this sense the final sequences of the sleigh chase are emblematic as they exploit all of the variations of white. They are extremely charming and communicate, along with their visual splendour, the director’s characteristic bitter and detached style." (Jacques Lourcelles, Dictionnaire du cinéma. Les films, Robert Laffont, Paris 1992) (Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2024, catalogue and website)

AA: Jacques Lourcelles states above that Vittorio Gassman is the most distinct and credible Casanova ever seen on screen, and his mercurial character is, indeed, the most remarkable feature of this film: story and character are inseparable in this adventure which brings us from Venice to Vienna, Poland and Saint Petersbourg. The leading ladies are delightful: Elli Parvo as the wife of the doge, Gianna Maria Canale as the Countess Lehmann trying to disguise herself as a man (does not fool Casanova for a second), and Yvonne Sanson as Catherine the Great. In this story, Casanova is not pursuing love but putting his charms to maximal use with each woman, usually even playing hard to get. This is about the art of the flirt.

More fundamentally, this is about serious commitments. For Casanova, it is all about saving his brother, who is being tortured in the prisons of Venice. Yet amongst all that flirt, there is one serious affair, that with Elisabetta (Maria Mercader), deeply hurt by what she thinks is going on between Casanova and Countess Lehmann. Having sacrificed her position as the chambermaid of the contessa by helping Casanova (the count suspecting her of having helped a secret lover into the house), there is for Elisabetta still the ultimate sacrifice as they are chased by the Cossacks near the border of Poland. This is a Mozartian interpretation of Casanova: the Rococo art of surface elegance hiding something more profound and tragic. Mission accomplished, Casanova's reply to the intrigued wife of the doge about the fate of Elisabetta is: "The supreme rival was Death".

Riccardo Freda excels in the adventure story; it is a difficult genre to pull off this well. The action scenes are brisk, the final chase sequence is thrilling. Freda has a strong sense of horror and fantasy (the Venetian lead chambers, the abandoned house, the secret society). His touch of the erotic element is light, natural, sensitive, and humoristic. The funniest scenes are the ones where Casanova teases Countess Lehmann in her male disguise, and Casanova's private audience with Catherine the Great.

The print looks like it has been carefully restored from difficult sources. While the visual quality is often good, at times there is a soft and duped look.

Emiliano Morreale: Riccardo Freda. A Master of Popular Cinema (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2014 introduction)

Emiliano Morreale (Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2014, catalogue and website): 

"Riccardo Freda’s great period began immediately after the war with the adventure films he made for Riccardo Gualino’s Lux and ended in the 1960s with Lo spettro. During that time the director worked on high-end productions and second-rate ones but always according to his creed of energy and speed. Film is an art to be done in a hurry, as the director often said: “When the production of a film takes too long, enthusiasm drags, and the film’s rhythm is affected by it. Ideally, you put a reel in the camera, call action and never stop”."

"Averse to the quintessential Italian film genre, comedy, and a sworn enemy of Neorealism, Freda always presented himself as an ‘American-style’ director, a master of action movies, a creator of grand melodramas and even a pioneer of Italian horror film. Literature played a leading part in his idea of popular cinema, a veritable storehouse of celebrated and unknown references melding high and low (Dante, Pushkin, Hugo, d’Ennery). Opera librettos and silent films were also great sources of inspi­ration for the director. Aside from literary adaptations, many of his films were remakes of silent films he had been fond of ever since his pied-noir childhood in Egypt: Valentino, Maciste, Griffith… Certainly not a cinephile, Freda nourished himself on film: thinking he was heir to a tradition, he became a master of style. It is not surprising that he is admired by extremely di­verse directors, from Bertrand Tavernier to Giuseppe Tornatore. The classic camera movement in his films, it has been said, was a lateral or diagonal dolly that leads a character into a crowded venue, a place to explore, possibly full of peril, where that char­acter is always at the center of the action and the scene. There is undoubtedly a ‘Freda style’ – wide, curving camera movements, with a dolly and crane – just as there are Fredian heroes – at least during the first phase of his career – who are noble, brave and typical of popular storytelling. But at a certain point (with horror films, for example) it is not a question of good or bad. Freda became more cynical and disappointed with mankind and certainly with filmmaking."

"A total filmmaker and totally popular, Freda was ignored by Italian critics, but he was rediscovered in France through the auteur policy. A banner macmahonien director, he was also admired by the “Positif” crowd. In Italy he has also had tributes and been reinterpreted, especially by the genera­tion that strove to free itself from the ideological hegemony of Neorealism. Thereafter, cinephiles would especially esteem his horror films, but his distinctly classic cinema never did enjoy that perverse, pop or trash type of fascination of the later genres. Freda was perfect for cultural battles and provocation but also for engaging and thrilling generations of audiences and critics alike. His work appears to us today as an example of a lost cin­ema to be read alongside the history of culture, of the modes of production, and of the audience in Italy and beyond." Emiliano Morreale (Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2014, catalogue and website)

Il Cinema Ritrovato's 2014 Riccardo Freda programme curated by Emiliano Morreale.

Den enfaldige mördaren / The Simple-Minded Murderer

Yksinkertainen murhaaja. SE 1982. PC: AB Svenska Ord, AB Svensk Filmindustri, Stiftelsen Svenska Filminstitutet. P: Waldemar Bergendahl. D+SC: Hans Alfredson based on his novel En ond man (1980). DP: Jörgen Persson. AD: Stig Boquist. SFX: Per-Olof Ohlsson. Cost: Ulla-Britt Söderlund.  Makeup: Horst Stadlinger, Mia Renck. M: Rolf Sersam. ED: Jan Persson. S: Christer Furubrand, Wille Kökeritz. C: Stellan Skarsgård (Sven, ”the Idiot”), Hans Alfredson (Höglund), Maria Johansson (Anna), Per Myrberg (Andersson), Lena-Pia Bernhardsson (Mrs. Andersson) , Tomas Alfredson (Axel), Cecilia Walton (Vera), Nils Ahlroth (Månsson), Lars Amble (Bengt),  Wallis Grahn (Mrs. Höglund), Lena Nyman (the woman without the lower body), Gösta Ekman (the new chauffeur), Else-Marie Brandt (the mother of "the Idiot"), Carl-Åke Eriksson (Wallin), Carl Billquist (Flodin), Anders Granström (engineer Berghald),  Anna-Carin Krokstäde (Märit), Björn Andrésen (an angel), Daniel Alfredson (an angel), Erik Spangenberg (an angel), Georg Årlin (a civil servant), Stellan Sundahl (man at the Nazi meeting), Bengt-Göran Svensson (a man). Helsinki premiere: 29.4.1983 Nordia, released by: Nordfilm Oy – VET 090159 – K16 – 2950 m / 108 min
    Vintage KAVI print (deposited via Nordfilm) with Finnish subtitles viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Thriller Sweden), 26 June 2014

A strong period film set in the Depression years of the 1930s in Scania (Skåne) in South Sweden. The circumstances are still half-feudal. The lord, the industrialist Höglund, strives for total control in his realm. He lets Sven "the idiot" stay in the cowhouse and treats him like a slave. Girls and women are his to take advantage of. Sven's sister becomes a prostitute. Höglund is an enthusiastic Nazi supporter.

Sven is no idiot, but he is an original and a marginalized figure with a cleft lip which makes his speech hard to understand. His best friend is the wheelchair bound Anna, and he finds family warmth in Anna's family. Sven studies the Bible and sees visions of avenging angels with swords. He is morally sensitive, and the evil of Höglund, who conspires to evict all decent people in his neighbourhood, becomes overwhelming for him. A final straw of humiliation is the wrecking Sven's beloved Indian Big Chief motorcycle which he has renovated with tender loving care. As Sven rises against the tyrant Höglund he is fulfilling the secret wish of most everybody.

A splendid performance by Stellan Skarsgård as Sven "the idiot". The director himself plays the evil and sadistic Höglund. (Hans "Hasse" Alfredson is best-known as a comedian, a partner in the "hasseåtage" duo).

A unique feature of this film is a blend of grim realism and a fairy-tale atmosphere stemming from Sven's worldview.

There is a painterly quality in the cinematography, and an abundance of period detail in the art direction. This is visually an opulent film. The characters are painted with marked contours, almost in caricature. The film is very visual, but there is at times too much dialogue. There is perhaps sometimes something slightly recherché in the account of the period.

The print is basically good, doing justice to the magnificent cinematography and art direction. In the beginning it seemed soft and a generation too far removed from the original, but it got better.

Meidän poikamme merellä / [Our Sons at Sea]

Våra gossar till sjöss. FI 1933. PC: Suomi-Filmi Oy. P: Erkki Karu. D: Erkki Karu. SC: Erkki Karu, Georg Malmstén. DP: Theodor Luts. Suomen Joutsenen esittely: Dr. Snellman. Camera assistants: Lennart Brännlund, Kullervo Kari, Sulo Tammilehto. AD: Armas Fredman. Makeup: Hannes Kuokkanen, Aarne Kuokkanen. Olavi Suominen (makeup assistant). M: Georg Malmstén. The reinforced Zamba-orkesteri. ED: Erkki Karu. Choreography (dances): Alexander Saxelin. S: Rafael Ylkänen. Stills: Kalle Havas, Kosti Lehtinen. Military advisor: Vilho Pentikäinen. Errand boy: Olavi Karu. Studio manager: Armas Fredman. C: Georg Malmstén (Pekka Kuusisto, reservin ylikers.), Kati Aspelin (Koiviston kartanon Leila), Aku Käyhkö (lääkäri Väre), Jaakko Korhonen (sukellusveneen komentaja, kapteeniluutnantti), Iivari Kainulainen (pursimies Ville Pirske), Väinö Söderholm, myöh. Serho (Iiska, reservin aliupseeri), Reino Volanen (II reservin aliupseeri / kannibaalikuningatar), Eero Eloranta (avustava lääkäri), Sven Lundevall (viulu), Robert von Essen (piano), Eugen Malmstén (trumpetti, harmonikka), Alexander Wittenberg (saksofoni), Torsten Melander (pasuuna), Sven Grönholm (rummut), B. Wittenberg (viulu), Runar Törnström (saksofoni), G. Gröndahl ja Aimo Andersson (trumpetti), T. Andersson (basso), Viljo Vesterinen (harmonikka), Jaana Ylhä (sotilaskotinainen), Helge Pahlman (virttä laulava reserviläinen), Unto Salminen (res.kers. Salminen), Aino Niska (Manta), Evert Ekman (komentajakapteeni Evert Ekman), Kalle Kärkkäinen (luutn. Kalle Kärkkäinen, adjutantti), Gunnar Bärlund, Laila Richter, Rauni Veivo (kurssijuhlan yleisöä), Margit Tirkkonen (tanssijatar), Sulo Enkiö (yksi tanssijoista). Helsinki premiere: 12.3.1933 Kino-Palatsi – telecasts: MTV2: 10.5.1975, MTV1: 17.1.1982; YLE TV2: 6.91990 ja 1.9.1995; YLE TV1: 30.6.1987 ja 26.4.2002 – classification: A–103 – S – 2995 m / 109 min
    KAVI 2K DCP viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Erkki Karu), 25 June, 2014

A dreary early Finnish sound film with the distinction of being the first Finnish musical. In his military trilogy, Erkki Karu started by realizing the first film Meidän poikamme largely as a farce; of this second film he made a musical. As a director Erkki Karu had developed rapidly in the early 1920s and was quite good around 1923, but after that his touch became uneven: he still could make an interesting film (Meidän poikamme), but he made also duds (Meidän poikamme merellä). Erkki Karu's sound films as a whole are hard to digest. In his silent films Karu had a certain flair, verve and wit which is mostly missing from his sound films.

For lovers of Finnish popular culture Meidän poikamme merellä is indispensable for the songs and performances of Georg Malmstén, an authentic incarnation of the brave singing sailor. "Sinitakkien marssi" ["The March of the Bluecoats"], "Meidän Maija" ["Our Mary-Ann", about their brig], "Kuu hopeoitaan hohtaa" ["In the Silvery Gleam of the Moon", lyrics by Erkki Karu], "The Hanko Waltz" / "Leila", "Sukellusvenevalssi" ["The Submarine Waltz"], and "Aallokko kutsuu" ["The Call of the Waves", a slow waltz] are fresh and original songs which convey the marine spirit perfectly as do the rousing marches. John Ford would have liked them. - Sound recording is still primitive in this film.

Georg Malmstén became a legendary performer, and already here he is full of life as an entertainer, but the comedy routines are awkward. Equally awkward is the token narrative about the romance of Pekka (Georg Malmstén) and the nurse Leila (Kati Aspelin).

Besides the music the other strength of the movie is the cinematography by Theodor Luts. It is surprising to witness here passages that resemble Battleship Potyomkin - the lyrical sequence of the nocturnal harbour (while "In the Silvery Gleam of the Moon" is playing), and the sequence of the maintenance of the cannons on the battleship. - There is a rich variety of field sizes.

The film has been successfully digitized. With the challenging early soundtrack it might be worth the effort to do some more work.

Remembering Gerry Goffin (1939-2014)

"Gerry Goffin and Carole King at the RCA recording studio in New York around 1959. Credit Michael Ochs Archives, via Getty Images." From The New York Times, 19 June 2014

Gerry Goffin and Carole King favourites:

1961  The Shirelles: "Will You Love Me Tomorrow"
1961  Bobby Vee: "Take Good Care Of My Baby"
1961  The Drifters: "Some Kind Of Wonderful"
1962  The Beatles (1963): "Chains"
1962  Little Eva: "Loco-Motion"
1963  The Chiffons: "One Fine Day"
1963  The Drifters: "Up On The Roof"
1964  Herman's Hermits: "I'm Into Something Good"
1966  The Animals: "Don't Bring Me Down"
1966  Dusty Springfield: "Goin' Back"
1967  The Monkees: "Pleasant Valley Sunday"
1967  Aretha Franklin: "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman"
1968  The Byrds: "Wasn't Born To Follow"

Alphaville

Alphaville ou Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution / Lemmy Caution – piru mieheksi / Lemmy Caution – hård kille / Alphaville – ett fall för Lemmy Caution. FR/IT 1965. PC: Chaumiane Productions (Paris) / Filmstudio (Rome). P: André Michelin. D+SC: Jean-Luc Godard. DP: Raoul Coutard - b&w - 1,37:1. M: Paul Misraki. ED: Agnès Guillemot. S: René Levert.
    C: Eddie Constantine (Lemmy Caution), Anna Karina (Natacha von Braun), Akim Tamiroff (Henri Dickson), Howard Vernon (professor Léonard Nosfératu alias von Braun), László Szabó (chief engineer), Michel Delahaye (von Braun's assistant), Jean-André Fieschi (professor Heckell), Jean-Louis Comolli (professor Jeckell), Christa Lang (1st seductress third class), Valérie Boisgel (2nd seductress third class), Jean-Pierre Léaud (cameo as a breakfast waiter).
    Locations: 4.1.-14.2.1965, Paris - Maison de la Radio, Palais des Expositions, Les Machines Bull, EDF building (Paris 12, Paris, France - computer center), Esso tower (La Défense, Hauts-de-Seine), Scribe Hotel (1 Rue Scribe, Paris 9).
    Helsinki premiere 20.8.1965 Ritz, Scala, distributor: Cinelux-Filmi – telecast 5.11.1979 MTV1, 1.2.1989 YLE TV1, 22.5.2009 YleTeema (Kino Teema)  – VET 72304 – K12 – 98 min
    A vintage KAVI print (deposited from Cinelux-Filmi) with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by n.c. / Maya Vanni viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Jean-Luc Godard), 19 June 2014

"Nous vivons dans l'oubli de nos métamorphoses".
 – Paul Éluard: Capitale de la douleur

Alphaville revisited.
    A film of poetry, myth, dystopia, and mordant gags.
    Yet another of Jean-Luc Godard's genre reversals. He had made crime films (A bout de souffle, Bande à part), a musical (Une femme est une femme), and a war film (Les Carabiniers). Now he turned to science fiction.
    The surface approach is irreverent, dominated by a sense of play. Godard has fun with genre, and with Eddie Constantine's star image as Lemmy Caution. Godard is not laughing at genre or the star system; he is laughing with them. (It is compatible with Rick Altman's genre theory that Alphaville is a genre blender with aspects of science fiction, policier, spy film, and even Western.)
    But more fundamentally, it's deadly earnest. Godard takes the story as seriously as it gets. The basic drive is mythical. "The strange adventure of Lemmy Caution" is an Orphic quest where the hero visits the Land of Death ("The Capital of Pain"). Although Lemmy Caution is introduced as a strong silent man, a gunman with few words or none, surprisingly he finally conquers Alphaville with love and poetry.
   In Finland we can relate this to the Kalevala myth, where Väinämöinen, our Orpheus, conquers Pohjola (The Land of the North) by the power words of his song and poetry.
    Alphaville has been linked with Jean Cocteau's Orphic trilogy where Cocteau modernized the myth. In Alphaville, Godard projects the myth into the future, and postmodernizes it.
    Lemmy is also Theseus who enters the labyrinth and destroys the Minotaur (the monster computer). (Natacha is not an Ariadne figure, although she is Eurydice to the Lemmy-Orpheus).
    Science fiction films can be expensive because of the huge costs of production design and special effects. The great insight and the best joke of Alphaville is that the land of future, the land of death, was filmed in contemporary Paris, without even an art director assigned for the movie.
    Alphaville is no pre-cyberpunk film, but it belongs to the pioneer films about the computer world and the power of information technology, before Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are some affinities with Fahrenheit 451, the Ray Bradbury story and the François Truffaut film, but in them there is no emphasis on the computer world.
    There are long passages of Lemmy Caution's adventures inside the huge computer center, the machine mind. The computer is growing in impact. People are governed by logic. Emotion and poetry have become capital crimes. But Lemmy fulfills his mission. Professor von Braun, the master of Alphaville, is killed, and the Alpha 60 (Alpha Soixante, α 60) is destroyed. In the maze of the computer centre living dead people are soon wandering about. They are stunned, crushed, deprived of light, like ants. They have been transformed into mutants. The universe saved, Lemmy takes Natacha with him in his Ford Galaxy. "Don't look back", says Lemmy. "Je vous aime", says Natacha.

More remarks:
    The range of the music by Paul Misraki extends from strident 1950s style crime film sounds to romantic harmonies towards the end.
    The Alphaville people have numbers tattooed on their skin like Auschwitz inmates.
    There is an auditorium of electric chairs from where the victims can be easily dumped to a garbage heap.
    Lemmy shines his shoes on the carpet of the hotel stairs.
    The hotel bible is a dictionary which is daily re-edited for illogical words.
    A highlight is the Lemmy-Natacha love montage with close-ups and extreme close-ups of eyes and faces. "I moved towards you. I moved towards light".
    Another fine scene is the car chase shot from a stark high angle from the rooftop.
    Like in Murnau's Nosferatu, there are shots in the negative in the final showdown episode. We are twixt the otherworld and this.

The names of the film production company of Mika and Aki Kaurismäki, Villealfa, and the character of Aki Kaurismäki, Ville Alfa, in Arvottomat / The Worthless, were coined in hommage to the Godard movie.

Raoul Coutard shot Alphaville in Academy, and it must be shown like that. (According to Coutard, all the black and white films of Godard of the period were shot in Academy, and all the colour films in scope). (Although the sixties' subtitles in our copy are printed for widescreen). It consists mostly of nocturnal or interior shots. There is often an intentionally high contrast, and it looks like it's mostly or entirely shot in available light.

The print has been heavily used but a feeling of the original concept of the cinematography is strong and authentic.

La Paresse / Sloth

Eddie Constantine, Nicole Mirel. Click to enlarge.

Credits for the complete film:
Les sept péchés capitaux / The Seven Deadly Sins / 7 kuolemansyntiä / De 7 dödssynderna. IT/FR 1962. PC: Films Gibé / Franco London Films / Titanus. Black and white in scope. Poster design: Jean Effel. Helsinki premiere: 2 November 1962 Gloria, Ritz, released by Suomi-Filmi with Finnish / Swedish subtitles - VET 63123 - K16 - 3140 m / 115 min
    Credits for the Godard episode:
Laiskuus / Lättja. D+SC: Jean-Luc Godard. DP: Henri Decaë. M: Michel Legrand. C: Eddie Constantine, Nicole Mirel (as themselves). 13 min
    A vintage KAVI print, deposited by Suomi-Filmi, viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Jean-Luc Godard), 19 June 2014

A humoristic sketch on the theme of sloth. Eddie is so lazy that he does not bother to talk with Nicole, nor get out of the car at the service station. Instead, he asks Nicole to fetch for him a sandwich as easy as possible to digest, yet Eddie never eats it. Eddie would even pay for someone to tie his shoestrings. His books remain uncut. Eddie barely manages to unzip Nicole. The naked Nicole: "What are you waiting for?" Eddie: "I would not bother to dress afterwards". Nicole: "Now this really takes the bisquit".
    The "lesson": sloth may be a sin, but it can also can prevent sin.
    In his second scope film Jean-Luc Godard still fools around with the format, starting with the very first shots, of Paris Studios Cinéma, and Eddie's large convertible, both precisely framed for scope.
    A story of lethargy. "Toujours sommeil". Eddie has not had enough to sleep. "Tout me fatigue".
    Nicole has a smart Chanel dress. Eddie is also dressed well, for his next film. But he is just too tired to get in and out of that suit.
    "The cheesy Hawaiian music suits the story well." (Bob Taylor, IMDb, 22 Oct 2002).
    La Paresse is a parody of cool.

The heavily used vintage print has "rain" in changeovers but gives a good sense of the beautiful definition of light of Henri Decaë.

Suzanne

Sara Forestier, Paul Hamy

Country & year: France, 2013
Director: Katell Quillévéré
Screenplay: Katell Quillévéré, Mariette Désert
Cinematography: Tom Harari
Editing: Thomas Marchand
Set Design: Anna Falguères, Mathieu Guy
Costumes: Moïra Douguet, Virginie Montel
Sound: Yolande Decarsin, Florent Klockenbring, Benjamin Rosier
Cast: Sara Forestier, François Damiens, Adèle Haenel, Paul Hamy, Lola Dueñas, Corinne Masiero, Anne Le Ny
Production: Move Movie, Mars Films, Panache Productions, La Compagnie Cinématographique, Canal+, Ciné+, CNC
Producers: Gaëtan David, Bruno Levy
Language: French
Kesto/Duration: 94 min
    End credit theme song: "Suzanne" (Leonard Cohen), Nina Simone in Rome 1969
    2K DCP from Films Distribution with English subtitles by John Miller and Sionann O'Neill viewed at Cinema Lapinsuu, Sodankylä (Midnight Sun Film Festival), 15 June 2014

Timo Malmi (Midnight Sun Film Festival Catalogue, 2014): "Leonard Cohen’s classic song Suzanne – as Nina Simone’s magnificent live version from 1969 – concludes Katell Quillévéré’s second feature, again a portrayal of a young woman and a family falling apart. Thus are redeemed the promises of Love Like Poison."

"Proficiently interpreted by Sara Forestier, the title character of Suzanne is an unpredictable figure escaping the most conventional psychological characterizations. With no reproach whatsoever, Quillévéré observes Suzanne and her little sister Maria (Adéle Haenel, who received the César Award for her role) over several years from childhood to the teenage years, and to adulthood."

"Their mother is dead, and the single father Nicolas (the Belgian actor François Damiens), an endearingly taciturn truck driver, tries to keep the family together. But a madcap love seizes Suzanne, and crime and drugs step into the picture. The road to reaching one’s own children and the family unit is more than rocky."

"The same way the main characters of the films are different, Suzanne is harsher than Love Like Poison, but this realistic story attaining surprising turns, too, contains its own poetry. The rural town is beautifully sketched again, and the use of music is insightful – creating appropriate feelings, with the dances, lights, and everything. Love and family life can be heartrendingly sad." (TM)

Fine performances, an understanding of light in the cinematography, and an interesting music score belong to the strengths of Suzanne, Katell Quillévéré's acclaimed film tracking 25 years in the life of Suzanne who grows from a little girl to a young woman. Mother has died, and Nicolas tries his best as a single father of two daughters. In the beginning Nicolas is considering dating a woman, but he is too exhausted and busy for that.

The two daughters, Suzanne and Maria, are then left to their own devices a little bit too much. Soon they are teenagers, full of life, and suddenly Suzanne is pregnant. Father hits her. She is too young and inexperienced and alone, she becomes a criminal, and loses her little son to a foster family. Suzanne has a good defence lawyer. After serving a prison term she works as a waitress, but again she meets an exciting guy who turns out to be a criminal, based in Morocco, involved in drug smuggling. Suzanne acquires a second identity as "Jeanne Serein", but having visited the family grave she breaks down and cannot go on with the masquerade. This time, it's maximum security prison.

It's a story of a broken family and a broken life. All the performances are good, but the most touching is that of François Damiens as the tragic father who sees his worst fears come true. Although Suzanne's life course has been catastrophic there is in her a luminous quality, a sense of a life force which might transcend even the crushing turns of fate she has had to endure.

In the imagery a dominant aspect is that of industrial urban views: the father's world of truck driving, truck stops, highways, and their restaurants, and Suzanne's world of cafés, prisons and harbours where the thrilling moments of drug smuggling take place.

Two issues. In the narrative the big jumps and ellipses leave many questions unanswered, but Suzanne is not a modernist or post-modernist film, either. Another issue is that I could not find a persuasive viewpoint or an approach to the story of Suzanne. What are we to make out of it? Suzanne is a film of quality but I found there a vagueness of perspective, which may be entirely due to my own limitations.

Sodankylä morning discussion: Aki Kaurismäki and Peter von Bagh interviewing each other

Peter von Bagh, Aki Kaurismäki, 15 June 2016. Photo: Saana Kotila

The School, Sodankylä (Midnight Sun Film Festival), 15 June 2014

The résumé at The Midnight Sun Film Festival site: "”There was a rumour he would interview me, but I will interview him.” This is how Aki Kaurismäki responded to questions concerning the nature of Sunday’s extraordinary morning discussion. Festival Director Peter von Bagh cornered director Kaurismäki with a slew of familiar choices: Hawks or Ford? Kurosawa or Ozu? Dostoyevsky or Kafka? Red or white wine? Wife or cinema? The hour-long discussion included a lot of debate and consensus on many great films and filmmakers. The topics of discussion were diverse: everything from Chaplin to Aarne Tarkas."

"Kaurismäki reflected on von Bagh’s latest films, such as Remembrance: “The film will disturb viewers who have to go back to their childhood and witness the destruction their home cities have had to endure since then, especially in terms of architecture. The film is very beautiful, it forces the viewers to realize that they never had a childhood in the first place.”"

"On Socialism Kaurismäki said: “The film reveals that Peter has been fooling us all along. He has been pretending to be a tough guy, but Socialism reveals that at the core he is a sensitive person.”"

"Kaurismäki said that the most beautiful period in his life was when on Saturdays the Savoy theatre in Helsinki used to screen films from the archive with introductions by von Bagh. “Everybody came there with bags from the liquor store and the bottles were passed among the audience at a screening of a film such as Pudovkin’s Mother.”"

"Von Bagh on his turn recalled the interview Kaurismäki as an arts journalist made with him in Kaivopuisto park. Although the interviewer needed some help standing up, the article turned out quite well."

"When it came time for the famous question about desert island films, not only von Bagh (Ford’s The Quiet Man) and Kaurismäki (Hawks’ Only Angels Have Wings) were asked the question, but also the audience. Wild Strawberries, Andrei Rublev, Children of Paradise and other answers received approving comments from the stage."

"Films schools with their effect of standardization as well as the digitalization of cinema were both shot down by the pair on stage. According to von Bagh, none of this year’s morning discussion interviewees had received any formal film education. Von Bagh himself would not have been admitted even if he had applied to study film, while Kaurismäki did apply but was not admitted. “They told Aki that he is cynical, although in my view he is the least cynical of all film directors.”"

"For the festival’s Director, Midnight Sun Film Festival represents the complete opposite to cinema’s current direction. “Each year at Midnight Sun Film Festival, cinema is born anew. It is strange that each year quite a large number of us go back to our home towns, but there we are not able to set things right. Authentic cinemas have ceased to exist, the films distributed are drivel and the whole country has changed to digital projection. At Midnight Sun Film Festival, people are sure to witness as much 35mm as possible. As Aki wisely put it, real film is light, digital is mere electronics.”"

"“When there is no play of light on the surface of the picture, cinema no longer affects you, although before it affected so hell of a lot”, Kaurismäki described and summed up the conversation: “We have come to the conclusion that cinema is dead, but fortunately we are still alive.” " (The résumé at The Midnight Sun Film Festival 2014 website).

http://kuplia.wordpress.com/2014/06/15/sodankylassa-haisee-home/
http://filmiliekki.blogspot.it/2014/06/sodis-14-sosialismia.html
http://rosebudbooks.blogspot.fi/2014/06/everybody-needs-somebody-to-love.html
http://suomenkuvalehti.fi/kuvien-takaa/mista-tarantino-kaurismaki-ja-von-bagh-puhuivat-kun-julistivat-elokuvan-kuolemaa/?shared=2179-3f36fe6a-999
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Sokurovin ääni / The Voice of Sokurov (in the presence of Leena Kilpeläinen)

FI 2014
D: Leena Kilpeläinen
SC: Leena Kilpeläinen, Velipekka Makkonen (original idea)
DP: Leena Kilpeläinen, Alexander Burov
ED: Tambet Tasuja
S: Ivo Felt, Jari Kokko
M: Timo-Juhani Kyllönen
Featuring: Aleksandr Sokurov / Alexander Sokurov
PC: Revolver Film Ou, LM-Media GmbH, Illume Oy
P: Merja Ritola
Print: Illume Oy
Format: DCP
Language: Russian
Subtitles: English
84 min
    An Illume 2K DCP with English subtitles viewed at The Little Tent, in the presence of Leena Kilpeläinen, Sodankylä (Midnight Sun Film Festival), 14 June 2014

Lauri Timonen in the Midnight Sun Film Festival Catalogue 2014: "Alexandr Sokurov (born 1951) may well be the internationally best-known Russian director of his generation, but for this artist true to his own voice, the journey in the maelstrom of the System and in the midst of the power wielding and the corruption on the fringes of the film industry has been far from easy. At one time, he received help propelling him forward from e.g. his teacher Andrei Tarkovsky, who himself knew one thing or another of the depravity of the system."

"Against this backdrop, it is magnificent to see and hear Sokurov – a wise, placid and self-taught man – talk about his past and the present state of Russia in the new, excellent documentary by Leena Kilpeläinen. The atmospheric, intense and even spiritual samples of the director’s production supplement the whole, turning it into a polyphonous dialogue between the artist, his works, the Motherland, and history."

"One of the objects of Sokurov’s especial interest is the protection of old buildings being removed to make way for new ostentatious structures. As if surreptitiously, the tragic shutdown of the Russian film studio tradition moves alongside this theme. These immensely enjoyable ninety minutes in the company of an intelligent, thinking person act like a purgative punch of the Kino fist on the screens tarnished by splashes of Coca-Cola and dictator slime." (LT)

A preview of Leena Kilpeläinen's top quality documentary on Alexander Sokurov, a master of world cinema. Five years in the making, based on six lengthy interviews filmed on six different locations in Saint Petersburg, we meet an outspoken artist who covers here his entire life and prolific career. Leena Kilpeläinen told us that the locations were Sokurov's own favourites, where he felt at home. We see Saint Petersburg with Sokurov's eyes.

Chapters include: 1. Day: A Film Artist in Distress, 2. Day: The Limitedness of People, 3. Day: The Heritage of the Past, 4. Day: A Day on the Edge of Life, 5. Day: The Influence of Power, 6. Day: Voice of Loneliness, 7. Day: The Significance of Art.

There is an atmosphere of confidence in this documentary. Sokurov gives an account of his lifelong battle for the integrity of his art. The interview footage is eloquent, and the many illuminating clips have been selected with a good sense of judgement. This is an excellent introduction into the films of Sokurov, and it makes me want to see or revisit his films. I have seen many but not all.

This film covers 35 years of artistic creation in highly varying circumstances: the Brezhnevian years of stagnation, the Perestroika, the fall of the CPSU dictatorship, the years of liberty, and the current Putinian neo-reactionary backlash.

It is an account of the spiritual journey of Alexander Sokurov - and of Russia seen with the eyes of a great artist, a worthy successor to the great tradition of artists who have been mouthpieces for the uncomfortable truth.