Sunset Song (2015)

    Great Britain, Luxembourg
    2015
    Director: Terence Davies
    Language: English
    135 min
    K16
    Distribution: Fortissimo Films
    Print source: Fortissimo Films
Theme: Impossible Girls
Love & Anarchy, 29th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)
First screened 16 Sep 2016 at 20.45 Kinopalatsi 2

Mark Kermode quoted in the HIFF catalogue: "(M)many elements from Grassic Gibbon’s novel (…) resonate with the autobiographical themes explored in (…) Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes. There is the abusive father, brilliantly played by Peter Mullan, who breathes both fury and pathos into the role of John Guthrie, a turn-of-the-century farming patriarch torn between the anger of devotion (he sings hymns while harvesting) and the demons of violence and lust (…). There is the yearning female voice, Agyness Deyn providing internal monologue narration for Chris, who is torn between the beauty of the ancient Scottish land on which she toils, and the “sharp, clean and true” English words of an education that may yet take her away from all this."

"Most importantly, there is song, ringing out through the natural rustle of wind and bird and harvest, threatening to transform this drama into a musical (…)."

"What sings clearest, however, is Michael McDonough’s ravishing cinematography, a blend of 65 mm celluloid stock and resiliently responsive digital that takes us from the (…) candlelit interiors through glowing fields of gold and green and up into cloudy skies (…)." - Mark Kermode, The Guardian

AA: After the personal Liverpool documentary Of Time and the City (2008) there has been a comeback for Terence Davies with The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Sunset Song (2015), and A Quiet Passion (2016). The newest two films are very different, yet they share certain features: both are coming-of-age stories of young women of an independent spirit who fight for their dignity. In both, there is a background of Protestant Puritanism.

Sunset Song is based on a novel from 1932 by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, whose books have not been translated into Finnish. Sunset Song is a coming of age story of young Chris[tine] Guthrie facing the harshness of the nature and the brutality of her father John. She gets married with a tender young farmer, Ewan, but the Great War breaks out, and Ewan returns home as a brutal monster not unlike Christine's father, and later he is later executed by firing squad as a deserter. Kevin Guthrie [it's confusing with the names of the actors and the characters, isn't it] portrays the terrible transformation of Ewan memorably.

The magnificent outdoors cinematography by Michael McDonough has been conducted on 65 mm film. The interiors have been shot in digital. The landscapes look magnificent, and it is no wonder that Sunset Song has been screened in IMAX theatres. A point of comparison might be David Lean, including Ryan's Daughter. I interviewed Terence Davies in the Helsinki International Film Festival masterclass, and Davies reported that Sunset Song was produced on a low budget. It certainly does not look like it. Sunset Song is a feast of sublime landscapes.

The performances are fine. Agyness Deyn embraces with conviction the challenge to portray Christine, the coming of age of a young girl, her growing up to a woman and a mother, protecting her child, and protecting herself against a husband turned violent. Peter Mullan is powerful as the evil father. There are predecessors to such figures in Davies's work. I was also thinking about a recent viewing of William Wyler's A House Divided with Walter Huston as a tyrant father, dangerous to everybody in his circle.

The language is sometimes hard to understand. It is essential that the characters speak Scottish, but I confess that I for one would benefit of subtitles - even in English.

In these years we remember the centenary of the First World War. The brutalization of Ewan is relevant to a contemporary understanding of the psychological impact of war trauma. We now know more than people did at the time. Also in Finland we are still coming to terms with our wars of the last century. During this festival is also screened Timo Korhonen's new documentary Sodan murtamat [Broken by the War]. Fathers came home, and how they had changed. There was sometimes a Jekyll / Hyde experience with veterans. In the court-martial and execution of Ewan I was thinking about King & Country, a favourite WWI film of mine. Ewan is not a coward. But sometimes too much is too much.

Christine looks fragile, but there is a survivor spirit in her, what we in Finland call sisu (stamina, endurance, perseverance). She is a Scottish counterpart to our Finnish Loviisa, the mistress of the Niskavuori farm, in Hella Wuolijoki's Niskavuori Saga. When men are broken they will carry on.

FROM THE SUNSET SONG PRESS KIT: BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK:

Out 1 (2015 digitally restored edition)

Out 1. Colin (Jean-Pierre Léaud).

Out 1: Noli me tangere. FR 1971. General theatrical release: 2015. PC:  Sunchild Productions. Co-production: Les Films du Losange. Distribution (2015): Carlotta Films. P: Stéphane Tchalgadjieff, Danièle Gégauff, Gérard Vaugeois. D: Jacques Rivette. Assistant directors: Suzanne Schiffman, Jean-François Stévenin. SC: Jacques Rivette, Suzanne Schiffman. DP: Pierre-William Glenn; assistant camera: Dominique Chapuis – negative: 16 mm – colour and b&w – 1,37 or 1,66 – digitally restored: 2015 – release: 35 mm or 2K DCP. S: René-Jean Bouyer; boom operator: Michel Laurent; sound mixer: Bernard Aubouy – mono. ED: Nicole Lubtschansky, Carole Marquand. Continuity: Lydie Mahias. Loc: Pariisi.
    C: Michèle Moretti (Lili), Hermine Karagheuz (Marie), Karen Puig (Elaine), Pierre Baillot (Quentin), Marcel Bozonnet (Nicolas / Arsenal / Papa / Théo), Jean-Pierre Léaud (Colin), Michel Lonsdale (Thomas), Sylvain Corthay (Achille), Edwine Moatti (Béatrice), Bernadette Onfroy (Bergamotte), Monique Clément (Faune), Juliet Berto (Frédérique), Gérard Martin (un faux célibataire), Gilette Barbier (la logeuse de Colin), Jean Pierre Bastid, Urbain Dia Mokouri and Jacques Prayer (trois truands), Michel Berto (Honeymoon), Michel Delahaye (un ethnologue), Bernard Eisenschitz (un pornographe), Pierre Cottrell (un pornographe), André Julien (le brocanteur), Brigitte Roüan (Miss Blandish), Françoise Fabian (Lucie), Éric Rohmer (le balzacien), Christian de Tillière (le noctambule), Christiane Corthay (Rose), Patrick Hec (Léonard), Bulle Ogier (Pauline / Emilie), René Biaggi (Chaussette), Barbet Schroeder (Gian-Reto), Jean-François Stévenin (Marlon), Bernadette Lafont (Sarah), Marc Chapiteau (a football player), Alain Libolt (Renaud), Jérôme Richard (Martin), Jacques Doniol-Valcroze (Étienne), Ode Bitton (Iris), Jean Bouise (Warok), Louis Julien (Max), Marie-Paule André (une amie de Nicolas), Mathieu Schiffman (un jeune garçon ), Lorraine Santoni (une demoiselle à lunettes), Michèle Khan (la minette), Stéphane Tchalgadjieff (an envoy of Lorenzo), Michel Chanderli (a villain), Guillaume Schiffman (the child in the empty boutique), Jean-Claude Valezy (a villain).
    Not released in Finland – workprint 1971: 760 min – release version: 749 min = 12 h 29 min
    1 - De Lili à Thomas (86')
    2 - De Thomas à Frédérique (104')
    3 - De Frédérique à Sarah (105')
    4 - De Sarah à Colin (103')
    5 - De Colin à Pauline (87')
    6 - De Pauline à Émilie (98')
    7 - De Émilie à Lucie (95')
    8 - De Lucie à Marie (71')
    2K DCP with English subtitles viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Jacques Rivette in memoriam / Carte blanche à Satu Laaksonen), during four days (in two screenings each at 17 and 19 pm): 12 Sep, 13 Sep, 14 Sep, and 15 Sep, 2016.

Out 1. Thomas (Michel Lonsdale) travels to Normandy to invite Sarah (Bernadette Lafont) to join his theater group rehearsing Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus.

Out 1. The Balzac specialist (Eric Rohmer) gives a lecture to Colin about Histoire des Treize.

Out 1. Behind Moulin Rouge Frédérique (Juliet Berto) tries to blackmail Lucie (Françoise Fabian) with letters stolen from her husband Etienne.

Out 1. The last adventure of Frédérique.

Out 1. The last image of the movie. Marie (Hermine Karagheuz) in front of a Greek goddess (Athena?) in Paris. Still trying to find Renaud who stole a million francs from Quentin in their theatre group rehearsal of Seven Against Thebes.

I saw for the first time the complete 12½ hour Out 1. I had seen in the 1980s the much shorter Out 1: Spectre version at Arsenal in West Berlin. I do not remember that version clearly, but I find Jonathan Rosenbaum's claim plausible: the long version is much easier to watch.

There are the two theater groups, both rehearsing a play by Aeschylus (Seven Against Thebes and Prometheus Bound), one led by Lili (Michèle Moretti) and the other by Thomas (Michel Lonsdale). There are also two outcasts. Colin (Jean-Pierre Léaud) is a beggar, pretending to be deaf and harassing café patrons with his out-of-tune harmonica until they pay to get rid of him. Frédérique (Juliet Berto) is a small time thief.

A central location is L'Angle du hasard, a boutique owned by a woman (Bulle Ogier) called Emilie at home and Pauline at the boutique. There are many hangers-on but the boutique does not seem to make sense as a business. Apparently Emilie is well off and able to run the boutique nevertheless.

Another central location is the Obade, the seaside retreat of Emilie and her husband Igor (unseen, lost since half a year, but announcing his return at the finale) in Normandy by the Atlantic Ocean.

The outsiders, Colin and Frédérique, independently start to assemble a jigsaw puzzle of a conspiracy of "The Thirteen", based on vague references to Honoré de Balzac and Lewis Carroll (which give clues to Colin) and stolen letters (Frédérique's evidence). They are laughed out, but in the finale it turns out that such a secret society has indeed existed, although it has not been a matter of gravity. Members of The Thirteen include Emilie and Igor (unseen), Etienne (Jacques Doniol-Valcroze) and Lucie (Françoise Fabian), Georges (unseen), Lili, Marie (Hermine Karagheuz), Pierre (unseen), Sarah (Bernadette Lafont), Thomas, and Warok (Jean Bouise). In the finale it turns out that the two theater groups once were one.

Colin turns truly crazy, but, cured of his conspiracy theories, regains his sanity. Meanwhile, Frédérique the small time thief gets involved with a big time thief, Renaud (Alain Libolt) who has stolen a million francs from Quentin (Pierre Baillot) of the Seven Against Thebes group and who is the object of love of a friend of Frédérique, a forlorn gay man called Honeymoon. When Renaud is about to participate in armed robbery Frédérique tries to warn him but gets shot by Renaud.

Out 1 belongs to the large format films of Jacques Rivette and to the great tradition of French film serials. There is a nominal plot structure in Out 1, but it has aptly been called un film-fleuve. It starts and ends abruptly, and could go on forever. Out 1 is about many things, and one of them is the stream of contemporary life. The eccentric story gives us an excuse to observe urban life in Paris, the contrast to which is provided by the timeless sky and ocean in Normandy. Although Out 1 is based on improvisation the cinematography by Pierre-William Glenn is excellent and professional. The mise-en-scène conducted via the long take and moving camera approach is engaging. An exciting feature of the Louis Feuillade serials was that they were shot on location, and the combination of the documentary quality of the photography and the crazy and fantastic character of the narrative was something that fascinated surrealists. A similar combination is at play in Out 1.

Out 1 is a vision of a great confusion, of being lost, and trying to make sense of life via ancient plays. With Aeschylus we return to the very beginning of classic drama. Seven Against Thebes is about the fight between the children of Oedipus. Prometheus Bound is about the hero who stole the fire from heaven. The theatre group rehearsals have aspects of primal therapy and meditation, starting with breathing; in a way they are about being born again, rediscovering body and soul. There is a sense that the rehearsal is the thing and actual performance is unimportant.

Delights of the film include long passages of improvisation of the wonderful ensemble of actors and the intensity of presence caught by the plan-séquence approach of Rivette, entire sequences shot in uninterrupted takes.

A recurrent pleasure in Out 1 is meeting as actors great men of the cinema, such as Michel Delahaye, Bernard Eisenschitz, and Barbet Schroeder. Jacques Doniol-Valcroze is excellent as the chess player Etienne who turns out to be the husband of Lucie (Françoise Fabian). My favourite is Eric Rohmer as the Balzacist who gives Colin a humoristic lecture on the novel triptych Histoire des Treize.

A beautiful achievement of digital restoration. The warm and appealing quality of the 16 mm colour photography is well conveyed in this digital reincarnation.

OUR PROGRAM NOTE BASED ON JONATHAN ROSENBAUM:

Magnificent Obsession (1954)

Lääkärin omatunto / En läkares samvete / Den store læge. US © 1954 Universal Pictures. PC: Universal International Pictures. P: Ross Hunter. D: Douglas Sirk. SC: Robert Blees – adaptation: Wells Root – based upon the screenplay (1935) by: Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman – uncredited: Finley Peter Dunne  – based on the novel (1929) by Lloyd C. Douglas. DP: Russell Metty – Technicolor – 2.00:1. Special photography: David S. Horlsey. AD: Bernard Herzbrun, Emrich Nicholson. Set dec: Russell A. Gausman, Ruby R. Levitt. Gowns: Bill Thomas. Hair: Joan St. Oegger. Makeup: Bud Westmore. M: Frank Skinner. M dir: Joseph Gershenson. Flute: Ethmer Roten. S: Leslie I. Carey, Corson Jowett. ED: Milton Carruth. Technicolor consultant: William Fritzsche. Loc: Big Bear Valley, Lake Arrowhead (San Bernardino National Forest, California), Venice (Los Angeles). Studio: Universal Studios (Universal City).
    C: Jane Wyman (Helen Phillips), Rock Hudson (Bob Merrick), Barbara Rush (Joyce Phillips), Agnes Moorehead (Nancy Ashford), Otto Kruger (Edward Randolph), Gregg Palmer (Tom Masterson), Sara Shane (Valerie Daniels), Paul Cavanaugh (Dr. Henry Giraud), Judy Nugent (Judy), George Lynn (Williams, Bob's butler), Richard H Cutting (Dr. Derwin Dodge), Will J. White (State Police Sergeant Bill Ames), Helen Kleeb (Mrs. Eden), Rudolph Anders (Dr. Albert Fuss), Fred Numey (Dr. Laradetti), John Mylong (Dr. Emil Hofer), Alexander Campbell (Dr. Allan), Mae Clarke (Mrs. Miller).
    Helsinki premiere: 7.10.1955 Elysee – telecast: 1968 TV1, 1992 TV3, 2000 Yle TV1, and 4.6.2006 Yle TV2. VET 42860 – K16 – 2980 m / 108 min
    Uncredited: a major music theme is: Frédéric Chopin: Étude Op. 10, No. 3, in E major (1832), also called "Tristesse" (though not by Chopin).
    Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Douglas Sirk), dansk tekst, 10 Sep 2016.

Revisited Douglas Sirk's wildest and craziest melodrama. He took the story for granted; today I see no irony or distanciation in the adaptation. On the contrary, Douglas Sirk becomes the champion of the story against all odds. Perhaps this is a post-modern reading. More to the point, Douglas Sirk was ahead of his time. He lets the material speak for itself and is excited to discover what emerges.

Far from realism and far from psychological credibility Sirk creates a unique stylized mode of melodrama with affinities with Greek tragedy (Euripides) and a Brechtian approach to popular fiction. That does not prevent the film from being engaging and engrossing. There is an emotional truth beyond the unconvincing psychology, the incredible coincidences and the miraculous healings. In some dimension the storytelling is reminiscent of Borzage: the miraculous healing of the blindness in Seventh Heaven, or the paralysis in Lucky Star. Also in Borzage we find plots impossible to believe, yet are compelled by the conviction of the storyteller.

This a story of a passion, of mad love. The irresponsible playboy Bob Merrick (Rock Hudson) tries to pick up the woman, Helen Phillips (Jane Wyman), who gives him a ride without knowing that she is the widow of the doctor loved by everybody who died because the rescue crew was busy resuscitating the reckless speedboat driver Bob while the doctor was dying. The revelation is a turning-point for Bob who realizes that he is despised by everybody and now changes his life, studies to become a top doctor himself, and in the finale rescues Helen who has lost her eyesight in a car collision trying to escape Bob.

More than this, Bob becomes a part of a special spiritual circle devoted to good deeds performed under conditions of anonymity and the principle of "paying it forward". That is the magnificent obsession of his life and this story. In fact, it is another expression for Christian faith.

In the finale I was thinking about City Lights, the comedy which turns to tragedy. These are among the last words in Magnificent Obsession: "But I think I see some light... I'm gonna see... I can see you". "May I get excited tomorrow. Tomorrow... "

There is a beautiful and juicy impression of Technicolor in the print officially meant to be screened in 2:1 but which works fine also in Academy. Only in the very final moments the colour is partially faded.

OUR PROGRAM NOTE BASED ON SAKARI TOIVIAINEN:

Marilyn (1963 compilation)

Marilyn (1963 compilation). Poster reworked by Mimmo Rotella.

Marilyn Monroe. US 1963. PC: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. There are no credits on the movie. [D of the scenes with Rock Hudson: Henry Koster. SC of narration: Harold Medford.] 35 mm – black and white and Eastmancolor – CinemaScope 2,35:1 – Academy footage pillarboxed – except the final "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" number reformatted from Academy to scope. S: mono. [ED: Pepe Torres. On-screen moderator and narrator: Rock Hudson.] 2290 m / 83 min
    Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Marilyn Monroe 90), svensk text, 9 Sep 2016.

Rock Hudson enters the Twentieth Century Fox soundstage, sits down in front of a film projector and narrates this compilation of Marilyn Monroe's films for Fox while chain-smoking. There is a life size prop of a schooner behind him. Fake snow is falling. "She worked here not long ago". "From among thousands it is difficult to stand out. It is like finding a needle from the haystack. Star quality is a rare commodity. What is it made of?" To the projectionist: "Is your motor running?" "We don't know what it is. We know what it does. The real world - the dream world. So many things it can do. She brought joy to the heart". (Quotes are not verbatim).

1. A Ticket to Tomahawk / Sheriffin tytär, 1950. Colour. "Oh, What a Forward Young Man You Are" (Ken Darby, John Read), performed by MM, Marion Marshall, Joyce Mackenzie, Barbara Smith, and Dan Dailey. She dances with Dan Dailey while Anne Baxter is watching.

2. All About Eve / Kaikki Eevasta, 1950. The brilliant satirical scene at a party of theatre folks, as George Sanders's companion, with Bette Davis and Anne Baxter (again).

3. Love Nest / Casanova vuokralaisena, 1951. MM as a war veteran who moves into the house of her war buddy (William Lundigan) to the surprise of his wife (June Haver) and to the delight of a wolfish attorney (Jack Paar)

4. We’re Not Married / Laittomasti naimisissa, 1952. When it turns out that due to a legal technicality their marriage is invalid Marilyn instantly registers into the Miss Mississippi contest, to the delight of her husband (David Wayne) who attends the show with their baby in his arms.

5. Don’t Bother to Knock / Draama hotellissa, 1952. Her early serious dramatic lead as a mentally unbalanced babysitter, with Richard Widmark as the male lead.

6. O. Henry’s Full House / Neljä helmeä / Viisi helmeä, 1952. Henry Koster's episode "The Cop and the Anthem". A bum (Charles Laughton) attempts to commit a felony in order to be imprisoned for the winter. He harasses a woman on the street (MM) until it turns out that she is a streetwalker.

7. Monkey Business / Rakas, minä nuorrun, 1952. The absent-minded chemist Cary Grant "before and after". We witness him examining the acetates of the stockings of the secretary (MM) through his bottle bottom glasses. After having a shot of the youth elixir the rejuvenated chemist takes her to a wild ride. "Is your motor running?"

8. Niagara / Niagara, 1953. Her mythical breakthrough into superstardom, as a vamp for the only time during her career, ruining her husband's (Joseph Cotten) life. The MM walk and the scene with the record "Kiss".

9. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes / Herrat pitävät vaaleaverisistä, 1953. Three great numbers from her best film, together with Jane Russell: ”A Little Girl from Little Rock”, ”Bye Bye Baby”, ”When Love Goes Wrong” (Jane Russell dubbed by Eileen Wilson).

10. How to Marry a Millionare / Kuinka miljonääri naidaan, 1953. Her CinemaScope debut together with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall. The legendary mirror scene. And the airplane scene with David Wayne.

11. There’s No Business Like Show Business / Rytmiä veressä, 1954. The "Heat Wave" number. "Small danger of fruit frost. Hot and humid nights can be expected".

12. River of No Return / Joki, jolta ei ole paluuta, 1954. With Robert Mitchum. She sings "Down in the Meadow" to his little son (Tommy Rettig).

13. Seven Year Itch / Kesäleski, 1955. Her entrance, and Tom Ewell's reaction. The Rachmaninoff sequence ("Rachmaninoff! His second piano concerto never misses.") The mythical scene on the subway grate where a train passing below blows her white dress upwards.

14. Bus Stop / Bussipysäkki, 1956. Naturalism as Chérie, playing opposite Don Murray. "Old Black Magic" sung intentionally unglamorously. Confessions with Hope Lange.

15. Something’s Got to Give, 1962. (Unfinished). Playing opposite Dean Martin, also featuring Wally Cox. She tries to re-seduce her husband by swimming naked in their pool. This was the first time when footage of this film was released. There may be an agenda in why some of these particular shots were shown and not better ones.

16. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1953. “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” is a glorious climax to the compilation. The coloratura was dubbed by Marni Nixon (1930–2016), otherwise it's MM herself singing fantastically well. Shot in Academy, here processed in CinemaScope.

Missing is Monroe's work for other producers (Love Happy with the Marx Bros., The Asphalt Jungle, Clash by Night, The Prince and the Showgirl, Some Like It Hot, The Misfits... ) is not included in this highly valuable and very entertaining compilation. Missing is her best dramatic role (in Clash by Night) and her most legendary comic role (Some Like It Hot). But included is what is in my opinion her best film (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes).

This compilation reflects the contemporary view of Twentieth Century Fox on Marilyn Monroe. They totally revised their view in the excellent documentary Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days (2001) which includes a new reconstruction of the footage of Something's Got to Give, very different from the one we have here.

The colour in the vintage print is fading, but the screening was hugely enjoyable and impressive even so. There was an applause after the rare show.

These remarks are based on my program note of 1987.

All I Desire

All I Desire. Naomi Murdoch (Barbara Stanwyck) returns home after ten years.

All I Desire. Naomi is a model for her daughter Lily. Lori Nelson (Lily Murdoch) and Barbara Stanwyck (Naomi Murdoch).

All I Desire. Naomi Murdoch (Barbara Stanwyck) sees her daughter Lily performing in a high school theatre performance of Baroness Barclay's Secret.

Ainoa toive / Miksi jätit minut / Varför lämnade du mig / All min längtan. USA© 1953 Universal Pictures Co., Inc. PC: Universal International Pictures Co., Inc. P: Ross Hunter. D: Douglas Sirk. SC: James Gunn ja Robert Blees – adaptation: Gina Kaus – based on the novel Stopover (London 1951) by Carol Ryrie Brink / Carol Brink. Poem: Elisabeth Barrett Browning: ”How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways” (from Sonnets from the Portuguese, 1847). DP: Carl E. Guthrie / Carl Guthrie – b&w – 1,37:1. AD: Alexander Golitzen, Bernard Herzbrun. Set dec: Russell A. Gausman, Julia Heron. Cost: Rosemary Odell. Jewels: Joan Joseff. Makeup: Bud Westmore. Hair: Joan St. Oegger. M: Henry Mancini (n.c.), Herman Stein (n.c.). Stock music: Daniele Amfitheatrof, Hans J. Salter, Frank Skinner, David Tamkin, Edward Ward. Music quoted: in the poem recital scene: Schubert's Unfinished Symphony. Song: “All I Desire” (comp. and lyrics David Lieberman). M dir: Joseph Gershenson. CH: Kenny Williams. S: Leslie I. Carey, Robert Pritchard, James V. Swartz (n.c.) – mono (Western Electric Recording). ED: Milton Carruth. Location: Universal Studios (Universal City).
    C: Barbara Stanwyck (Naomi Murdoch), Richard Carlson (Henry Murdoch), Lyle Bettger (Dutch Heinemann), Marcia Henderson (Joyce Murdoch), Lori Nelson (Lily Murdoch), Maureen O’Sullivan (Sara Harper), Richard Long (Russ Underwood), Billy Gray (Ted Murdoch), Lotte Stein (Lena Engstrom), Dayton Lummis (Col. Underwood), Fred Nurney (Peterson).
    An uncredited recurrent music theme: a violin arrangement of "Un sospiro", the third étude from: Franz Liszt: Trois études de concert, S.144 (for solo piano).
    Helsinki premiere: 11.12.1953 Elysee, distributor: Väinän Filmi – tv: 2.2.1993 TV3 – dvd: Barbara Stanwyck – Screen Goddess Collection (Universal Pictures, 2006) – VET 39134 – S – 79 min
    Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Douglas Sirk), 9 Sep 2016.

The first American family melodrama by Douglas Sirk, his last conte moral set in nostalgic turn-of-the century America, his second film produced by Ross Hunter, a turning-point on his American career and on his career as a Universal house director (comprising his last 21 films, all during the 1950s, half of them produced by Hunter).

Barbara Stanwyck is the name above the title. All I Desire is a Barbara Stanwyck vehicle, shot in black and white because of her, and with profound affinities with other contemporary Stanwyck movies such as Clash by Night. Sirk considered Stanwyck one of the greatest actors in Hollywood. She has such a strong presence that a problem of balance arises because she outstages the others. But the conflict of balance is also central to the narrative: the glamorous performer returning to the little provincial community.

Only the supposedly brilliant international career of the Shakespeare actress Naomi Murdoch is an illusion. Naomi has fallen on hard times, and by now she is reduced to vaudeville, performing with dog acts.

All I Desire starts as a first person narrative with Stanwyck as the narrator.

She has left her family and hometown ten years ago. When she returns there is a perfect silence. "What a dramatic entrance". The father is shocked, the youngest child too young to remember. Naomi is warm and kind, but the family is mostly unwelcoming. "We aren't your family. You aren't our mother". Only Lily, with whom Naomi has been in correspondence, idolizes mother.

Naomi has returned to see Lily performing in a school theater performance of Baroness Barclay's Secret. It is an amateurish high school play until Lily comes on stage. There is a very moving close-up of Naomi watching her daughter perform (see image above). There are tender moments of comedy: "just a stage kiss" is Lily's instruction to the young man playing her lover. Despite or because of the amateurishness the sequence is a display of Sirk's affection for the stage. Naomi is proud of Lily, and Lily is proud of Naomi.

In the party after the show there is a dance at the Murdoch home, and Naomi is invited. It soon turns out that she is the supreme dancer, even in bunny hop, and the event threatens to turn into a Naomi Murdoch show. The rest of the family is embarrassed. But Lily keeps showcasing Naomi and urges her to give a recital. Naomi selects a poem by Elisabeth Barrett Browning, "How do I love thee?". The moment is magical and complex. The tenderness between mother and daughter reaches its peak. Lily expects Naomi to take her to New York and introduce her to the theatre world.

Another daughter, Joyce (Marcia Henderson), condemns her mother, and they have a frank confrontation. Naomi urges Joyce to live a little. "A mother with no principles", Naomi says ironically. "A daughter with no guts". Joyce is offended and affected, but mother's words give her a sting to be more active.

During the long years of Naomi's absence Lily's drama teacher Sara Harper (Maureen O'Sullivan) has become personally close to Henry Murdoch (Richard Carlson) but she soon sees what is happening. "I want him to be happy. You are the woman he needs".

Soon the make-believe of Naomi's supposedly glamorous Shakespearean career becomes unbearable, and Naomi tells the truth to her daughters, crushing their illusions. There is also a frank discussion between Henry and Naomi. Naomi tells him "how unimportant success is". Lily is angry and disappointed when it turns out that Naomi is going to stay.

Meanwhile, Naomi's ex-lover Dutch Heinemann (Lyle Bettger), a gun store keeper, has been lurking around, and he alerts Naomi with his secret code signal, "two shots and then one" (which everybody in the community seems to know). Against the warning of the housekeeper Naomi rides for one last time to the river to call it quits with Dutch. When Dutch tries to take her with force, Naomi uses the horsewhip, and Dutch's gun goes off, wounding him dangerously. (Connections with Summer Storm: the shooting party, the nostalgic river, the Chekhovian gun).

Dutch is taken to hospital. The community is alarmed, and the scandal threatens Henry's position as school principal. "I'm sorry I'm such a disappointment to everybody", comments Naomi. Especially big the disappointment has been to Ted (Billy Gray), her youngest child, the one who was too young to even remember her. Naomi cries while explaining to Ted what has happened. But facing the scandal Henry stands up to Naomi. At Dutch's hospital bed (Dutch's wound is feared to be lethal) Henry hears the full story and understands that their affair had ended. Naomi is about to leave, and Sirk shot a consistent tragic ending, following the novel on which the film is based. But Ross Hunter demanded a happy ending. "I'm asking you to stay", says Henry. "Some grow old. Some grow up".

Out of this material another director might have made a mediocre and conventional melodrama. Douglas Sirk treats it intelligently, without irony or condescension. The two worlds - the fake world of glamorous entertainment and the provincial world of the little community - reflect each other in a complex way. There is a mastery of mise-en-scène in Sirk's direction. The first thrilling instance of it is the sequence of Naomi's homecoming (see the first image above). Another great instance is the play within the play. The composition in depth and the breakdown of scenes in shots is admirably effective.

A brilliant print.

OUR PROGRAM NOTE BASED ON JON HALLIDAY: SIRK ON SIRK AND MICHAEL STERN BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK:

There’s Always Tomorrow (1955)

Onni päättyy huomenna / I morgon är också en dag / Siempre hay un mañana. US © 1955 Universal Pictures Co., Inc. PC: Universal-International Pictures Co., Inc. P: Ross Hunter. D: Douglas Sirk. SC: Bernard C. Schoenfeld – based on the novel (1929) by Ursula Parrott. DP: Russell Metty – b&w – 1,85:1. AD: Alexander Golitzen, Eric Orbom. Set dec: Russell A. Gausman, Julia Heron. Cost: Jay A. Morley, Jr. Jewels: Joan Joseff. Makeup: Bud Westmore. Hair: Joan St. Oegger. M: Heinz Roemheld, Herman Stein. M director: Joseph Gershenson. Flute: Ethmer Roten. Theme song: “Blue Moon” (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart). S: Leslie I. Carey, Joe Lapis – mono (Western Electric Recording). ED: William Morgan. Loc: Mojave Desert – Apple Valley (California), Universal Studios (Universal City).
    C: Barbara Stanwyck (Norma Miller Vale), Fred MacMurray (Clifford Groves), Joan Bennett (Marion Groves), William Reynolds (Vinnie Groves), Pat Crowley (Ann), Gigi Perreau (Ellen Groves), Jane Darwell (Mrs. Rogers), Race Gentry (Bob), Myrna Hansen (Ruth), Judy Nugent (Frances /Frankie/ Groves), Paul Smith (bellboy), Helen Kleeb (Miss Walker), Jane Howard (flower girl), Frances Mercer (Ruth Doran), Sheila Bromley (woman from Pasadena), Dorothy Bruce (sales manager), Hermine Sterler (tourist's wife), Fred Nurney (tourist), Hal Smith (bartender), Ross Hunter (cameo).
    Helsinki premiere: 18.5.1956 Elysee, distributor: Väinän Filmi Oy – tv: 20.9.1992 TV3, 18.6.2006 Yle TV2 – dvd: Barbara Stanwyck – Screen Goddess Collection (Universal Pictures, 2006) – VET 44423 – S – 86 min
    Previous film adaptation: Rakkauden uhri (There’s Always Tomorrow / Too Late for Love, US 1934, PC: Universal Pictures, D: Edward Sloman, C: Frank Morgan, Binnie Barnes).

Who would not be thinking about Double Indemnity when Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray are paired again, and who would not immediately forget the film noir classic while watching this drama in a completely different register, about a reunion of two ex-lovers who meet twenty years after. We started our Douglas Sirk retrospective with Summer Storm, an interesting adaptation of a minor Anton Chekhov novel, but in the approach of There's Always Tomorrow there is an affinity with some of Chekhov's great tales, such as "The Lady with the Dog", about coming to terms with the passing of time, the question of "is that all there is", of love turned into routine in a long marriage.

"Once upon a time in sunny California" is the ironic title after the opening credits, immediately followed by a signature Sirk shot of feet walking in the rain.

The toy manufacturer Clifford Groves (Fred MacMurray) is lonely and alienated at work and at home. His factory has grown and he cannot participate in the creative side as much as he would like. At home he is taken for granted by wife and three teen-aged children. Cliff would like to invite his wife Marion (Joan Bennett) to a night out to celebrate her birthday and to a weekend in Apple Valley, but Marion is too busy with the children for that.

Like in a dream, when Cliff is alone at home, Norma (Barbara Stanwyck) appears, a co-worker and lover from twenty years ago, now a glamorous fashion designer based in New York. They end up spending the night out and even the weekend in Apple Valley together.

The advertising angle of the film is that of a triangle drama but it really is not. Critics like Michael Stern have commented that Marion is not jealous because it would never occur to her that Cliff might have an affair but I do not believe that. Marion is happy in her marriage and accepts it as a fact of life that there is no erotic charge in the union anymore. She is aware of Cliff's anxiety and happy if something nice happens to him.

There's Always Tomorrow is fundamentally anti-melodramatic in its account of the relationships between Cliff, Norma and Marion. There is no affair on the side, and no drama of jealousy. There is certainly a desire for a newly rejuvenated passion, but Norma does not want to break Cliff's marriage because of her insight that his children will always have priority.

The melodramatic characters in the movie are the children who spy, eavesdrop and make plots around Cliff and Norma. They misunderstand what they see, but their concern for the family is genuine. Only they do not see that they have themselves contributed to Cliff's alienation which is why he is so happy for moments of joy and tenderness with Norma.

The angle of the children's intervention in their parents' relationships is prominent in Back Street (1932), perhaps the model of this tradition in melodrama? In There's Always Tomorrow the most narrow-minded character is Cliff's son Vinnie, and the most broad-minded character is Vinnie's girlfriend Ann who sees through the family situation and defends Cliff: "I wouldn't blame him if he had" (had an affair). The children go so far that they confront Norma in her hotel room, leading her to believe that Cliff is coming. Like in Back Street, there is a strong dramatic scene between the children and the adult. Norma is frank and outspoken in her defense of Cliff to his children. But when they are gone Norma bursts into tears. There is a shot of a crying Norma by a rainswept window which prefigures the famous shot in In Cold Blood.

The shot that should have been the last is of Cliff looking at the sky where the airplane carrying Norma disappears into the East. But there is also an obligatory happy end. The children and Marion are attentive to Cliff again. "You know me better than I know myself" says Cliff to Marion.

All performances are good. Barbara Stanwyck is marvellous. I have never read a biography on her. What a career, from the silent age (1927) until prominent roles in television series until 1986, an active career of 60 years. It strikes me that during the 1950s she favoured films in black and white. In this film she seems to wear heavy make-up, and she is filmed with soft lenses. She was almost 50 and maybe wanted to look younger. But the character she plays is the dynamo of this movie. And the voice of reason for everybody.

A battered 35 mm print which gives a good enough experience of the film.

OUR PROGRAM NOTE BASED ON JON HALLIDAY'S SIRK ON SIRK AND MICHAEL STERN BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK:

Reading classics of Antiquity III: Julius Caesar: The Gallic War

Outbreak of the Gallic War. West Point. United States Military Academy. Department of History. Atlas for Ancient Warfare. One of 13 maps of the Gallic Wars. Please click to enlarge the map.

Map of Roman Gaul detailing Gallic tribes. MacQuarie University, Sydney, Australia. Please click to enlarge the map.

Map of the Gallic Wars. Wikipedia. Please click to enlarge the map.

Lionel Royer: Vercingetorix jette ses armes aux pieds de Jules César (Vercingetorix Throws Down His Arms at the Feet of Julius Caesar) [52 BC]. [Percheron horses did not exist in Gaul at the time. In reality Gauls rode bareback. Shields were mostly oval]. 1899. Image and remarks from Wikipedia. Musée Crozatier du Puy-en-Velay. Please click to enlarge the image.

Julius Caesar: Commentarii de Bello Gallico
The Gallic War / Commentaries on the Gallic War / Bellum Gallicum. Written in the Roman Republic during the Gallic war campaign. Written in 51 BC. Written in classical Latin. Divided into seven books. Originally published in the scroll format (in tomes / volumines). Read in Finnish:
Gaius Julius Caesar: Gallian sota. Translated into Finnish by Hannes Korpi-Anttila. Introduction by Edwin Linkomies. Series: Antiikin klassikot. 244 p. Helsinki / Porvoo: WSOY, 1961

The Gallic War has been required reading for students of classical Latin for millennia. I have now read it for the first time, in my native Finnish, but the great style of Julius Caesar is evident also in translation. Experts of the language value it as a model of Golden Age Latin. The writing is simple and forceful and always forward moving. There are digressions (for instance on bizarre animals skulking in the deep forest of Germania, including a species of moose without joints in its legs) but not very many.

In my project of reading classics of antiquity I have Thucydides fresh in the memory, and for me Thucydides remains the greater master of style, surpassing Caesar. Probably Thucydides had been among Caesar's models, and Xenophon, as well. All three share the feature of writing an account of their own experiences, and all three write of themselves in the third person. (A feature satirized by Goscinny and Uderzo in Asterix comics).

Thucydides wrote about the tragic Peloponnesian wars where Spartans and Atheneans slaughtered each other. It was a battle between equals.

Xenophon told about the daredevil adventures of his soldiers of fortune tangled in the power struggle for the kingship of Persia. Ten thousand fighters agains millions.

My favourite historian of antiquity is Herodotus because his is an account of the incredible victory of the little and divided Hellas for its freedom against the ten times more powerful army of Persia (in battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea... ).

The Gallic War is Caesar's callous, imperialistic account of how he crushes brutally three million freedom-loving warriors splintered into 300 tribes. 800 cities were destroyed, one million Gauls killed, and another million enslaved. Reading this book I rooted for the Gauls. And Helvetians, Germans, and Britons.

Caesar never belittles his adversaries. On the contrary, he prizes their skill and bravado.

The Gallic wars were a historical turning-point, as a result of which Romanic languages are today spoken in France, Belgium, and Switzerland. They were a big step in the formation of Europe. Caesar's book is the sole account of the wars and the single source of many aspects of the 300 tribes involved.

Random observations. Caesar sees Gauls as born rebels (at least in the interpretation in this Finnish translation, Book Four). In Book Six there is an important account of the druids, the spiritual leaders of the Gauls. It even contains the earliest remarks on traditions made memorable to filmgoers by The Wicker Man.

An interesting remark for a cinephile: "Multum ad terrendos nostros valet clamor, qui post tergum pugnantibus exstitit, quod suum periculum in aliena vident salute constare: omnia enim plerumque quae absunt vehementius hominum mentes perturbant." ("The shouts which were raised by the combatants in their rear had a great tendency to intimidate our men, because they perceived that their danger rested on the valour of others: for generally all evils which are distant most powerfully alarm men's minds."). ("Pelottava vaikutus meikäläisiin oli myös sillä huudolla, jonka he taistellessaan kuulivat selkänsä takaa, koska he oivalsivat, että heidän oma vaaransa oli riippuvainen toisten taistelusuorituksista. Ihmisessähän tavallisesti herättääkin suurempaa levottomuutta kaikki sellainen, mikä on poissa näkyvistä."). The essence of Jacques Tourneur's l'effet-bus in Cat People.

Book Seven contains the horrendous tales of the massacres of Avaricum and Alesia. Caesar's story ends with the surrender of Vercingetorix (see image above).

I was also thinking that forty years after Caesar's death Jesus Christ was born, and his life was a rebellion against the very mentality reflected in The Gallic War.

What the druids knew they learned by heart. There was a ban of writing among them. Which is why we do not have alternative histories of the Gallic wars from their viewpoint.

Ganashatru / An Enemy of the People

Soumitra Chatterjee as Dr. Ashok Gupta, the mild-mannered doctor who is unflinching in his concern for public health.

Ganashatru. Dipankar Dey (Haridas Bagchi, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper), Monoj Mitra (the publisher of the newspaper), Dhritiman Chatterjee (Nishith Gupta, the doctor's businessman brother). Photo from The Criterion Collection site.

গণশত্রু / Ganasatru / Gonosthotru / The Public Enemy / Un ennemi de peuple / Ein Volksfeind / Nemico pubblico / Враг народа / [Kansanvihollinen] / [En folkefiende]. IN 1989. PC: National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC). P: Ravi Malik. D: Satyajit Ray. SC: Satyajit Ray – research: Nirmalya Acharya – based on the play by Henrik Ibsen: En Folkefiende (1882) – translated into Finnish as Kansanvihollinen by Eino Palola and Katri Palola in: Valitut draamat 5 (Porvoo: WSOY, 1962) – Finnish premiere: 24.9.1889 Suomalainen Teaatteri, as Kansan vihaaja. DP: Barun Raha – 35 mm – colour. AD: Ashoke Bose. Cost: Bablu Das, Ratan Lal. Makeup: Ananta Das. M: Satyajit Ray. S: Sujit Sarkar (sound recordist), Hitendra Ghost (re-recording) – mono. ED: Dulal Dutta. C: Soumitra Chatterjee (Dr. Ashok Gupta), Dhritiman Chatterjee (Nishith Gupta), Dipankar Dey (Haridas Bagchi), Ruma Guha Thakurta (Maya Gupta), Mamata Shankar (Indrani Gupta), Subhendu Chatterjee (Biresh Guha). In Bengali. Not released in Finland. 99 min
    A 35 mm print with English subtitles viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Satyajit Ray), 2 September 2016

Henrik Ibsen's drama An Enemy of the People has been filmed many times, especially in Germany, even in Nazi Germany, starring Heinrich George. On the other hand, when Arthur Miller made his acclaimed adaptation he made changes to the play's anti-democratic stand. In the age of Trump and Brexit it is easy to understand Ibsen's view that "The minority is always right" and Dr. Stockmann's dictum "Fools are always in the majority". But Ibsen and Dr. Stockmann were wrong. Democracy has its weaknesses but it is still the least unsuccessful system we know.

Satyajit Ray has changed Ibsen's drama even more thoroughly than Arthur Miller. Ingeniously he has turned the drama of the polluted water of a health spa into a story of a popular Hindi temple whose water turns out to be polluted, causing a lethal jaundice epidemic.

A convalescent from a debilitating stroke, Ray was forced to change his approach as a film director in his last three films (An Enemy of the People, Branches of the Tree, The Stranger). They are mostly confined to interiors and focused on dialogue. Much of An Enemy of the People looks like television drama. But there are also expressive exterior shots from the temple.

An Enemy of the People is a well made film. It is more static than Ray's previous films, but the drama itself is electrifying. It has a sense of urgency relevant to Ray's topical engagement in politics. Ray devoted himself to a public fight against corruption and warned Indians of religious fundamentalism. Ray himself became "a public enemy" in the ironical meaning of the title of Ibsen's play. Andrew Robinson points out that the Ibsen film adaptation started "a trilogy of corruption" in Ray's oeuvre.

"The strongest one is the one who stands alone" is the subtitle of Ibsen's play. Andrew Robinson comments that Ray turned that view upside down. Ray's Dr. Ashok Gupta is a mild-mannered man, seemingly easy prey to his ruthless brother Nishith. Nishith bullies the editor of a newspaper to cancel Ashok's article about the holy water. When Ashok arranges a meeting to warn the public Nishith sabotages it and gives Ashok no chance to explain terms of immunity. Nishith even has the meeting bombed in order to interrupt it. Ashok is fired from his job, his daughter, as well, and the family gets an eviction notice. Hired hoodlums throw stones on their windows. But in the finale a crusading reporter who has also been fired takes their side. There are signals of solidarity, and from the outside they hear a rising chorus chanting "hurrah Doctor Gupta".

The plot concept is still topical in many ways, and it provides a good dramatic structure for many kinds of stories involving a conflict between quick profit and sustainable practice.

Jerker A. Eriksson, the grand old man of Finnish film criticism, has remarked that An Enemy of the People is a blueprint for entire currents in catastrophe and horror genres, including films such as Jaws. One might list The Towering Inferno, Jurassic Park...

A good and clean print with pleasant colour; only in the beginning there is for a while a duped look.

OUR PROGRAM NOTE BASED ON ANDREW ROBINSON AFTER THE JUMP BREAK:

Summer Storm

Summer Storm. George Sanders (judge Petrov), Edward Everett Horton (Count Volsky), Linda Darnell (Olga). Please do click to enlarge the images.

En sällsam bekännelse. US © 1944 Angelus Pictures, Inc. PC also: Nero Films (n.c.). Original distr: United Artists Corp. P: Seymour Nebenzal. Assoc P: Rudolf S. Joseph / Rudolph Joseph. Ohjaus: Douglas Sirk. SC: Rowland Leigh – adaptation Douglas Sirk and Michael O’Hara [= Douglas Sirk] – add. dialogue: Robert Thoeren – based on the novel by Anton Chekhov: Drama na okhote (1885), in Finnish Kohtaus metsästysretkellä in the SaPo series of detective fiction (WSOY 1980, translation into Finnish by Valdemar Melanko, cover image from the Emil Lotianu film adaptation), Engl. The Shooting Party. DP: Archie Stout / Archie M. Stout. Second cameraman: Eugen Schüfftan (n.c.). AD: Rudi Feld. Set dec: Emile Kuri. Cost: Lon Anthony, Max Pretzfelder. M and musical D: Karl Hajos. S: Richard DeWeese / Richard de Weese (sound recording), Fred Lau (sound, n.c.). ED: Gregg G. Tallas (collaborating editor). Technical D: Eugen Schüfftan / Eugene Schufftan.
    C: George Sanders (magistrate Fyodor “Fedya” Mikhailovich Petrov), Linda Darnell (Olga Kuzminitshna Urbenina), Anna Lee (Nadena Kalenina), Edward Everett Horton (Count “Piggy” Volsky), Hugo Haas (Anton Urbenin), Laurie Lane / Lori Lahner (Klara Heller), John Philiber (Polycarp, Petrov's butler), Sig Ruman / Sig Rumann (woodcutter Kuzma), John Abbott (Lunin, public prosecutor), Mary Servoss (Mrs. Kalenina), André Charlot (Anton Kalenin), Robert Greig (Gregory, Volsky's butler), Nina Koshetz (gypsy singer), Paul Hurst (Orlov), Charles Trowbridge (doctor), Mike Mazurki (tall policeman bending over Petrov).
    Not released in Finland – 106 min
    According to Sirk the film was mostly shot by Eugen Schüfftan, not credited since he was not a member of the cinematographer's union.
    Another film adaptation: The Shooting Party / Kohtaus metsästysretkellä / Murhenäytelmä metsällä / Olet rakkaani, olet petoni (Moi laskovyy i nezhnyy zver / Мой ласковый и нежный зверь, SU 1978), D: Emil Lotianu / Emil Loteanu, C: Oleg Yankovsky (Kamyshev), Galina Belyayeva (Olga), Kirill Lavrov (the Count).
    A 16 mm print viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Douglas Sirk), 31 Aug 2016

Before his evolution into a writer of great tales (The Steppe, 1888) and great plays (The Seagull, 1895; nb. The Wood Demon, a previous version of Uncle Vanya, stems already from 1889) Anton Chekhov was a prolific and versatile writer also of light entertainment fiction, such as The Shooting Party, a first person narrative in which the narrator turns out to be the killer – "Who did it?" "I did it" – a device later brought into play by Agatha Christie in his Hercule Poirot mystery The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), "in 2013, 87 years after its release the British Crime Writers' Association voted it the best crime novel ever" (Wikipedia). There is, however, no reason to think that Christie was aware of The Shooting Party.

The dilemma of Chekhov's narrator is aggravated by the fact that he is a magistrate in charge of justice. He has not lost his sense of justice, but his will-power is too weak, and so in his stead an innocent man is sent to life imprisonment in hard labour in Siberia. Finally the judge writes his account of what has happened, including his confession.

Douglas Sirk was a great man of the theatre in Germany who had gotten a solid start for his film career at Ufa in the 1930s. In Hollywood emigration he was getting restarted on his film career, and together with co-exiles such as producer Seymour Nebenzal and cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan he created Summer Storm.

There is a touch of Hollywood Russia in the atmosphere, but the account of decay and corruption is faithful to Chekhov as well as the psychology of the main characters. George Sanders is excellent as judge Fyodor (Fedya) Mikhailovich Petrov, as is Edward Everett Horton as his best friend, Count Volsky. The female roles remain underwritten, but Linda Darnell is attractive as the sensual Olga Kuzminicha Urbenina, and Anna Lee conveys the role of the sensible Nadina Kalenina very well. Sig Rumann is unrecognizable behind his mighty beard as woodcutter Kuzma, Olga's vulgar father, who gets stone drunk and spoils his daughter's wedding party.

Michael Stern has noted how the very first shot of the film is already characteristically Sirkian: a close-up pan of hesitant feet.

Critics have observed ways in which Summer Storm prefigures later works of Douglas Sirk such as Written on the Wind. There is an affinity between Judge Petrov and Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack). The key sentence "do you remember the rainbow and lake?" reminds us of "look how far we've come from the river?".

Summer Storm is a tale of corruption, but there is an unmistakable flow of sympathy for the human potential of the characters who are drifting on a collision course in the current of life. Sirk always roots for his characters, no matter how ill advised they may be. They are depraved but full of life – and remorse. For Andrew Sarris Summer Storm was about "an ecstasy of irresolution.".

There is a dimension of the sublime here. When Olga is introduced she tells how her mother died in a thunderstorm "of heavenly electricity" and predicts that that is going to be her fate, as well. Her final words to Fedya are, indeed "heavenly electricity". And when Fedya is shot while trying to flee from the militia, he, too, utters those words.

The period of the action has been transferred from the 1880s to the 1910s, before and after the revolution. The account of the Soviet period in the framing story is neutral (the film was produced during a period when USA and USSR were allies). Might this be a reason why Summer Storm has become a difficult film to access?

There is an obsession with the theme of the cancelled wedding in the cinema. In Summer Storm the wedding of Olga and Anton is not cancelled, but to all participants it is obviously wrong, and everyone is ill at ease. Olga the bride leaves her own wedding party, and Fedya meets her for a passionate embrace in another room. Nadina sees them and abandons Fedya's tender dance card to the floor. That is the end of Nadina and Fedya's engagement. The final image of the film is of a waste paper basket with the dance card which Fedya has carried all his life, with the inscription "I love you".

Visually striking passages include the one where the maid Klara sees from a crack of a bathing hut a hand washing the bloody knife with which Olga was stabbed. Equally striking is the scene at the court where Klara realizes to whom the hand belonged.

There are passages of Tchaikovsky baked into the music score. It would be interesting to know the titles of the beautiful Russian romances sung by an old lady and George Sanders with the Romani orchestra.

A film that I was thinking about while watching Summer Storm is La Règle du jeu.

The 16 mm print is somewhat battered especially during the first minutes but it still provides a memorable experience of a rare and important Douglas Sirk film.

Summer Storm. George Sanders (judge Petrov), Robert Greig (Gregory, Volsky's butler) Edward Everett Horton (Count Volsky).

Summer Storm. Linda Darnell (Olga).

Summer Storm. Olga's wedding. Linda Darnell (Olga), George Sanders (judge Petrov, best man at the wedding).

Summer Storm. At Olga's deathbed. George Sanders (judge Petrov), Hugo Haas (Anton Urbenin), Linda Darnell (Olga, Anton's wife). The violent and jealous Anton is about to be convicted for the murder of his wife.

Summer Storm. George Sanders (judge Petrov).

OUR PROGRAM NOTE BASED ON JON HALLIDAY'S SIRK ON SIRK AND MICHAEL STERN:

Le Passé / The Past

گذشته / Menneisyys / Det förflutna. FR/IT © 2013 Memento Film Production / FR3 – France 3 Cinéma / BIM Distribuzione / Alvy Distribution / CN3 Productions. P: Alexandre Mallet-Guy. D: Asghar Farhadi. SC: Asghar Farhadi, Massoumeh Lahidji. DP: Mahmoud Kalari – digital – Arri Alexa, Zeiss Master Prime Lenses – colour – 1,85:1 – distribution: DCP. PD: Claude Lenoir. Makeup: Lucia Bretones-Méndez. Hair: Fulvio Pozzobon. M: Evgueni Galperine, Youli Galperine. S: Thomas Desjonquères. ED: Juliette Welfling. C: Bérénice Bejo (Marie Brisson), Tahar Rahim (Samir), Ali Mosaffa (Ahmad), Pauline Burlet (Lucie), Elyes Aguis (Fouad), Jeanne Jestin (Léa), Sabrina Ouazani (Naïma). Loc: Paris. Original in French. Helsinki premiere: 29.11.2013, distributor: Cinema Mondo, suom. tekstit / svensk text Outi Kainulainen / Markus Karjalainen – dvd: 2014 Scanbox – MEKU K7 – 130 min
    2K DCP from Cinema Mondo
    Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (French Summer), 10 Aug 2016

Wikipedia synopsis: "Ahmad, an Iranian man, returns to France after four years to finalise his divorce with his wife Marie. On the way to her home, he learns that she has begun a relationship with Samir, the owner of a dry cleaning service and he is to share a room with his son Fouad. At Marie's request, he speaks to her daughter from a previous marriage, Lucie, regarding her recent troubled behavior. She disapproves of Marie's new relationship."

"Ahmad and Marie attend court to complete their divorce. Just before the meeting with the officials, she tells him that she is pregnant with Samir's child. Ahmad continues to counsel Lucie, hoping to reconcile her to the situation. She reveals that Samir is still married and his wife is in coma after a suicide attempt, caused by the revelation that Samir and Marie were conducting an affair. Samir tells Ahmad that his wife suffered from depression and the suicide attempt was in fact caused by an incident with a customer in his shop. His wife was unaware of his affair and he arranges for his employee, who witnessed both the suicide attempt and the incident in the shop, to meet with Lucie. After hearing her story, Lucie becomes distressed and confesses that she forwarded Marie's emails to Samir's wife the day before she tried to kill herself, after calling her at the dry cleaning shop. She disappears and Ahmad and Samir search for her. Ahmad finds Lucie, who has been staying with a friend, and tries to convince her to tell Marie what she did, saying that she had a right to know, now that she is carrying Samir's child. Lucie does so and Marie becomes enraged, telling Lucie to leave. Ahmad calms the situation and Lucie returns."

"After questioning what feelings he may still hold for his wife, Marie tells Samir what Lucie did. Samir finds this hard to accept and questions his employee, Naïma, about the events leading up his wife's suicide attempt, who states his wife wasn't even in the shop the day that Lucie said she called. After Marie accuses Lucie of lying, Lucie maintains her version of events saying that she spoke to a woman with an accent on the phone. Samir realizes that she actually spoke to Naïma, who then gave Lucie his wife's email address. He confronts Naïma, who confesses and explains that his wife had always been jealous of her and had been trying to get her either sacked or deported from France and had initiated the confrontation with the customer. However, Naïma believes that his wife never read the emails, because she came into the shop and choose to drank bleach in front of her, instead of in front of Samir or Marie."

"Samir and Marie discuss the events and their relationship. Marie decides that they should focus on their future, while Samir appears conflicted. Ahmad prepares to return to Iran. He says farewell to the children and attempts to talk to Marie about the end of their marriage, but Marie does not let him stating that she doesn't need to know such things now. Meanwhile, Samir visits his wife in hospital with a selection of perfumes, which the doctors have recommended in order to possibly initiate a response. He sprays on some of his cologne and leans over her, asking her to squeeze his hand if she can smell it. A tear runs down her face and he looks down at her hand, which is holding his."

AA: I found Asghar Farhadi's A Separation (2011) a masterpiece immediately. Yet I saw Farhadi's next film The Past first now, perhaps because of reserved reactions by people I know.

The Past is more plot-driven than A Separation, and it proceeds as a series of revelations where we keep learning things that fundamentally change everything we believed we knew. The film is very well made. Its general sense is about the precariousness of life: how little we know. This has also a distanciating and alienating effect to the characters and the film itself, but not in a Brechtian sense.

A hallmark of the Iranian cinema is the strong presence of children, and that is a strength of The Past, as well. All the children – Léa, Fouad, Lucie – are important, individual, and interesting. The young actors are brilliant. The grown-ups have made a mess of their lives. I bambini ci guardano. These children are disturbed, and we feel concerned for their need of a basic security.

My main problem with The Past is about what sense we should make of Marie. Either her character is underdeveloped – or the viewpoint of the director on her is underdeveloped. Marie's grip on life is not very good, but what should we make of that?

My verdict: The Past is imperfect. But I look forward to seeing all films by Farhadi, one of the most distinguished directors working today.

The Past is the first Farhadi film that has been shot digitally. It is largely a chamber piece where the digital is perfect in interiors. Exteriors look ultra sharp in a digital kind of way.

P.S. 14 Aug 2016. Douglas Sirk: "I am extremely interested in the contrast between children and adults: there is a world looking at another world which is going downhill, but this new world does not yet know if its own fate will be the same... The look of a child is always fascinating. It seems to be saying: is that what fate has in store for me, too?" Jon Halliday: Sirk on Sirk. London: Secker & Warburg with the British Film Institute, 1971, p. 107

OUR PROGRAM NOTE BASED ON KENNETH TURAN AND PRESS KIT MATERIAL:

The Quiet Man

The Quiet Man. In memoriam Maureen O'Hara (1920–2015). Mary Kate Danaher meets the desperate Sean Thornton who is riding like a wild man.

Vaitelias mies / Hans vilda fru. US © 1952 Republic Pictures. PC: Argosy. P: John Ford ja Merian C. Cooper / (ass P: Michael Killanin) / Republic / Herbert J. Yates. D: John Ford. SC: Frank S. Nugent – adapted by Richard Llewellyn – based on the story by Maurice White (Saturday Evening Post, February 1933). DP: Winton C. Hoch – Technicolor – 1,37:1. Second unit cinematography: Archie Stout. M: Victor Young.
    Songs: “The Isle of Innisfree” (original song for the movie, Richard Farrelly 1950), perf. Maureen O'Hara, "Galway Bay" (Arthur Colahan), ”The Humour Is On Me Now” (trad arr. Richard Haywood), ”The Young May Moon” (Thomas Moore) perf. Maureen O'Hara, ”The Wild Colonial Boy” (trad., adapt. Sean O'Casey and Dennis O'Casey), ”Mush-Mush-Mush Tural-i-addy” (trad., adapt. Sean O'Casey and Dennis O'Casey), "Rakes of Mallow" (trad.), "Rising of the Moon" (trad.), "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" (Thomas Payne Westendorf 1875), "The Kerry Dance", "Barbary Bell", "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (trad. 1808), "Mitty Matty Had A Hen" (trad.).
    AD: Frank Hotaling. Set dec: John McCarthy, Jr., Charles Thompson. Cost: Adele Palmer. ED: Jack Murray, (Barbara Ford). Cost: Adele Palmer. S: T. A. Carman, Howard Wilson – mono (RCA Sound System). Technicolor consultant: Francis Cugat.
    D: John Wayne (Sean Thornton), Maureen O’Hara (Mary Kate Danaher), Barry Fitzgerald (Michaeleen Oge Flynn), Ward Bond (Father Peter Lonergan), Victor McLaglen (Squire ”Red” Will Danaher), Mildred Natwick (the widow Sarah Tillane), Francis Ford (Dan Tobin), Eileen Crowe (Mrs. Elizabeth Playfair), May Craig (fishwoman with basket at the railway station), Arthur Shields (Reverend Cyril Playfair), Charles B. Fitzsimons (Hugh Forbes), James Lilburn / James O'Hara (Father Paul), Sean McClory (Owen Glynn), Jack MacGowran (Ignatius Feeney), Joseph O’Dea (train guard Molouney), Eric Gorman (engine driver Costello), Ken Curtis  (Dermot Fahy), Mae Marsh (Father Paul's mother).
    Loc: Ireland (County Mayo, County Galway).
    Helsinki premiere 13 March 1953 Aloha, released by Astor Filmi, re-release by Lii-Filmi – telecast: 1.4.1967 TV2 etc. – VET 37902 – K8 – 3546 m / 129 min
    A NFI print with Norwegian subtitles by Per Aaman
    Viewed at Cinema Orion (Maureen O'Hara in memoriam), 7 Aug 2016

Revisited The Quiet Man which I had not seen for a while. John Ford is my favourite director (or one of my three favourites), and The Quiet Man has a special link to my favourite John Ford film, Young Mr. Lincoln. Cinema is an art form with a special attraction to violence. The subject for me of Young Mr. Lincoln is that of a man who displays great courage in stopping violence. It is the portrait of a peacemaker who knows how to act in turbulent times.

The Quiet Man is about a boxer, a professional fighter who has stopped fighting after killing a man in the boxing ring. Sean Thornton (John Wayne) has become profoundly aware of the potentially murderous impact of his fighting skills. He regrets having killed a good man, making a widow of his wife, and rendering his children fatherless. Sean has fought for money, and now all money for him is tainted, blood money.

The terrible dilemma at Innisfree revolves around the fact that Sean must fight Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen) in order to win his sister Mary Kate's (Maureen O'Hara) love. If Sean does not fight, he will lose Mary Kate. And if he fights and kills Will, he will lose Mary Kate, as well.

The related dilemma is about Mary Kate's dowry. The furniture, the spinette, and the £350 are essential to her. Sean does not take them seriously, because money and property for him are tainted and he is independently wealthy now. He must learn to understand the dowry's symbolic value, similar to the ancestral home for him. The dowry is Mary Kate's link to the tradition, the heritage, the past generations, the legacy. They are about her very identity. Also the act of the donation of the money is important as a symbol of independence. When she has finally received the money, Sean and Mary Kate unanimously throw it to the fire. Its function has been accomplished for Mary Kate. Burning the money clears it for Sean. Now Sean has not chosen Mary Kate as property, as a commodity. And now he is free to fight Will because the fight no more is connected with money.

The fight between Sean and Will is a fight of friendship, making brothers of them.

For John Ford The Quiet Man was special and unique. For him it was his only love story – which should be qualified: in the sense of a love affair between a man and a woman being the center, the raison d'être of the work. It was also a potential "last film" for him during a period when he was not certain whether he would care to continue directing.

The Quiet Man is a grown-up love story. It is about love at first sight. Both Sean and Mary Kate turn serious at moments of mutual recognition. This is no longer one among many. This is the one. This is it. End of search. A matter of gravity.

The seriousness in the key moments is the distinction of The Quiet Man which is generally a humoristic tale with a lot of singing. The revelation of love is a revelation of one's self. The other one is inscrutable, unavoidable. Falling in love this deep means redefining oneself, reinventing oneself. This is serious business, an irresistible journey to the unknown. It is also a meeting of equals, the end of freedom as a single, and the beginning of a freedom in union.

John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, long term family friends, convey this perfectly. We sense the love in their looks, on their faces, in their movements. It is a spiritual bond. It is also a physical attraction. The physical side is even expressed via objects: Mary Kate's reaction to the sight of Sean's king size bed being transported to his home. That same bed being crushed by Sean when he throws Mary Kate on it ("Impetuous! Homeric!" is Michaeleen's comment when he sees that bed next morning and draws his own conclusions). And her reaction to the sight of the cradle which she has inherited from her mother and grandmother.

"I love red hair", says Abraham Lincoln to Ann Rutledge in Young Mr. Lincoln. So did John Ford. (And Michael Powell, but that is another story). Maureen O'Hara, above all; and Katharine Hepburn, among others. Red is a colour of passion, temperament, and an independent spirit.

The Quiet Man was Maureen O'Hara's favourite film. It was also a film that Peter von Bagh often mentioned as his personal favourite film, including in Matti Salo's extensive poll in Filmihullu magazine about "my personal favourite film". Peter's favourites changed, and The Quiet Man was not always necessarily included in his top ten film lists. I do not know why he favoured this very film. He wrote about it at length, for instance in the book Elämää suuremmat elokuvat [Films Bigger Than Life], but I doubt the answer can be found there.

The Quiet Man is a fairy-tale film like Brigadoon, a pastoral idyll, a wish-fulfillment dream. "Is that real?" asks Sean when he sees Mary Kate for the first time, and Michaeleen mentions the word "mirage". Within its fantasy approach The Quiet Man is serious about the great issues of love and violence. It is great in its poetic touch, mixing comedy, romance, and action in wonderful balance. There is a vivid sense of a community living with the elements of nature.

Favourite moments of mine: the desperate Sean rides like a wild man and meets Mary Kate who looks disturbed (see image above). Sean and Mary Kate walk to the graveyard; a thunderstorm breaks out; Sean covers Mary Kate with his jacket. The flashback to the fatal boxing match; the look on Sean's face. The scene by the fireplace: Mary Kate has learned Sean's secret; the affectionate reconciliation. The morning: the grief on Sean's face when he realizes that Mary Kate has gone.

Secrets: the brief passage of dialogue conducted in Gaelic. And the final whisper by Mary Kate to Sean's ear.

The print is no good, and the duration is only 118 min, yet this was a powerful experience.

P.S. 29 Aug 2016. At home we discussed the John Wayne walk. On screen John Wayne was a paragon of masculinity, although John Ford called him a "sissy" because Wayne was a draft dodger (where the much older Ford served in heavy duty, at great cost, missing lucrative Hollywood projects). The question of a gay aspect in John Wayne's performance was first suggested for a wide audience in The Midnight Cowboy. Famously, it is one of the biggest jokes in the French hit play La Cage aux folles written by Jean Poiret in 1973. Laurent, the son of a Saint Tropez night club owner and his gay lover, is about to bring his fiancée's ultraconservative parents to dinner, and in no time the flamboyant lover needs to learn to act like a man. The club owner suggests he should walk like John Wayne, and both are stunned at the revelation. "Actually, it's perfect. I just never realized that John Wayne walked like that" (this wording is from the Mike Nichols film adaptation, written by Elaine May, starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane). To make things even more complicated, John Wayne learned his walk in imitation of John Ford. It is a personal version of a sailor's walk and a cowboy's walk.

OUR PROGRAM NOTE BY MARKKU VARJOLA:

Hymyilevä mies / The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki

Den lyckligaste dagen i Olli Mäkis liv. FI © 2016 Elokuvayhtiö Aamu. Co-production companies: Tre Vänner, One Two Films, Film Väst. P: Jussi Rantamäki. D: Juho Kuosmanen. SC: Juho Kuosmanen, Mikko Myllylahti. DP: J-P Passi – 16 mm (Kodak Tri-X) reversal film – b&w – 1,85:1 – released in 2K DCP. AD: Kari Kankaanpää. M: Miika Snåre, Laura Airola, Joonas Haavisto. Cost: Sari Suominen. Makeup: Salla Kaarina Yli-Luopa. S: Pietu Korhonen - Dolby Digital 5.1. ED: Jussi Rautaniemi. C: Jarkko Lahti (Olli Mäki), Oona Airola (Raija Jänkä), Eero Milonoff (Elis Ask), Joanna Haartti (Laila Ask), John Bosco, Jr. (Davey Moore), Esko Barquero (Snadi), Elma Milonoff (Evi), Leimu Leisti (Tuula), Hilma Milonoff (Anneli). 93 min
    Released in Finland by B-Plan Distribution.
    International sales: Les Films du Losange.
    2K DCP with English subtitles by Aretta Vähälä from B-Plan Distribution.
    Introduced by Mia Vainikainen, Mickael Suominen, Manna Katajisto, Anna Möttölä.
    Press screening at Cinema Orion (Espoo Ciné press screening), 2 Aug 2016

Boxing films have a distinguished history from some of the earliest films from Thomas A. Edison to the present day. We remember Keaton (Battling Butler), Hitchcock (The Ring), Wyler (Shakedown), Lloyd (The Milky Way), Mamoulian (Golden Boy), Walsh (Gentleman Jim), Rossen (Body and Soul), Wise (The Set-Up, Somebody Up There Likes Me), Huston (Fat City), Hill (Hard Times), Stallone (the Rocky series), Scorsese (Raging Bull), Sheridan (The Boxer), great Muhammad Ali films (When We Were Kings), several Clint Eastwood films (Million Dollar Baby), and Tarantino (one of the stories in Pulp Fiction).

All this is well-known to the director Juho Kuosmanen, and all this is blithely ignored by him in his saga of the biggest boxing event ever in Finland. Hymyilevä mies [The Smiling Man] is not a film based on other boxing films. It emanates an authentic sense of being both on the proudly provincial home turf Kokkola of Olli Mäki and his girlfriend, and in Helsinki, the capital of the country, no less provincial although there may be a pretense otherwise.

The Helsinki Olympic Stadion, filled to 23.000, was the stage for the professional boxing match as Olli Mäki fought Davey Moore for the World Featherweight Title in August 1962. He was beaten in two rounds. The mystery of Mäki's blatant loss is the subject of the film.

Olli Mäki (born 1936 in Kokkola) was the most talented boxer in the history of Finland. He was a favourite for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, but he was removed from the Olympic team by the Finns for political reasons because Mäki refused to resign from TUL, the Finnish Worker's Sports Federation.

Juho Kuosmanen's approach is humoristic. We have a big strategy – and a total failure. How could this be? Olli Mäki is in great shape when he lands in the hands of the manager Elis Ask, himself a former boxing champion. Strategic mistakes are made. Olli Mäki is booked for the fight at too short a notice. As a professional he has only ten fights under his belt where his opponent Davey Moore has more than sixty. Mäki needs to lose seven kilograms weight in a month, to fight in a series of 57 kg which is not his comfort zone. "61 kg would have been just right". (Mäki had won medals in the category of 60 kg and would be at his best later at under 63,5 kg). Mäki fights although he has no chance to win.

Although the sport event is professional, Elis Ask's handling of it is amateurish. He invites Olli Mäki to stay at his home but is evicted by his wife who throws him to the street with their children and Olli Mäki. Ask is efficient in finding sponsors but that requires a lot of PR energy from Olli Mäki who is fundamentally incapable of handling the PR circus. Let's put it this way: Olli Mäki is the diametric opposite of Cassius Clay / Muhammad Ali who thrived in publicity. The fuss with Ask's ineptitude and the PR buzz distracts Olli Mäki seriously. He is never discouraged but he may start to be unconsciously giving up, no longer one hundred per cent focused on the fight.

The simple way to explain the mystery of Olli Mäki's defeat: bad management.

But then there is the most crucial thing: Mäki falls in love during the training period and is terminally distracted. Jarkko Lahti and Oona Airola convey the budding romance charmingly. Their love is so great that it makes Olli Mäki feel hardly anything when he suffers the crushing loss at the biggest boxing fight in the history of Finland. He becomes a stranger in his own fight thanks to the wheeling and dealing of Elis Ask. Simultaneously he finds his true self, his perfect happiness in the company of Raija.

"The easiest fight of my life", is Olli Mäki's baffling comment. "I did not have time to feel anything, it went so fast".

The love theme is introduced in the most direct manner in a wedding sequence in the beginning of the movie. We hear the wedding ceremony at the church ("but the greatest of these is love") and hear Friiti Ojala's "Wedding Waltz" sung by Oona Airola as Raija to the words of Wiljami Niittykoski ("Nuoruus onnen aika armahin on elon tiellä ihmisen"), different from the Tuula Valkama lyrics famous from the Tapio Rautavaara interpretation. The stirring musical performance is by the Mäkipelimannit and Ykspihlajan Kino-orkesteri bands.

I happened to see during the same week Hymyilevä mies [The Smiling Man] and The Quiet Man, two stories of love stronger than boxing. And two stories about proudly original provinces: Kokkola and Innisfree.

But the film that comes to my mind from Hymyilevä mies, rather than all those great boxing sagas, is Walt Disney's Ferdinand the Bull. Embarrasing everybody, Olli Mäki is almost apologetic towards the adversary whom he has to fight, and he is always ready with a bunch of flowers for him.

The visual look of the movie, although digital, comes from cinematography conducted on black and white Kodak Tri-X 16 mm reversal film designed predominantly for newsreels. There is a harsh actuality look in the movie.

PS. 15 Aug 2016. I have revised a credit thanks to comments to the blog.

FROM THE PRESS KIT: