Opium (1919)

Opium poster painted by Theo Matejko. Please click to enlarge.

DE 1919. PC: Monumental Filmwerke GmbH (München).
    P+D+SC: Robert Reinert. DP: Helmar Lerski. M for a cinema orchestra: I. Poltschuk.
    C: Eduard von Winterstein (Prof. Gesellius), Hanna Ralph (Maria Gesellius), Werner Krauss (Nung Tshang / Nung-Tschang / Nung Chiang), Conrad Veidt (Dr. Richard Armstrong), Sybil Morel (Sin / Magdalena), Friedrich Kühne (Dr. Armstrong, Sr., the father), Alexander Delbosq (Ali), Sigrid Höhenfels (the opium girl), Loni Nest (girl).
    Pressevorführung: 29.1.1919 Düsseldorf, Uraufführung 2.1919 Berlin. Not released in Finland. 1982 m /16 fps/ 108 min (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto). 2486 m /16 fps/ 135 min (Filmportal)
    Print: Svenska Filminstitutet / Filmarkivet (bought from ARRI, Munich, 1965) – black and white – 1876 m /16 fps/ 102 min
    Viewed at Cinema Orion (Helsinki) (History of the Cinema), Ilari Hannula at the piano, e-subtitles in Finnish by Lena Talvio, 19 Nov 2015.

Revisited a film I had not seen since the Babelsberg 80th anniversary retrospective at Berlin Film Festival in 1992 (the exteriors of Opium were shot in and around Berlin). There is a set of 12 photographs of Opium at the Filmportal site and two more photographs in Chris Horak's essay in Griffithiana.

I missed the very late night screening in Pordenone of Opium in 1997. The GCM program note: "A Chinese opium dealer seeks revenge on Westerners who have corrupted his wife. Opium is both an exploitation film (released in that brief period when there was no censorship in Germany) and a meditation on the modern condition. The film is seemingly archaic, but its metaphorical content is in keeping with its style. Struck from the original nitrate negative. Of particular interest the hand-painted intertitles, which visually paraphrase Chinese and Indian characters." (Jan-Christopher Horak, GCM 1997).

Chris Horak wrote in 1997 a solid introduction to the director for Griffithiana 60/61, "Robert Reinert: Film as Metaphor", outlining a remarkable and ambitious career. Reinert had a penchant for big themes and metaphorical content. In the beginning he was highly productive, often working with Conrad Veidt and Helmar Lerski. In July 1918 he slowed down and started to produce select "monumental films" for his own company. The first of these was Opium. Horak pays attention to the mastery of Reinert and Lerski in deep focus composition. Horak states that Reinert was a conservative avantgardist and cultural philosopher comparable to Spengler. "Reinert's style of cinema was archaic before its time. A traditional moralist and symbolist Reinert (and Lerski) adhered to 19th century pictorial conventions of spectacle which went out of fashion with the rise of American style classical narrative. While German cinema in the 1920s embraced modernism, Reinert held on to traditional concepts of morality and a symbolic language that deconstructed any attempts at fast paced action" (Horak).

David Bordwell has kept championing the Robert Reinert films Opium and Nerven, most prominently in his book Poetics of Cinema (New York / Oxon: Routledge, 2008 - Chap. 9: "Taking Things to Extremes. Hallucinations Courtesy of Robert Reinert"). According to Bordwell, following Horak, during WWI European filmmakers persisted with a more archaic practice of film aesthetics than Americans, including long takes and staging in depth, often with great sophistication. Yet Reinert "found a weirder way to tell his stories visually". He was capable of staging extended scenes at a middle distance. He pushed the norms to violent limits in order to intensify his manic plots and performances. He subjected his figures to harsh contrasts of scale and position. "Like Hofer and af Klercker, he favors sets that create a dense array of masses through which characters pass". In Opium and Nerven "Reinert sets his characters closer to the viewer more consistently than any other 1910s depth-oriented director I know". He is even "willing to sacrifice sharp focus, in one plane or another, for the sake of aggressive foregrounds". "How, then can you place two or three characters in semi-close-ups and still preserve depth? Reinert finds one answer in limiting the rear playing space to small slots". "His typical depth shot is neither a tableau composition (...) nor a part of an American-style editing pattern (...). "A Reinert 'full shot' may present a relatively small patch of the scene's space, and we may never be properly introduced to the overall arena of action". In this Bordwell sees Reinert coming up with a fragmentary scenography that looks ahead to the strategically incomplete establishing shots of Bresson, Straub & Huillet, and Hartley.

AA: Opium the film is itself like a fever dream. There is an inspired, charged, foolhardy, devil-may-care attitude in the film, yet at the core it is deadly serious. It is about the lure of an escape to a world of drug addiction when the reality of the world is overwhelmingly hard to face.

Nobody is safe from madness. All the three doctors with a mission to save the world succumb themselves to opium addiction, and all their lives are ruined.

Robert Reinert relishes in dramatic excess. During the period of no censorship he indulges in reckless abandon. Opium may be at the surface a sensation film but Reinert, Helmar Lerski, and their team are at home in the realm of dreams and nightmares. There is a genuine oneiric quality in the delirium that is Opium. Especially dream-like are the appearances of Nung Chiang.

The plot is outlandish, and the Chinese and Indian episodes belong to the realm of exoticism if not xenophobia or even racism. There is an aspect of Fu Manchu in Nung Chiang.

As Horak and Bordwell have observed Reinert is a distinguished special case in the development of film aesthetics. In no way does he hide his background in the histrionic legacy of the overdone pantomime of the early cinema, including Film d'Art. He flaunts it and seems to take infinite pleasure in it. Especially Werner Krauss and Conrad Veidt make a virtue out of the old-fashioned burden of over-acting. It is a pleasure to watch them together here in a film made before Caligari.

And as Horak and Bordwell state, the early cinema's plan-séquence, deep focus, long shot, long take aesthetics is exceptional in Opium. Reinert and Lerski are masters of the mise-en-scène. One can learn even today from the way they stage and light a scene. They create a dynamic, exciting space from their archaic-looking starting-point.

Opium is not just a case of art for art's sake (or sensation for sensation's sake). There is a sense of striking a nerve in the scenes of drug addiction. It was an acute problem during and after the war when heavy drugs were needed to palliate indescribable pain. And the tragic story of the illicit love between the young Dr. Armstrong (Conrad Veidt) and his mentor's wife, Maria (Hanna Ralph): "six years I was alone" must have been an often-heard remark at the time. "6 Jahre lang allein". "Dem Glück der Welt galt Deine Arbeit": "Your work was about the happiness of the world. What about our happiness?" There is a spirit of understanding that is similar to G. W. Pabst's Westfront 1918. Even one year alone is a long time in a young woman's life.

Not far beyond the chinoiserie and incredible plotting there is a genuine feeling of agony. Especially Krauss and Veidt are magical and charismatic in tapping into that feeling. They may grimace and gesticulate as much as they will but there is always an inner center of gravity in their performances.

The film has art intertitles in styles of Chinoiserie, Indianesque and English sobriety. The wording is impressive both in lengthy descriptions and blunt statements such as "KEIN AUSGANG" (no exit) and "SCHICKSAL" (destiny).

Helmar Lerski's cinematography is first-rate, the sense of lighting, composition and movement impeccable.

In this print one can appreciate the quality of the image which is often good enough. There is often a slight flicker on the left side of the image. In 1994 the original nitrate negative was discovered and a new print was made at Münchner Filmmuseum. Next time we need to screen that print.

OUR PROGRAM NOTE BASED ON JOHN DEBARTOLO BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK:

100 Years of Taidesalonki and the Bäcksbacka Collection (exhibition at HAM)

Rafael Wardi: A Yellow Still Life, 1969. © Photo: HAM/Yehia Eweis. Please click to enlarge.

Auli Järvelä (born 1954): Autumn. Undated. © Photo: HAM/Hanna Rikkonen. Please click to enlarge.

Exhibition:
100 Years of Taidesalonki. Curated by Christina Bäcksbacka and Sanna Tuulikangas. HAM • 25.9.2015-10.1.2016
HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Tennis Palace, Eteläinen Rautatiekatu 8, 00100 Helsinki. Tue – Sun 11–19. www.hamhelsinki.fi

Catalogue:
Christina Bäcksbacka & Sanna Tuulikangas (ed.): Satavuotisen toiminnan jälkiä. Taidesalonki 1915-2015 / Spår av en hundraårig verksamhet.  Konstsalongen 1915-2015. Bilingual. Large format. 339 p. Kirjokansi 84. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 2015

Official introduction:

100 years of Taidesalonki

"The Taidesalonki 100 years exhibition celebrates the centenary of Taidesalonki, the oldest still operating art gallery in Finland, which was originally established by Leonard Bäcksbacka. The exhibition collects one hundred works that have passed through the halls of Taidesalonki, representing some of the most unique visual works of their time."

"From the very beginning, Taidesalonki’s central focus has been paintings based on the power of colours. For one hundred years, gallerists Leonard, Ingjald ja Christina Bäcksbacka have been displaying contemporary art and supporting artists in numerous ways. HAM’s centenary exhibition sheds light on the gallery itself, the gallerists' preferences and their importance as supporters of Finnish art."

"The majority of the one hundred works on display in the exhibition belong to HAM’s collection, in addition to which other museums have lent works from their collections that have at some point passed through Taidesalonki. The exhibition is curated by Christina Bäcksbacka and HAM’s curator Sanna Tuulikangas."

The Bäcksbacka Collection, heart of HAM

"In addition to organising exhibitions, the Bäcksbacka family assembled a sizeable art collection of their own, which was donated to the City of Helsinki in 1976 in accordance with Leonard’s wishes. The Bäcksbacka collection forms the core of HAM’s collection, which belongs to the people of Helsinki."

Taidesalonki centenary exhibition and book

"Taidesalonki is still operating as an art gallery today under the management of Christina Bäcksbacka, with exhibitions primarily showcasing contemporary Finnish artists. The gallery’s own centenary exhibition Uudisrakennus reaches for the future with a total work of art by Paavo Paunu, Tomas Regan and Viggo Wallensköld. In the autumn, Taidesalonki will also publish a centenary book in collaboration with the Finnish Literature Society."

AA: This is an autumn of remarkable exhibitions featuring Finnish art collectors / gallerists / patrons / and / or connoisseurs, such as Sigurd Frosterus, Amos Anderson, and the Bäcksbacka family. The most prominent is the series of three simultaneous exhibitions celebrating the centenary of Taidesalonki (The Art Salon) run by the Bäcksbacka family in the three generations of Leonard, Ingjald, and Christina Bäcksbacka.

The exhibitions cover many of the same periods and artists, and Frosterus and Bäcksbacka even have the same focus on colour, relevant even in the wonderful Alvar & Ragni Cawén exhibition at Tampere Art Museum. Similarities notwithstanding the approaches are all different.

The HAM Taidesalonki exhibition has been hung with great taste and insight. It displays variety yet gives space for multiple works of key artists such as Alvar Cawén, Marcus Collin, Ragnar Ekelund, A. W. Finch, Auli Järvelä, Unto Koistinen, Tiina Laitanen, Anitra Lucander, Mauno Markkula, Unto Pusa, Tapani Raittila, Valle Rosenberg, Jalmari Ruokokoski, Tyko Sallinen, Sigrid Schauman, Ellen Thesleff, Heikki Tuomela, Viggo Wallensköld, and Rafael Wardi. It is worth visiting forward and backward, and worth revisiting. Having seen the Tampere Cawén exhibition I was struck by the power of the Cawén section at HAM. And having seen Finch at the Frosterus exhibition I enjoyed also this display of the original colourist.

The large catalogue is worth reading and studying. At first glance at the café by the museum I was impressed by the exceptionally high quality of the reproductions which do justice to the originals which I had fresh in my memory. What is more, I was not only feeling that I saw authentic reproductions but that I revisited the artworks in a new way.

The book expands the tribute significantly. There is a catalogue of all Taidesalonki exhibitions during a century. The HAM exhibition covers the century of contemporary of Finnish art that has been exhibited at Taidesalonki and collected by the Bäcksbacka family. The book expands the chronological scope by more than another century to the late 18th century of the young Finnish art history. Here we also meet Schillmark, Kügelgen, the Wright brothers, Holmberg, Berndtson, and Edelfelt - the great tradition of Finnish quality painting before Modernism.

The main substance of the book consists of excellent studies of key works and artists written by Ville Lukkarinen and Sanna Tuulikangas.

There is a long fascinating case study written by Timo Vuorikoski devoted to Tyko Sallinen's early Mirri image which he painted of his wife in Paris in 1909. Sallinen himself rejected that early version which was later rescued by others from the waste paper basket. Sallinen is my favourite Finnish painter but not in the way he is exhibited and presented nowadays. Furthermore, reproductions of Sallinen usually fail to convey the atavistic force of his colour world and brushwork. Sallinen was a deeply disturbed and unbalanced artist who managed to create searing, wildly unsettling, highly original visions in his paintings. I do not love them all, and for me Sallinen's Mirri cycle is an especially difficult (though undeniably central) special case. In that cycle Sallinen painted his wife as an animal, and that has made him a favourite target for feminist criticism. All they say is correct but I think it is important to realize that Sallinen was not painting his external or internal vision of his wife at all. Instead, he was inspired by his wife to paint his own disturbed inner feminine image, his anima, which turned out to be monstrous and hideous.

Sallinen's Mirri paintings are an example of a development that introduced something new to the classical categories of the history of art. These paintings are not beautiful or sublime. They are ugly, and they are about the ugliness of the spirit. Their aesthetic value is based on their courage to face that.

The still active artists on display include Rafael Wardi whose At the Window (1974) is perfect colour therapy to the gloomy autumn and winter of Helsinki. Auli Järvelä does not use a brush, instead painting by her bare hands with broad strokes for instance in Autumn (undated). Viggo Wallensköld is a painter of dreams. He is not a surrealist, but there is a similar, profoundly personal, oneiric quality in his figurative works displaying persons whose sexual identity deviates from the norm or who may be even merged with furniture or machinery.

Jerker A. Eriksson: Flammande vildmark (a book of essays on film)

A book of essays on film:
Jerker A. Eriksson: Flammande vildmark. Essäer om film. 185 p. Helsingfors: Schildts & Söderströms, 2015.
    [The title is the Swedish title of Drums Along the Mohawk (John Ford, 1939). Literally translated back to English: The Flaming Desert.]

Jerker A. Eriksson (born 22 October 1931), the grand old man of Finnish film criticism, has published a book of film essays, many of which are previously unpublished. Eriksson is at his best in this book. The analyses are sober, the issues are big, and there is a subtle current of humour running through the book.

The first essay is a cinephilic confession, an affectionate reminiscence of the cinemas in the writer's life in Helsinki, most of them long gone but still alive in his memory. Eriksson's cinema memories start in the 1930s with images from the Spanish civil war in a newsreel at Bio-Bio. Bio-Bio remained for decades a famous non stop cinema where one could "enter and exit at will". Non stop cinemas were rare in Finland. Only recently have I learned that they were the norm in the United States which is why Alfred Hitchcock had to issue a special ban not to enter the cinema after the beginning of Psycho.

In 1943 Eriksson started to take systematic notes of films. Among the early ones: La Bataille silencieuse, Woman of the Year, The Man Who Came to Dinner... Cinemas were "the universities of my youth" for Eriksson. Air raid alarms were defied. Finland was still a co-fighter with Germany when Sergeant York was nevertheless released here, and in February 1944 Eriksson went to see it. The screening was interrupted by alarms so many times that the film came to an end only at 5 o'clock in the morning.

Eriksson has fond memories of dozens of cinemas. Athena (now our Cinema Orion) was the cinema where he saw Adam Had Four Sons and Reap the Wild Wind, for Eriksson the best thing Cecil B. DeMille ever did.

Cinema was not a highly regarded art during Eriksson's school days. While his schoolmates enthused over Pär Lagerkvist, Sartre, and Svenska Teatern, Eriksson was interested in Humphrey Bogart, John Ford, and Barbro Kollberg in Kungsgatan. When the discussion drifted to the fyrtiotalisterna (the generation of the 1940's, a parallel to existentialism in Sweden) and their world of anxiety Eriksson was thinking about Michel Simon in Julien Duvivier's Panique. But most he loved American cinema.

Eriksson hated the idea of spending a summer holiday in the countryside. His most favourite summer memory is of a Sunday in July 1944 when he saw four films starting with South of Suez. The last film for him had to end by ten PM because there was curfew for the underaged at night.

Eriksson praises a book by the Dane Jörgen Stegelman called Mine Biografer [My Cinemas] which inspired him for these reminiscences.

In 1951 Eriksson started his professional career as a film critic which continued until he was appointed director of the Finnish Board of Film Classification in 1963 where he launched an enlightened era. He has also had a distinguished academic career as a historian, specializing in American history.

A film that came to mean much for Eriksson was A Place in the Sun about which he wrote a famous essay for Jörn Donner's Arena magazine in 1952. Having seen the film 15 times he wrote a treatise balancing a view of society, a comparison between Theodore Dreiser's novel and George Stevens's film written by Michael Wilson and Harry Brown, and an account of the director's cinematic insight. Eriksson's essay became a model for a generation of cinephiles which re-launched a film society movement on a never before seen scale in our land and also founded the Finnish Film Archive in 1957. Many trends of film criticism have come and gone since. Eriksson has been following his own path. He has hardly been even provoked by excesses of passing trends.

Eriksson's 1952 essay on A Place in the Sun is still a world-class contribution to understanding a powerful classic. In the new book Eriksson writes with fresh insight about George Stevens's "American trilogy": A Place in the Sun, Shane, and Giant, in direct continuation to his writings of the 1950s but with new thoughts and references.

American cinema from the early days of Hollywood until today is the common theme of the essays. There is a fascinating essay on the premieres of Charles Chaplin's early films in Finland (since 22 March 1915, with instant success). John Ford is Eriksson's favourite director; the essay here focuses on Drums Along the Mohawk. From William Wyler Eriksson discusses The Little Foxes. Eriksson finishes his book with an exciting essay on the career of Robert Rossen until the black list, focusing on All the King's Men.

The first essay after the cinephilic introduction is an interesting study on Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg and its American spirit; Eriksson compares it with István Szabó's Taking Sides. It is followed by an analysis of the theme of paranoia in American cinema from the 1930s until today, from Gabriel Over the White House to Edge of Darkness. This chapter is interesting to compare with Matti Salo's recent excellent book on political cinema, Viitta ja tikari [Cloak and Dagger, 2015].

The generation of Finnish cinephiles who started in the late 1940s and the early 1950s is still going strong. They are 80-something and busy publishing works that belong to their best. Besides Jerker A. Eriksson and Matti Salo there is the psychoanalyst Mikael Enckell whose new book Okändhetens följeslagare: Med frågan som drivkraft och mysteriet som färdmål [Companions of the Unknown: The Question as the Driving Force and Mystery as the Destination, 2015] includes an essay on Limelight. And there is the miracle man Jörn Donner who has this year published two books, not film-related; instead he has directed a new film himself, Armi Lives, on Armi Ratia, the founder of the fashion company Marimekko, and has been amazingly busy with many other things.

Special characteristics of Eriksson's film essays include a profound knowledge of American history and literature. He has also the genial, jovial and social attitude typical to the Swedish community of Finland (as have Enckell and Donner, which does not prevent them from being polemical). Common to all is also the unperturbed atmosphere of a generation that has experienced war. Both Eriksson and Donner belonged to the early champions of The Unknown Soldier.

Lumikuningatar / The Snow Queen

Snödrottningen. FI 1986. PC: Neofilmi Oy. P+D+SC: Päivi Hartzell – based on the fairy-tale ”Snedronningen” (1845) by Hans Christian Andersen. Dialogue: Päivi Hartzell, Jukka Kemppinen, Juha Siltanen. DP: Henrik Paersch - Panaflex Camera and Lenses by Panavision - color - 1,85:1. AD: Reija Hirvikoski. Tricks: Jukka Ruohomäki, Antti Kari, Lauri Pitkänen. Make-up: Helena Lindgren. M: Jukka Linkola. ED: Anne Lakanen, Olli Soinio. S: Paul Jyrälä. C: Satu Silvo (Lumikuningatar / The Snow Queen), Outi Vainionkulma (Kerttu / Gerda), Sebastian Kaatrasalo (Kai / Kai), Tuula Nyman (noita / the witch), Esko Hukkanen (narri / the court jester), Pirjo Bergström (mielitietty / the court jester's girlfriend), Juulia Ukkonen (prinsessa / the Princess), Paavo Westerberg (prinssi / the Prince), Saara Pakkasvirta (rosvoakka / the Old Robber Woman), Ismo Alanko, Markku Huhtamo, Antti Litja, Esko Varonen (rosvoveljet / the robber brothers), Marja Pyykkö (rosvotyttö / the Little Robber Girl), Elina Salo (pohjoisen velho / trollkvinnan från Norr / the Wizard of the North / The Finnish Woman), Reijo Tuomi (jääkarhupäinen mies / the man with the ice bear head). Helsinki premiere: 19.12.1986 Bristol 1, Nordia 1, released by Finnkino – vhs: 1988 Fazer Musiikki, 1992 Finnkino Video – VET A-25783 – S – 2535 m / 92 min
    Filming locations:  Iceland (volcano, glacier), Spain: Gran Canaria: Playa del Ingles (the sand dunes), Austria (the castle in long shots), Finland: Naantali, Espoo, Helsinki, Sipoo, Inkoo, Dragsfjärd, Uusikaupunki.
    A vintage 35 mm KAVI print with Swedish subtitles by Anna-Lisa Holmqvist deposited by Finnkino viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Once Upon a Time), 15 Nov 2015

Päivi Hartzell's The Snow Queen is a top Finnish family fairy-tale film, a perennial favourite at our Cinema Orion's family screenings.

Based on the fairy-tale by H. C. Andersen it tells the story of the Snow Queen of the Far North who needs to access a special emerald frozen inside the ice to rule the universe with the Crown of Darkness. But she cannot access the precious stone with her own icy hands; she needs a gallant boy with warm hands to commit the deed with a Black Sword. For this purpose she abducts Kai. The film is the story of Gerda's quest of Kai whom she finally discovers in the Far North in a last minute rescue which saves the universe.

The production is handsome, the landscapes are magnificent, and the cast and the crew consist of top talent. Special distinctions of the film are a cosmic feeling and a sense of wonder. The sense of wonder is the true hallmark of cinefantastique, and here it is not based on production values but an authentic enchantment which make even the forest treks seem magical.

The cast is a fascinating mix of veterans such as Elina Salo, Esko Hukkanen and Saara Pakkasvirta together with newcomers like Marja Pyykkö and Paavo Westerberg at the beginning of their careers. The true leading role of Gerda is played by the ten-year-old Outi Vainionkulma with an appealing sensitivity. Satu Silvo is cast against her hot-blooded type as the ice queen with masks that bring to mind the Japanese Noh play.

The film is not over-produced, and there is room for a sense of play and for the bizarre detail. There are impressive camera movements by Henrik Paersch. Jukka Linkola's original score has a consistent sense of enchantment. The lavish costumes and make-ups are essential to the grandeur of the tale. Although there are juicy passages of dialogue, this film is to a high degree purely visual. A recurrent motif is the wind. The four seasons play an important part.

The Snow Queen is a coming of age tale. In the end of Andersen's tale the world has remained the same but the boy and the girl have changed. The Snow Queen can be also seen as an ecological parable, but instead of global warming we have here final freezing. Anyway this is a tale with an apocalyptic dimension.

The vintage print screened has good basic health but due to heavy use there is "rain" in the changeovers. The print seems to do justice to the wonderful original colour concept.

OUR PROGRAM NOTE EDITED BY SAKARI TOIVIAINEN:

Amos Forever. 50 Years of Exhibitions Through Posters (an exhibition)

Sähköshokki-ilta / Electric Shock Evening at Amos Anderson Art Museum, 1968, with Henrik Otto Donner

 

 

Amos Forever. 50 Years of Exhibitions Through Posters | Amos Anderson Art Museum, 13.11.2015–8.2.2016. Curator: Itha O'Neill.

The anniversary book:
Kaj Martin (ed.): Amos 50. Minnesbilder från Georgsgatan. Amos Andersons konstmuseums publikationer, nya serien nr 100. 254 p. Helsinki: Amos Andersons konstmuseum / Lönnberg Painot, 2015
    There is both a Swedish and a Finnish edition of the book.
    Contributors: Roger Broo, Kaj Martin, Kai Kartio, Bengt von Bonsdorff, Erik Kruskopf, Barbara Cederqvist, Marjatta Levanto, Timo Valjakka, Markku Valkonen, Annmari Arhippainen, Theo van Assendelft, Marja-Terttu Kivirinta, Liisa Kasvio, Raimo Reinikainen, Rax Rinnekangas, Erkki Pirtola, Jaakko Frösén, Paul Osipow, Harri Larjosto, Kirsti Karvonen, Susanne Gottberg & Markus Kåhre, Senja Vellonen, Katja Tukiainen, Icelandic Love Corporation.

The official introduction:

"Amos Anderson Art Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. In honour of the jubilee, the museum is publishing its history in a volume entitled AMOS 50. The work is a tribute to the museum and its beloved building, which has served as the venue for hundreds of exhibitions. The exhibition to be opened with the publication of the book will look back at the museum’s past with the help of more than 300 posters. Each decade will be laid open to visitors through text and pictures."

"Browsing through the history of exhibitions at Amos Anderson Art Museum is like looking at a patchwork quilt. There are hundreds of different coloured and different sized pieces. This sumptuous quilt has, however, its own hidden logic and composition. After staring at it for a while, recurring themes, rhythms and colours begin to stand out from the jumble of hues and shapes. The cavalcade of posters spread over the walls reveals the museum’s great versatility; sometimes it has heralded modern and contemporary art, other times it has delved into the past. It has often ventured onto side paths, into the realms of design and cultural history. It has presented a great deal of Finnish art, but internationalism, especially the Nordic orientation, has always been close to its heart."

"In 2018 the museum’s exhibition activities will move from Yrjönkatu to the new Amos museum in Helsinki’s “Glass Palace.” The Yrjönkatu building will, however, remain the Amos Anderson home museum. Visitors are invited to share their own memories of Yrjönkatu, when visiting the exhibition and through social media (#amos4ever)."

"The museum will simultaneously open an exhibition entitled The Founder’s Gems to provide new insight into Amos Anderson’s own collection of old art."

AA: There are in fact three jubileum exhibitions at Amos Anderson Art Museum. Besides the two official ones opened today there is the colour-driven Sigurd Frosterus collection, a foundation to the museum's collections. The Founder's Gems consists of curiosities reflecting the personality of Amos Anderson and illuminating major art trends through minor works.

The poster exhibition downstairs is a journey through a memory lane of art during the last fifty years. In 1965 when Amos Anderson Art Museum was opened it became an exciting showplace for modern art, including kinetic art, performances, happenings, concerts, and films. Eino Ruutsalo, the avantgardist number one of the Finnish cinema, was celebrated here. Amos has always been a good place for abstract art.

The poster display and the book form a retrospective of the museum's exhibition with many fond flashbacks as the museum is heading towards the future in new facilities at the Glass Palace in 2019. The construction work is already going on.

Amos was launched at a time when there were not many museums and galleries in Finland, and it soon won a popularity comparable to the current international museum boom. It has never been just passively displaying art. It has been a Finnish pioneer in the concept of "a living museum" with all kinds of activities to inspire a rich variety of reactions and approaches to the art displayed. One of the most interesting chapters of the jubileum book is written by Marjatta Levanto, the first museum lecturer and a pioneer of museum pedagogy in Finland.

From the Lives of Girls, Light and Movement, The Electric Shock Evening, Kimmo Kaivanto's Fingers at Play, Surrealism in Turku, The Maire Gullichsen Collection, Nordic Art in the 1880s, Raimo Reinikainen, Marjatta Tapiola's Portrait of Bengt von Bonsdorff, Rax Rinnekangas: Spiritus Europaeus, The Rules of the Game, Splätsh! The Explosions of the Water Colour, Letters from the Antiquity, Petra the Lost City of the Antiquity, Paul Osipow's Paintings, Harri Larjosto: Memory Tracks, Ars Fennica winners, Senja Vellonen's watercolours of apples, and Icelandic Love Corporation are among the fondly remembered exhibitions highlighted.

The richly illustrated catalogue is itself a work of art history - from the viewpoint of exhibitions.

The Donor’s Works. Old Masters at Amos Anderson Art Museum (an exhibition)

Sigrid Schauman: Porträtt av Amos Anderson, 1958, oil. (Not in the exhibition)

The Donor’s Works. Old Masters at Amos Anderson Art Museum | 13.11.2015–23.6.2017. Curated by Synnöve Malmström.

The book to the exhibition:
Synnöve Malmström (ed).: The Donor's Works. Old Art in the Collections of the Amos Anderson Art Museum. Kirjokansi: Amos Anderson Art Museum Publications no. 101. Printed by: Livonia Print / Riga, Latvia. 187 p. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2015.
    The book is available only in an English edition.

The official introduction:

"The Amos Anderson Art Museum is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary by showing its founding donor’s favourites – Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Flemish art from the Renaissance up to the 19th century. The collection reflects Amos Anderson’s interest in religious art, and many of the works once graced the walls of his home on Yrjönkatu Street in the heart of Helsinki. Four years after Anderson’s death in 1965, a museum bearing its donor’s name was inaugurated in his former residence and office building."

"The Donor’s Works exhibition is showing forty paintings and sculptures by old masters on the Museum’s fifth floor and in the chapel. Some of the works on display have recently undergone art-historical and technical analysis. The research came up with some new dates and new artist attributions, and also some surprizing revelations when the works were X-rayed and the images studied with conservators. Old artworks are often difficult to study, since they may have deteriorated over the centuries or damaged sections may have been repainted. The results of the research will be published in English to accompany the exhibition. The exhibition’s curator and the editor of the publication is Amos Anderson Art Museum Curator Synnöve Malmström."

"Amos Anderson (1878-1961) made his fortune in the newspaper and publishing business. He was a warm and attentive socializer and a lover of art and culture. He was particularly interested in the art, music and rituals of the Middle Ages, and also contributed to the restoration of numerous medieval churches. In 1927, he had a private chapel, with an organ, built in his home. His intensely religious worldview and his fascination with Catholic traditions were reflected in his interest in Italy. It is thanks to him that the Finnish Institute in Rome was founded."

AA: There are now three important Finnish art collectors' collections from roughly the same period on display in Helsinki - the collections of Sigurd Frosterus, Leonard Bäcksbacka, and Amos Anderson. The two first ones are closely related and complement each other, sharing an interest in many of the same artists.

Amos Anderson the businessman was a true patron of the arts, and his foundation Konstsamfundet and his legacy have a lasting fruitful value in many ways. His personal collection of old European art now on display, though, is not that of a refined connoisseur. It does reflect his personal interests: he was deeply religious and especially attracted to the Madonna and Child theme. He was also in love with Italy and collected Italian landscapes.

This collection is not of first rate interest; it tends to be rather marginal. But from this less than exciting starting-point the museum has performed a high quality job of research, restoration, exhibition, and publication. It pays to read the well edited catalogue to the exhibition which provides a rich background to the works.

The chapters of the catalogue are case studies to the diffent forms, genres and types on display, written by experts: the glass painting, the Stabat Mater, the Crucifixion, Madonna and Child, Ecce Homo, Caritas, The Adoration of the Shepherds, Saint Anthony's Vision, animal studies, Italian landscapes, veduta paintings, Noli me tangere, and the Black Madonna of Montserrat.

There is also a complete catalogue of the acquisitions of non-Finnish art by Amos Anderson ca 1920-1950 and posthumous acquisitions 1963-1967.

The exhibition is on the fifth floor, and it is essential to climb a bit higher to the Amos Anderson private chapel and organ room with more key religious paintings, a glass painting, and a huge old choral book.

The aesthetically most satisfying entity is in the living-room on the fifth floor. There is a selection covering a century of Finnish art: Sulho Sipilä, Santeri Salokivi, Walter Runeberg, Oscar Kleineh, Hélène Schjerfbeck (Christ Figure in gouache, Göta in oil), Victor Westerholm, Albert Edelfelt, Eero Järnefelt, and Magnus von Wright, (and the Italian-Austrian A. L. Terni).

There are also Finnish sculptures by Viktor Jansson (Aallotar / The Mermaid, the model for the sculpture at Kappeliesplanadi) (in the organ room), Gunnar Finne (A Woman Washing Her Hair), and Johannes Haapasalo (Standing Girl), all expressing a delight in the nude beauty of the female form.

The last wall after rooms full of religious paintings and Italian landscapes is dedicated to galant French Rococo prints of humoristic erotic encounters which seem to form a continuity although they stem from various artists.

On the grand piano of the living room there is a series of signed photographs of actors and singers: Birgit Kronström, Nicken Rönngren, Tollie Zellman, Arna Högdahl, Mona Mårtenson, Lea Piltti, Tore Segeleck, Sylvelin Långholm, Anders De Wahl, Mia Backström, Inga Tidblad, Pauline Brunius, and Yrsa Cannelin. Amos Anderson was an avid theatre-goer and a patron of Svenska Teatern, and he also supported performers with grants. We recognize famous film stars among them.

A combination of spirituality and sensuality seems to be characteristic of the collector's interests. Even in the Madonna images selected there is a strong current of sensuality.

The body is the temple of the soul in these images.

In the Stream of Life – Alvar and Ragni Cawén (an exhibition)

Alvar Cawén: Taiteilijan vaimo [The Artist's Wife], 1925. Yksityiskokoelma. Kuva: Jari Kuusenaho / Tampereen taidemuseo. Do click to enlarge the images.

Ragni Cawén: Pihanäkymä [A View on a Courtyard], 1960-luku. Yksityiskokoelma. Kuva: Jari Kuusenaho / Tampereen taidemuseo

Tampereen taidemuseo / Tampere Art Museum. Puutarhakatu 34, 33230 Tampere
12th September 2015 – 10th January 2016
In the Stream of Life – Alvar and Ragni Cawén
Over 230 works of art (paintings, prints, sculptures) and furniture, painting equipment, sketchbooks, photographs, letters, and documents.
Curator: Riitta Konttinen.

The book to the exhibition:
Riitta Konttinen: Elämänvirrassa – Alvar ja Ragni Cawén [In the Stream of Life – Alvar and Ragni Cawén]. Edited by Liisa Steffa. Graphic design: Heikki Kalliomaa. 312 pages. Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Siltala, 2015.

The official introduction:

An artist couple

"Towards the end of her life, Ragni Cawén (1891—1981) observed: “We loved each other boundlessly. There was nothing that we wouldn’t have done for each other.” By that time, she had been a widow for decades. Her husband Alvar Cawén (1886—1935) died only eleven years after they were married, as their life together had come under way."

"Both Alvar and Ragni (née Holmberg) grew up in families involved in the arts, and painting was natural career choice for both of them. When they were married in 1924, both had studied art in Helsinki and Paris. Alvar had become known for his radical colourism and paintings influenced by Cubism and he had held several solo exhibitions. Ragni proceeded at a slower pace, not sure whether to choose a career in the applied arts or the fine arts. She, too, held a solo exhibition before marrying, but that was the end of painting for her for the time being. Although Alvar would have wanted her to continue, she felt that there wasn’t room for two artists in the same family."

"The Cawéns’ studio and residence in Fabianinkatu street in Helsinki was known for its comfort and ingenious solutions. Since they did not have too much money, they sought to make as many things as they could with their own hands. Both husband and wife were also interested in old objects that were still regarded as junk in the interwar years. The comfortable home and its hospitable residents attracted friends, the closest being the artist couples Eva Törnwall-Collin and Marcus Collin and Signe Hammarsten-Jansson and Viktor (Faffan) Jansson. Tove Jansson has described their parties in her autobiographical book Bildhuggarens dotter (The Sculptor’s Daughter)."

"After the death of Alvar, Ragni began to paint again and she managed to create an extensive oeuvre. Her paintings are spontaneous and direct and she described herself as a “natural” talent as a painter. She regarded Alvar’s contribution to art, however, to be far more significant, for it required greater effort. Alvar Cawén was one of the leading representatives of early Modernism in Finland."

The stream of life in art

"In the Stream of Life – Alvar and Ragni Cawén is an exhibition presenting an extensive selection of works by these two different artists, who nonetheless complemented each other. The title of the exhibition comes from Alvar’s notebook in which he describes his experiences in the stream of life in Paris, the same stream of life that he also found in the art that he saw. It also constituted the core of his own work: the stream carries along with it people whose joys and sorrows he depicts in a painful yet subtle manner. Music is also important, and the “musical colours” of his works are often mentioned. Alvar Cawén was a refined and restrained colourist, while Ragni Cawén was unbridled in her celebration of colour, finding her main subject matter on her trips to Southern Europe."

AA: Alvar and Ragni Cawén are among the most highly regarded artists in Finland. My true initiation to Alvar Cawén took place in the big 1978 Ateneum exhibition (216 works), which made a deep impression. I did not see the first double retrospective of Alvar and Ragni Cawén in 2009 at Didrichsen, curated by Riikka Laczak and linked to the first book where the couple was discussed together as artists; there was a simultaneous exhibition of Kim Simonsson which leads me to believe that that retrospective may not have been extensive.

Be that as it may, Tampere Art Museum gives a lot of space to the intensive and productive career of Alvar Cawén who died too young and the long career of Ragni Cawén who got really started first after the death of her beloved husband.

Riitta Konttinen, the curator and the author of the highly readable and splendidly illustrated new book to the exhibition, is an expert on Finnish artist couples. She has written, among other things, the books Taiteilijapareja [Artist Couples, 1991], Alvar & Ragni Cawén (Didrichsen, 2009), and Modernistipareja [Modernist Couples, 2011]. She curated the big and inspired Artist Couples exhibition at Retretti in 2011. As I have not read Konttinen's previous Cawén book I cannot compare it with the new one.

This exhibition is a very gratifying art experience with a strong sense of the main theme which is colour for both Alvar and Ragni Cawén. The dramatic turning-point in Alvar Cawén's life was his bicycle accident in 1903 where his optic nerve was damaged, a result of which was a revelation of colour and, after recovery, a determination to become a painter. Colour is the main drive in Cawén's art, and this exhibition is interesting to see in the context of a simultaneous tribute to the art critic and collector Sigurd Frosterus at Amos Anderson Art Museum. The architect Frosterus even wrote his dissertation on the problem of colour in painting. Frosterus was an admirer of Cawén's and a speaker at Alvar Cawén's funeral.

We get to follow Alvar Cawén's development from a skilled young realist of often huge and dramatic canvases to the full revelation of pure colour during his first Paris stays in 1907–1909 and to the impact of cubism (Cézanne, Picasso) during his next stays in Paris in 1912–1914, his loose connections to the Septem and November groups of Finnish modernists, the long honeymoon in Italy in 1924 where Alvar was most impressed by the spirituality of the late medieval and early Renaissance painters such as Giotto and Fra Angelico, and the tendency to matte surfaces. Since 1924 Cawén paints many of his most profound masterpieces. There is a unique spirituality in his late landscapes, three of the very best of which have been collected in the final room where also his work for altarpieces is on display. Otherwise many of his greatest paintings have been hung in the biggest hall around the stairway. Sigrid Schauman summed up that the theme of Alvar Cawén's art was the struggle of the spirit towards freedom.

There is a partly chronologic dimension in the exhibition; and partly it is thematical. We get a good idea of themes such as the nude, the children, the musical, the religious, and hunting in Alvar Cawén's art. He was also a soulful portrait painter. His favourite subject: his beloved wife, Ragni Cawén.

Studying my copy of the 1978 Alvar Cawén programme guide where the illustrations are in black and white is a dramatic confirmation of the essential role of colour in Cawen's art. For instance the painting The Violinist (1922) is almost unrecognizable in black and white.

Ragni Cawén was Alvar's student and at first in his spell, but after his death she found her personal style. She was also a colourist, but completely different. She had an increasing interest in glowing, vibrant colours. She was inspired by the Finnish summer but also by trips to Italy (including Sicily), France, and Holland. Late in life she discovered Lapland, also its gorgeous autumn colours which she caught in flaming reds. She never switched to abstraction but was always bent to the pure painterliness of colour, uninhibitedly exposing the texture of the oil paint.

The 34th Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone, 3-11 October, 2015

Click to enlarge.

For the last time David Robinson, director of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto since 1997, uttered the words "welcome home" in his opening speech in Pordenone. He has steered the festival through stormy waters, including the biggest ordeal of having to move away from Pordenone to Sacile in 1999-2006. The financial situation has become more difficult, yet no compromises have taken place in the artistic approach of the ambitious festival whose mission is nothing less than rewriting film history. A new generation of silent film aficionados is now attending Le Giornate whose basis is sound from the viewpoint of audience commitment. The Pordenone audience gave a warm welcome to the new director, Jay Weissberg, who immediately started sharing responsibilities with David.

The festival was dedicated to Jean Darling (1922-2015) who until her death was Pordenone's resident star, the penultimate surviving member of Our Gang. In a recently taped performance we saw and heard her singing "Always".

The Jonathan Dennis Memorial Lecture was a tribute to Naum Kleiman from Moscow, one of the great personalities of film culture since the 1950s. One of Naum's mottoes: "the film begins when it ends". It then becomes a subject for further research, debate, analysis, contemplation, even a part of our life. For facilitating such a process Pordenone is fertile ground. The main content of the event was a screening of Cinema: A Public Affair (DE 2015), a portrait of Naum Kleiman by Tatiana Brandrup.

THE 120TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CINEMA. In recent years in Pordenone we have seen marvellous programmes of restorations of difficult formats (Parnaland, Joly-Normandin) and reconstructed programmes of early cinema exhibitors, most prominently the multi-year Corrick Collection program from Australia. In the same highest level of identification, restoration and reconstruction we now saw two wonderful shows of the pioneer exhibitor Antonio Sagarmínaga in Coleccion Sagarmínaga from Filmoteca Española curated by Camille Blot-Wellens. It was a beautiful way to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the cinema with classic and less known samples from Lumière, Méliès, Warwick, Gaumont, Pathé, Chomón, and Parnaland. From Leopoldo Fregoli, the international superstar of quick transformations, was shown a new and complete digitally restored set (2015 AFF/CNC). Fregoli's remaining film heritage stems from 1897-1899 and he has been claimed to be the first film star (but my candidate would be Georges Méliès).

THE HIDDEN BIG CENTENARY. In previous times The Birth of a Nation would have been celebrated in a year like this; instead, there was a counter-celebration to the groundbreaking film whose racism we condemn, most importantly in the tribute to black artists under the title Bert Williams and Company. There was a special resurrection event of the first all-black American feature film Lime Kiln Club Field Day (US 1913). Uncle Tom's Cabin (US 1914) was the first mainstream American film with a black actor in a leading role (Sam Lucas), based on the most filmed novel during the silent era (there never was a sound version in Hollywood). Besides there was the most prominent film adaptation (US 1928) of the novel Ramona, "the second most important 19th century American social protest novel after Uncle Tom's Cabin", about Ramona's love story with a Native American in Southern California, starring Dolores Del Rio. D. W. Griffith had played the Native American in a stage production, and he had also directed a pro-Indian adaptation of the novel, starring Mary Pickford.

CHANGING THE WORLD was another hidden theme of the festival. Uncle Tom's Cabin belongs to the novels that have changed history. Another great tale which survived on Leo Tolstoy's shortlist after his fundamentalist "What Is Art" conversion was Les Misérables seen as the Pordenone centerpiece in its French 1926 film adaptation directed by Henri Fescourt in a majestic 6½ h version which I know well in glorious black and white and look forward to see another time in its newly restored colour edition. Revolutionary scenes were seen not only in it and in Sergei Eisenstein's October (SU 1928) but also in William Wauer's amazing Der Tunnel (DE 1915), one of the discoveries of the festival, and also in Douglas Fairbanks's first period feature film, The Mark of Zorro (US 1920), an incitement to revolt against tyranny. Social consciousness was also on display in Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi's special programme Children at Work where especially Jeux d'enfants (FR 1913, D: Henri Fescourt, supv: Louis Feuillade) resonated strongly, also with Les Misérables with its Cosette theme. Life has changed since in Europe and North America, but not for the majority of the people of the world.

THE GREATEST TALES OF MANKIND: to those quoted above let's also add the epic legends of the Troyan war revived in Manfred Noa's Helena - der Untergang Trojas I-II (DE 1924) with a panache comparable with Lang and Murnau and with a sense of gravity stemming from the unhealed pain from the recent WWI. And Sherlock Holmes (US 1916, starring William Gillette), an impressive record of a legendary interpretation which even influenced Arthur Conan Doyle himself.

IL CENTENARIO DELLA GRANDE GUERRA is a multi-year theme in Pordenone. This time I saw remarkable non-fiction films by Luca Comerio from 1916-1917, interesting for a Finnish viewer as records of winter war. Those films happened also to confirm that even in Maciste alpino (IT 1916) the Alpine war footage has a partly documentary quality. Year by year it gets clearer that WWI was the tragic turning-point in the silent era of the cinema, dividing it into la Belle Époque, the war years, and the post-traumatic shell shock period. (I would count even The Phantom of the Opera, US 1925, seen as a Photoplay film concert as the closing gala and starring Lon Chaney as the horribly disfigured Erik, as a shell shock film, using the term of Anton Kaes). Even Zane Grey was affected: The Call of the Canyon (US 1923, the remaining fragments of whose film adaptation were seen here) is the story of the rehabilitation in the West of a deeply disturbed war veteran.

THE CANON REVISITED 7 was again the backbone of the week. These are films that deserve to be revisited as often as possible. Det hemmelighedsfulde X (DK 1914) confirmed that Benjamin Christensen was a master of visual storytelling ahead of his time. Marcel L'Herbier's L'Inhumaine (FR 1924) in its new Lobster colour restoration made the best sense ever for me of this visionary constructivist Gesamtkunstwerk. The Mark of Zorro (US 1920, a Douglas Fairbanks vehicle directed by Fred Niblo) I had never seen before. Engrossing. (Also screened during the festival were Victor Fleming's brilliant Fairbanks vehicles When the Clouds Roll By and The Mollycoddle which I skipped this time. Still fresh in memory was also last year's restoration of the exhilarating The Good Bad Man, directed by Allan Dwan and shot by Victor Fleming). Sergei Eisenstein's October (SU 1928) can inspire many thoughts; about the tragedy of history, certainly, but also about the new concept of the time and space continuum in the centenary year of the general theory of relativity; Einstein and Eisenstein had something in common. Ernst Lubitsch's Die Puppe (DE 1919), a humoristic fantasy in the spirit of E. T. A. Hoffmann, I did not see this time. Graham Cutts's The Rat (GB 1925) was a new discovery for me, starring the androgynous Ivor Novello, and proving that Hitchcock still had a lot to learn from his mentor, including in the approach to a crucial rape / murder scene.

VICTOR FLEMING: I skipped familiar titles such as Mantrap and was grateful to see the tragic Zane Grey film adaptation To the Last Man (1923) starring Lois Wilson and Richard Dix and based on a true story of carnage in old Arizona, with James Wong Howe catching the sublime of the landscape. The passion between Gary Cooper and Lupe Velez in Wolf Song (1929), about the coming of age of a mountain man through love, is so convincing that it feels like a personal confession by the director.

RUSSIAN LAUGHTER: delightful discoveries were on display again in this series. The selections also made us rethink our received notions on Soviet culture. Can't You Just Leave Me Out? (1932, Viktor Shestakov) was amazingly revealing about the conditions of life in "real existing socialism". The State Official (1931) was an exercise in grotesque and eccentric satire on contemporary (not Czarist) bureaucracy by a future canonical Stalinian director, Ivan Pyriev. Aleksei Popov's Three Friends and an Invention (1928) is simply delightful in its sense of freedom (and was a favourite of Henry Miller's). As is the obscure A Bell-Ringer's Film Career (1927, Nikolai Verkhovskii), a meta-filmic student film parody which remains fresh and funny today.

BEGINNINGS OF THE WESTERN is a new series in which I was happy to see early films by G. M. Anderson, Allan Dwan, Thomas H. Ince, and Francis Ford. There was a focus on Indian pictures (remarkable: The Post Telegrapher, 1912, directed either by Thomas H. Ince or Francis Ford) and strong Western women (also a specialty of Zane Grey's). I do hope that this series will be continued. Since reading William K. Everson's book on the western a long time ago I have been looking forward to see as many of these early films as possible.

LIVE FILM MUSIC has never been better in Pordenone, thanks to Neil Brand, Frank Bockius, Günter A. Buchwald, Philip C. Carli, Mauro Colombis, Antonio Coppola, Mark Fitz-Gerald, Stephen Horne, Ian Mistrorigo, Maud Nelissen, José Maria Serralde Ruiz, Donald Sosin, John Sweeney, Roman Todesco, and Daan Van Den Hurk, as well as special orchestras. There was a new level of richness in the musical accomplishment - or this was the year when I realized it. Special musical delights included the charming Tonbilder show (DE 1907-1909), Antonio Coppola's original humoristic score to Ernst Lubitsch's Romeo und Julia im Schnee (DE 1920) played by Octuor de France, and a benshi performance of a new restoration of Daisuke Ito's Chuji tabinikki (JP 1927) by Ichiro Kataoka and the Otowaza ensemble.

Much I missed. Not to be forgotten: the continuing excellence of the program notes in the catalog and the high quality of the translations.

The theme song for me of this year's Le Giornate: Dolores Del Rio sings the original version of the theme song of the motion picture Ramona, destined to become an evergreen, recorded even in distant Finland by dozens of popular singers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlQw4xENV0k

Colección Sagarminaga, Programme 2

Arrivée d'un train à wagons à étages (Auguste Baron, 1897-1901). Photo: Filmoteca Española

Sortie d'usine (Lumière 1896, second version).

Tor di Quinto (1905). The image is not from the Warwick Trading Co. film but gives an impression of the stunning steeplechase feats displayed.

La Poule merveilleuse (Pathé, 1902)

La Charité du prestidigitateur (Gaumont, 1905)

Filmoteca Española

Curated by Camille Blot-Wellens.

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone.

Viewed at Teatro Verdi, with subtitles, grand piano: , 10 Oct 2015

Prog. 2 (Rl.“K” – Rl. V)

Rl. “K”

TOR DI QUINTO (Tor di Quinto [caballería])  (Warwick Trading Co. – GB 1905) D: ?; 35 mm, 213.7 m, 10'23", col. (partially tinted); main title in German.
    AA: Non-fiction. Amazing horsemanship. Cavalry steeplechase exercise of the most highly demanding kind. Difficult stone walls, steep hills, waterfalls, ruins, dangerous falls, bathing. Screening speed on the slow side. Yellow tint. Visual quality: from a duped source but watchable. *

Rl. L

ENCIERRO DE LOS TOROS (Encierro de toros) (Lumière – FR 1898) D: ?; 35 mm, 16.8 m, 49", col. (tinted). This is the second version of this title, shot in Seville.
    AA:  Non-fiction. Running of the bulls. An interesting composition with people, horses, and bulls. Yellow tint.

(CORRIDA DE FUENTES) (?, GB?, 1902-1906) D: ?; 35 mm, 63.9 m, 3'06", col. (tinted). Possibly images of the bullfight at the Real Plaza de Toros de Aranjuez during the celebrations for the Feast Day of San Fernando, on 30 May 1903.
    AA: Non-fiction. Bullfight footage. A horse falls. From a low contrast source that has suffered damages.

GARDE RÉPUBLICAINE À CHEVAL (Guardia republicana) (Pathé – FR, 1897-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 19 m, 56”.
    AA: Non-fiction. A cavalry parade. Visual quality good.

ARRIVÉE D’UN TRAIN (Llegada del tren) (Pathé – FR, 1898-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 20.5 m, 60”.
This is the second version of this title.
    AA: Non-fiction. The train arrives on the right side of the image, a passerby falls, passengers board the train. Visual quality mediocre.

SORTIE D’USINE (Salida de un taller) (Lumière – FR 1896) D: ?; 35 mm, 16.5 m, 48", col. (tinted). This is the second version of this title.
    AA: Non-fiction. The classic view, workers in their good clothes, even a carriage emerges from the factory gate. Tinted yellow. Visual quality good.

ÉVOLUTION D’ESCADRE À TOULON (Visita a la escuadra francesa) (Parnaland – FR 1901) D:
 ?; 35 mm, 16.3 m, 46”.
    AA: Non-fiction. A vessel glides away from the harbour.  From a low contrast source.

LE PRÉSIDENT FÉLIX FAURE AUX COURSES (Mr. Faure en las carreras) (Pathé – FR, 1898-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 15.4 m, 45”.
     AA: Non-fiction. The President Félix Faure passes from right to left. Visual quality ok, from a damaged source.

Rl. M

POURSUITE ACCIDENTÉE (Persecusión accidentada)  (Pathé – FR 1903) D: ?; 35 mm, 21.3 m, 1'02", col. (tinted); main title in French
    AA:  Fiction: comedy: chase. A man is fishing, young boy rascals drive with their bicycles into the river, policemen splash into the water, they need help to be rescued. Visual quality: ok, watchable.
.
DÉMOLITION D’UN MUR (Muro derrumbado) (Lumière – FR 1896) D: Louis Lumière; 35 mm, 16.3 m, 47", col. (tinted). Another version was produced later.
    AA: Non-fiction. The familiar view. The wall is demolished, there is a cloud of dust. Visual quality: duped, ok, watchable.

PETITES CAUSES GRANDS EFFETS (La disputa) (Parnaland – FR, 1902-1904) D: ?; 35 mm, 28 m, 1'24"; main title in French.
    AA: Fiction: comedy: tit for tat. A little girl lands into a dispute which escalates in Laurel & Hardy fashion. The screening speed is on the fast side. Visual quality watchable.

PIERROT BUVEUR (Pierrot y el diablo) (Parnaland – FR, c.1900) D: ?; 35 mm, 16.1 m, 47", col. (tinted).
    AA: Fiction: féerie: metamorphoses. Pierrot drinks, the Devil appears, there are metamorphoses and visions including a woman with a cross. Tinted yellow. From a worn source.

CAMBRIOLEUR INSAISISSABLE (Ladrón que se escurre) (Parnaland – FR 1901) D: ?; 35 mm, 19 m, 55", col. (tinted).
    AA: Fiction: trick film. A magician thief escapes from the policeman with his disappearing tricks. Tinted yellow. From a worn source.

FÂCHEUSE DISTRACTION (Distracción seltz al sombrero) (Parnaland – FR 1901) D: ?; 35 mm, 19.1 m, 56", col. (tinted).
    AA: Fiction: comedy: delirium. A man drinks, sees amusing images, pours drink to the ground. Tinted yellow. From a worn source.

Rl. N

FEU D’HERBES (Quema de hierbas) (Parnaland – FR, c.1900) D: ?; 35 mm, 15.9 m, 46", col. (tinted).
    AA: Non-fiction. Burning grass. The whole family is at it, including a little girl. "Children at work" again. Tinted yellow. From a worn source.

BRÛLEUSES D’HERBES (Quema de hierbas) (Pathé – FR, 1896-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 18.9 m, 55”.
    AA: Non-fiction. A bigger hay-burning job. Maidens.

COUR DE FERME (Corral de aves) (Parnaland – FR, c.1900) D: ?; 35 mm, 17.5 m, 51”. This film is also known as Intérieur de ferme.
    AA: Non-fiction. At the farm. Birds are fed. There are cows, too. From a worn, low-contrast source.

MOUTONS (El rebaño) (Parnaland – FR, c.1900) D: ?; 35 mm, 14.2 m, 41", col. (tinted). This film is also known as Sortie de moutons.
    AA: Non-fiction. Sheep are let loose from their corral. Dogs are guiding them. Tinted yellow. From a source tending to a low contrast.

THE KIDDIES AND THE RABBITS (Niños y conejos) (Warwick Trading Co. – GB 1904) D:  Archibald Brown; 35 mm, 28.7 m, 1'24”.
    AA: Non-fiction. Rabbits eat cabbage. Three babies observe them. Visual quality pretty good, with a slight tendency to high contrast.

LES DÉNICHEURS D’OISEAUX (Los nidos) (Pathé – FR 1904) D: Gaston Velle; story: Charles Pathé; 35 mm, 48 m, 2'20" , col. (tinted); main title in French.
    AA: Fiction. Three rascals steal a bird's nest. The forester chases them. They cross a river. Title tinted red. A beautiful print.

LES BÛCHERONS (Los leñadores) (Parnaland – FR, 1902-1903) D: ?; 35 mm, 33 m, 1'36", col. (tinted); main title in French.
    AA: Fiction: trick film. Lumberjacks. They settle scores with axes and sticks. An axe sticks on the head. Members are put back together in a changed order. Speed on a fast side. Visual quality watchable.

Rl. O

BAIGNEURS ET PLONGEURS (Baño de colegiales) (Pathé – FR, 1896-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 19.6 m, 57”.
    AA: Non-fiction. Swimmers and divers. Dozens of them. Skilful diving jumps. Speed on a slow side. From a bad and worn source.

SAUTS DU TREMPLIN (Baños públicos) (Parnaland – FR, 1897-1898) D: ?; 35 mm, 17.9 m, 52", col. (tinted). This film is also known as Ecole de natation.
    AA: Non-fiction. Learning to jump and dive. Tinted yellow. Visual quality watchable.

AU RÉFECTOIRE (Comida de colegiales) (Pathé – FR, 1896-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 15.8 m, 46”.
    AA: Fiction: farce. At the canteen. Slapstick with messing around with food. Gray. From a soft source, watchable.

BATAILLE DE NEIGE (Batalla en la nieve) (Pathé – FR, 1897-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 15.5 m, 45”.
    AA: Fiction: farce. Rookies in uniforms start a snowball war. A cyclist falls. From a source tending towards high contrast, visual quality fair.

(TABERNA BRETONA) (Pathé? – FR?, 1896-1899?) D: ?; 35 mm, 14.5 m, 42”. Fiction subject set in a tavern, with people in French Breton costume.
    AA: Fiction: comedy. A lively scene at a dinner table with ten guests. There is enough to drink, and a rough-and-tumble ensues. From a source tending towards high contrast, visual quality fair.

CARAVANE DE CHAMEAUX (Caravana de camellos) (Lumière – FR 1897) D: Alexandre Promio; 16.9 m, 49", col. (tinted).
    AA: Non-fiction. A Lumière view of a caravan with camels. Tinted yellow. Tending towards high contrast, visual quality fair.

RESTITUTION FORCÉE (Restitución del vaso de vino) (Parnaland – FR, c.1900) D: ?; 35 mm, 14.7 m, 43", col. (tinted).
    AA: Fiction: farce: trick film. A forced restitution. The clown taps the gentleman's stomach to get the wine back. Tinted yellow. From a worn source, visual quality fair.

Rl. P

MARIE ANTOINETTE (Fiestas en Versalles) (Pathé – FR 1903) D: ?; 35 mm, 100.4 m, 4'53", col. (tinted); main title and intertitles in Spanish. This print does not include the last three episodes of the film.
    AA: Fiction: period views. A historical reconstruction. 1) A pleasure boat arrives. 2) A menuet outdoors. 3) Merienda campese = picnic on the grass. Deep focus with three layers of action in depth. A performance in the background. 4) Playing blindfolded. 5) A gallant rendez-vous. From a source tending to high contrast, visual quality quite good, with a lot of detail.

LA CHASSE À COURRE (Caza del ciervo en Inglaterra) (Parnaland – FR, c.1900) D: ?; 35 mm, 80.7 m, 3'43", col. (partially tinted); main title in French.
    AA: Non-fiction. Chasing with hounds in England. Ten hound dogs. Embarking on a hunting trip along the road. A deer swims. Surrounded by dogs. The deer is killed. Dogs get meat to eat. From a worn source, visual quality passable.

BOIS DE BOULOGNE (Avenida del Bois de Boulogne) (Pathé – FR, 1897-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 19.1 m, 56”.
    AA: Non-fiction. Traffic: people and bicycles, horse-drawn carriages, the smart set, a steam tram. Visual quality passable.

Rl. R

LE PAPE AU VATICAN (León XIII en el Vaticano) (Pathé – FR 1903) D: Lucien Nonguet; 35 mm, 37.1 m, 1'48"; main title in French. Various versions of films bearing this title exist.
    AA: A reconstruction. The Pope enters in his carriage. There was laughter in the audience when it became obvious that this is a reconstruction. Tending towards a high contrast. Visual quality fair.

SORTIE D’ÉGLISE EN BOHÊME (Salida de iglesia en Bohemia) (Pathé – FR, 1897-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 20.1 m, 60”.
    AA:  Non-fiction. Coming out of the church in Bohemia. A big crowd full of joy. A series of faces, many facing the camera. A sense of fun. Visual quality fair.

DANSE BOHÉMIENNE (Danza bohemia) (Pathé – FR, 1897-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 19.9 m, 58”.
    AA: Non-fiction. A Bohemian ball. Musicians, beer, national dresses, a ring dance. Visual quality fair.

AVENUE DES CHAMPS-ELYSÉES (Avenida de los Campos Elíseos) (Parnaland – FR, 1897-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 16 m, 47", col. (tinted).
    AA: Non-fiction. Vehicles, horse-drawn carriages, bicycles. Tinted yellow. Visual quality fair.

GÉNIE (Regimiento de ingenieros) (Parnaland – FR 1900) D: ?; 35 mm, 21.6 m, 1'03", col. (tinted). This film is also known as Défilé du régiment de Génie. Another version exists of this title, measuring 44 metres.
    AA: Non-fiction. A parade from right to left. Tinted yellow. Visual quality fair.

ARRIVÉE D’UN TRAIN À WAGONS À ÉTAGES (Tren con imperial) (Auguste Baron – FR, 1897-1901) D: ?; 35 mm, 17.6 m, 52", col. (tinted).
    AA: Non-fiction. The arrival of a train with double-decker carriages. See image above. A lively crowd of people. Tinted yellow. Visual quality pretty good.

ARROSAGE GÉNÉRAL (Riego general) (Parnaland – FR 1901) D: ?; 35 mm, 21.7 m, 1'03", col. (tinted).
    AA: Fiction: comedy: prank. A new kind of prank with the gardener's hose. The police is involved. The innocent are punished. A little rascal is behind the prank. Tinted yellow.

GENDARME ET VOLEUR DE CANARD (El gendarme atascado) (Parnaland – FR, 1900-1901) D: ?; 35 mm, 20.2 m, 59", col. (tinted).
    AA: Fiction: comedy. A boy steals a duck and makes a fool of the policeman. Tinted yellow. Visual quality fair.

Rl. S

BALLET SUR SCÈNE AVEC ORCHESTRE (Fiesta nocturna en Michelet) (Auguste Baron – FR, 1897-1901) D: ?; 35 mm, 17.3 m, 51", col. (tinted).
    AA: Non-fiction: a record of a ballet performance. A big ballet number on a stage in the middle of the auditorium. Tinted yellow. From a source tending to a high contrast.

UNE BONNE HISTOIRE (Pathé – FR, 1897-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 20.3 m, 59”. Pathé produced another version of this title in 1903.
    AA: Fiction: comedy. Two clergymen at the table share a funny story that apparently involves a woman's breasts. Visual quality pretty good.

VOYAGE DANS UN TRAIN (Pathé – FR 1896) D: Charles Pathé?; 35 mm, 14.3 m, 42”.
    AA: Non-fiction: phantom ride. Shot from the back terrace of a train. From a source about to be destroyed, visual quality bad.

PASSAGE DE LA MARNE PAR LES CHEVAUX DU 28e DRAGONS (Furgón de...)
 (Pathé – FR, 1897-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 16.6 m, 49”. The entire Spanish title was illegible in Sargarmínaga’s original notes.
    AA: Non-fiction. A lively view of horses being bathed. Visual quality fair.

SAUTS DE HAIES (Militar saltando cerco) (Parnaland – FR, c.1900) D: ?; 35 mm, 21.2 m, 1'02", col. (tinted).
    AA: Non-fiction. Cavalry. Jumping hurdles from left to right. Tinted yellow.  Visual quality stuffy.

SAUTS D’OBSTACLES PAR DES OFFICIERS (Militares a caballo) (Pathé – FR, 1898-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 15.6 m, 46”. This film is also known as Sauts d’obstacles par les dragons.
    AA:  Non-fiction. Cavalry. Jumping hurdles from right to left. Visual quality fair.

LA POULE MERVEILLEUSE (La gallina misteriosa) (Pathé – FR 1902) D: Ferdinand Zecca; 35 mm, 37 m, 1'48”.
    AA: Fiction: féerie: A Miraculous Hen. A wizard conjures eggs, chicken are hatched from the eggs, and then it all happens backwards (the chicken return to the eggs). From a source tending to high contrast, visual quality pretty good.

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LES PAYSANS À PARIS (Provincianos en París) (Pathé – FR, 1897-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 18.9 m, 55”.
    AA: Fiction: comedy: Peasants in Paris. The country folks come with a rabbit and hens. They do enjoy to drink. Visual quality ok.

BONNE D’ENFANTS ET MILITAIRE (Galanteos militares) (Parnaland – FR, 1897-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 19.8 m, 58", col. (tinted).
    AA: Fiction: a joke. The familiar early cinema joke again. The nanny flirts with a soldier, sitting on a plank, and when the soldier has to stand up to salute, the girl falls flat on her behind. Tinted yellow. Visual quality stuffy, passable.

LES BONS PAYENT POUR LES MAUVAIS (El fumador) (Parnaland – FR, 1900-1901) D: ?; 35 mm, 19.4 m, 57", col. (tinted).
    AA: Fiction: comedy. A bum chases a woman away from a bench in order to be able to lie down on it alone. The policeman stops this. Tinted green. Visual quality ok.

UNE PARTIE DE CANOT (Accidente naútico) (Pathé – FR 1903) D: ?; 35 mm, 24.4 m, 1'11", col. (tinted); main title in French.
    AA: Fiction: comedy: tricks. Landing into water on a canoe trip. A reversal of footage. Visual quality ok.

LA CHARITÉ DU PRESTIDIGITATEUR (Caridad sin recompensa) (Gaumont – FR 1905) D: Alice Guy; 35 mm, 62.5 m, 3'03", col. (tinted).
    AA: Fiction: trick film. See image above. A magician helps a tramp, but having turned into a tramp himself and asking for help, he does not get any help from the ex-tramp. The magician then reverses everything. From a low contrast source, with a dull visual look.

Misc.

(Films once part of edited compilation reels, but received separately by the archive.)

LAVEUSES EN BOHÊME (Las lavanderas) (Pathé – FR, 1897-1899) D: ?; 35 mm, 62.5 m, 3'03”.
    AA: Non-fiction: washerwomen in Bohemia. A huge courtyard full of washerwomen. From a worn source. A lively visual quality.

(DESFILE DE BIENVENIDA) (?, ?, 1896?) D: ?; 35 mm, 18.7 m, 55”. Possibly shot during the Parisian visit of Tsar Nicholas II in October 1896.
    AA: Non-fiction: an endless cavalry parade. From a worn source, low-contrast, with rain.

AA: See my remarks on Colección Sagarminaga, Programme 1 a few days ago. A wonderful cross-section of early cinema as screened by an early major exhibitor. I cannot begin to imagine how difficult the restoration must have been. The result is very watchable, the image is stable, and with program notes like this it is possible to make sense of a rich and varied collection.

Wolf Song

Wolf Song: a bath before the dance for the mountain man Sam (Gary Cooper).

Wolf Song: at the baile at Taos Sam (Gary Cooper) dances a long, slow number with Lola (Lupe Velez).

Gary Cooper, Lupe Vélez

Wolf Song: after the marriage the wolf call gets stronger for Sam (Gary Cooper), but he reconsiders.

La canzone dei lupi / Suden laulu / Vargens sång.
    (Paramount Famous Lasky – US 1929) D, P: Victor Fleming; P: Adolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky; SC: John Farrow, Keene Thompson, based on the short story by Harvey Ferguson (1927); titles: Julian Johnson; DP: Allen Siegler; ED: Eda Warren;
    C: Gary Cooper (Sam Lash), Lupe Velez (Lola Salazar), Louis Wolheim (Gullion), Constantine Romanoff (Rube Thatcher), Michael Vavitch (Don Solomon Salazar), Ann Brody (Duenna), Russell [Russ] Columbo (Ambrosio Guttierez), George Rigas (Black Wolf);
    première: 23.2.1929, New York; rel: 30.3.1929; orig. l: 6769 ft. (8 rl.; 93'); 35 mm, 5889 ft, 65' (24 fps); titles: ENG; incomplete (mus. sequences missing); print source: Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, Culpeper, VA.
    Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone.
    Viewed at Teatro Verdi, with e-subtitles in Italian, grand piano: Donald Sosin, 10 Oct 2015

Kevin Brownlow (GCM catalog and website): "One of the last silent films, Wolf Song was released with an orchestral score, a few spoken words, and a couple of songs. The critics were not enthusiastic. However, it has not been seen on this side of the Atlantic since its original release, and quite often old films mature like wine. When David Chierichetti saw it in Los Angeles in 1978, he sent me this response: “Excellent. It exploits the highly charged sexual tension that existed between Gary Cooper and Lupe Velez in real life at the time. It is an intelligent story about trappers in the 1840s, beautifully photographed, with many original and expensive sets by Wiard Ihnen, and with clothes by Edith Head.”"

"The AFI Catalog of Feature Films 1921-1930 contains a succinct plot synopsis: “Lola Salazar, the daughter of a haughty Californian don, elopes with Sam Lash, an unkempt Kentucky trapper of no particular means. They live together in in a settlement in the mountains until Sam decides that he is sick of civilization and rejoins his former companions in the Canadian wilderness; Lola returns to her family. Sam soon finds the nights too long and lonely and heads home, only to be shot by a couple of braves. He drags himself to Lola’s hacienda, however, and they are reunited.”"

"Fleming had just made a picture for Sam Goldwyn called The Awakening (1928) with Vilma Banky and Ronald Colman, which no longer exists but which has acquired an almost mystical reputation. (It was also silent, with sound effects and an Irving Berlin song featured in the score.) Moving from the demure Vilma Banky to this tempestuous Mexican actress must have shaken Fleming to the core."

"Lupe Velez was, oddly enough, a discovery of Hal Roach, who cast her with Laurel and Hardy and then loaned her to Fairbanks for The Gaucho (1927). Newspaper reports about “Whoopie Lupe” tended to be headed “Hot tamale!” or “Senorita Cyclone”, for she behaved like a modern pop star. She became the lover of Fleming – “he’s on everybody’s love-list!,” she said – and the crooner Russ Columbo (whose film debut this was, but whose scenes are missing). Tension increased when she also fell for Gary Cooper. “The heat between them burned up the screen,” wrote her biographer, Michelle Vogel. Although she would stab him and try to shoot him (she missed), Gary Cooper remained the love of her life."

"Born on a ranch in Montana to English émigré parents – he was partly educated in England – Cooper played cowboy extras from 1925. He worked with Clara Bow, and was her lover for a while (blaming Fleming for the split), but he had his break when cast in Henry King’s western The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926). At first he was regarded as clumsy and difficult to direct – “He never knew what to do with his legs!” – but he soon got the hang of naturalistic acting and became one of the finest actors and best-loved stars in American films."

"Constantin Romanoff was the terrifying heavy in Harold Lloyd’s The Kid Brother (1927). Boris Karloff worked with him and said, “He was huge, but as gentle as a kitten.” The same could be said for Louis Wolheim, who played the good-hearted sergeant in All Quiet on the Western Front. He may have resembled Neanderthal man, but he had been a distinguished mathematics instructor with an engineering degree at Cornell."

"Russ Columbo, the singer, was beginning to make a name for himself in pictures around the time of Wolf Song, although he was already tremendously popular among women as a crooner. Romantically attached to Carole Lombard, he died in a freak shooting accident in 1934."

"The cameraman, Allen Siegler, had been a cowboy who demonstrated his skills with a lariat at the opening of Universal City in 1915. John Farrow would become a director and the father of Mia Farrow. The film’s editor, Eda Warren, also cut Hula and Abie’s Irish Rose." – Kevin Brownlow

AA: Wolf Song feels like a particularly personal film for Victor Fleming, even a kind of a fictional autobiography. The story of the wild man civilized by the love of the right woman.

The electricity between Gary Cooper and Lupe Vélez is so unmistakable that there is an almost documentary feel in their love scenes. Wolf Song belongs to the most sensual films of Victor Fleming. There is even a nude scene with Cooper but of course "nothing" is shown (see above). (To be compared with Frank Borzage's The River also made in 1929).

Sam Lash (Gary Cooper) has become a mountain man in the 1840s, and he feels a strong draw to return to the wilderness. He abuses women mercilessly during his visits to civilization. But Lola Salazar (Lupe Vélez) is different, the daughter of a distinguished family. Against her father's will Lola escapes with Sam to get married, only to have to return in a humiliating way because Sam has left her abruptly, with "fur country calling" - "the wolf song".

But "she had a brand on him and the burn still hurt". Sam's pain of separation grows intolerable. There is a memory montage that makes me think of L'Atalante.

On his way back to Lola Sam gets shot by the Indians, and, after a tortuous journey, badly wounded, he finally falls on Lola's feet. (A similar final image is also in To the Last Man).

Donald Sosin created a perfect live music world to this screening, excelling in the crucial dance scene with a fine slow tango, with a gentle sensual feeling.

The visual quality of the print is often good but variable.