Helene

Laura Birn (Helene Schjerfbeck), Johannes Holopainen (Einar Reuter). Please click on the images to enlarge them!

Helene. Laura Birn (Helene Schjerfbeck).

Helene. Laura Birn (Helene Schjerfbeck).

Helene. Krista Kosonen (Helena Westermarck).

Helene Schjerfbeck: The Sailor (Einar Reuter) (1918). Oil on canvas 70 x 62,5, signed c.r. HS. Ahtela #502. HS 150 #400. Private Collection. Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Hannu Aaltonen. This is a reproduction of the original. In the movie, a variation painted by Anna Retulainen is seen.

Helene.
    FI © 2020 Finland Cinematic Oy. P: Mikko Tenhunen, Antti J. Jokinen. Assoc P: Evelin Penttilä. EX: Mikko Kodisoja, Tom Fanning.
    D: Antti J. Jokinen. SC: Antti J. Jokinen, Marko Leino – based on the novel (2003) by Rakel Liehu. DP: Rauno Ronkainen F.S.C. – colour – scope. PD: Jaagup Roomet. Cost: Eugen Tamberg. Makeup: Kaire Hendrikson. M+S: Kirka Sainio. ED: Benjamin Mercer F.C.E.
    Paintings by Helene Schjerfbeck and four variations of Schjerfbeck's works by Anna Retulainen.
    M selections include Bach, Debussy, Merikanto, Satie, Vivaldi.
    C: Laura Birn (Helene Schjerfbeck), Johannes Holopainen (Einar Reuter), Krista Kosonen (Helena Westermarck), Pirkko Saisio (Olga Schjerfbeck), Eero Aho (Magnus Schjerfbeck), Jarkko Lahti (Gösta Stenman), Saana Koivisto (Tyra Arp).
    Loc: Finland (Helsinki), Estonia.
    In Finnish.
    122 min
    Premiere: 17 Jan 2020 – distributed by Oy Nordisk Film Ab – Swedish subtitles by Heidi Nyblom Kuorikoski.
    DCP viewed at Tennispalatsi 2, Helsinki, 17 Jan 2020.

An extraordinary performance by Laura Birn in the leading role carries Antti J. Jokinen's movie about Helene Schjerfbeck (1862–1946), one of the greatest Nordic painters of all times. Schjerfbeck's most unique achievement was a cycle of devastating self-portraits created during seven decades (1884–1945). Inspired by them Laura Birn takes us on a subtle psychological journey.

She is often seen in close-up and extreme close-up in a way that invites comparison with Ingmar Bergman's work with Liv Ullmann. Birn's is an interpretation rich in nuance, emotion, intelligence, inspiration, sadness, longing, frustration and aggression. Helene's heart has been broken many times, and she has learned to become "hard and clear like metal". Her words are harsh but her gaze is deep.

Schjerfbeck lives in a world of discrimination against women, but she is always confident and inner-directed. She does not want to be labelled as a "woman artist" but artist, period. Already in the 1880s Schjerfbeck displayed genius in abstraction and explorations beyond realism, but she was too much ahead of her time in provincial Finland, and when we meet her in this film, which conveys the period of 1915–1925, she has become a recluse in the towns of Hyvinkää and Tammisaari.

In these very years she finds indefatigable friends and supporters: the art dealer Gösta Stenman and the collector and admirer Einar Reuter who writes the first biography about her. They draw her to recognition and admiration on a permanent and lasting basis. She has always been a seer. Now she is being seen. This is the drama of the movie, based on a novel by the poet Rakel Liehu, devised as a monologue intérieur of the painter.

The cinematographer Rauno Ronkainen succeeds wonderfully in creating a colour vision in synch with Schjerfbeck's idiosyncractic palette: "ochre, cobalt blue and coal black" quoted in the dialogue, not forgetting zinc, vermilion and sienna. "Viridian brings a beautiful glow on the skin". Watching the movie on the scope screen of the cinema we enter the world of Helene Schjerfbeck. It can be seen as a suite of essays on light. Mirror reflections are a central motif.

Reportedly 150 works by Schjerfbeck are on display (from a total oeuvre of some 1000). Four paintings are not seen in originals but in fascinating recreations by the artist Anna Retulainen. They are not certified copies (copies conformes) but subtle variations faithful to the originals. Laura Birn learned to paint for the role, and the movie is rewarding for connoisseurs and professionals of the art scene.

"All artists are sad", states Schjerfbeck, but she has sisters in art such as Maria Wiik, and most importantly Helena Westermarck (Krista Kosonen), a fighter for women's rights (and sister of the progressive sociologist Edvard Westermarck). Helene's next of kin brings her nothing but grief. Her mother Olga (a strong performance by Pirkko Saisio) and brother Magnus (Eero Aho) fail to understand and support her. The lifelong friendship between the two Helenas is the warmest emotional bond of the movie conveyed by Birn and Kosonen in a way that again invites comparison with Bergman.

This is a women's film, but the main plot is about the friendship between Schjerfbeck and Reuter. Reuter and Stenman were the first to recognize Schjerfbeck's achievement in world art. They were her soul brothers. Reuter also became a personal friend, and they shared a passion of painting and art. For Helene the relationship meant even more, but it remained a one-sided love affair. Reuter married another woman and became a father of four children, yet his friendship with Schjerfbeck lasted to the end of her life. She was 19 years older and had had a painting of hers purchased to the Finnish National Gallery before Einar was born.

The male performances are of weaker wattage. Perhaps the film has been tuned intentionally in this way. The presence of Johannes Holopainen as Einar is so distant and laid back that the main relationship never feels as engrossing as we are supposed to think. Even so the reverent friendship is different and unique and a refreshing exception to biopic clichés.

Helene is a welcome entry to the roster of Finnish female biopics among which we have seen in recent years films about Aila Meriluoto, Hella Wuolijoki and Armi Ratia. The film is in Finnish although all characters in reality spoke Swedish. In performing arts since the classical antiquity liberties like this have always been taken for practical reasons. The atmosphere of contemplation is refreshing, but there are needless longueurs, and the film might benefit from pruning twenty minutes. Helene is a quality film, a prestige film and a heritage film, but it transcends the superficial expectations of such categories.

Helene Schjerfbeck was a passionate artist and a stranger in her own exhibitions. Already in the period depicted she stated that she has moved beyond realism long ago. In her haunting self-portraits she even moved beyond identity, towards a transcendence of a unique kind. This film helps convey the cosmic solitude of hers.

On her long trajectory she achieved mastery in completely different idioms. Her early vibrant realism of the 1880s and the 1890s is easy to love, and the radical austerity of her 1940s strikes us as timeless. In between it is complicated. Sometimes, as in certain works recreated in this film, the form and the composition may seem unrewarding, but the viewer is recommended to conduct a "forward tracking movement" to the point of examining brushstrokes. At that point secret gardens, bordering on the abstract, emerge. The thrill of the middle periods lies in surprising revelations like this. Somehow, in Helene the movie, although the paintings are blown up to fill a scope screen, I often fail to discover brushstrokes. They can be examined in the internet in excellent digital reproductions legally online.

I have been a fan of movies on artists since I saw as a child Renato Castellani's La vita di Leonardo da Vinci. Excellent documentary series of artists have been made by Hans Cürlis, Luciano Emmer and Alain Resnais. But also many fictional films have great value, including those by Kenji Mizoguchi (on Utamaro), Vincente Minnelli (on Van Gogh), Andrei Tarkovsky (Andrei Rublev) and Mike Leigh (on Turner). There is something stilted in Helene, but a profound current is alive in it that feels true to the great artist. Helene is a distinguished entry to films about artists.

Alice in Wonderland (Jonathan Miller, 1966)

Alice in Wonderland (Jonathan Miller, BBC, 1966). Peter Sellers, Anne-Marie Mallik, Alison Leggatt, Wilfrid Brambell.

GB 1966. PC: BBC.
    P+D+SC: Jonathan Miller – based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll. DP: Dick Bush – 35 mm – b&w – 1,33:1. PD: Julia Trevelyan Oman. Cost: Kenneth Morey. Makeup: Elleen Mair. Title designer: Jean Braid – based on original drawings by Lewis Carroll. M: Ravi Shankar – perf. Ravi Shankar (sitar) and Leon Goossens (oboe). S: John Murphy. ED: Pam Bosworth. Assistants to director: Sheila Lally, Fraser Lowden, Tony Palmer.
    C: Ann-Marie Mallik (Alice), Freda Dowie (nurse), Jo Maxwell-Muller (Alice's sister), Wilfrid Brambell (White Rabbit), Alan Bennett (Mouse), Finlay Currie (Dodo), Geoffrey Dunn), Lory), Mark Allington (Duck), Nicholas Evans (Eaglet), Julian Jebb (young Crab), Michael Redgrave (Caterpillar), John Bird (Frog footman), Tony Trent (Fish footman), Leo McKern (Duchess), Avril Elgar (Peppercook), Peter Cook (Mad Hatter), Michael Gough (March Hare), Wilfred Lawson (Dormouse), Gordon Gostelow (1st Gardener), Tony Trent (2nd Gardener), Peter Eyre (Knave of Hearts), Alison Leggatt (Queen of Hearts), Peter Sellers (King of Hearts), John Gielgud (Mock Turtle), Malcolm Muggeridge (Gryphon), David Battley (Executioner), Charles Lewson (Foreman of the Jury).
    Primrose (n.c.) (Cheshire Cat).
    Loc: Rousham House and Gardens, Rousham, Bicester, Oxfordshire, England, UK. "Interiors were shot at Netley Hospital (Royal Victoria Military Hospital, the world's longest building at the time it was completed), a mid-19th century building that was demolished not long after the film was made". "The courtroom scene was shot at the BBC's Ealing Studios and involved the building of the largest set that Stage 2 at Ealing had ever seen". (Wikipedia). – Sir John Soane's cabinet-of-curiosities museum.
    73 min at 25 fps
    tx. 28 Dec 1966.
    In memoriam Jonathan Miller (1934–2019), recommended by Tom Luddy.
    A suite of four Vimeo links viewed on the television screen at home, Helsinki, 11 Jan 2020.

AA: I saw for the first time this extraordinary Lewis Carroll interpretation by Jonathan Miller. It is not a children's film but there is nothing unsuitable in it for children, either. The production design and costumes are not far from realism in this reconstruction of the Victorian era. This is the most sober Carroll adaptation ever, yet with an original approach to the uncanny.

There is a firm sense of place in the location shooting, and the feeling for nature on a summer's day is enchanting. Two young sisters take a walk and fall asleep in the meadow. In her dream Alice enters adventures in Wonderland. In this interpretation Lewis Carroll's characters are eccentric but not outlandish fantasy creatures. Even Cheshire Cat is played by a real cat, and the grin in the sky is a superimposition of the cat's head.

The cast is a roll of honour of many of Britain's best actors (Redgrave, Gielgud, Sellers... ), and although they are not incredible fairy-tale figures, at times I was thinking that "too much of the good thing" is possible even in this approach to eccentricism. Where there is no normality, nothing is surprising, but passages in the forest and the seaside help keep a sense of balance. Also Alice herself is well cast with Ann-Marie Mallik in her only film role. She is a center of sanity in the topsy-turvy dreamworld. Again, thoughts inevitably wander to the Carrollian spectacle of Brexit that the United Kingdom has been going through since 2016.

The brilliant cinematography is by Dick Bush for whom Alice in Wonderland was an early assignment although he had already been noted for his work for Peter Watkins and Ken Russell. Jonathan Miller and Dick Bush create magic from reality: from the forest, the meadow, and the seashore, and the large dilapilated building (Netley Hospital).

The mise-en-scène is based on a composition in depth. The camera is often on the move, there are long takes and some well-judged effects such as moments in slow motion, distorted lenses, and direct camera looks. During a forest trek the mobile camera manages a circling 360 degree motion. Carroll's shrinking and growing effects are conveyed with the camera which is at times handheld, and sometimes located on treetops.

Let's also note that Carroll's "through the looking glass" imagery fits perfectly with Miller's obsession with mirror and reflections.

It all adds to the dream mode. Alice in Wonderland is a dream play and a fairy-tale film, but the emphasis is on the lyrical, the personal, the subjective and the chamber play. The dialogue is sometimes reduced to a whisper, with an approach of an inner monologue.

The music is by Ravi Shankar who had became famous for film lovers with Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy. In 1965 the psychedelic rock of the Byrds was being influenced by Shankar and John Coltrane, and Lewis Carroll's books were favourites of LSD trippers (Jefferson Airplane released "White Rabbit" in 1967). The choice of Shankar to compose the film was imaginative and successful.

Lewis Carroll's books have been popular with film-makers since early cinema: Alice in Wonderland (GB 1903, Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow) and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (US 1910, Edwin S. Porter) were among the first prominent interpretations. The first prominent sound adaptation was Paramount's all-star Alice in Wonderland (US 1933, Norman Z. McLeod, with W. C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty). The most beloved interpretation is of course Walt Disney's animation Alice in Wonderland (US 1951). Carroll's true kindred souls include Jan Švankmajer (Něco z Alenky / Alice, CZ 1988) and Tim Burton (Alice in Wonderland, US 2010).

Even the best adaptations suffer somewhat from "too much of the good thing". Jonathan Miller's strength is his fresh and subtle emphasis on realism. At the same time he has a genuine sense of the uncanny, the elusive quality that Freud called das Unheimliche, and that in the French tradition of the cinéfantastique is known as the insolite.

Whistle and I'll Come To You (1968)

Whistle and I'll Come To You (1968) starring Sir Michael Hordern as the Professor.

GB 1968. PC: BBC.
    P+D+SC: Jonathan Miller – based on the short story "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" in Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904) by M. R. James. DP: Dick Bush – 16 mm – 1:1,33 – b&w. PD: Judy Steele. Cost: Ken Morey. Make-up: Eileen Mair. S: Ron Hooper, John Ramsay. ED: Pam Bosworth. Assistants to the Director: Sheila Lally, Paul Stone.
    C: Michael Hordern (traveller, Professor), Ambrose Coghill (Colonel), George Woodbridge (hotel proprietor), Nora Gordon (proprietess), Freda Dowie (maid).
    For Omnibus, BBC1, tx. 7/5/1968
    42 min
    In memoriam Jonathan Miller (1934–2019), recommended by Tom Luddy.
    Viewed on television from YouTube, 9 Jan 2020.

Wikipedia synopsis: "The story tells the tale of an introverted academic who happens upon a strange whistle while exploring a Knights Templar cemetery on the East Anglian coast. When blown, the whistle unleashes a supernatural force that terrorises its discoverer."

AA: I saw for the first time the acclaimed Whistle and I'll Come To You made by Jonathan Miller for the BBC. Sir Jonathan Miller who died last autumn was a great British theatre, opera and television director, excelling in drama (Shakespeare, Verdi) and comedy (Beyond the Fringe), and among many other things also a distinguished author.

One of Miller's books is On Reflection (1998), a study on mirrors. Mirrors and reflections are prominent also in Whistle and I'll Come To You. Together with his cinematographer Dick Bush Miller conveys M. R. James's ghost story in purely visual terms. The vision is based on a composition in depth, and mirrors add an extra dimension. Surprising camera movements and angles add to intensity.

From the ordinary Miller creates something extraordinary. Sounds are used creatively. The wind is a key element in the coastside guesthouse in Norfolk. We can understand how the professor starts to sense that there is an alien presence in the room, evoked by the old whistle he has picked from the embankment of the Knights Templar cemetery. Its Latin inscription means: "Who is this who is coming?".

The main narrative itself has a nightmare approach, but in addition there are dreams within the story. Dreams in films are usually not particularly convincing. In this film they are even more reduced than the main story but genuinely compelling.

Hamlet's lines "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy" are familiar in horror fiction from Frankenstein till Lovecraft, and they are also quoted in this film.

Whistle and I'll Come To You belongs to a distinguished lineage that started in the 1940s in subtle horror films such as Dead of Night and The Seventh Victim. Jacques Tourneur revived the Val Lewton legacy in Britain in the most prominent M. R. James film adaptation, The Curse of the Demon, based on Casting the Runes.

But I was also thinking about Roman Polanski (Repulsion) and moments in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and his performance in the Psycho maxi trailer. In Michael Horden's excellent performance there are even affinities with Jacques Tati and Les Vacances de M. Hulot.

The tradition to which Whistle and I'll Come To You belongs has been recently revived in new wave horror films such as A Ghost Story and Hereditary.

The film is based on a story by M. R. James, but the film also brings to mind the ghost stories of another James – Henry James (The Turn of the Screw, The Jolly Corner).

This is the first film that I have viewed from YouTube on a television screen. Looks good.

Cats

Cats / Cats.
    GB / US © 2019 Universal Pictures / The Really Useful Group / Perfect World Pictures. P: Debra Hayward, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Tom Hooper. EX: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Steven Spielberg, Angela Morrison, Jo Burn.
    D: Tom Hooper. SC: Lee Hall, Tom Hooper – based on the stage musical (1981) by Andrew Lloyd Webber – based on T. S. Eliot: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939, in Finnish: Kissojen kielen kompasanakirja, 2018, Jaakko Yli-Juonikas / Otava). Choreography: Andy Blankenbuehler.
    DP: Christopher Ross – colour – 2,39:1 – source format: ARRIRAW 6.5 K – master format: digital intermediate 2K – release format: D-Cinema. PD: Eve Stewart. AD: Tom Weaving. Set dec: Rebecca Pilkington. Cost: Paco Delgado. Makeup: Nuria Mbomio, Niamh O'Loan. VFX: Mill Film / MPC / Lola. M: Andrew Lloyd Webber. S: John Warhurst. ED: Melanie Oliver. Casting: Lucy Bevan. Cast (from Wikipedia):
    James Corden as Bustopher Jones
    Judi Dench as Old Deuteronomy
    Jason Derulo as Rum Tum Tugger
    Idris Elba as Macavity the Mystery Cat
    Jennifer Hudson as Grizabella the Glamour Cat
    Ian McKellen as Gus "Asparagus" the Theatre Cat
    Taylor Swift as Bombalurina
    Rebel Wilson as Jennyanydots the Gumbie Cat
    Francesca Hayward as Victoria the White Cat
    Laurie Davidson as Mr. Mistoffelees
    Robbie Fairchild as Munkustrap
    Mette Towley as Cassandra
    Steven McRae as Skimbleshanks
    Danny Collins as Mungojerrie
    Naoimh Morgan as Rumpleteazer
    Ray Winstone as Growltiger
    Les Twins as Plato and Socrates
    Jaih Betote as Coricopat
    Jonadette Carpio as Jemima
    Daniela Norman as Demeter
    Bluey Robinson as Alonzo
    Freya Rowley as Jellylorum
    Ida Saki as Electra
    Zizi Strallen as Tantomile]
    Eric Underwood as Admetus
Musical numbers (from Wikipedia) (there is no song listing in the movie):
– "Overture" / "Prologue: Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats" – Orchestra/Company
– "The Naming of Cats" / "The Invitation to the Jellicle Ball" – Munkunstrap, Victoria (choreography), Mr. Mistoffelees & Company
– "Jennyanydots: The Old Gumbie Cat" – Jennyanydots, Munkustrap & Company
– "The Rum Tum Tugger" – Rum Tum Tugger, Jennyanydots & Company
– "Grizabella: The Glamour Cat" – Grizabella, Cassandra, Demeter & Company
– "Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town" – Bustopher & Company
– "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer" – Mungojerrie, Rumpleteazer & Victoria
– "Old Deuteronomy" – Munkustrap, Old Deuteronomy & Company
– "Growltiger's Last Stand" – Growltiger & Bustopher Jones (dialogue)
– "The Jellicle Ball" – Company
– "Memory (Prelude)" / "Beautiful Ghosts" " – Grizabella & Victoria
– "The Moments of Happiness" – Old Deuteronomy
– "Gus: The Theatre Cat" – Gus
– "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat" – Skimbleshanks & Company
– "Macavity: The Mystery Cat" – Bombalurina, Macavity, Macavity Girls & Company
– "Mr. Mistoffelees" – Mistoffelees, Munkustrap & Company
– "Memory" – Grizabella & Victoria
– "Beautiful Ghosts (Reprise)" - Victoria, Old Deuteronomy & Grizabella
– "The Journey to the Heaviside Layer" – Company
– "Finale: The Ad-Dressing of Cats" – Old Deuteronomy & Company
    109 min
    Gala premiere: 16 Dec 2019 Alice Tully Hall.
    UK and US premieres: 20 Dec 2019.
    Finnish premiere: 3 Jan 2020 – released by Finnkino Oy – Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Outi Kainulainen / Joanna Erkkilä.
    DCP viewed at Tennispalatsi 10, Helsinki, 4 Jan 2020.

Official synopsis: "Oscar®-winning director Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables, The Danish Girl) transforms Andrew Lloyd Webber’s record-shattering stage musical into a breakthrough cinematic event."

"Cats stars James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson and introduces Royal Ballet principal dancer Francesca Hayward in her feature film debut."

"Featuring Lloyd Webber’s iconic music and a world-class cast of dancers under the guidance of Tony-winning choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton, In the Heights), the film reimagines the musical for a new generation with spectacular production design, state-of-the-art technology, and dance styles ranging from classical ballet to contemporary, hip-hop to jazz, street dance to tap."

"The film also stars Robbie Fairchild (Broadway’s An American in Paris), Laurie Davidson (TNT’s Will), hip-hop dance sensation Les Twins (Larry and Laurent Bourgeois), acclaimed dancer Mette Towley (featured in videos for Rihanna and Pharrell Williams’ N.E.R.D.), Royal Ballet principal dancer Steven McRae, and rising-star singer Bluey Robinson."

"Universal Pictures presents a Working Title Films and Amblin Entertainment production, in association with Monumental Pictures and The Really Useful Group. Cats is produced by Debra Hayward, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Tom Hooper. The screenplay is by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot, Rocketman) and Hooper, based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot and the stage musical by Lloyd Webber. Cats is executive produced by Lloyd Webber, Steven Spielberg, Angela Morrison and Jo Burn."

"One of the longest-running shows in West End and Broadway history, the stage musical “Cats” received its world premiere at the New London Theatre in 1981, where it played for 21 years and earned the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Musical. In 1983, the Broadway production became the recipient of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and ran for an extraordinary 18 years. Since opening in London in 1981, “Cats” has continuously appeared on stage around the globe, to date having played to 81 million people in more than fifty countries and in nineteen languages. It is one of the most successful musicals of all time." (Official synopsis)

AA: I was positively surprised by Cats. I was not looking forward to it, having been bored by the previous Andrew Lloyd Webber film adaptations Evita (1996) and The Phantom of the Opera (2004).

I'm a lover of film musicals and hard to please. To me the golden age of film musicals ended in the 1950s when specialized musical units of the Hollywood studios closed. But there have been exceptions, most prominently Jacques Demy's cycle of five musicals based on the verismo approach.

Also Cats belongs to the best musicals but in contrast to Demy's verismo it is driven by dream, fantasy and magic. Cats is a magnificent mind trip about rejection and community, solitude and belonging, difference and identity. I like its feeling of meditation and longing, introspection and self-searching. It is a journey into the night, into the unconscious. It is also about the experience of: "I once was lost, now I am found". There is an affinity with some of the reveries by Vincente Minnelli which were produced, incredibly enough, in the heart of MGM.

Cats could have been produced as a straight ballet or animation. The controversial and experimental solution was to interpret it as digitally altered live action. Comparisons can include anything from Polar Express and Avatar to The Irishman.

Like in The Irishman, the uncanny valley of digitally animated live action makes everything strange. In The Irishman mobsters turned into alien monsters. In Cats the characters are extraterrestrial creatures like in Avatar. Neither here nor there, neither human nor animal, they are cinematic chimeras. They are transformers, trespassers, interlopers, new kinds of dream figures. They are strange and haunting. For a while I was also thinking about the Panther Woman in Island of Lost Souls (1932, based on H. G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau), Cat People and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman in Batman Returns.

Cats are cinematic. They are rewarding for animation. Felix the Cat by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer was one of the cinema's first animated series. The first film in the series was called "Feline Follies". With its pleasingly round forms and figures Felix was an obvious predecessor and model for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse. The most popular animated feline character is probably Pink Panther. Not forgetting Tigger by A. A. Milne.

In this movie cats are played by people who are naked and fur-covered. The movements are sinuous, slithery and sensuous. The ballerinas wear no tutus, the male dancers no dance belts (thongs). Groins are exposed but genitals are absent. In this sense the characters are like children's dolls. They are both sexual (in movement) and asexual (in appearance). They are sensual eunuchs. We find ourselves in a "doubly uncanny valley".

I have not read T. S. Eliot's "practical cats" poems, but I register the rich and literate quality of the dialogue and lyrics. In this musical Andrew Lloyd Webber is at his best. With effortless flair Cats takes off into the faraway galaxies and milky ways of musical theatre dreamworlds. The actors, dancers and singers are great, and the choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler is marvellous. Tom Hooper has an assured touch in keeping the esoteric dream spheres in constant enchanting movement.

I like this film very much but I have also misgivings. As for musical production numbers, especially dance solos, I prefer the montage interdit, the plan-séquence. When the dancer is great I want to see her/him in long shot and long take. The art of the dance is watered down by fast edit. Perhaps we are being prevented in lingering too long with uncanny views. But the impact of great performances is diminished.

There is a charming new song, "Beautiful Ghosts" (2019), written for the movie by Taylor Swift and Andrew Lloyd Webber, sung first by Francesca Hayward as Victoria and during the end credits by Swift herself. It develops the themes of "Memory", the most famous tune of the musical. There is something intriguingly melancholy and Minnellian in it.

Teräsleidit / Ladies of Steel

Pamela Tola: Teräsleidit / Ladies of Steel (FI 2020) with Leena Uotila (Inkeri), Seela Sella (Raili) and Saara Pakkasvirta (Sylvi).

Stålsystrarna.
    FI © 2020 Helsinki-filmi. P: Aleksi Bardy, Dome Karukoski, Sirkka Rautiainen.
    D: Pamela Tola. SC: Pamela Tola, Aleksi Bardy. DP: Päivi Kettunen. PD: Heini Erving. Cost: Tiina Kaukanen. Makeup: Riikka Virtanen. M: Panu Aaltio. S: Panu Riikonen. ED: Antti Reikko.
    Music in the disco: "Million alyh roz" ("Dāvāja Māriņa", comp. Raimonds Pauls, lyr. Leons Briedis, in Russian Andrei Voznesensky). "Lennän" (comp. Panu Aaltio, lyr. Ilona Chevakova, Pamela Tola). "Musta enkeli" (comp. Panu Aaltio, lyr. Pamela Tola), perf. Ilona Chevakova.
    "Nälkämaan laulu" (comp. Oskar Merikanto, lyr. Ilmari Kianto).
    Original song: "Hei sisko" by Maija Vilkkumaa.
    C: Leena Uotila (Inkeri), Seela Sella (Raili), Saara Pakkasvirta (Sylvi), Heikki Nousiainen (Tapio), Pirjo Lonka (Maija), Jani Volanen (Ville), Samuli Niittymäki (Jarkko), Linnea Skog (Rosa), Mio tola (Roni), Juhani Niemelä (Eino), Rea Mauranen (Hannele), Lauri Tilkanen (teller), Jussi Sorjanen (university functionary), Anna Paavilainen (Taika, university professor), Eero Herranen (Eero, student), Karim Rapatti (Karim, student), Eeva Muttonen (Eeva, student), Janne Saarinen (Janne, student), Markku Haussila (Markku, student), Yasmine Yamajako (Yasmine, student), Anna-Leena Härkönen (car repair person), Ilona Chevakova (Natasha), Pamela Tola (airport attendant), Marja Salo (nurse).
    Loc: Helsinki metropolitan area and North Karelia.
    92 min
    Premiere: 3 Jan 2020 – distributor: SF Studios – Swedish subtitles: Frej Grönholm.
    DCP viewed at Kinopalatsi 5, Helsinki, 3 Jan 2020.

"Go when it is already too late."
– Tagline.

According to the press release, Teräsleidit [Iron Ladies] is a road movie in which age is hardly even a number. Along the many twists in the road both the past and the future are reconfigured, as well as family and private affairs.

AA: Pamela Tola's Teräsleidit is a character-driven farce where three divas of the Finnish stage relish the opportunity to act terribly. The farce is based on the concept of ladies of a venerable age behaving like spoiled brats. The dialogue is sharp and the performances are great.

"Nasty Women" is a series of early slapstick films curated by Maggie Hennefeld and Laura Horak for Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, featuring Léontine, Zoé, Rosalie, Cunégonde and other heroines of catastrophe comedies from the 1910s. The wild and reckless legacy lives on in Teräsleidit.

It's a female road movie like Elma & Liisa (2011) directed by Pamela Tola together with Pihla Viitala in homage to Thelma & Louise. That film also brought to mind Sedmikrásky / Daisies, Boys on the Side, and other "women on the road" movies. The basic premise of Y tu mamá también / And Your Mother Too was also parodied (Elma and Liisa stated that they were on their final journey with only months to live). Finnish points of reference might include Neitoperho / The Collector and Taulukauppiaat / The Painting Sellers. Elma & Liisa was quite original, though.

Elma & Liisa was about a road to nowhere, a desperate, potentially final quest. Elma and Liisa commit fraud. They harass, steal, rob and kill and plan to kill more. The feeling of violence, depression and self-destruction was overwhelming.

A touch of that feeling lingers even in Teräsleidit. All three ladies have murder in mind, and Raili (Seela Sella) does not seem to be joking when she boasts of having killed all five of her husbands. "All were healthy before they met me".

But the genre and the approach are totally different now, perhaps reminiscent of the popular Luokkakokous series based on a Danish original about three men's road trip to a class reunion. Teräsleidit is a gross-out slapstick farce with foul language, vomiting, bared bottoms, men beaten unconscious with a frying pan and creamcake smearings.

What is different and unusual is the fact that the protagonists are old ladies, one of them, Sylvi (Saara Pakkasvirta) even suffering from memory disorder. Nevertheless she is the wildest one. When she has a drop of alcohol, an irrepressible sex urge is released.

The main protagonist is Inkeri (Leena Uotila) who needs to reconstruct her life and collect evidence of her whole trajectory before facing a trial having killed her husband, as she believes. For her the road trip is also a memory journey. She returns to her past as a student radical ("the free girl"), her interrupted academic studies, her unfinished manuscript for a novel. Back home in North Karelia she revisits, after half a century, her flame of youth, now a frail hippie. Together they visit the sauna.

Meanwhile Inkeri's overbearing daughter Maija (Pirjo Lonka) is busy arranging a 75th anniversary surprise party for her mother who has no interest in any such thing. The party turns into a catastrophe with stilted speeches and sing-alongs which nobody joins (people cannot sing anymore nor do they know lyrics). There is a quiz show for the parents which they sabotage in the rudest manner, even expressing regret of ever having married and gotten children. The daughter has a nervous breakdown and starts to demolish the party service. The anthem of the province of Kainuu, "Nälkämaan laulu" ["The Song of the Land of Hunger"] is sung.

Beyond the violent and farcical dimensions there is a dimension of self-searching. The question lingers whether Inkeri, the former student radical, has been reduced to submission and an unlived life next to a domineering husband, Tapio (Heikki Nousiainen). Tapio confesses having been a monster: selfish and grotesque. But Inkeri denies having been victimized and admits responsibility for everything. Nevertheless, Tapio kneels and proposes again in Inkeri's anniversary party.

Memory plays tricks, and this is the source of some of the most original comedy in Teräsleidit. "I do know my own life", exclaims Inkeri, but she keeps being surprised by what she has forgotten or repressed. Sylvi, the victim of a memory disorder, seems the happiest. Raili, the lawyer whose memory is impeccable, is the most heartless. "Marriage: first we fuck like rabbits, then it's all horrible." But Raili also admits that it is she who has been horrible. "I never loved anybody".

The original score by Panu Aaltio is brisk and appealing as are his songs in the disco sequence. I like films where the director composes lyrics to songs like here. During the end credits a new song written by Maija Vilkkumaa for this film is heard.

Slapstick is a difficult style. It works best in short films. In features it's tricky. Three cheers for Pamela Tola for going against the grain in this wild and comic film.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: OFFICIAL PRESS INFO:

Systemsprenger / System Crasher

Systemsprenger. Helena Zengel as Benni.

Nora Fingscheidt, Sodankylä, Midnight Sun Film Festival, 13 June 2019. Photo: Anniliina Lassila.

Systeeminmurskaaja / System Crasher / System Crasher.
    DE © 2019 kineo Filmproduktion / Weydemann Bros. Co-PC: Oma Inge Film / ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel. Beta Cinema presents. P: Peter Hartwig, Jonas Weydemann, Jakob D. Weydemann.
    D+SC: Nora Fingscheidt. DP: Yunus Roy Imer – colour – 1:1,85 – DCP. PD: Marie-Luise Balzer. Cost: Ulé Barcelos. Makeup: Kitty Kratschke. M: John Gürtler.
    Song during end credits: "Ain't Got No / I Got Life" (James Rado, Gerome Ragni, Galt MacDermot, from the musical Hair, 1967) perf. Nina Simone on her album 'Nuff Said (1968).
    S: Corinna Zink, Jonathan Schorr. S design: Dominik Leube, Oscar Stiebitz. ED: Stephan Bechinger, Julia Kovalenko. Casting: Lisa Stutzky, Jacqueline Rietz.
    C: Helena Zengel (Benni / Bernadette Klaass), Albrecht Schuch (Micha / Michael Heller, Anti-Gewalt-Trainer), Gabriela Maria Schmeide (Frau Bafané, Jugendamtmitarbeiterin ), Lisa Hagmeister (Bianca Klaass). – Melanie Straub (Dr. Schönemann), Victoria Trauttmansdorff (Pflegemutter Silvia), Maryam Zaree (Elli Heller), Tedros Teclerbrhan (Erzieher Robert).
    Loc: Hamburg and Niedersachsen. Berlin and Brandenburg. 7 Nov 2017 – 27 March 2018.
    119 min
    Festival premiere: 8 Feb 2019 Berlin Film Festival.
    German premiere: 19 Sep 2019.
    Finnish premiere: 22 Nov 2019 – released by B-Plan Distribution – Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Janne Kauppila / Michael Palmberg.
    Finnish telepremiere: 26 May 2021 (Systeeminmurskaaja).
    DCP viewed at Kinopalatsi 3, Helsinki, 28 Dec 2019.
    Elokuvan nimeä ei ole suomennettu eikä ruotsinnettu. Käsite "Systemsprenger" mainitaan dialogissa kerran, suomennoksena silloin "väliinputoaja".

Official synopsis (Weydemann Bros.): "She is small, but dangerous. Wherever Benni ends up, she is immediately expelled. The wild 9-year-old girl has already become what child protection services call a "system crasher". And she is certainly not looking to change her ways. Because Benni has one single goal: to be back at home with her mommy. But Bianca is scared of her own daughter. Mrs Bafané from child protection services is trying her best to find a permanent placement for Benni. She hires the anger management trainer Micha as Benni's school escort and suddenly there is a seed of hope. Will Micha be able to succeed where all others despaired?"

AA: An extraordinary performance carries this film. It feels unbelievably powerful while watching. Upon reflection its impact keeps growing. Helena Zengel (born in 2008), directed by Nora Fingscheidt, navigates in dangerous waters. Despite her young age she is already an experienced professional with several films under her belt. The intensity of Zengel's presence is terrifying.

"A system crasher", indeed, Benni, the character she is playing, is what is called in action movie ad copy "a one man wrecking crew" except that she is a little girl. Her foul language and unrestrained behaviour resemble monster children in horror movies like Regan in The Exorcist except that Benni is still in latency. Her rampage of destruction reminds me also of enfant terrible comedy series of early cinema such as Willy (which may have inspired Dennis the Menace). Finally I'm reminded of Kaspar Hauser and François Truffaut's L'Enfant sauvage. The fascination of these phenomena stems partly from our urge to see on the screen the forbidden spectacle of unabashed destruction, the extreme transgression.

All associations notwithstanding System Crasher owes nothing to predecessors. It is an original and awesome statement.

Everyone wants to help Benni. Everyone is defeated. Her mother Bianca (Lisa Hagmeister) is crushed. The tough anger management trainer Micha (Albrecht Schuch) loses distance and cannot go on. In a startling twist the stalwart child protection expert, Mrs. Bafané (Gabriela Maria Schmeide) breaks down in such helpless sobs that Benni needs to soothe her.

They try everything: play, sport, study, exercise, browsing photo albums, finding nice foster homes and places to stay. Micha even takes Benni to his forest retreat where she can visit a farm with animals. Benni, indeed, connects with the forest and the animals. She loves the echo in the forest. A particularly fascinating animal is the barn owl.

The yearning for mother is above all. "Mama" is Benni's favourite echo. The monster child writes a tender love song to her mother and sings it over the telephone.

It's not a downward path. In the forest a process of integration proceeds, only to vanish the moment they return to the city. Michael is a professional, but he commits an unprofessional act by introducing Benni to his family. There Benni mostly behaves normally.

But her attachments can become fearsome, and when there is an attempt to restrain them, Benni's deranged bursts of violence start all over again. She is physically strong for her age. She hits hard and runs fast.

The most dangerous moments are when Benni's face is touched. Then her primitive survival instinct is triggered. Apparently there has been an instance in Benni earliest childhood of being smothered. The trauma is unhealed. But at Michael's home when his baby touches Benni's face she is able to control herself for the first time.

Yet by then Michael has to admit the truth of having lost his distance and indulged in fantasies of salvation. He must give up Benni although progress has taken place, including the baby incident which nobody witnessed.

System Crasher may be particularly rewarding for childcare professionals, but its view of humanity has universal value. The film has mostly been shot with a sober realistic approach, as close to documentary as fiction can get. On the other hand, recurrent "psycho montage" passages take us to altered states of consciousness. We get a sense of the psychedelic side of Benni's world.

During the end credits we hear Nina Simone's legendary interpretation of "Ain't Got No / I Got Life", a song originally from Hair. Such an electrifying performance can become overwhelming, but here it perfectly matches the unique life force in the tragedy of Benni.

In her remarkable film Nora Fingscheidt is both deeply realistic and deeply aware of the mystery of humanity.

Helena Zengel as Benni and Joaquin Phoenix as Joker are the most powerful performances I have seen in films of 2019, both in portraits of "system crashers".

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: NORA FINGSCHEIDT'S REMARKS IN THE PRODUCTION NOTES:

After the Wedding (2019)

After the Wedding / After the Wedding.
    US © 2019 ATW Distro, LLC. PC: Ingenious Media / Riverstone Pictures / Rock Island Films present a Joel B. Michaels production / P: Joel B. Michaels, Harry Finkel, Julianne Moore, Bart Freundlich. Silvio Muraglia.
    D+SC: Bart Freundlich – based on the film Efter brylluppet (Susanne Bier, DK 2008), story by Susanne Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen. DP: Julio Macat – colour – 2,39:1 – digital – digital intermediate 4K. PD: Grace Yun. AD: Starlet Jacobs, Jayashree Lakshimarayanan, Cat Navarro. Set dec: Colleen Rushton. Cost: Arjun Bhasin. Makeup: Susan Reilly LeHane. Hair: Nicole Bridgeford. M: Mychael Danna. M supervisor: Laura Katz. S: Allison Jackson. ED: Joseph Krings. Casting: Douglas Aibel, Henry Russell Bergstein.
    Original song (heard in toto during the finale): "Knew You For A Moment" written and performed by Abby Quinn. 
    C: Julianne Moore (Theresa Young), Michelle Williams (Isabel Anderson), Billy Crudup (Oscar Carlson), Abby Quinn (Grace Carlson).
    Loc: New York City (USA), Tamil Nadu (India).
    Festival premiere: 24 Jan 2019 Sundance.
    US premiere: 9 Aug 2019.
    Finnish premiere: 27 Dec 2019 – released by SF Studios Finland – Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Frej Grönholm / Anna Mårtensson Bjerned.
     Viewed at Tennispalatsi 10, Helsinki, 27 Dec 2019.

Cornerstone Films: "Soaring over the dilapidated, ancient city of Calcutta we find an orphanage on the outskirts of town. Isabel; beautiful, soulful, something distant in her eyes, has made it her life’s work to care for these children. In desperate need of money to keep the orphanage afloat, Isabel has seemingly found the perfect benefactor. But before the money is given, Isabel must travel to New York City to meet the woman behind the wealth."

"Theresa Young (Moore) couldn’t have a more different life from Isabel. Theresa is a multi-millionaire who founded and runs a very successful media company. Her life is what people dream of; an estate just out of the city, a loving, artistic husband, Oscar – and three children. The twin boys are adorable and devilish 7 year olds, and Grace, just 24, is the light of Theresa and Oscar’s life. She is getting married this coming weekend on Theresa and Oscar’s sprawling estate."

"These seemingly unconnected worlds are about to collide in an unexpected and deeply emotional journey that will alter each of these character’s lives forever."

"As dramatic as the events at the wedding are, it is only after the wedding, in the wake of the truth revealed, that a complex mystery unravels. The truth turns out to be stunning, deep, and more transformative than any of them could ever have expected."

"After the Wedding is about all the important things: love, family, our pasts, and all of our ultimate inescapable fates. In the spirit of films such as Terms of Endearment, this film is filled with life, laughter, and heartache."

AA: Majestic aerial shots provide the establishing views to the film's main locations in India and New York. Some may think that drone shots have become a cliché, but I believe that Griffith, Lang, Gance and Mizoguchi would have embraced the opportunity for such eagle's eye views. Never has it been easier to produce tracking shots from high angles.

After the Wedding is an independent production by the wife-husband team of Julianne Moore and Bart Freundlich. Based on Susanne Bier's eponymous Danish original, it's a family drama that brings together two worlds: the abandoned children of India and the wealthy upper class of New York.

The twists and revelations would suffice for grand melodrama, but the approach is anti-melodramatic. The powerful emotions are conveyed honestly. Each main character has her / his overwhelming moments, and the actors avoid sentimentalism.

It's a women's film. Julianne Moore gives a passionate interpretation as Theresa, an iron lady who is about to make pivotal decisions. We meet her as a rude and tactless employer, a perfect hostess who pulls all the strings, and an agonized woman prematurely facing the terminal station.

Michelle Williams is her opposite as Isabel who runs an orphanage in Calcutta / Kolkata. She is devoted to her mission, a warm and sunny presence among children who have experienced hunger, homelessness and prostitution. She is also a spiritual teacher at meditation classes, at home in the nature.

Abby Quinn is the young daughter Grace, celebrating her wedding, still confused and lost, shattered by existential revelations that take place all of a sudden. For both Theresa and Grace things happen too soon. The small world and the big world meet: the elementary clashes of a family and the great contrasts of the world. The set-up may be studied but it works thanks to the conviction of the actors.

Billy Crudup as the artist Oscar Carlson is somewhat an outsider, not overwhelmingly involved but always reliable and responsible. "I love her" he says about Theresa. "Do you?" asks Grace. I believe he does, but he also needs to keep a distance to maintain his artistic freedom and integrity.

Theresa is so overbearing that also Isabel reflexively adopts a defensive and reserved stance, suspicious of her motives until she learns her big secret. Oscar and Theresa may be an unlikely match. Theresa says that she had always thought she would marry a good banker – until she realized that there aren't any. She is offended by Isabel and Oscar's reserved reactions to her proposal which sounds too good to be true: "You don't have to be poor to have a good heart".

To sum up: there is something studied in the story, and the presence of India is not as engrossing as is meant, but the emotional roller-coaster of the family drama is deeply felt and moving. The imagery of the fallen tree with the empty bird's nest is haunting.

Downton Abbey (2019 motion picture)

Downton Abbey / Downton Abbey.
    Created and written by Julian Fellowes. Directed by Michael Engler. Produced by Carnival Films.
    GB / US © 2019 Universal Pictures International, Focus Features LLC and Perfect Universe Investment Inc. PC: Perfect World Pictures / Carnival Films. Distributed by: Focus Features. P: Julian Fellowes, Gareth Neame, Liz Trubridge.
    D: Michael Engler. SC: Julian Fellowes – based on the television series Downton Abbey* created and written by Julian Fellowes.
    DP: Ben Smithard – colour (ACES) – 2,39:1 – digital – digital intermediate by Molinare. VFX by Framestore, supervisor: Kyle McCulloch. PD: Donal Woods. AD: Mark Kebby. Set dec: Gina Cromwell. Cost: Anna Mary Scott Robbins. Makeup & hair designer: Anne Nosh Oldham. M: John Lunn. S: Nigel Heath. ED: Mark Day. Historical advisor: Alastair Bruce. Casting: Jill Trevellick. The cast (from Wikipedia):
    Hugh Bonneville as Robert Crawley, 7th Earl of Grantham
    Laura Carmichael as Edith Pelham (née Crawley), Marchioness of Hexham
    Jim Carter as Charles Carson
    Raquel Cassidy as Phyllis Baxter
    Brendan Coyle as John Bates
    Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary Talbot (née Crawley)
    Kevin Doyle as Joseph Molesley
    Michael C. Fox as Andy Parker
    Joanne Froggatt as Anna Bates
    Matthew Goode as Henry Talbot
    Harry Hadden-Paton as Bertie Pelham, 7th Marquess of Hexham
    Robert James-Collier as Thomas Barrow
    Allen Leech as Tom Branson
    Phyllis Logan as Elsie Hughes
    Elizabeth McGovern as Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham
    Sophie McShera as Daisy Mason
    Lesley Nicol as Beryl Patmore
    Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham
    Imelda Staunton as Maud, Lady Bagshaw
    Penelope Wilton as Isobel, Lady Merton
    Mark Addy as Mr Bakewell
    Max Brown as Richard Ellis
    Stephen Campbell Moore as Major Chetwode
    Richenda Carey as Mrs Webb
    David Haig as Mr Wilson
    Andrew Havill as Henry, Viscount Lascelles
    Geraldine James as Queen Mary
    Simon Jones as King George V
    Susan Lynch as Miss Lawton
    Tuppence Middleton as Lucy Smith
    Kate Phillips as The Princess Mary, Viscountess Lascelles
    Douglas Reith as Richard, Lord Merton
    Philippe Spall as Monsieur Courbet
    Oliver and Zac Barker as Master George
    Fifi Hart as Miss Sybbie
    Eva and Karina Samms as Miss Marigold
Loc: Highclere Castle, Highclere, Hampshire, England, UK.
122 min
    Leicester Square premiere: 9 Sep 2019.
    UK premiere: 13 Sep 2019.
    Finnish premiere: 13 Sep 2019 – released by Finnkino Oy – Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Anitra Paukkula / Sophia Beckman.
    DCP viewed at Tennispalatsi 5, Helsinki, 25 Dec 2019.

* Downton Abbey (television series). Six series aired in 2010–2015. Creator: Julian Fellowes. Set in the fictional Yorkshire country estate Downton Abbey between 1912 and 1926, the series depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants in the post-Edwardian era.

Official synopsis: "This autumn, the worldwide phenomenon Downton Abbey, becomes a grand motion picture event, as the beloved Crawleys and their intrepid staff prepare for the most important moment of their lives. A royal visit from the King and Queen of England will unleash scandal, romance and intrigue that will leave the future of Downton hanging in the balance. Written by series creator Julian Fellowes and starring the original cast."

Wikipedia: "The film, set in 1927, depicts a visit by the King and Queen to the Crawley family's English country house in the Yorkshire countryside. As the Royal staff descend on Downton, an assassin has also arrived and attempts to kill the monarch. The family and servants are pitted against the royal entourage, including the Queen's lady-in-waiting, who has fallen out with the Crawleys, especially the Dowager Countess, over an inheritance issue. Gareth Neame and Fellowes started planning a feature adaptation in 2016, shortly after the series ended."

AA: I am aware of Downton Abbey as one of the most popular and highly regarded television series of all times but have never seen an episode. This motion picture is my initiation into the phenomenon. An outsider to the magic circle of the Downton Abbey experience, I realize I should know at least the first and second series of the television show for adequate assessment.

Downton Abbey covers a turbulent epoch: the end of la Belle Époque and the Age of Empire, the First World War, and the beginning of the Age of Extremes. In this motion picture we are in the year 1927 and can observe external marks of the Jazz Age and Art Deco. The movie hardly ventures deeper than the surface.

It is a grand spectacle, glossy entertainment, a nostalgia trip, proudly conventional, bordering on the reactionary, never ironical or cynical, displaying upstairs and downstairs in perfect harmony, offering a romanticized view of heritage England, idealizing and legitimizing class society.

The physical production is immaculate, the dresses are lavish, the hairdos exquisite. Geraldine James states that costume did 95% of her work in the role of Queen Mary, and the wig did the other five.

Ben Smithard's lush cinematography is constantly mobile in grandiose drone shots and close-ups revealing expensive textures of authentic textiles. Upstairs the camera movement is smooth, downstairs it is hectic. Exciting montages convey the physical reality and the myriads of details of running an aristocratic country house. The colour is beautiful and refined.

Downton Abbey the movie belongs to the cinema of attractions. There are 18 core actors with plotlines relevant to each, but they are not terribly engrossing. As an ensemble play Downton Abbey is really about the house which is the main character and can be seen as a metonym of Heritage England and a reflection of the Royal Family. Indeed, the most substantial of the plotlines is about the visit of the King and the Queen to Downton Abbey.

In terms of plotting, the assassination attempt of King George V should presumably have by far the greatest gravity, but typically for this movie the incident is quickly brushed aside and never developed further.

At its most rewarding the movie is a study of subtle protocols and deep structures. An American, Michael Engler, was brought to direct because he did not take protocols and structures for granted. The director from the federal republic of the U.S.A. retains a sense of distance to the monarchy of Britain. He registers the mysteries and tensions of this world, different from ours.

Children are kept at bay. People usually do not touch. Postures are proud, people do not have our downcast looks. Downstairs we meet the deferential worker. Women do not have equal rights, but structures of hidden matriarchy exist. Gay liberation is far away, but seeds of the future are glimpsed. The Labour Party is rising but only weakly reflected.

The most interesting structures are those of monarchy and aristocracy. The people upstairs and downstairs and in the village are devoted monarchists. The royal visit is portrayed as the most important event in their lives.

I live in a country that has been a republic since 1917, but before that Finland belonged for 110 years to the Russian Empire and before that almost 600 years to the Kingdom of Sweden. (Still in 1918 we were monarchists, prepared to a coronation of a German king). Sweden, Norway and Denmark are still monarchies but essentially the societies are similar with Finland. Kings and queens have hardly a political status but their presence is powerful in the social imaginary. Their mission: to contribute a royal dimension to society.

This is escapism but in a democratic society monarchy can be an expression of dignity. The current runs both ways: in order to be revered the royalty has to be worthy.

Monarchism can also be a delusion, a dream of past splendour, perhaps relevant in understanding Brexit. Curiously Downton Abbey became a national and international phenomenon in the post-2008 period, an age of quickly growing inequality, a new Gilded Age, with a stratum of the super-rich comparable with the elites of the Age of Empire.

Of the Christmas movies of 2019, Downton Abbey is a parallel movie to Knives Out, both with common roots in Robert Altman's Gosford Park (written by Julian Fellowes like Downton Abbey, and directed by an American like the current movie). Knives Out develops the sharp social satire of Altman's movie, also relevantly to the La Règle du jeu tradition. Downton Abbey is a continuation of the lush and glossy dimensions of the legacy.

Tottumiskysymys / Force of Habit

Tottumiskysymys: gala opening. The directors, from left: Anna Paavilainen, Alli Haapasalo, Kirsikka Saari, Elli Toivoniemi, Jenni Toivoniemi, Reetta Aalto and Miia Tervo. Photo: Anni.jpeg © Tuffi Films 2019. Please click on the photo to enlarge it.

En vanesak / En vanefråga.
    FI © 2019 Tuffi Films Oy. P: Elli Toivoniemi.
    D+SC: Kirsikka Saari, Elli Toivoniemi, Reetta Aalto, Alli Haapasalo, Anna Paavilainen, Miia Tervo, Jenni Toivoniemi.
    Cin: Päivi Kettunen, Jarmo Kiuru, Kerttu Hakkarainen. PD: Laura Haapakangas, Katariina Kapi, Sanna-Mari Pirkola. Cost: Roosa Marttiini. Makeup: Kaisu Hölttä, Roosa Marttiini. ED: Yva Fabricius, Anniina Kauttonen, Otto Heikola. M: Joona Samuel / Joona Jaakkola. S: Lotta Mäki. Songs include:
– "Käyrä nousemaan" (Inari Katramo, Sipi Castrén), perf. Kikka.
– "Tänd alla ljus" perf. Silvana Imam. (Heard in toto during the end credits).
    76 min
    Festival premiere: 13 Sep 2019 Kokkola.
    Premiere: 27 Sep 2019 – distributed by Tuffi Films – Swedish subtitles by Hannele Vahtera.
    DCP viewed at Tennispalatsi 7, Helsinki, 21 Dec 2019.

1. Bussi / The Bus. Based on Pysäkki / A Stop, D: Elli Toivoniemi, C: Pinja Sanaksenaho, Veikko Aalste, Joel Hirvonen. A schoolgirl is bullied by two vicious guys on the bus.
2. Teatteri / The Theatre. Based on Play Rape. D: Anna Paavilainen. C: Julia Lappalainen, Jussi Sorjanen, Elina Knihtilä, Kati Outinen, Tommi Eronen. Sexual violence, including rape and murder, is unvarnished on the theatre stage, but whose viewpoint is the one that matters?
3. Loma / The Vacation. Based on Pikku juttu / No Big Deal. D: Alli Haapasalo. C: Krista Kosonen, Eero Ritala. A romantic vacation in Portugal is spoiled by a local macho groping the lady.
4. Makuuhuone / The Bedroom. Based on Buduaar / Boudoir. D: Reetta Aalto. C: Suvi Blick, Joonas Snellman. When an unwanted admirer does not take "no" for an answer.
5. Firman juhlat / The Office Party. Based on Juhlatunnelma / Festive Spirit. D: Jenni Toivoniemi. C: Pirjo Lonka, Jarkko Pajunen, Teemu Aromaa, Seidi Haarla, Minna Suuronen, Niina Hosiasluoma, Abdulrazaq Al-Jewari, Waanie Nonglak, Ella Lahdemäki, Samuli Niittymäki. Katja lets slip that she has been seriously harassed by her boss. Everybody tries to process the revelation. In the end Katja is left outside.
6. Oikeudenkäynti / The Trial. Based on Ei mitään hätää / It's All Right. D: Miia Tervo. C: Johannes Holopainen, Lotta Kaihua, Ria Kataja, Tommi Korpela, Leo Honkonen, Chike Ohanwe, Ona Kamu, Martti Tervo. Aleksi, a male lawyer, prosecutes his first case in a court: a rape. He manages a guilty verdict, but the process has taken years, there is an appeal which will take even more years, and the verdict is likely to be watered down. Violent rape is handled as a minor issue.

Official synopsis: "Force of Habit follows the lives of various women throughout one day. Hilla is having a romantic vacation, Emmi is throwing a house party, and Milja is on her way to school when they're approached by a stranger and things take an unexpected turn. At the same time, Emppu, a young actress, is conflicted as she rehearses for the biggest role of her life. Elsewhere, Aleksi, an inexperienced prosecutor, is preparing for his first court case in haste; Niina, the victim of the crime, has been waiting years to see her case tried. Miia throws a company party, and the mood dramatically changes when her colleague Katja opens up about their boss coming on to her. Miia and a couple of her closest colleagues try to resolve the situation, but how do the others react?"

AA: Force of Habit is a multi-character study based on independent crosscut tales in the same way as Short Cuts and Magnolia. The movie is a result from the same project as the short film anthology Yksittäistapaus / A One-Off Case (2019) comprising eleven short films, with a total duration of 143 minutes.

The duration of this feature film is 76 minutes. We follow six stories with the common theme of sexual harassment seen from the female viewpoint except in The Trial where a rape case is handled by a male prosecutor.

In this pioneering movie project the theme is the invisible subordination of women. Some stories take place in ordinary life (on a bus, in an office party, after a house party). Two stories happen in hallowed institutions: at the Finnish National Theatre and at the Helsinki Court House. The stories are located in Finland except the one that unfolds during a romantic vacation in Lisbon.

Some stories are about everyday harassment, but even in the extraordinary cases there is an unsettling "business as usual" aspect. Sexual violence is banalized in the theatre repertory. Rape cases are routine in the court.

The film is a part of an advocacy project, and the tendency is explicit. Males are mostly portrayed in an unflattering light, and even the ones who fight harassment prove impotent. But even women shy away from solidarity. Nobody defends the bullied schoolgirl on the bus or the harassed employee at the office party.

All stories are powerful. There is particular gravity and complexity in Play Rape, Festive Spirit and The Trial.

The spirit is out of the bottle; I look forward to more.

Knives Out

© 2018 MRC II Distribution Company L.P. All rights reserved. Please click on the images to enlarge them. NB. Ana de Armas is missing from both images.

Richard (Don Johnson), Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis), Ransom (Chris Evans) Great Nana (K Callan), Marta (Ana de Armas), Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) Walt (Michael Shannon), Jacob (Jaeden Martell), Donna (Riki Lindholm), Joni (Toni Collette) and Meg (Katherine Langford). Photo: Claire Folger. © 2018 MRC II Distribution Company L.P. All rights reserved.

Veitset esiin / Knives Out [the title in Sweden].
    US © 2019 Lions Gate / MRC. PC: Media Rights Capital / T-Street. Distributed by: Lionsgate. P: Ram Bergman, Rian Johnson.
    D+SC: Rian Johnson. Cin: Steve Yedlin – colour – 1,85:1 – source format: ARRIRAW 3.4K – released in: D-Cinema. PD: David Crank. AD: Jeremy Woodward. Set dec: David Schlesinger. Cost: Jenny Eagan. Makeup: Luisa Abel. Hair: Kelvin R. Trahan. SFX: Christopher Walsh. VFX: Rupert Davies (One Of Us), Tim Keene. M: Nathan Johnson. S: Al Nelson. ED: Bob Ducsay. Casting: Mary Vernieu.
    Cast (as edited in Wikipedia):
    Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc: a private detective called upon to investigate Harlan's murder
    Chris Evans as Hugh Ransom Drysdale: Harlan's grandson, Linda and Richard's son, and a spoiled playboy
    Ana de Armas as Marta Cabrera: Harlan's nurse and caretaker who had a close relationship with him
    Jamie Lee Curtis as Linda Drysdale: Harlan's eldest daughter and Richard's wife. She is a real estate mogul who runs her own company with her husband's support
    Michael Shannon as Walter "Walt" Thrombey: Harlan's youngest son, Donna's husband, and the CEO of his father's publishing company
    Don Johnson as Richard Drysdale: Harlan's son-in-law and Linda's husband, who helps run his wife's company
    Toni Collette as Joni Thrombey: widow of Harlan's deceased son Neil, who is a lifestyle guru and influencer
    Lakeith Stanfield as Detective Lieutenant Elliot: a local detective involved in the investigation
    Katherine Langford as Megan "Meg" Thrombey: Harlan's granddaughter, Joni and Neil's daughter, who studies at a prestigious liberal arts college
    Jaeden Martell as Jacob Thrombey: Harlan's grandson, Walt and Donna's son, who holds alt-right views and is always on his phone
    Christopher Plummer as Harlan Thrombey: a wealthy mystery novelist who invites his family to his 85th birthday party and is later found dead. He has three children — Linda, Walt and deceased Neil
    Noah Segan as Trooper Wagner: a police officer involved with the investigation
    Edi Patterson as Fran: Harlan's housekeeper, who discovers his body
    Riki Lindhome as Donna Thrombey: Harlan's daughter-in-law and Walt's wife
    K Callan as Wanetta "Great Nana" Thrombey: Harlan's elderly mother
    Frank Oz as Alan Stevens: Harlan's lawyer
    M. Emmet Walsh as Mr. Proofroc
    Marlene Forte as Mrs. Cabrera: Marta's mother
    Shyrley Rodriguez as Alicia Cabrera: Marta's sister
    Raúl Castillo as a cop
    Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Detective Hardrock (voice cameo)
Loc: Massachusetts, USA. 30 Oct – 21 Dec 2018.
130 min
Festival premiere: 7 Sep 2019 Toronto.
US premiere: 27 Nov 2019.
Finnish premiere: 29 Nov 2019 – released by Nordisk Film – Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Jaana Wiik / Nina Ekholm.
DCP viewed at Kinopalatsi, Helsinki, 20 Dec 2019.

Knives Out is a detective story of the most classical kind, a well made play. There is something Hawksian in Rian Johnson's approach to genre. He both fulfills genre expectations and uses the detective story as a vehicle for personal expression. Robin Wood used to call this kind of classicism Mozartian.

The film is full of contemporary observations and satirical references. There is an amusement at the quaint legacy of "the gentleman sleuth" syndrome but the film is not a pastiche. Its ethos is perfect for Christmas entertainment. Interestingly, of this Christmas's big audience movies two stem from the same roots, the other one being Downton Abbey.

With good reason Knives Out has been compared with Agatha Christie. It is a whodunit. There is a large gathering of suspects, all concealing secrets. There is also something Dostoevskyan in the revelation that everyone is guilty – of a death wish at least. Like many detective stories, this is a satire of class society.

Knives Out is even a locked room mystery. It takes place at a country house, and the crime is an inside job. There are red herrings, a reconstruction of the crime and a final twist in the plot. The least likely suspect confesses the crime. The crime is solved by a celebrity sleuth. A novel twist is that the detective (Daniel Craig) looks hard-boiled but is actually solving the case purely with his gray brain cells just like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.

It could hardly get more classical than this. Agatha Christie is the most successful author in this tradition, but the tradition is among the oldest in storytelling. Christie was standing on the shoulders of Arthur Conan Doyle, but before him Wilkie Collins had established most of the conventions in The Moonstone. He in turn had been inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's detective stories, and Poe knew Voltaire's Zadig. ("The Three Apples" in One Thousand and One Nights is sometimes mentioned as the first whodunit murder mystery. I can see why, but I find the link to detective stories a bit far fetched. [Burton, Chapter 4. 19th Night.])

A source of the inexhaustible fascination in this tradition is the double narrative (sujet / fabula). We follow the investigation of the detective (sujet) until we can make sense of the story of the crime (fabula). Adding a special level to Knives Out is that the victim himself is a crime novelist (Christopher Plummer) who contributes to the scenario of the fatal night.

Glossy big budget all star adaptations of Agatha Christie whodunits were popular in the 1970s and the 1980s. Robert Altman revitalized the tradition with Gosford Park in 2001, based on an original screenplay by Julian Fellowes, and Altman was the right man to do it since he had his own personal approach to big society ensemble portraits and all star casts. There was even a touch of La Règle du jeu. Rian Johnson rejuvenates the tradition once again, and perhaps some La Règle du jeu affinity is present, although without a drama of passion this time. As well known, Gosford Park inspired Downton Abbey, also written by Fellowes.

...

Knives Out is both plot- and character-driven. In a big ensemble piece characters are inevitably caricatures to some extent, and there has to be a stylized, vignette-like approach to performance. The cast excels in their roles as juicy suspects literally from the first minute, starting with Jamie Lee Curtis and Don Johnson visibly relishing their roles. All are good. Christopher Plummer as Harlan the patriarch disappointed with his offspring. Michael Shannon as his youngest son and publisher. Chris Evans and Katharine Langford as the scheming grandchildren. K Callan as the centenarian great-grandmother. Daniel Craig, beefy and unshaven, using wit here instead of muscle. Ana de Armas as Marta Cabrera is a counter-image to the greed and xenophobia. To portray goodness in contemporary cinema is next to impossible, but she and Rian Johnson pull it off.

The film has been impressively shot in autumnal Massachusetts, bringing to mind Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry shot in neighbouring Vermont. Steve Yedlin's cinematography is constantly interesting from majestic aerial shots to magnifying glass views and extreme close-ups exposing sweat, pores and stubs on the skin. The film is full of delicious touches including painted portrait credit shots in the end credits while "Sweet Virginia"* by The Rolling Stones is heard on the soundtrack.

* "Sweet Virginia" was first published on Exile on Main Street (recorded in 1970, released in 1972).

NB. Although Knives Out is a whodunit, it has also affinities with Anthony Shaffer's play Sleuth (1970) and its film adaptation by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1972) for instance in the character of the novelist, the interior design of the country house and the fascination with games.

The game is Go. Marta usually wins Harlan because she plays by the instinct and he by the intellect.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: NIGHT VISIONS PROGRAM NOTE:

Hustlers

Hustlers – korkojen kera / Hustlers [the title in Sweden].
    US © 2019 STX Productions LLC. PC: Gloria Sanchez Productions / Nuyorican Productions. In association with: Annapurna Pictures. Distributed by: STXFilms. P: Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Jennifer Lopez, Adam McKay, Benny Medina.
    D+SC: Lorene Scafaria – based on "The Hustlers at Scores: The Ex-Strippers Who Stole From (Mostly) Rich Men and Gave to, Well, Themselves" (The Cut, 28 Dec 2015) by Jessica Pressler. Cin: Todd Banhazl – colour – 2,39:1 – source format: DXL RAW (8K). PD: Jane Musky. AD: Kim Karon. Set dec: Alexandra Mazur. Cost: Mitchell Travers. Makeup: Margot Boccia. Hair: Angel De Angelis. M supervisor: Jason Markey (song list beyond the jump break). S: Sean McCormack, Jon Wakeham. ED: Kayla Emter. Casting: Gayle Keller.
    Cast as edited in Wikipedia:
    Constance Wu as Destiny, a stripper
    Jennifer Lopez as Ramona Vega, a veteran stripper
    Julia Stiles as Elizabeth, a journalist
    Keke Palmer as Mercedes, a stripper
    Lili Reinhart as Annabelle, a stripper
    Lizzo as Liz, a stripper
    Cardi B as Diamond, a stripper
    Mercedes Ruehl as Mama, the club's den mother
    Trace Lysette as Tracey
    Wai Ching Ho as Destiny's grandmother
    Mette Towley as Justice
    Madeline Brewer as Dawn
    Frank Whaley as Reese, Ramona's rich client
    Brandon Keener as Alpha
    Steven Boyer as Doug
    Jon Glaser as Mark
    Gerald Gillam as Johnny
    Devin Ratray as Stephen
    Rhys Coiro as Spencer
    Jovanni Ortiz as Joe, one of Ramona's clients
    Big Jay Oakerson as DJ, the club's DJ
    Usher as himself
Filming: New York City, 22 March to 3 May 2019. Locations also: New Rochelle, White Plains, Palisades Center. 110 min
Festival premiere: 7 Sep 2019 Toronto.
US premiere: 13 Sep 2019.
Finnish premiere: 18 Oct 2019 – SF Studios – Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Anna-Maija Ihander / Josefine Eld.
DCP viewed at Kinopalatsi 8, Helsinki, 14 Dec 2019

AA: Hustlers is a different kind of a crime story. It tells about a gang of sex workers who clean up Wall Street moneymen by drugging them unconscious and emptying their expense accounts. It's not a traditional big caper story; it's not Ocean's Eleven; it's been called "Robin Hoods in G-strings". It does not look like a gangster film, but in a literal sense it is one. It is about organized crime.

The syuzhet starts in 2014 when the former stripper Dorothy / Destiny (Constance Wu) tells her story to an interviewer, here called Elizabeth (Julia Stiles). But the fabula begins in 2007, "the fucking best year" for the strippers who were rolling in the money thrown upon them by the Wall Street financial wizards. "We made more money than a brain surgeon".

Comes the Black Monday, 29 September 2008, the worst ever financial crisis, "the end of an era", also the end of the big party of the strippers. The crash puts everyone out of business. Having given birth to a baby boy Destiny returns from Arizona and experiences the agony of unemployment and brutalized circumstances in the stripping scene. Immigrants provide sex services complete with intercourse which is where Destiny draws the line.

Ramona Vega (Jennifer Lopez), the strongest one, establishes a gang, and together the women move from ordinary sex business to organized crime. Armed with strong drugs (mixing Ketamin with MDMA) they systematically rob their customers / victims. Their reasoning: "This game is rigged", "What we do is harmless in comparison with what they did to our country". There is hardly anybody in prison who does not justify his or her crimes with a similar line of reasoning. The women know that the Wall Street wolves escaped punishment for their epic fraud. "This whole city, this whole country is one big strip club".

The women are brutalized. One of their drugged victims almost dies in an accident. Another victim is fired from his job and loses his home and family having become unable to pay the mortgage. Ramona stays tough, but Dorothy has pangs of conscience. Meanwhile, they are running out of victims because there are no return customers.

The portrayal of the world of the sex clubs feels authentic and accurate. We learn about champagne rooms and rules and limits of conduct. We also learn about the three classes of customers. The elite gets to use the back entrance, they pay 10 000 a night and have exclusive access to the only room without a camera. Ramona gives Dorothy masterclasses in pole dancing and lap dancing, and having literally invited her under her fur coat she teaches Dorothy the tricks of the trade. Dorothy follows her until the scam with the knockout drugs and the maxing out of credit cards goes too far.

Reportedly Hustlers was first offered for Martin Scorsese to direct, but Lorene Scafaria's female viewpoint is what makes this tale special. These working girls are tough, but they are also tender and nurturing mothers and family mainstays. They are tiger mamas. "Motherhood is a mental illness", Ramona keeps repeating, but she does not really mean it. "Motherhood: there is nothing like it", thinks Dorothy. Mother instinct is the opposite of the way of life in which "man is a wolf to his fellow man" as ancient Romans used to say. All males in this story seem spineless and worthless.

Hustlers is a film about strippers, and as a striptease show it does not disappoint. The women and the performances are outstanding. But, written and directed by a woman, it's different: it's made both for the male look and for the female look, and perhaps also for the queer look. Ramona's introductory sequence is a case in point. It is shot and edited from the viewpoint of the adoring Dorothy. Hustlers is a love story between Ramona and Dorothy, not in the sense of them ending up in bed, but Ramona becomes a model for Dorothy in carrying her femininity with pride.

The sex world depicted in the Hustlers is loud, vulgar and insensitive and I don't find it erotic. The hard lights in distorting, unnatural colours and heavy makeups make the women seem like Amazon warriors or gladiators in armours on the battleground of the sexes. There is no love between men and women. Only between mothers and children, and between women.

Jennifer Lopez I have been following from around 1997. I first saw her in Anaconda, and soon after in strong dramatic roles in U Turn and Out of Sight (still my favourite). This year Jennifer Lopez proudly celebrated her 50th anniversary without trying to hide her age. She is great in Hustlers. In the role of Ramona Vega she joins a special American tradition launched in the cinema by Texas Guinan and Mae West.

In world cinema Jennifer Lopez belongs to the daring tradition launched by Asta Nielsen in The Abyss (1910) who introduced twerking to the screen in her gaucho dance number. She had no problem in combining sex with brains.

Worth reading: the Jennifer Lopez interview with Jessica Pressler (who wrote the original 2015 article on which Hustlers is based), "The High-Powered Hustle of Jennifer Lopez" (GQ, 18 Nov 2019).

P.S. 16 Dec 2019. I just read this Jennifer Lopez interview by A. O. Scott for The New York Times Magazine.

"Do the Wall Street shuffle". Hustlers. Jennifer Lopez as Ramona Vega in her introduction scene, first pole dancing, then twerking with money, rolling in dough in 2007, "the fucking best year" for strippers and moneymen.

The Abyss (1910). Asta Nielsen introduces twerking to the screen. My screenshot from YouTube.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: WIKIPEDIA SYNOPSIS: