Hotel Rwanda

GB/ZA/US/IT (c) 2004 Kigali Films. D: Terry George. SC: Keir Pearson, Terry George. DP: Robert Fraisse. Starring Don Cheadle (Paul Rusesabagina), Sophie Okonedo (Tatiana), Joaquin Phoenix (Jack), Nick Nolte (Colonel Oliver). 121 min. In English. Released by Lions Gate Films, German subtitles. Viewed at Urania, Berlin Film Festival (competition), 12 Feb 2005. Digital look. Epic story of the 1994 Rwanda genocide centers at the hotel Mille Collines. The Belgian Hutu Paul Rusesabagina, married to the Tutsi Tatiana, fights for his operation and for the safety of his people in the middle of the unspeakable bloodbath. A dignified effort to help understand the harrowing goings-on where almost a million people lost their lives in a hundred days. ***

Asylum

David Mackenzie: Asylum (US/IE 2004) with Marton Csokas (Edgar Stark), Natasha Richardson (Stella) and Ian McKellen (Peter Cleave).

Vangitut. US/IE 2004. PC: Seven Arts Pictures. D: David Mackenzie. SC: Patrick Marber – based on the novel by Patrick McGrath. DP: Giles Nuttgens. Starring Natasha Richardson (Stella), Ian McKellen (Peter Cleave), Marton Csokas (Edgar Stark), Hugh Bonneville (Max Raphael), Joss Ackland (Mr. Straffen). 93 min. Distributed by Seven Arts / Sony Pictures, German subtitles. Viewed at Urania, Berlin Film Festival (Competition) 12 Feb 2005. Patrick Marber is the sharpest writer of dialogue of the moment: as in Closer, he provides excellent lines for top actors, and there is a strong audience reaction to his wit. After Young Adam, David Mackenzie again confirms his talent in creating a strong atmosphere. Both men seem to be inspired by sexual obsessions and strange passions. The film is compelling until midpoint. The tale of degradation through love is powerful but leaves me asking about the point. ***

Thumbsucker (2005 Berlin Film Festival)

Mike Mills: Thumbsucker (US 2004). Lou Taylor Pucci (Justin Cobb).

Thumbsucker team at Berlin Film Festival. Keanu Reeves, Tilda Swinton, Mike Mills, Lou Taylor Pucci.

US 2004. PC: This Is That. D+SC: Mike Mills – based on the novel by Walter Kim. DP: Joaquin Baca-Asay. Starring Lou Taylor Pucci (Justin Cobb), Tilda Swinton (Audrey Cobb), Vincent D'Onofrio (Mike Cobb), Keanu Reeves (Dr. Perry Lyman), Vince Vaughn (Mr. Geary). 94 min. Heavy digital look. With German subtitles. Viewed at Urania, Berlin Film Festival Competition, 12 Feb 2005. The 17-year-old Justin is still a thumbsucker: this is the starting-point of an original American growing-up story: painful, funny, with great dialogue, good actors. ***

Man to Man

FR/GB/ZA (c) 2005 Vertigo Productions / Skyline (Man to Man) / France 2 Cinéma / France 3 Cinéma / Boréales / The Imaginarium. D: Régis Wargnier. SC: Michel Fessler, Frédéric Fougea. DP: Laurent Dailland. Starring Kristin Scott Thomas (Elena van den Ende), Joseph Fiennes (Jamie Dodd), Lomama Boseki (Toko), Cécile Bayiha (Likola). 122 min. Digitally processed look (obvious loss of detail and definition in long shots of the jungle etc.). A Wild Bunch release. Original in English, with German subtitles by Heinz Schwarzinger. In the simultaneous video presence of Régis Wargnier, Kristin Scott Thomas, Joseph Fiennes, Lomama Boseki, Cécile Bayiha, etc. Viewed in CinemaxX 3, Berlin, 10 Feb 2005 (the parallel opening of the Berlin Film Festival). The story of a Central Africa jungle trader (Kristin Scott Thomas) and three Edinburgh scientists who believe they have found the missing link in 1870. The humanity of the two pygmies vs. the bigotry of the white ones. A fascinating story, soberly told, with good actors. ***

BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL 2005

Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale) 10-20 Feb, 2005. I arrive as a guest of the "Information Tour for Film Experts" by Auswärtiges Amt / Goethe-Institut. Starting from the arrival at the airport everything is being taken care of. Hotel Angleterre by Checkpoint Charlie is within a 15 minute walking distance from the Festival center.
The touring group of 22 is global, with:
Gary Maddox (The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia)
Antonio Mazon Robau (Cinemateca de Cuba)
Christos Mitsis (director of The International Film Festival of Athens, Greece)
Blagoja Kunovski (The International Film Camera Festival, Skopje, Macedonia)
Ludmila Nemyria (The Ukraine Film Foundation)
Teboho Moseling Mahlatsi (film-maker, South Africa)
Mary-Beatrix Mugishagwe (tv and film producer, Daressalaam, Tanzania)
Youssef Sherif Rizkalla (director of the Cairo International Film Festival, Egypt)
Saleh Al-Suhaimi (film producer, Riad, Saudi Arabia)
Chalida Uabumrungjit (Thai Film Foundation), Bangkok, Thailand
Aviva Meiron (Cinematheque Jerusalem) Israel
Nicolas Deocampo (director, festival director) Manila, the Philippines
Ibrahim Moumni (Al Hayat) Beirut, Libanon
Bartosz Zurawiecki (Film monthly magazine) Warsaw, Poland
Misrobiddin Nugmanov (tv producer) Duschanbe, Tadzhikistan
David Melo Torres (film counsellor, Ministry of Culture) Bogota, Columbia
Futoshi Koga (Asahi Shimbun, film festival organizer) Tokyo, Japan
Ruoyu Yang (Radio and TV Team Shechuan) Chengdu, China
Alfredo Barría (film festival director, counselor of the ministry of culture, professor of film history) Valparaiso, Chile
Ricardo Bedoya (film critic and historian, co-organizer of the South American Film Festival) Lima, Peru
Mark Jenkins (journalist) Washington, D.C., USA
Our expert guides are Miriam Dagan, Anna Held, Luciana Sollero, and Hamza Chourabi.
We are invited to the Thursday evening opening gala, featuring Man to Man directed by Régis Wargnier.
On Friday 11 Feb we are given a special Information Tour Berlin by bus, hosted by the city planning expert Mr. Ares Kalandides. I have lived in West Berlin (Zehlendorf, Charlottenburg, Dahlem) for three years 20 years ago, and I was a Berlinale regular during the era of the great retrospectives (Babelsberg, Pommer, Special Effects, Colour, Scope) and before the film festivals boomed in Finland (we have film festivals every month now). Berlin has changed totally since: the wall came down, Berlin became the capital of Germany, and for years the largest construction site of the world. Now most of the re-building has been accomplished. The Tour offered an impressive view. We started at the Checkpoint Charlie, where a part of the Wall has been reconstructed in a new site. We toured through Friedrichshain, witnessed the impressive renovation of Karl-Marx-Allee, saw Prenzlauer Berg, drove thru the Jewish area around the Synagogue and the Charité hospital area, went past the giant Lehrter Bahnhof construction site, to be the hugest railway station in Europe, saw the new German government buildings and witnessed the finishing stage of the Holocaust memorial next to the Weimar-era Reichstaghaus. Of West Berlin we visited the tour of Staatsbibliothek, Nationalgalerie, Wittenbergplatz, KaDeWe, Kurfürstendamm, Bahnhof Zoo, and the Embassy Area. We drove through the Sony Center / Marlene-Dietrich-Platz media area, saw the Museum Island and witnessed the nothingness of Berlin Alexanderplatz, so central until the downfall of the Third Reich and so devastated since. We took a walk to the attractive Hackescher Hinterhöfe near the Goethe-Institut. All in all, it was a two-hour sighting of top architects from all over the world. Berlin with its huge area and many parks, forests and lakes is not a crowded metropolis. The big majority rent their apartments, there are not relatively many private cars, the BVG public transport system is excellent, and after the wall, brown coal is no longer used as fuel, as a result of which the air is cleaner and there are no longer smog alarms.

Vägar ut ur lådan

Irti laatikoista / Ways Out of the Box. FI (c) 2005 Astrid-Film. P+D+SC: Ywe Jalander. Featuring Reima Pietilä and Raili Pietilä. 58 min. Original in Digital Betacam. Original in Swedish, with Finnish subtitles. Introduced by Ywe Jalander. Viewed at SEA, Orion, Helsinki, 9 Feb 2005. An exciting documentary on the visionary architects Reima Pietilä and Raili Pietilä. Many of their great projects are explored, including the Suvikumpu Project, the Dipoli, the Kaleva Church, the Finnish Embassy in New Delhi, the Metso Library, and the President's Mäntyniemi Residence. There are several insightful interviews. ***

Haapa ja bambu / Aspen and Bamboo (in person: Ywe Jalander)

Ywe Jalander: Haapa ja bambu / Aspen and Bamboo (FI 1997). Fujiwo Ishimoto: Marimekko Fabric Ruoko blue.

Aspen och bambun. FI © 1997 Astrid-Film. P+D+SC: Ywe Jalander. M: Paroni Paakkunainen. Featuring Fujiwo Ishimoto. 54 min. Betacam SP. Introduced by Ywe Jalander. Viewed at SEA, Orion, Helsinki, 9 Feb 2005. Beautiful documentary on the Japan-born designer Fujiwo Ishimoto who settled in Finland as a young man and became a top artist for Marimekko and Iittala. There is a spiritual undercurrent between Japan and Finland. How design is inspired by nature. ***

Film concert Lazybones with Tuukka Terho (guitar) and Severi Salminen (violin)

Lazybones. Buck Jones (Steve "Lazybones" Tuttle).

US © 1925 Fox. D: Frank Borzage. SC: Frances Marion. DP: George Schneiderman. Starring Buck Jones (Steve "Lazybones" Tuttle), Madge Bellamy (Kit as a young woman), ZaSu Pitts (Ruth Fanning).
     MoMA print. 6395 ft /22 fps/ 78 min.
     Viewed at SEA, Orion, Helsinki, 8 Feb 2005, with music by Tuukka Terho (guitar) and Severi Salminen (violin).

Borzage's second masterpiece invites comparison to Russian classics like Chekhov and Goncharov in its sense of the missed opportunities of life. Lazybones is the Oblomov of America: the world goes by, life goes by, and he is mostly content to fall asleep in a big tree by the riverside. Even WWI he experiences as a somnambulistic hero-by-accident. Having taking into his custody an abandoned baby he loses his girlfriend, and a generation later, as the baby is a young woman, he realizes that love has passed him by. Lazybones is a mirror to the question "what is life all about", what have all the others accomplished? This time I felt there is maybe a bit too much caricature, but there are several subtly humoristic scenes, including the laconic ending. ****

THE JUSSI GALA

THE JUSSI AWARDS FOR THE BEST FINNISH FILMS OF 2004
Best picture: Koirankynnen leikkaaja
Best director: Markku Pölönen (Koirankynnen leikkaaja)
Female lead: Outi Mäenpää (Kukkia ja sidontaa)
Male lead: Peter Franzén (Koirankynnen leikkaaja)
Female supporting role: Minttu Mustakallio (Lapsia ja aikuisia)
Male supporting role: Kari Väänänen (Juoksuhaudantie)
Screenplay: Markku Pölönen (Koirankynnen leikkaaja)
Cinematography: Kari Sohlberg (Koirankynnen leikkaaja)
Production design: Jussi Halonen, Samuli Halla, Petri Neuvonen (Pelikaanimies)
Costumes: Elina Kolehmainen (Keisarikunta)
Music: Sanna Salmenkallio (Melancholian 3 huonetta)
Sound design: Paul Jyrälä (Pelikaanimies)
Editing: Kimmo Taavila (Vares)
Documentary: Melancholian 3 huonetta / Pirjo Honkasalo
Popular favourite: Keisarikunta

The Jussi Gala took place at Studio 51, Helsinki, Sunday 6 Feb 2005. The Jussi Awards were given for the 60th time.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Brad Silberling: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (US 2004). Jim Carrey (Count Olaf), Kara Hoffman and Shelby Hoffman (Sunny Baudelaire), Emily Browning (Violet Baudelaire), Liam Aiken (Klaus Baudelaire).

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Lemony Snicketin surkeiden sattumusten sarja / Lemony Snicket's berättelse om syskonen Baudelaires olycksaliga liv. 

    US © 2004 Kumar Mor CCS. Released thru Paramount / DreamWorks. P: Laurie MacDonald, Walter F. Parks. 

     D: Brad Silberling. SC: Robert Gordon – based on the books by Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler), The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and the Wide Window. SC: Emmanuel Lubezki. PD: Rick Heinrichs. Special FX: Michael Lantieri. Visual FX: Stefen Fangmeier / Industrial Light and Magic. AN: beginning: Littlest Elf; end credits: Axiom Design. M: Thomas Newman. 

    Starring Jim Carrey (Count Olaf), Emily Browning (Violet Baudelaire), Liam Aiken (Klaus Baudelaire), Kara Hoffman and Shelby Hoffman (Sunny Baudelaire), Timothy Spall (Mr. Poe), Meryl Streep (Aunt Josephine), Jude Law (Lemony Snicket [voice]). 

    Family film / fairytale. 

    Released by Buena Vista Finland; Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Marko Hartama / Nina Ekholm. 

    Viewed at Kinopalatsi 10, Helsinki, 5 Feb 2005. 

An ambitious and wonderfully bizarre fairytale film. I'm not familiar with the books, thus incapable of comparison, but here there is a consistency of tone and an abundance of visual invention. Certainly to be revisited. Sophisticated digital look. ****

Shall We Dance? (2004)

Peter Chelson: Shall We Dance? (US 2004). At a Chicago dance studio, Paulina (Jennifer Lopez) inspires John Clark (Richard Gere) to dance.

Saanko luvan? / Får jag lov? 

    US © 2004 Miramax. D: Peter Chelsom. SC: Audrey Wells - based on the 1996 film by Masayuki Suo. DP: John de Borman. M: many styles of dance music. LOC: Winnipeg, Chicago.
    Starring Richard Gere (John Clark), Jennifer Lopez (Paulina), Susan Sarandon (Beverly Clark), Stanley Tucci (Link). 108 min.
    Released by Buena Vista Finland, Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Tarja Dibaja / Janne Staffans.
    Viewed in Tennispalatsi 11, Helsinki, 4 Feb 2005.

The 1996 Masayuki Suo film Shall We Dansu? was a wonderful celebration of dance and an interesting study of Japanese everyday life. The story of the middle-age salaryman who finds new vitality in dance was humoristic and sounded authentic. I remember thinking that it should be remade in Finland by Markku Pölönen. Now there is this American adaptation which takes the same story outlines and fills them with American detail. This is more a study on characters and relationships, and there is actually little great dancing in the film. Astaire and Charisse in The Band Wagon are glimpsed through a window on monitors. Still this perhaps calculatedly audience-pleasing film makes it point on the joy of dance, the actors are good, and the characters likeable. A good date movie. ***

Closer

Mike Nichols: Closer (US 2004). L to r: Clive Owen (Larry), Natalie Portman (Alice), Julia Roberts (Anna), Jude Law (Dan).

Iholla / Closer [title in Sweden] / Closer, entre adultes consentants / Hautnah. 

    US © 2004 Columbia. D: Mike Nichols. SC: Patrick Marber – based on his play. DP: Stephen Goldblatt. M: Mozart: Così fan tutte; Rossini: La Cenerentola. LOC: London. Starring Natalie Portman (Alice), Jude Law (Dan), Julia Roberts (Anna), Clive Owen (Larry). 106 min. Released by CTSN, Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Timo Porri / Janne Staffans. Viewed at Bristol, Helsinki, 4 Feb 2005 (date of Finnish premiere). Brilliant dialogue, brilliant actors, brilliant scenes. However, it starts to drag, get sour. In the end I found myself not caring about the characters. There's a lot to savour. Nichols, Marber and the actors in great form. To be recommended as modern film drama and a satire on modern life. ***

...

NB. 28 March 2026. I have not revisited Closer. It lingers in mind as brilliantly written and executed but also as a film with a daring surface and an icy undercurrent. Beyond the cool and stylish veneer, a sense of loss, solitude and emptiness.

Humoresque

Humoreski. US (c) 1920 International Film Service. PC: Cosmopolitan. P: W.R. Hearst, released thru Famous Players-Lasky / Paramount-Artcraft / Adolph Zukor. D: Frank Borzage. SC: Frances Marion - based on a story by Fannie Hurst. DP: Gilbert Warrenton. M: Hugo Riesenfeld, including Humoresque by Dvorák, Fritz Kreisler played the violin in the premiere. Starring Gaston Glass (Leon Kantor), Alma Rubens (Gina Berg = Minnie Ginsberg), Vera Gordon (Mama Kantor), Dore Davidson (Abraham Kantor). 5631 ft /20 fps/ 76 min. Beautiful toned print restored by UCLA, brief preserved scenes on the verge of decomposition. Viewed at the musicians' rehearsal screening at SEA, Orion, Helsinki, 4 Feb 2005. Borzage's first masterpiece revisited, has lost none of its power. There is a special visual intensity, both in the glowing faces of the actors and the glimpses of Jewish life in New York. Borzage had already discovered the close-up as an art form. The faces of the old-timers seem to be inscribed with ancient history. This film started the great 1920s Jewish cycle in American cinema, another culmination of which was The Jazz Singer, a story which has many parallels with this one: the mother's love; the Kol Nidre / the mortal music. ****

Ba mùa / Three Seasons

Tony Bui: Ba mùa / Three Seasons (VN/US 1998). Nguyen Ngoc Hiep (Kien An). 

Kolme vuodenaikaa / Tre årstider. 

    VN / US 1998. PC: October Films / Quan Giai Phong / Open City Films. 

    D+SC: Tony Bui. DP: Lisa Rinzler. 

    Starring Don Duong (Hai), Nguyen Ngoc Hiep (Kien An), Zoë Bui (Lan), Harvey Keitel (James Hager). 

    A Kamras release. In Vietnamese and English with Finnish / Swedish subtitles. Viewed at SEA, Orion, Helsinki, 3 Feb 2005. 

An impressive debut feature by Tony Bui, the first American film shot in Vietnam since the war. The film covers four stories in Shanghai. The atmosphere is wonderful, there is an intensive feeling of heat, of lived life. The colour cinematography is sensually, vibrantly photochemical. Worth revisiting (I saw the first 30 minutes only).

History Is Made at Night (1937)

History Is Made at Night. Charles Boyer (Paul Dumond), Jean Arthur (Irene Vail).

Kuin varas yöllä / Som en tjuv i natten / ...und ewig siegt die Liebe. US © 1937 United Artists. P: Walter Wanger. D: Frank Borzage. SC: Gene Towne, Graham Baker, additional dialogue by Vincent Lawrence, David Hertz. DP: David Abel. Starring Charles Boyer (Paul Dumond), Jean Arthur (Irene Vail), Leo Carrillo (Cesare), Colin Clive (Bruce Vail). 98 min.
    Good definition of light in an original language print with text frames in German only without sound.
    Viewed at SEA, Orion, Helsinki, 3 Feb 2005.

Charles Boyer and Jean Arthur shine in a luminous romantic thriller with sparkling dialogue. Another example of how the Lubitsch touch and the Borzage touch came close in the 1930s, with much deeper feeling with Borzage. ****

Niskavuori taistelee / Niskavuori Fights

Edvin Laine: Niskavuori taistelee / Niskavuori Fights (FI 1957). The final image of the Niskavuori saga: beyond the rainswept window, the portrait of Loviisa, the grand old lady of Niskavuori (Elsa Turakainen). My screenshot from Elonet: Niskavuori taistelee.

Niskavuoris kamp. FI 1957. PC: Suomen Filmiteollisuus. D: Edvin Laine. SC: Juha Nevalainen - based on the play by Hella Wuolijoki Entäs nyt Niskavuori (1953). DP: Osmo Harkimo. PD: Aarre Koivisto (1920-2005). M: Heikki Aaltoila. Starring Elsa Turakainen (Loviisa, the old lady of Niskavuori), Mirjam Novero (Ilona, the young lady of Niskavuori), Tauno Palo (Juhani Mattila/Juhani Niskavuori Jr.), Martti Katajisto (Paavo, the son of Ilona). 96 min. Swedish subtitles. Beautiful, clean print viewed at SEA, Orion, Helsinki, 2 Feb 2005. The final play of the Niskavuori epic ends in 1945. Aarne, the lord of the house, falls in the war. Juhani, the illegitimate son, appears decades after his mother had left the house where she served as a maid. Loviisa, the old lady, is losing her strength, and the house is about to fall apart as all her surviving children want to sell it, but there is a future in Juhani Jr., Ilona, and Paavo. Laine and Nevalainen softened the bitter politics of the play, yet they turned out a marvellous epic film. Again several sequences are purely visual and have a documentary quality recording the hard work of the people of the home front. "I have often built on injustice. I won't take it with me", are among Loviisa's last words. The final camera movement from outside the Niskavuori manor on a rainy night stops at Loviisa's eyes looking at us from her portrait on the wall. Maybe ****

Une histoire d'eau / A Story of Water

Francois Truffaut & Jean-Luc Godard: Une histoire d'eau / A Story of Water 

FR 1958. PC: Les Films de la Pléiade. P: Pierre Braunberger. D: Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard. DP: Truffaut, completed by Godard. SC+ED+narration: Godard. Starring Caroline Dim and Jean-Claude Brialy. 13 min. 35 mm print from Cinemateket / Svenska Filminstitutet viewed at SEA, Orion, Helsinki, 30 Jan 2005. The title is a wordplay on Histoire d'O by Pauline Réage (pen name of Anne Desclos). Initiated by Truffaut who shot the big Paris floods with the actors, but brought to the finish by Godard, this is a droll short which manages to combine the spirit of both young film-makers. ****

The Day I Met Caruso

The Day I Met Caruso. Sandy Descher (Elizabeth), Lofti Mansieri (Enrico Caruso.

US © 1956 Hal Roach Studios. P: Willis Goldbeck. D: Frank Borzage. SC: Zoe Akins – based on a short story by Elizabeth Bacon Rodewald.
    Starring Lofti Mansieri (Enrico Caruso), Sandy Descher (Elizabeth). 25 min.
    Viewed at SEA, Orion, 30 Jan 2005.

A little Quaker girl sees Caruso on train and reproaches the star for his fancy ways: "Be worthy of thy gift!". Caruso spends the trip playing cards with the girl and singing. "O soave fanciulla" (Puccini: La Bohème), "Recitar!... vesti la giubba" (Leoncavallo: Pagliacci), "La donna è mobile" (Verdi: Rigoletto), "La Fleur que tu m'avais jetée" (Bizet: Carmen), "O sole mio", "Over There" (to WWI soldiers going to the front). The girl realizes that by cultivating the voice of his Caruso might be worthy of his gift. ****

Der Untergang / Downfall

Oliver Hirschbiegel: Der Untergang / Downfall (DE 2004). Bruno Ganz (Adolf Hitler).

Perikato / Undergången. DE © 2004 Constantin Film. P+SC: Bernd Eichinger – based on books by Joachim Fest and Traudl Junge & Melissa Müller. D: Oliver Hirschbiegel. Starring Bruno Ganz (Adolf Hitler), Juliane Köhler (Eva Braun / Hitler), Alexandra Maria Lara (Traudl Junge), Ulrich Mattes (Joseph Goebbels), Corinna Harfouch (Magda Goebbels). DP: Rainer Klausmann. PD: Bernd Lepel. 150 min. Released by Sandrew, Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Paula Kaurismäki / Patrik Edman. Viewed in Kinopalatsi 1, Helsinki, 30 Jan 2005. On Hitler's and Nazi Germany's last days in Berlin, this is a strong entry in the history of the war film, the historical film, and the biopic. It's powerful but nuanced. It shows the monsters as human beings yet does not apologize for them. It helps understand how it happened. The actors are excellent. The production values are very good. I saw the film on its premiere weekend, and quite evidently it is starting to grip a large audience in our country. ***

The Aviator

Lentäjä / Aviator. US (c) 2004 IMF. A Miramax release. D: Martin Scorsese. SC: John Logan. DP: Robert Richardson. PD: Dante Ferretti. Songs: "Howard Hughes" by Leadbelly, etc. ED: Thelma Schoonmaker. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio (Howard Hughes), Cate Blanchett (Katharine Hepburn), Kate Beckinsale (Ava Gardner). 170 min. Digital look. Released by CTSN, Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Timo Porri / Saliven Gustavson. Viewed at Bristol, Helsinki, 29 Jan 2005. An enjoyable biopic for a film buff. It really starts with Hughes's ambitious struggle to produce Hell's Angels at the dawn of sound film. Among other things, Hughes was a fascinating maverick film producer. We are also shown entertainingly his efforts in aviation. The climax is the Senate hearings of 1947. DiCaprio was the dynamo of this big project, and in the climax he is at his best. Cate Blanchett gives a Katharine Hepburn imitation (having just seen several Cukor / Hepburn films I'm not convinced, though). Kate Beckinsale does not have the Ava Gardner aura, but the characters of both Katharine and Ava are strongly written. Hughes's life was more interesting than I had expected. A great entertainment. I did not like the digital look of the film, nor do I think Scorsese's ambitious idea to follow various historical colour designs from Cinecolor and two-strip Technicolor to fuller colour designs works well in digital. There is something more that's missing than full colour. ***