The High Sign

The "High Sign" / Malec champion de tir / Henkivartija / Livvakten.
    US 1921. PC: Joseph M. Schenck Productions. Dist: Metro Pictures. P: Joseph M. Schenck. D: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline. Cin: Elgin Lessley. VFX: Elgin Lessley. C: Buster Keaton (Our Hero), Bartine Burkett (Miss Nickelnurser), Ingram B. Pickett (Tiny Tim, tall villain), Charles Dorety (gang member), Joe Roberts (leader of Buzzards), Al St. John (man in target practice).
    Loc: Venice Pier (Venice, Los Angeles, California). Production dates: Jan 1920.
    Premiere: 18 April 1921.
    2K DCP from Lobster Films with a Donald Sosin score.
    Screened at Kino Regina, Helsinki (Buster Keaton / Lobster Films), 3 Feb 2019.

The High Sign was Buster Keaton's first independent short to be produced but One Week was the first to be released.

Lobster Films catalogue: "A la recherche d’un travail, un homme est engagé dans un stand de tir. Mais ce stand n’est qu’une couverture pour une association d’assassins. Et lorsque parallèlement il est engagé pour protéger le père d’une charmante jeune fille, et par les assassins pour le tuer, notre protagoniste devra faire face a un quiproquo de taille."

Wikipedia: "Buster plays a drifter who cons his way into working at an amusement park shooting gallery. Believing Buster is an expert marksman, both the murderous gang the Blinking Buzzards and the man they want to kill end up hiring him. The film ends with a wild chase through a house filled with secret passages."

AA: The High Sign, Buster Keaton's first independently produced short, is immediately brilliant, but Keaton was so insecure that he postponed its release.

The basic concept is the same as in Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars: the protagonist is hired by both sides. By August Nickelnurser the town miser as a bodyguard, and by the Blinking Buzzards gang of thugs as a hitman to kill Nickelnurser who refuses to pay protection money.

Buster Keaton is not like Yojimbo or The Man With No Name: he cannot shoot. He is just a drifter who would prefer to stay out of trouble.

The film is full of funny detail. The oversized newspaper in which Keaton finds the want ad for the shooting gallery. The banana with which Keaton replaces a policeman's gun. A cup of coffee spiked by the gangsters is superimposed with a shot of a rearing horse.

The structure is based on the escalation principle, and the climax takes place at Nickelnurser's home in which every room has been equipped with trapdoors and secret passages. Keaton handles the double chase brilliantly. A special set was constructed in which we can follow the chase on two floors without cutting. Nobody has done such comedy action sequences with more panache.

Donald Sosin's score has bite and verve, perfect for this comedy.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: SYNOPSIS FROM WIKIPEDIA:

Comizi d'amore / Love Meetings

Pier Paolo Pasolini conducts interviews about love for his documentary Comizi d'amore.

Comizi d'amore: Cesare Musatti and Alberto Moravia discuss the interviews with Pasolini.

IT 1964. PC: Arco Film (Rome). P: Alfredo Bini. D+SC: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cin (16 mm, blow-up to 35 mm, b&w, 1,85): Mario Bernardo, Tonino Delli Colli.
    M: no original score. Songs "I Watussi" (Edoardo Vianello); "Partita di pallone" (Mario Cantini, Edoardo Vianello); "Son finite le vacanze" (Mario Cantini); "Se mi perderai" (Domenico Colarossi, Pasquale Tassone); "Stessa spiaggia stesso mare" (Piero Soffici). Giuseppe Verdi: "I vespri siciliani", overture.
    ED: Nino Baragli. Commentary: Lello Bersani, Pasolini.
    Loc: Napoli; Porta Capuana; Palermo; San Pietro; Camporeale, Partinico; Cefalù; Rooma; Pasolinin koti; Centocellen kirkko; Fiuminico; Milano; Idroscalo; Firenze; Viareggio; Bologna; Venetsia; Catanzaro; Crotone.
    A documentary film on Italians and love.
    Perf: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Alberto Moravia and Cesare Musatti. In order of appearance: Camilla Cederna, Oriana Fallaci, Adele Cambria, Peppino Di Capri, Squadra di calcio del Bologna (Bulgarelli, Furlanis, Negri, Pascutti, Pavinato, Janich, Nielsen, Haller, Tumburus, Fogli, Perani), Giuseppe Ungaretti, Antonella Lualdi, Graziella Granata, Ignazio Buttitta. Graziella Chiarcossi.
    2572 m / 93 min
    AA add: song: "I'm Counting on You" (Don Robertson) perf. Elvis Presley (from his debut album Elvis Presley, 1956).
    A 35 mm print from Cinecittà Luce with English subtitles, courtesy Compass Film / Movie-Time. Courtesy Istituto Italiano di Cultura Helsinki.
    Screened at Kino Regina, Helsinki (DocPoint / Pier Paolo Pasolini), 2 Feb 2019.

The structure of Comizi d'amore (da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera):
Primo tempo
    Ricerche 1 - Grande fritto misto all'italiana. Dove si vede una specie di commesso viaggiatore che gira per l'Italia a sondare gli italiani sui loro gusti sessuali: e ciò non per lanciare un prodotto, ma nel più sincero proposito di capire e di riferire fedelmente.
        Come gli italiani accolgono l'idea di film di questo genere?
        Come si comportano di fronte all'idea d'importanza del sesso nella vita?
    Ricerche 2 - Schifo o pietà?
Secondo tempo
    Ricerche 3 - La vera Italia?       
        Comizi nelle spiagge romane o il sesso come sesso
        Comizi sulle spiagge milanesi o il sesso come hobby
        Comizi sulle spiagge meridionali o il sesso come onore
        Comizi al Lido o il sesso come successo
        Comizi sulle spiagge toscane (popolari) o il sesso come piacere       
        Comizi sulle spiagge toscane (borghesi) o il sesso come dovere
    Ricerche 4 - Dal basso e dal profondo

AA: We had a sneak start for our forthcoming complete Pier Paolo Pasolini retrospective with this special DocPoint screening to a packed house of Comizi d'amore.

It is a unique film for Pasolini, launched by him and Alfredo Bini during their location scouting tour for The Gospel According to St. Matthew.

The super intellectual Pasolini here displays a genuine popular touch and turns out to be an excellent interviewer. His questions are intimate and direct, but his respect for the dignity and humanity of each and every one is so apparent that people are happy to answer him.

Clearly Pasolini has been inspired by the cinéma-vérité approach of film-makers such as Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin in Chronique d'un été (1961) which we screened at DocPoint earlier this week. The film has been shot in newsreel style on 16 mm by two top cinematographers, Mario Bernardo and Tonio Delli Colli.

The visual distinction of the film is the revelation of dozens of faces and eyes shining with life. The subject of love and sex is always best if you want to have people beaming with happiness: a point of comparison might be Agnès Varda's Daguerréotypes (1975). Comizi d'amore is Pasolini's sunniest and happiest film. There is like a gentle warm breath blowing through the film.

Yet Pasolini is direct in his questions. He starts by asking children where babies come from. (Answers range from "la cicogna" to Jesus and God). He asks about taboos, free love, equality, marriage, divorce, inversion (homosexuality), and prostitution. It must have been painful for Pasolini to record expressions of extreme homophobia, but he does not show it. There are at least five "autocensura" moments in the film where comments have been erased from the soundtrack.

Comizi d'amore is a documentation of the extreme diversity of views between the North and the South, of different social classes, and of men and women. It is also a documentation of the changing conditions: young women are free and independent and expect equality. Old men on the farms of the South are the most traditional, and Sicily is a chapter apart. We hear a remark about poor farmers that "a peasant woman's honour is wealth to them".

The audience had a good time. Italian viewers laughed most and in different moments than others.

The world has changed – to start with, today's children would answer differently to the first question "where do babies come from?" – but the biggest issues never go away.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: OUR PROGRAM NOTE BASED ON WOLFRAM SCHÜTTE:

Paul Osipow (exhibition at Kunsthalle Helsinki)

Paul Osipow. Espressopannu, juureksia [Moka Pot, Root Vegetables] (2003). Oil on canvas. 75 x 100. Photo: Patrik Rastenberger. Paul Osipow. Kunsthalle Helsinki. Please do click on the images to enlarge them.

Paul Osipow: Olympia (2013) Oil on canvas. 210 x 170. Photo: Patrik Rastenberger. Paul Osipow. Kunsthalle Helsinki.

Paul Osipow: Paradise View II (1989). Acrylic paint on canvas. 120 x 90. Photo: Patrik Rastenberger. Paul Osipow. Kunsthalle Helsinki.

Paul Osipow: Sininen kallo ja hattu / [Blue Skull and Hat] (2006). Oil on canvas. 81 x 130. Photo: Patrik Rastenberger. Paul Osipow. Kunsthalle Helsinki.

The exhibition:
Paul Osipow.
    Helsingin Taidehalli / Helsingforst Konsthall / Kunsthalle Helsinki
    26.1.–24.3.2019
    Producer: Suomen Taideyhdistys ry.
    Curator: Kari Kenetti.
    Team: Paul Osipow, Jan Förster, Päivi Karttunen, Kari Kenetti, Anna Kinnunen, Kiira Miesmaa, Lotta Nelimarkka, Lasse Saarinen, Martta Soveri, Pirkko Tuukkonen.

The book:
Paul Osipow. Edited by Pirkko Tuukkanen. Layout: Penni Osipow, Teemu Pokala.
    Text of introduction ("The White Hat") by Silja Rantanen, an interview with Paul Osipow conducted in July 2018 by Timo Valjakka ("I Want to Paint and Look at Paintings"), foreword by Lasse Saarinen and a translation by Aira Buffa of Umberto Eco's satire "Come presentare un catalogo d'arte" (L'Espresso, 2.4.1980). Plus "Chronological Samplings" from Osipow's life.
    Richly illustrated from 22 sources. Bilingual in Finnish and Swedish.
    ISBN 978-952-68476-3-4.
    Helsinki: Grano, 2019.

The official introduction: "The extensive retrospective exhibition of Paul Osipow, one of the top names of Finnish art, at Kunsthalle Helsinki, is a display of the transformations in the artist's oeuvre across several decades. The exhibition produced by Finnish Art Society has been curated by the gallerist Kari Kenetti."

"Paul Osipow (b. 1939) has during his artistic career spanning 60 years examined systematically the possibilities of his means of expression via painting. In the exhibition produced by Finnish Art Society are on display Osipow's geometrical and free form abstractions, classical figurative subjects such as still lives of food and ruins and also non-figurative paintings from the 1960s to this day that have never before been exhibited in public."

"In the focus of the versatile expressions has always been painting and its process. References to various painters and currents are in evidence. The artist is not a follower of any particular style or ideology. All through his career he has drawn independently from the history of art and focused on painting as an organic happening in which colours and form search their place on the canvas."

"Osipow graduated from the School of the Finnish Art Academy in 1962. His works are held in significant Nordic collections such as the Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo, Ateneum, and Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Osipow has received important awards including Suomen Taideyhdistyksen Dukaattipalkinto 1966, the government's 15 year artist grant  1985, Prince Eugen's medal 1989, Pro Finlandia medal 1990, Suomen Leijonan ritarikunnan komentajamerkki 2005, and a life achievement award of the Kordelin Foundation in 2009."

AA: Paul Osipow's artistic creation has gone on for more than 60 years now. In the 1960s he was reacting to trends of his times, but since then he has proceeded irreverently and independently in his own ways, always curious to try something new. Most of his major works veer to abstraction, but he is always more than happy to move back and forth between the figurative and the non-figurative.

The joy of colour and pure form are constants in Osipow's paintings. He is happy to use bright and elementary colours, and for a film person it is interesting to learn that he loved Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le fou (1965) and revisited it several times during its first run. The sensual explosion of colour and the glow of the Mediterranean sun are important for Osipow to this day.

Osipow's teacher in the early 1960s was Sam Vanni, the great pioneer of Finnish abstract art, but in order to free himself from Vanni's shadow Osipow embraced Pop Art for a while. Osipow has been widely travelled since youth, with Paris and Italy as especially important destinations, and in the 1970s he stayed in the U.S. Robert Rauschenberg made a particularly great impact on him.

From the 1950s to the 1970s Osipow absorbed the creations of contemporary art but during recent decades he has been focusing on the antiquity and the classics of Italian art and stayed for extended periods in Mediterranean countries within the tradition of the Roman Empire. He has a special affection to the artists of the Renaissance, Mannerism and Baroque.

In both periods Osipow's art has been "in contrast to Finnish melancholy". His colours are bright and elementary but the abstract impulse is evident in his minimalist urge. My favourite painting in the exhibition is called "Untitled" (1983, acrylic paint on canvas, 227 x 179, Gothenburg Museum of Art). It is a colour revelation in shades of dark red. It has an affinity with Rothko, his approach to nothingness, and Osipow indeed was impressed with the Rothko Chapel. I would like to provide an illustration here but the reproduction in the catalogue fails to do justice to the work. It might be a favourite of Osipow himself, as it is one in a series of three highly reduced abstractions on the wall which was right behind him in the vernissage.

Many of Osipow's approaches and motifs are on display: abstractions, skulls, hats, collages, Pop, constructivism, minimalism, letter motifs, serials and single works, pearl paintings, optical illusions, grids, ruins, sausages, walls, fruit, vegetables, cakes and pastry. The comic strip influences of Pop Art make a return in his recent Mediterranean views. There are even recent paintings of the delight of the female nude with a touch of Matisse. The latest Osipow serial is inspired by colour mosaics of rugs and carpets. Osipow, not a program painter, remembers a soirée arranged by Maire Gullichsen, a major patron of the arts, who had invited artists to celebrate the visit of the gallerist Denise René. There was a debate on the topic "How do I recognize a great work of art?". Ms. Gullichsen (80-something at the time) grabbed herself in the crotch and stated: "Then I know when I feel it here".

Osipow's paintings are often abstract, but there is a sense of something elementary, a sense of urgency, a compelling drive. I have often seen Osipow's paintings in exhibitions and private homes, but this is my first visit to a solo exhibition of his. The retrospective is a richly rewarding journey, and the fellow painter Silja Rantanen and the art historian Timo Valjakka provide us with background and context in the book to the exhibition. Its texts and the selection of its illustrations are great, but the reproduction of the colours is flat and fails to do justice to the originals.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: THE OFFICIAL INTRODUCTION IN FINNISH:

Film concert Sången om den eldröda blomman / Song of the Scarlet Flower (1919), original score by Armas Järnefelt, HKO / Jaakko Kuusisto

Sången om den eldröda blomman / Song of the Scarlet Flower (1919). Edith Erastoff (Kyllikki) and Olof (Lars Hanson).

Epiphany Concert.
Film concert Sången om den eldröda blomman.
Composer: Armas Järnefelt (1919).
The score completed and restored by: Jani Kyllönen and Jaakko Kuusisto.
Conductor: Jaakko Kuusisto.
Orchestra: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (HKO).
Triple projection of a digital file.
Copy from: Svenska Filminstitutet, 2017 digital transfer of the image.
Digitally synchronized with the Jani Kyllönen / Jaakko Kuusisto arrangement of the score.
Helsinki Music Center 6 Jan 2019.

The traditional Epiphany Film Concert of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra was dedicated this year to the centenary of the first Nordic original film score to a feature film: Song of the Scarlet Flower. This is also the 150th anniversary year of the composer Armas Järnefelt and the writer Johannes Linnankoski on whose novel the film is based.

...

My handbill introduction to the film concert

Tänä vuonna on kulunut 100 vuotta siitä, kun Mauritz Stillerin elokuva Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta sai ensi-iltansa. On kulunut myös 100 vuotta ensimmäisestä pohjoismaisesta pitkän elokuvan alkuperäismusiikista, jonka sävelsi Armas Järnefelt.

Johannes Linnankosken romaani Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta (1905) oli ensimmäinen suomalainen kansainvälinen bestseller. Se käännettiin yli 20 kielelle ja julkaistiin esimerkiksi Ranskassa yli 40 painoksena. Stillerin elokuvasta tuli pohjoismaisen elokuvan suuri kansainvälinen menestysteos siihen mennessä. Sitä levitettiin yli 40 maahan.

Stiller olisi halunnut filmata elokuvansa Suomessa, mutta kesällä 1918 filmauslupaa ei maassamme voitu harkita. Niinpä Stiller kuvasi elokuvan Pohjois-Ruotsissa Lapin liepeillä. Siitä tuli ohjaajan rakkauskirje synnyinmaalleen Suomelle sen historian raskaassa käännekohdassa.

Keskiyön auringon valo Pohjolassa oli ilmestys Stillerille. Kuvaajat Ragnar Westfelt ja Henrik Jaenzon vangitsivat ihmeen filmille, ja työstä tuli esikuva seuraajille. Ruotsalaiset 1910-luvun mestarit opettivat pohjoismaiset elokuvantekijät löytämään runoutta kotipihaltaan. Kesäyön lumous, kukkiva niitty, metsäpolku, kylätanssit joen rannalla ja poutapilvet taivaalla olivat aarteita, joita kuvaajien kannatti tavoitella.

Ruotsalainen elokuvahistorioitsija Rune Waldekranz sanoo, että ensi kertaa tässä elokuvassa onnistuttiin ilmentämään eroottista intohimoa pakottomana luonnonvoimana, kohtalokkaana mahtina – ensi kertaa ei vain ruotsalaisessa vaan maailman elokuvan historiassa.

Mielenkiintoinen tekjä Mauritz Stillerin lahjakkuudessa erotiikan kuvaajana oli ohjaajan biseksuaalisuus, jonka ansiosta hänellä oli erityinen lahja kuvata sekä naista että miestä eroottisesti. Stillerin jälkeen seuraava käänteentekevä ruotsalainen elokuvaerotiikan mestari oli vasta Ingmar Bergman (Kesä Monikan kanssa, 1952).

Olof Koskelaa esitti ruotsalaisen elokuvan johtava ensirakastaja Lars Hanson. Kyllikkiä tulkitsi Edith Erastoff, jonka aviomies oli Victor Sjöström, ruotsalaisen elokuvan toinen suurmies.

Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta oli esikuva uudelle elokuvalajille, tukkilaiselokuvalle. Varakkaan tilan perijä tekeytyy köyhäksi kulkuriksi. Seikkailun, vapauden ja liikkuvuuden aiheet ovat elokuvallisia. Työn koruttomuuteen yhdistyy musikaalin riemumieltä muistuttava elämänilo. Viestinä on, että ihmisen arvo ja elämän mieli eivät ole ulkonaisilla seikoilla punnittavissa. Koskenlaskusta tuli miehuuden tulikoe tässä genressä.

Samalla teos oli psykologisesti herkkä kuvaus nuoren miehen odysseiasta. Koskenlaskija-Olavi kasvaa mieheksi, raivaaja-Olaviksi. Stiller löysi arvokkuuden ja uljauden tavallisen elämän kuvauksessa. Hän välitti tunteen identiteettikriisistä ja elämänilosta ilman naiiviutta tai koristeellisuutta. Tarinassa on paljon surua, pettymystä ja katkeruutta. Matka on päämäärä, etsintä itsessään tulos. Tarina päättyy nousuun ja kasvuun mutta ei idylliin.

Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta sai Suomen ensi-iltansa 13.10.1919. Menestys oli niin mahtava, että Roland af Hällströmin mukaan ”Suomen elokuvatuotanto syntyi ja monta vuotta kulki tämän elokuvan merkeissä”. Lokakuussa 1919 perustettiin myös elokuvayhtiöt, jotka muuttivat vuonna 1921 nimensä Suomi-Filmiksi ja toteuttivat mahtavan kansallisen elokuvatuotannon ohjelman.

Suomessa elettiin vuosina 1918–1922 elokuvan kohtalonaikaa, kun vireillä oli uusi elokuvalaki. Tulipunakukan ihailtava saavutus vaikutti elokuvan yleiseen arvostukseen Suomessa ja siihen, että elokuva tunnustettiin virallisesti taiteeksi lainsäätäjien piirissä.

Esikuvalliseksi tuli myös Armas Järnefeltin sädehtivän intohimoinen kansallisromanttinen musiikki, yhdistelmä rakkaita suosikkisävelmiä ja sykähdyttäviä alkuperäisteemoja

Antti Alanen

Senses of Cinema World Poll 2018: my favourites

Jean-Luc Godard: Le Livre d'image (2018).

Never before have there been so many lists of the best films of the year. Particularly the compilation in Sight & Sound's end of the year double issue is amazing and well-edited with special thematic articles and essays.

The distinction of the Senses of Cinema World Poll 2018 collection of 160 lists, published yesterday, is its anarchic and unwieldy character. I have spent two days reading those lists, and it's mind-blowing. Certain titles stand out, being repeated on many lists, but even more interesting are the differences. The listings of rediscovered classics are also rewarding to study.

I sent my entry to Senses of Cinema two months ago, on 3 December 2018, and now that it has been published I copy it here. The films are in chronological order – in the order in which I saw them.

As a film viewer I am normally a heavy user. Ten films a week is my normal diet, in addition to which I watched ten dvd's a week when I had a five-year crash course in the dvd phenomenon. During a film festival my regular diet is around 40 shows (feature films or short film programmes).

Now I'm having a "less is more" period since seven years. Only in festivals do I try to watch films from morning till night, 30-40 shows per festival. Otherwise I watch less films than ever and spend more time digesting them than ever. It's gotten to a rhythm of two hours watching a film and ten hours digesting and writing. Some of the films I digest so thoroughly that I run out of time to write which is why I fail to incorporate the most important films in my blog! I keep being amazed how rich and rewarding the truly worthwhile films are when one takes the time really to study them. All the films below are such cases.

NEW

Machines (Rahul Jain, 2016). Documentary. Shot in India, the reality of labour and exploitation in global economy
Nokia Mobile (Arto Koskinen, 2017). Documentary. The inside story of the rise and fall of the Nokia community. Phenomenal call options for a tiny elite destroyed the common spirit.
G. J. Ramstedtin maailma / Eastern Memories [The World of G. J. Ramstedt] (Niklas Kullström, Martti Kaartinen, 2017). Documentary. The story of an explorer, linguist and diplomat in Mongolia, Japan, and Korea a hundred years ago. The way to the discovery of a foreign language through its spiritual essence.
Polte / Flame (Sami van Ingen, 2018). An experimental short. In the decayed footage of Teuvo Tulio's Nuorena nukkunut / Silja (1937) the fire is still burning.
The Post (Steven Spielberg, 2017). Steven Spielberg in his best form in a taut historical drama about the freedom of the press and being the sole woman in an all male panel.
Une saison en France / A Season in France (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, 2017). Mahamat-Saleh Haroun is one of the greatest masters of contemporary cinema. A work of rare dignity and humanity about an asylum-seeker's agony.
Le vénérable W. / The Venerable W. (Barbet Schroeder, 2017). Documentary. An exceptional and terrifying movie, an inside story about the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar.
M – a Film by Anna Eriksson (Anna Eriksson, 2018). An artist's film, a debut film, an independent film by a popular singer. A passion play, a work of body art, about the suffering of the flesh and the illusoriness of the image.
Ilosia aikoja, mielensäpahoittaja / Happier Times, Grump (Tiina Lymi, 2018). A new entry in the saga of the Grump, the one for whom everything was better in the past. A comedy with gravity. The memorial after a funeral destroys any remaining family spirit. The Grump starts crafting a coffin for himself. In the finale he crafts a cradle for his great-grandchild.
Vieras / Strange (Mox Mäkelä, 2018). A feature length artist's film by a pioneering conceptual artist. A sound play movie, abundant, generous, literate, hand-crafted, full of associations. A paean to life, not only human, but to all living things. Unwieldy and unforgettable.
BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee, 2018). Spike Lee at his best. The approach can be compared with Ernst Lubitsch in To Be Or Not To Be. Well cast. Laura Harrier is one to watch.
Le Livre d'image / The Image Book (Jean-Luc Godard, 2018). The poet's view gets darker. This cosmic poem of associations focuses on the maelstrom of violence and terrorism of our times.
Leave No Trace (Debra Granik, 2018). Granik's first fiction feature after Winter's Bone. The forest sense strikes a chord familiar to a Finn. The forest is the last refuge for the PTSD father whose daughter needs to break free from his nomad life.

OLD

K.S.E. Komsomol – Shef elektrifikatsii / K.S.E. Komsomol – Leader of Electrification (Esfir Shub, 1932). Non-fiction, no compilation. An industrial montage film with an avantgardistic approach in sound, including the theremin. (Our "Mothers of the Montage Film" retrospective dedicated to Esfir Shub and Nicole Vedrès.)
Scener ur ett äktenskap 1–6 / Scenes from a Marriage 1–6 (Ingmar Bergman, 1973). The 2002 restoration, part of the Bergman 100 touring show. Bergman at his most reduced and at his most emotionally powerful.
Slnko v sieti / The Sun in the Net (Štefan Uher, 1962). A Slovakian New Wave film set in Bratislava. Could be a double bill with Antonioni's L'eclisse.
Prästen i Uddarbo / The Minister of Uddarbo (Kenne Fant, 1957). A mix of Don Camillo and Bresson's The Diary of a Country Priest, a unique saga of Swedish Protestantism, starring Max von Sydow and with Ingmar Bergman as advisor in their annus mirabilis. (Ingmar Bergman Centenary).
The Patsy (Jerry Lewis, 1964). Jerry Lewis's last Paramount film, a nightmare comedy about the loss of identity, with Jill St. John as a center of sanity. The cosmic solitude. The Pygmalion narrative taken to metaphysical dimensions. (Jerry Lewis in memoriam).
La donna scimmia / The Ape Woman (Marco Ferreri, 1964). From Ferreri's greatest period, a constantly surprising saga of itinerant performers: a ruthless showman (Ugo Tognazzi) and his hairy woman (Annie Girardot). (Viva Erotica! festival, alerted by Olaf Möller).
The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948). The Nitrate Picture Show. "About art worth dying for". Striking in the vintage print is the softness of the image and the subdued quality of the colour dreamspace. The 2009 digital restoration looks completely different with its loud and bright colour world.
Vechir na Ivana Kupala / The Eve of Ivan Kupalo (Yuri Ilyenko, 1968). 70 mm. Stunning Ukrainian psychedelia based on Nikolai Gogol's Dikanka stories, from the "Crazy Year 1968". (50 Years Ago).
Yellow Submarine (George Dunning, 1968). A beautiful 50th anniversary restoration, a sing-along performance at the Big Top in Midnight Sun Film Festival. I saw this during the first run but now the surreal animation stands out more clearly. (50 Years Ago).
Seed (John M. Stahl, 1931). John M. Stahl was the discovery of this year. Melodrama taken seriously, interpreted with tact and restraint. The mystery of the wooden male protagonists in Stahl's 1930s films was illuminated by Imogen Sara Smith.
1898. Anno Tre: Vues scientifiques: science and science fiction. Curated by Mariann Lewinsky for Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, films by Londe, Doyen, Lumière, Breteau, and Méliès. Film programming of the highest order, startling associations from fiction to non-fiction, from medical records to surrealism.
Luciano Emmer: Goya: La festa di Sant'Isidoro (1950), Picasso (1954) and Leonardo da Vinci (1952). As recognized by André Bazin, Luciano Emmer was the first to truly understand the unique contribution of the cinema to art biography via a montage of the artworks themselves. Though the prints are woeful the Emmer inspiration remains exemplary. (Luciano Emmer retrospective at Il Cinema Ritrovato).
Monterey Pop (D. A. Pennebaker, 1968). 50th Anniversary Restoration in 4K. The manifesto of counterculture looks and sounds better than ever. Electrifying, mesmerizing, inspiring. (50 Years Ago).
Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977). The 2013 restoration of the Director's Cut. The burning oilfields, the Paris Stock Exchange, the Damascus Gate, and the perilous journey are even more potent images today than at the time of the first run. (Helsinki Film Festival at Savoy).
The Lincoln Cycle (John M. Stahl, 1917). This Benjamin Chapin vehicle grows into a marvellous parallel saga about the Lincoln family and the U.S. Civil War. Of equal grandeur as John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln. (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto).
Das alte Gesetz / The Ancient Law (E. A. Dupont, 1923). The 1984 restoration was distinguished but this 2018 restoration is a revelation. A masterpiece emerges. The story is the same as in The Jazz Singer, but this film is more rich and profound. We know Lotte H. Eisner's praise of the exceptional visual quality of this movie in L'Écran démoniaque, This restoration helps us understand why. (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, live cinema with Donald Sosin and Alicia Svigals).
The Old Dark House (James Whale, 1932). The 2017 Cohen Collection restoration. James Whale's greatest horror film and the greatest haunted house film deserves this subtle restoration that does justice to the cinematography of Arthur Edeson and the incredible cast.
Godovshchina revoliutsii / Anniversary of the Revolution (Dziga Vertov, 1918). Nikolai Izvolov surprises the world with the reconstruction of Vertov’s first feature believed lost for almost a hundred years. It is a linear and and traditional compilation but the footage is stunning and mostly unseen. (Cinema Orion, event made possible by Birgit Beumers and Nikolai Izvolov).

Ihmisen osa

Människans lott.
    FI/DK © 2018 Bufo. P: Misha Jaari, Mark Lwoff. Associate P: Smile Entertainment / Timo T. Lahtinen, Teemu E. T. Lahtinen. Funding: Suomen elokuvasäätiö / Nordisk Film & TV Fond / Kirkon mediasäätiö. In collaboration: Yleisradio, DR.
    D: Juha Lehtola. SC: Kari Hotakainen, Juha Lehtola – based on the novel (2009) by Kari Hotakainen – adaptation and dramatugy: Leo Viirret. Cin: J-P Passi – 1,85:1. AD: Otso Linnalaakso. Cost: Roosa Marttiini. Makeup: Pia Mikkonen. M: Halfdan E. S: Karri Niinivaara – Dolby Digital 5.1. ED: Samu Heikkilä.
    C: Hannu-Pekka Björkman (Pekka Malmikunnas), Leena Uotila (Salme Malmikunnas), Asko Sarkola (Paavo Malmikunnas), Ria Kataja (Helena Malmikunnas), Armi Toivanen (Maija Malmikunnas), Kari Hietalahti (Kimmo Hienlahti), Nicole Stiles (Bika), Della McLoud (Sini Malmikunnas).
    Loc include: Maxill (Korkeavuorenkatu, Helsinki), the Five Corners of Töölö (Helsinki).
    Language: Finnish. Subtitle options: Finnish / Finnish and Swedish / Finnish for hard-of-hearing / Swedish / English. Audio description available.
    108 min
    Released by B-Plan Distribution in 2K DCP.
    Premiere: 21 Dec 2018.
    Viewed with Swedish subtitles by Heidi Nyblom Kuorikoski at Tennispalatsi 9, Helsinki, 28 Dec 2018   

Kari Hotakainen (b. 1957) is one of Finland's most acclaimed writers, and he is at the height of his success with a non-fiction book on the monosyllabic Formula One racing driver Kimi Räikkönen also known as "the Iceman".

There has been a film connection in Hotakainen's oeuvre from the start. His debut novel was called Buster Keaton: elämä ja teot ([Buster Keaton: Life and Works], 1991), although it is not about Buster Keaton. Previously Hotakainen had been a journalist, columnist, copywriter, poet and author for children and young people. The illustrator of Hotakainen's Lastenkirja ([Book for Children], 1990) was the great Estonian animator Priit Pärn. Two of Hotakainen's novels have been filmed before: Klassikko ([The Classic], 2001) and Juoksuhaudantie ([Trench Road], 2004)

Ihmisen osa ([Man's Lot], 2009), one of Hotakainen's most acclaimed novels, launched a satiric trilogy also including Jumalan sana ([The Word of God], 2011) and Luonnon laki ([The Law of Nature], 2014). The trilogy is an exploration into the turbulence of everyday life affected by money, economy and constant changes in the workspace.

Before writing Ihmisen osa Hotakainen had unsuccessfully tried to create a theatre monologue for the great actress Ritva Valkama. Ihmisen osa emerged as a cycle of twelve short stories, and while Hotakainen shaped them into a novel they transformed into a mother's monologue perfect for Valkama.

Ihmisen osa was produced at Helsinki City Theatre to great success, and it provided the farewell role to the long career (1955–2013) of Valkama, born in 1932. Ihmisen osa became a popular title in Finnish theatre repertory even more generally.

In the movie some actors from the theatre production (Leena Uotila, Armi Toivanen) reappear, but the story has been totally reworked. The screenplay, the first in which Hotakainen himself participated, is a new work based on familiar characters and themes. Most importantly, the focus has been removed from the mother to the loser of the family (see poster above).

I have not yet seen the debut film Boy Upside Down (2014), nor the acclaimed telemovie Woman in the Meadow (2003) of the prize-winning director-screenwriter Juha Lehtola who is experienced in theatre and television and who, among other things, was co-screenwriter in Happier Times, Grump (2018) earlier this year. Having seen Ihmisen osa I look forward to seeing them.

Ihmisen osa is well directed. It is a twisted satire, and an assured sense of style is needed to keep all the parts in balance.

The cinematographer J-P Passi has strong roots in documentary and realism, but in Ihmisen osa his approach is highly stylized. The cinematography is dynamic, versatile, effective and exciting. Based on the familiar, there is a touch of the unfamiliar.

The Danish composer Halfdan E, experienced in Nordic co-productions, creates an original and interesting score which brings new dimensions to the offbeat film.

Ihmisen osa has a strong visual and musical sense, but fundamentally it is a story- and character-driven film.

The story is a variation of a classic comedy formula: the parents in the countryside come to visit the children in the city and are shocked to find out how it really is. I don't know how old this formula is, but it was popular already in early cinema. In Finland the first film based on this formula was probably Erkki Karu's Runoilija muuttaa / [A Poet Is Moving] (1927).

Comedy is based on stereotypes, and a good comedy adds layers to stereotypes. This is what happens here, thanks to the great cast.

Maija (Armi Toivanen) has claimed she's living with a guy called Mika, but the parents discover a Bika, of different gender and ethnicity.

Pekka (Hannu-Pekka Björkman) has let it be understood that he is a successful IT executive, but in fact he is jobless, homeless, wifeless, broke and in debt.

Helena (Ria Kataja) is the only one not caught lying, but she is instantly revealed as a ruthless careerist who fires experienced professionals just like that.

There is one shock after another for the parents, Salme (Leena Uotila) and Paavo (Asko Sarkola).

The main character in the film adaptation is Pekka whose fabrications and fraudulent habits grow to epic proportions. For lunch he crashes funerals. He steals a canister of blueberry juice by donning an organizer's safety vest at a ski contest. He visits a revival meeting to borrow money with no intention to pay back.

Björkman conveys the horror of living in an escalating web of lies perfectly. Yet he maintains his dignity even in deepest humiliation, at a nude "rooster dance" for a rich widow.

The key confrontation is when Pekka meets a professional swindler, the scary Kimmo Hienlahti (Kari Hietalahti), a prize-winning speaker for whom words are merely means of suggestion and manipulation. There is a hit and run incident in which Helena's daughter Sini (Della McCloud) is almost mortally injured. Pekka tracks down Kimmo for a horrendous act of revenge, but in the finale they become partners.

There is a macabre dimension in this unsettling satire about the disintegration of a family and the loss of honesty in public speech.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM THE PRESS BOOK:

Jan Holmberg: Författaren Ingmar Bergman / [The Writer Ingmar Bergman] (a book)

Ingmar Bergman writes. Photo: Svensk Filmindustri.

Ingmar Bergman Skrifter. Photo: Norstedts.

Ingmar Bergman Filmberättelser. Photo: Norstedts.

Ingmar Bergman Centenary book series (40 by Bergman plus one by Jan Holmberg).

Jan Holmberg: Författaren Ingmar Bergman / [The Writer Ingmar Bergman]. ISBN 978-91-1-307652-2. 289 p. Stockholm: Norstedts, 2018.

From the pages of the Norstedts publishing house:

Norstedts firar Bergmanåret 2018: Författaren Ingmar Bergman står i fokus när vi firar 100-årsjubilaren med en utgivning av hela fyrtio titlar. / [Norstedts celebrates the Bergman Year 2018: The writer Ingmar Bergman is in focus as we celebrate the centenary hero with a release of 40 titles.]

Ingmar Bergman Skrifter: sex band i bibliofilformat / [Works of Ingmar Bergman: six volumes in bibliophile format]:
Laterna Magica
Arbetsboken 1955–1974 / [The Work Book 1955–1974]
Artiklar, essäer, föredrag / [Articles, Essays, Lectures]
Ofilmat, ospelat, outgivet / [Unfilmed, Unplayed, Unpublished]. Foreword by Abdellah Taîa.
Arbetsboken 1975–2001 / [The Work Book 1975–2001]. Foreword by Karl Ove Knausgård.
Romantrilogin: Den goda viljan (1991), Söndagsbarn (1993) och Enskilda samtal (1996) / [The Novel Trilogy: The Best Intentions, Sunday's Children, Private Confessions]. Foreword by Daniel Mendelsohn.

Ingmar Bergman: Filmberättelser. 34 band som print on demand. Samtliga av Bergmans filmmanus med kortare efterord av Jan Holmberg och i vissa fall förord av författaren själv. / [Ingmar Bergman: Film Stories. 34 volumes in print on demand. Bergman's complete film scripts with short afterwords by Jan Holmberg and in certain cases with forewords by the writer himself]:

Hets / Torment (1944)
Fängelse / Prison (1949)
Till glädje / To Joy (1949)
Sommarlek / Summer Interlude (1951)
Kvinnors väntan / Secrets of Women (1952)
Gycklarnas afton / Sawdust and Tinsel (1953)
En lektion i kärlek / A Lesson in Love (1954)
Kvinnodröm / Dreams (1955)
Sommarnattens leende / Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
Sista paret ut / Last Pair Out (1956)
Det sjunde inseglet / The Seventh Seal (1957)
Smultronstället / Wild Strawberries (1957)
Ansiktet / The Magician (1958)
Såsom i en spegel / Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
Nattvardsgästerna / Winter Light (1963)
Tystnaden / The Silence (1963)
Persona / Persona (1966)
Vargtimmen / Hour of the Wolf (1968)
Skammen / Shame (1968)
Riten / The Rite (1969)
En passion / The Passion of Anna (1969)
Reservatet / The Lie / The Sanctuary (1970)
Beröringen / The Touch (1971)
Viskningar och rop / Cries and Whispers (1973)
Scener ur ett äktenskap / Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
Ansikte mot ansikte / Face to Face (1976)
Ormens ägg / The Serpent's Egg (1977)
Höstsonaten / Autumn Sonata (1978)
Ur marionetternas liv / From the Life of the Marionettes (1980)
Fanny och Alexander / Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Efter repetitionen / After the Rehearsal (1984)
Larmar och gör sig till / In the Presence of a Clown (1997)
Trolösa / Faithless (2000)
Saraband / Saraband (2003)

AA: Among the lasting achievements of the Ingmar Bergman Centenary Year is the launching in newly restored editions of the complete films of the maestro in both 35 mm and digital formats. They have also been released as a monster 30 blu-ray box set in the Criterion Collection, complete with documentaries, introductions and a book. There are 39 films in the box set. Even for the one who has access to the films proper the Criterion editions are indispensable because of the documentaries. For instance, Bakomfilm Höstsonaten at 210 minutes is a stunning record of Bergman as a director of actors, a veritable masterclass.

Less well known is that Bergman's publishing house Norstedts has published his collected writings in an edition of 40 volumes (see list above). I have not even started to study them but it is great to know that they are available. Most of the titles are well-known, but also unproduced screenplays have now been published for the first time. Amazingly, some of Bergman's most famous film scripts such as The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries have been published in Swedish only now, in 2018. (They have been available in English and other languages since the 1950s).

Bergman himself was for a long time reluctant to let his screenplays be published. As long as he was fully engaged as a director for the cinema and the theatre he was insecure of his qualities as a writer. But his last film Fanny and Alexander was a turning-point. It was as if a magic fountain had been opened, and he started writing engrossing novels such as the trilogy The Best Intentions, Sunday's Children, and Private Confessions, and classic memoirs such as Laterna Magica and Bilder.

Jan Holmberg, director of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation, has now published the first comprehensive study of Bergman as a writer. Among his distinguished predecessors is Maaret Koskinen who focused on Bergman's largely unknown early achievements as a writer in her study I begynnelsen var ordet – Ingmar Bergman och hans tidiga författarskap / [In the Beginning Was the Word – Ingmar Bergman and His Early Years as a Writer] (2002).

In his book Holmberg covers the entire field of Bergman as a writer: workbooks, letters, essays, reviews, obituaries (Victor Sjöström), plays, short stories, script editorship, memoirs, and novels. And most importantly, his screenplays or filmberättelser (film stories): that was the term agreed on with his trusted publisher, Lasse Bergström at Norstedts.

Bergman was a graphomaniac who shared Zola's conviction of nulla dies sine linea (not a day without a sentence). Every day he wrote for three hours. He conquered the horror of the blank page by frontal attack: he started by scribbling banal observations and trivial nonsense until meaningful words started to materialize. The mechanical practice of writing led to the emergence of words and thoughts that mattered.

An important apprenticeship took place during the war under the stern leadership of Stina Bergman (no relation: she was the widow of the writer Hjalmar Bergman): Bergman polished, edited and rewrote script materials on a conveyor belt for the biggest film company of the country, Svensk Filmindustri (now called SF Studios). Bergman viewed daily the latest Hollywood productions and learned by heart the classical Hollywood narrative and its twisted 1940s variations as studied recently by David Bordwell in Reinventing Hollywood (2017). (The best account of this apprenticeship is in Mikael Timm's supreme, magisterial biography Lust och dämonerna [The Desire and the Demons, 2008], which should be translated and made widely known).

Having learned the craft of classical storytelling Bergman was able to embark on his personal career with an original approach in film stories such as Fängelse / Prison and Sommarlek / Summer Interlude.

Whatever one thinks of Bergman as a writer, the joy and passion in his writing is undeniable. I discovered Bergman as a writer in 1974 when Scenes from a Marriage was published in Finnish as a book. I bought it and read it several times. Scenes from a Marriage the book was the turning-point of Bergman as a popular writer also in Finland.

Bergman's dialogue has been criticized for being unnatural, but his defenders compare him with Shakespeare: nobody ever spoke like the characters of Shakespeare. Bergman's dialogue is elevated and stylized but effective, and actors love to perform it also in theatre productions.

Already Marianne Höök in her pioneering Bergman biography in 1962 saw Bergman's oeuvre as "ett enda stort jagdrama" – "one big drama of self-searching". It was a long quest in a hall of mirrors. "Jag är jag och du är du. Fast det är väl inte alldeles säkert" – "I am me and you are you. Although it is not quite certain".

Like his friend Federico Fellini, Bergman was "a sincere liar". Like Pablo Picasso, art was for him "a lie that helps to find the truth" (as quoted by Orson Welles in F for Fake).

After Fanny and Alexander Bergman in his every book found a new dimension in the family drama of his parents. In the most moving moment of Sunday's Children Erik Bergman as his last words on his deathbed gives his blessing to Ingmar. Ingmar was coming to the realization that he had done a great injustice to his father. Finally, when it was already too late, Ingmar was ready to ask for forgiveness. Jan Holmberg sums up that the novel trilogy is "Ingmar Bergman's ambivalent and hopelessly belated confession of love to his parents – particularly his father".

Delving deeper into his memories Bergman confessed that "I live constantly in my childhood", but also that "I live permanently in my dream and from there perform visits to reality". As if he was living in Strindberg's Dream Play where "time and space don't exist". Ever since Fängelse / Prison he was obsessed by Swedenborg's view that hell already exists on Earth. And like Ibsen in Når vi døde vågner / When We Dead Awaken he constantly returned to the theme of being already dead without realizing it. On the other hand, having given up formal and official church religion, since the 1960s Bergman saw love as the conquering reality. He cherished holiness in life and the human beings themselves. Like Bach, he wanted to dedicate his work Soli Deo Gloria.

Holmberg has a vested interest in launching Bergman as a writer since his foundation is the rightholder of Bergman's literary legacy, including the rights for theatre and opera productions. Provocatively Holmberg downplays Bergman as a film-maker and emphasizes him as a writer. I agree with Holmberg about Bergman's status as a writer but it is also clear that Bergman's standing as a film-maker keeps growing, not least thanks to the rediscoveries of this centenary year.

A case in point for Holmberg is The Hour of the Wolf which he thinks is superior as a book and not very successful as a film, and actually unfilmable. I am happy to disagree. I look forward to reading the book but when I revisited The Hour of the Wolf the film six years ago I found it had grown in intensity. One of Bergman's most personal and mysterious films, it belongs to a special core in his work which also includes Persona and Ansikte mot ansikte.

Jan Holmberg digresses at times to formalities and pedantry, and there is even an excursion into Bergman's use of punctuation marks. But the last three chapters (on memoirs, novels, and the late writings) are of real substance and include some of the finest writing on Ingmar Bergman.

During the centenary year it has become clearer that Bergman is with Andersen, Ibsen, Strindberg and Sibelius one of the greatest Nordic artists of all times.

...

INGMAR BERGMAN CENTENARY

Sommarlek (The Nitrate Picture Show) .

Sånt händer inte här .

Prästen i Uddarbo .

Skammen .

Skammen - continued .

Scener ur ett äktenskap 1-6 .

Ansikte mot ansikte 1-4 .

Reading about Ansikte mot ansikte .

Fanny och Alexander 1-5 .

Isak Jacobi's tale in Fanny och Alexander .

Söndagsbarn . 

Författaren Ingmar Bergman .

Minnet av Ingmar Bergman .

Auf der Suche nach Ingmar Bergman .

Anders Thunberg: Karin Lannby . 

Jan Winter: Dieters bok. Flykting hos familjen Bergman .

Bergman - a Year in a Life .

Bergman - a Year in a Life - continued: Bergman and Women .

Bergman - a Year in a Life - continued: Bergman and Nazism .

FURTHER REMARKS ON FILMS 

Reading about and around Ingmar Bergman (2014) .

Hamnstad (2020 pandemic viewings) .

Törst (2020 pandemic viewings) .

Kvinnors väntan (2016 digital restoration) (2020 pandemic viewings).

Kvinnodröm .

Sommarnattens leende .

Ansiktet .

Nära livet (2008 digital transfer) .

Tystnaden .

Vargtimmen .

Larmar och gör sig till .

INGRID BERGMAN

Jag är Ingrid (Ingrid Bergman centenary 2015) .

Reading about Ingrid Bergman (Ingrid Bergman centenary 2015) .

Reading more about Ingrid Bergman (Ingrid Bergman centenary 2015) .

À PROPOS

Ingmar Bergman. Von Lüge und Wahrheit (2011 exhibition at the Deutsche Kinemathek) .

Robin Wood: Ingmar Bergman: New Edition (2013) .

Harriet Andersson Sodankylä morning discussion (2012) .

Pernilla August Sodankylä morning discussion (2019) .

Gunnar Fischer in memoriam (2011) .

Erland Josephson in memoriam (2012). 

Ragtime

Ragtime poster with an Evelyn Nesbit angle.

Ragtime poster with a black awareness angle.

Ragtime – toivon ja vihan aika / Ragtime – hoppets och hatets tid.
    US © 1981 Sunley Holdings, Ltd. PC (AFI Catalog): Ragtime Productions Ltd. / Sunley Productions. PC (IMDb): Dino De Laurentiis Company (A Milos Forman Film) (presents) / Sunley Productions Ltd. P: Dino De Laurentiis. US theatrical distributor: Paramount Pictures.
    D: Milos Forman. SC: Michael Weller – based on the novel (1975) by E. L. Doctorow – translated into Finnish by Kalevi Nyytäjä / Tammi: Keltainen kirjasto (1976). DP: Miroslav Ondrícek – Todd-AO 35 – Technicolor – 2,35:1. PD: John Graysmark. AD: Patrizia von Brandenstein, Tony Reading. SFX: Edward Drohan, George Gibbs. VFX: Charles Staffell. Cost: Anna Hill Johnstone. M: Randy Newman. ”One More Hour” (Randy Newman) perf. Jennifer Warnes. Choreography: Twyla Tharp. ED: Anne V. Coates, Anthony Gibbs, Stanley Warnow. S: Christopher Newman – mono. Casting: Mary Goldberg.
    C: James Cagney (Rheinlander Waldo, New York Police Commissioner), Brad Dourif (Younger Brother), Moses Gunn (Booker T. Washington), Elizabeth McGovern (Evelyn Nesbit), Kenneth McMillan (Willie Conklin), Pat O’Brien (Delphin), Donald O’Connor (Evelyn's Dance Instructor), James Olson (Father), Mandy Patinkin (Tateh), Howard E. Rollins Jr. (Coalhouse Walker, Jr.), Mary Steenburgen (Mother), Debbie Allen (Sarah), Jeffrey DeMunn (Houdini), Robert Joy (Henry K. Thaw), Norman Mailer (Stanford White), Bruce Boa (Jerome), Norman Chancer (Gent No. 1 – Agent), Erwin Cooper (Grandfather), Jeff Daniels (P. C. O’Donnell), Fran Drescher (Mameh), Frankie Faison (Gang Member No. 1), Hal Galili (Police Captain No. 1), Alan Gifford (judge), Samuel L. Jackson (gang member no. 2), Bessie Love (old lady – T.O.C.).
    US premiere (general release): 25 Dec 1981.
    Helsinki premiere: 12 March 1982, Gloria – distributor: Magna-Filmi with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Satu Laaksonen / Maya Vanni – vhs: Nordic Video – dvd: Scanbox – telecast: 10 May 1997, 10 July 1998, 23 Sep 2005 Yle TV2 – VET 89943 – K16 – 4275 m / 156 min
    Vintage 35 mm print screened at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (in memoriam Milos Forman 1932–2018), 23 Dec 2018

The name Coalhouse Walker is an acknowledgement to Michael Kohlhaas, the novella (1810) by Heinrich von Kleist.

Milos Forman's director's cut of Ragtime was almost three hours, but the producer Dino De Laurentiis ordered it cut by some 20 minutes. Off went the entire character of Emma Goldman. In Warren Beatty's Reds (1981), made simultaneously, Goldman is played by Maureen Stapleton. According to Forman the shorter version feels longer because scenes were lost that made the film more engrossing.

I saw Ragtime for the first time, and since I have not read E. L. Doctorow's novel, either, I experienced it as a perfect innocent.

The first impression: a brilliant, lavish spectacle, perfect for Christmas holidays. (Its original release date 37 years ago was, in fact, on Christmas Day). The Technicolor cinematography by Miroslav Ondricek is gorgeous. There has been no cutting of corners in the period detail. All aspects of the physical production are perfect, including the production design by John Graysmark and costume design by Anna Hill Johnstone. Randy Newman's score is wonderful and versatile.

The cast is excellent including Howard E. Rolling, Jr. as Coalhouse Walker and Mary Steenburgen as Mother. In early stages of their careers we meet Elizabeth McGovern as Evelyn Nesbit and Mandy Patinkin as Tateh.

Deeply moving for cinephiles is the appearance in the last roles of their careers of James Cagney as Rheinlander Waldo and Pat O'Brien as Delmas. Since 1934 Cagney often co-starred with O'Brien, "his dearest friend" in movies such as Ceiling Zero and Angels with Dirty Faces. "I've been with him in every uniform", stated O'Brien. Here they are a police chief and a defense lawyer.

Brad Dourif, familiar from One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest, is back with Forman as the demented inventor brother of Mary Steenburgen's character. In the cast is also Bessie Love, a living legend from the actual period of the story: she appeared in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance, co-starred with Douglas Fairbanks in films like The Good Bad Man and was immortalized in her natural beauty by the photographer Edwin Bower Hesser.

Ragtime is a film about the period known in Europe as Belle Époque. In the finale of the movie World War I is announced: viewed this year, Ragtime is yet another centenary story.

This is a period of the breakthrough of mechanical reproduction in culture: key phenomena are the T-Model Ford (in Coalhouse's story) and the cinema (in Tateh's story). Popular entertainments include also vaudeville (in Evelyn's story) and of course ragtime (Coalhouse is a successful pianist).

Doctorow composed his narrative as a multi-character study with four storylines, and his strategy was to mingle actual historical characters with fictional ones. Robert Altman was the cinematic master of such strategies. He was, indeed, the original choice to direct, but he was fired by De Laurentiis who found his plans too ambitious.

The beginning of the film is based on the true story of the murder of the architect Stanford White (Norman Mailer) by the millionaire Harry K. Thaw (Robert Joy), jealous for his wife Evelyn Nesbit, a former model and chorus girl. In Richard Fleischer's The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing the cast included Joan Collins as Evelyn Nesbit, Ray Milland as White and Farley Granger as Thaw.

I do not know whether Evelyn Nesbit is such a household name in America that she needs no introduction, but in Europe it is perhaps not generally known that she was a pioneering celebrity in advertising, her face ubiquitous in the mass media, in great demand in fashion photography, and one of the earliest popular pin-up girls, perhaps the first pin-up girl known by name. She was a calendar girl, a cover girl, a popular advertising model (including for Coca-Cola), a Gibson Girl, and a successful mignon postcard model. Interestingly, the first choice to play The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing was Marilyn Monroe, but she declined, probably because she fought to distance herself from the very status that Evelyn Nesbit epitomized.

Towards the finale the focus shifts to Coalhouse's story. He is deeply humiliated by a volunteer fire department (they vandalize his new car), and when his fiancée Sarah seeks justice she is beaten to death. Their projected wedding turns into a funeral. Coalhouse with his friends turn into masked avengers who start to kill firemen and terrorize fire stations. Even the intervention of Booker T. Washington (Moses Gunn), the great champion of civil rights, cannot help Coalhouse change his mind.

Tateh's story from a street artist creating silhouettes and flipbooks to a successful film producer remains undeveloped in this film version. But the central New Rochelle family story remains original and intriguing. The uptight Father (James Olson) has to keep adjusting to realities. A black baby discovered in the family garden leads to a chain of events in which the Father, after the failure of Booker T. Washington, gets to negotiate with Coalhouse. He both succeeds (in stopping the terrorist rampage) and fails (in saving Coalhouse). From his viewpoint the whole thing is a tragedy since he loses his wife to Tateh.

There is a tension in the project between making a work of real complexity and creating a huge entertainment blockbuster. There are temptations to the flippant, the superficial and the ingratiating, familiar from One Flew from the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus.

There are also centers of gravity. Coalhouse's story remains complex and powerful. The story of the emancipation of Mother (Mary Steenburgen) is engaging.

Fredric Jameson famously highlighted Ragtime (the novel) as a prime example of the "weakening of historicity" in his magnum opus on postmodernism. He called Doctorow "the epic poet of the disappearance of the American radical past", and Ragtime was for him "the most peculiar and stunning monument to the aesthetic situation engendered by the disappearance of the historical referent. This historical novel can no longer set out to represent the historical past; it can only 'represent' our ideas and stereotypes about that past (which thereby at once becomes 'pop history')." We "are condemned to seek History by way of our own pop images and simulacra of that history, which itself remains forever out of reach."

I agree with Jameson's key insight about the weakening of historicity but suspect that he is too merciless and inordinate towards Ragtime. Even the film adaptation, which has been adapted with a strong sense of the entertainment value, manages to dramatize important historical issues and make them valid for the contemporary audience. Pop history maybe, but also more than that.

As a film historian I have to comment that the newsreel sequences are not presented in an authentic fashion. The pre-1915 newsreel clips, real and simulated, are always in high contrast, screened in overspeed and cropped to fill the scope frame. That was not the way they were seen at the time. But it is a nice to observe that the cinema pianist (Coalhouse Walker) plays well on a well-tuned piano.

I think it is a splendid idea in a period film to sample newsreels. One can convey a lot of context and atmosphere in this way. In the latest film adaptation of Unknown Soldier (2017) this Ragtime idea (innovation?) was used, and I was happy to observe that the visual quality was great.

It was a pleasure to enjoy a juicy vintage print full of vibrant detail and with its beautiful colour intact. No matter that there are some scratches in the heads and tails of reels.

OUR PROGRAM NOTE BY KIMMO LAINE BASED ON MILOS FORMAN'S TAKING OFF:

Tammisunnuntai 1918

Tammisunnuntai 1918. MRP Matila Röhr Production Oy / Riku Isohella.

En söndag i januari 1918.
    FI 2017. PC: MRP Matila Röhr Productions Oy. P: Marko Röhr. Line P: Hanna Järvinen. D: Ilkka Vanne. SC: Antti Tuuri. Cin: Teemu Liakka. Taustatuottaja: Pekka Kärnä. ED: Altti Sjögren. AD: Päivi Kettunen. S: Pekka Karjalainen. Cost: Teija Rissanen.
    C: Jukka Peltola (Ahto Sippola), Sauli Kangas (Eljas Erkko). Narrators: Elsa Saisio, Mikko Virtanen.
    Festival premiere: 17 Nov 2017 at Filmiä ja Valoa Festival (Ylistaro).
    Premiere: 24 Nov 2017 in cinemas of South Ostrobothnia such as Matin-Tupa in Ylistaro – K12 – 50 min – 2K DCP
    DCP from MRP screened at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Memorial Year 1918), 19 Dec 2018

Tammisunnuntai (January Sunday) is being celebrated annually by the memory organizations of White Finland to commemorate the events of Sunday, 27 January 1918.

Antti Tuuri has also published a related novel, Tammikuu 18 [January 18] (2017), which belongs to the same Äitini suku / The Family of My Mother series, as Ikitie / The Eternal Road, also released as a film adaptation in 2017.

The film Tammisunnuntai 1918 [The January Sunday 1918] is a compact account of the start of White Finland's war activities at Ylistaro in South Ostrobothnia.

Finland had been an autonomous grand duchy of the Russian Empire since 1809 (but since 1899 the autonomy had been eroded in a process of Russification). When World War I started, a state of war was declared in Finland on 31 July 1914. Russia prepared to a massive German landing via Finland via fortifications and stationing troops, but acts of war were few and far between. Finns did not participate in WWI combat with the exception of a small number of volunteers. Finland was more important for the Russian war effort through its industry. War years were boom years for Finnish industry, commerce and transport. Finnish railways were in heavy use for transports from the West to Russia.

After the Russian Revolution on 7.–8. November 1917 the Russian government agreed on a ceasefire with its enemies in December 1917. Demobilization of Russian troops started but many remained in Finland although Russia had recognized Finnish independence and the Finnish Senate requested full and immediate demobilization. Officially there were 73 000 Russian troops in Finland in the middle of January 1918, but in reality many defected, and troops were diminishing rapidly. Generally Russian soldiers were not Bolsheviks, and certainly not the officers. On 26 January 1917 Nikolai Podvoisky, the first commissar of defence in the Council of People's Commissars of Russia, telegraphed to the Russian troops in Finland and ordered them to stay neutral in the anticipated civil war. The telegraph arrived too late to influence Mannerheim's decisions in Ostrobothnia.

Most Russian troops wanted nothing more than being sent back home. The civil war slowed down demobilization as railways and other transport channels were blocked. The situation remained confusing until Russia officially withdrew from WWI in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918.

On Sunday 27 January 1918 White Guards conducted the disarmament of Russian troops in South Ostrobothnia, starting in Ylistaro.

With backing from Vapaussodan ja Itsenäisyyden Etelä-Pohjanmaan Perinneyhdistys ry [Southern Ostrobothnian Memorial Society of the Freedom War and Independence], written by Antti Tuuri, and directed by Ilkka Tuuri, Tammisunnuntai 1918 is impressive in its action sequences.

We follow the well planned and conducted disarmament, the military efficiency under the leadership of General Mannerheim.

Another exciting sequence is the railway sabotage attack. The target is a Russian military train, but due to delays in train schedules young pioneers accidentally hit a post train of the Finnish government carrying senators escaping Helsinki to the sheltering Ostrobothnia.

Much of the beginning and the ending of the film is an illustrated lecture of Finnish history before and after the civil war. The interpretation of this movie reminds me of the lessons I received as a schoolboy in the 1960s and the 1970s. In this narrative the civil war is seen mainly as a war against Russians (vapaussota = freedom war). For the workers' Finland the war was indigenous, a war for justice and equality. The warring sides had an irreconcilable view of what it was about.

Most of Finnish history has never been covered in films. Two subjects that I would most look forward to seeing in Finnish historical epics are the great revolutionary periods of 1905 and March 1917 when the people was united in its fight for freedom and against injustice.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: OUR PROGRAM NOTE BY JARI SEDERGREN AND DATA FROM THE PRESSBOOK:

Kahtia jaettu kansa – Jämsänjokilaakson tarina / A Nation Divided – the Aftermath of the Finnish Civil War

Noora Kytöharju: Kahtia jaettu kansa – Jämsänjokilaakson tarina / A Nation Divided – the Aftermath of the Finnish Civil War (FI 2016).

Noora Kytöharju: Kahtia jaettu kansa – Jämsänjokilaakson tarina / A Nation Divided – the Aftermath of the Finnish Civil War (FI 2016). A blood-stained book from 1928: Kärsimysten teiltä [From Ways of Torment].

Noora Kytöharju: Kahtia jaettu kansa – Jämsänjokilaakson tarina / A Nation Divided – the Aftermath of the Finnish Civil War (FI 2016). Rauhan ja sovinnon muistomerkki / Memorial of Peace and Reconciliation. Jämsä Cemetery, 1946, 2001. Sculptor: Heikki Häiväoja,

FI 2016. P+D+SC: Noora Kytöharju. Cin: Oskar Repo. Aerial photography: Jani Töllikkö. M+S: Simo Orpana. ED: Mikael Leinonen, Noora Kytöharju.
    Featuring: Tapio Hakonen, Hannu Ahlstedt, Veikko Lehtonen, Helvi Lehtonen, Risto Hakola.
    Song: "On Jämsän pitäjästä tää laulu niin suruinen".
    Film excerpts: – Punainen Suomi (1918), – Suomen parhaillaan käytävästä vapaustaistelusta (1918).
    Radio transmissions: – Arja Paakkanen: Vuoden 1918 tapahtumista Jämsässä – Alun aikalaiskertomus: Elli Vuorinen – Kauhun ajoilta Jämsässä 1918: Edwin Mäkinen – Isä vankina Saarella: Tapio Hakonen.
    Books referred to include: – Kärsimysten teiltä. Kymmenvuotismuistoja. Osakeyhtiö Hämeen Kansa, 1928. – Jukka Rislakki: Kauhun aika. Neljä väkivallan kuukautta keskisuomalaisessa jokilaaksossa. Helsinki: Vastapaino, 1995; uusittu ja laajennettu laitos: Helsinki, Ajatus, 2007.
    Premiere: 9 Dec 2016 Ilveslinna, Jämsänkoski.
    DCP from a H.264 digital file from Noora Kytöharju with English subtitles by Anne Aho. 30 min
    Screened at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Memorial Year 1918), 19 Dec 2018.

Kahtia jaettu kansa – Jämsänjokilaakson tarina is the first documentary film by Noora Kytöharju. It is a story about the aftermath of the civil war in 1918 in her native Jämsä.

There were no battles in Jämsä, yet there was a bloody retribution after the civil war. Only the relatives of the reds were willing to contribute to the interviews of this film.

A blood-stained copy of an old memorial book and a vintage dirge from 1918 introduce this film of testimonies. It is a history of deep divisions and memories that have only recently started to heal. An important role was played by the book Kauhun aika [A Time of Horror] by Jukka Rislakki in 1995 as well as the Memorial of Peace and Reconciliation by the sculptor Heikki Häiväoja in 2001.

Local histories have enriched our views in this memorial year of 1918, and Noora Kytöharju's film is a distinguished contribution to this development.

The deeply human presence of Elli Vuorinen (voice only), Tapio Hakonen, Hannu Ahlstedt, Veikko Lehtonen, Helvi Lehtonen, and Risto Hakola helps make these memories come alive in the present.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: FROM THE PRESS MATERIAL AND THE FACEBOOK PAGE OF THE FILM:

Il caimano / The Caiman

Le Caïman / Kaimaani / Viva Zapatero! / Kajmanen.
    IT/FR © 2006 Sacher Films / Bac Films. PC: Bac Films, FR3, Sacher Films S.r.l., Stéphan Films, Lucky Red, Sciocco Produzione, Secol Superbo, Studio Uno. P: Angelo Barbagallo, Nanni Moretti. D: Nanni Moretti. SC: Nanni Moretti, Francesco Piccolo, Federica Pontremoli – based on a story by Nanni Moretti & Heidrun Schleef. Cin: Arnaldo Catinari – negative: 35 mm – colour – 1,85:1. PD: Giancarlo Basili. Cost: Lina Nerli Taviani. Make-up: Enrico Iacaponi. Hair: Aldina Governatori. SFX: Danilo Bollettini. VFX: Francesco Grisi etc. M: Franco Piersanti. G. F. Händel: "Dixit dominus". S: Marta Billingsley – Dolby Digital. ED: Esmeralda Calabria.
    C: Silvio Orlando (Bruno Bonomo), Margherita Buy (Paola Bonomo / Aidra), Jasmine Trinca (Teresa), Michele Placido (Marco Pulici / Silvio Berlusconi), Giuliano Montaldo (Franco Caspio), Antonello Grimaldi (direttore di produzione), Paolo Sorrentino (Aidran puoliso), Elio De Capitani (Silvio Berlusconi), Tatti Sanguineti (Beppe Savonese), Jerzy Stuhr (Jerzy Sturovsky), Matteo Garrone (direttore della fotografia), Carlo Mazzacurati (cameriere), Nanni Moretti (Nanni Moretti / Silvio Berlusconi), Paolo Virzi (dirigente Maoista).
    Clip: Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001).
    Loc: Rome, Sabaudia, Milan.
    Premiere: 24 March 2006.
    Helsinki premiere: 11 Aug 2006 Kinopalatsi 4 – distributor: Cinema Mondo Oy, Finnish subtitles (only) by Jonne Ahvonen – dvd: 2007 PAN Vision – VET: 203260 – K11 – 3114 m / 112 min
    Screened at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Nanni Moretti), 18 Dec 2018 

Nanni Moretti's Il caimano, one of the most successful Italian films of 2006, was released just before the start of the elections, which Silvio Berlusconi lost.

On the deepest level Il caimano is about the impossibility to make a film about Berlusconi. Abroad people cannot understand how Italians let this character go on rampage in their country for 12 years. And the Italian protagonists of the film can best make sense of Berlusconi via a foreign television documentary.

A garish television presence, arrogance, a ruthless use of secret holding companies, slush funds and Swiss bank accounts enable Berlusconi's career.

Il caimano starts with the chaos in the life of the independent film producer Bruno Bonomo (Silvio Orlando) who is launching a film about the return of Columbus while his family is breaking and his wife is filing for a divorce. Bonomo's experienced director Franco Caspio (Giuliano Montaldo) quits the project because of its low budget.

Then a young woman film-maker Teresa (Jasmine Trinca) presents Bonomo with an exciting script about Berlusconi called Il caimano. Bonomo finds a Polish co-producer Jerzy Sturovsky (Jerzy Stuhr) and a name actor, Marco Pulici (Michele Placido), but because of the sensitive nature of the material Pulici withdraws, and so does Sturovsky. Bonomo's company is in a financial mess, and his studio is being torn down.

Yet Bonomo lets Teresa direct footage for Il caimano, casting in the Berlusconi role none other than Nanni Moretti himself.

The film itself has been so far chaotic, loose, and rambling, but the finale about the Berlusconi trials is startling, dynamic, and electrifying. Without presenting solutions Moretti connects with the Berlusconi phenomenon in an emotional and irrational level. Without looking at all like Berlusconi he captures the fire, the charisma and the violence in his character.

Il caimano was topical when it was made.

Today it looks prophetic: the analysis of the Berlusconi phenomenon helps make sense also of Putin, Trump, Brexit and the current wave of neo-populism in the Western world.

An excellent print.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: OUR PROGRAM NOTE BY JARI SEDERGREN AND THE CANNES PRESSBOOK: