Finnish

  • Yrjö Norta – SF-paraati AKA SF Parade (1940)

    1931-1940ComedyFinlandMusicalYrjö Norta

    The first true Finnish movie musical, released in 1940 by Suomen Filmiteollisuus (“SF” for short, hence the title), though some would grant this honor to Suomi-Filmi’s Meidän poikamme merellä (“Our Boys at Sea”, 1933), a film showcasing the Finnish navy as well as the singing talents of composer Georg Malmstén. The songs for SF Parade were also composed by Malmstén, who appears in a small role, but the true stars of the film are Tauno Palo and Ansa Ikonen, already well-known from romantic comedies of the ’30s such as Everybody’s Love and Substitute Wife. They would go on to star in the studio’s next musical and one of the most popular Finnish films of all time, The Vagabond’s Waltz of 1941.Read More »

  • Mikko Niskanen – Käpy selän alla AKA Under Your Skin (1966)

    1961-1970ArthouseDramaFinlandMikko Niskanen

    Synopsis:
    Mikko Niskanen’s famous new wave film about the ’60s urban intellectuals who get faced in the Finnish countryside with loads of beer.Read More »

  • Mikko Niskanen – Pojat AKA The Boys (1962)

    1961-1970DramaFinlandMikko NiskanenWar

    Quote:
    Mikko Niskanen’s 1962 adaptation of Paavo Rintala’s novel Pojat (The Boys, 1958) deals with the experiences of young boys during wartime and, more specifically, with the difficult subject of Finnish cooperation with the Nazis during the Continuation War leading up to the Lapland War.

    The Raksila Boys are a gang of school boys who are growing up in Oulu. Finland has agreed to ally itself with Hitler’s Germany in order to stand any chance of resisting total defeat against the Soviet Union. Read More »

  • Aleksi Salmenperä – Paha perhe AKA Bad Family (2010)

    2001-2010Aleksi SalmenperäDramaFinland

    Quote:
    After a divorce a father raises his son on his own, while his ex-wife has custody over his daughter. When the mother dies, the brother and sister finally meet again.Read More »

  • Teuvo Tulio – Sensuela (1973)

    1971-1980CampExploitationFinlandTeuvo Tulio

    Ignatiy Vishnevetsky wrote:
    A mix of sexploitation, Lappish folk dress, and soap opera that still finds room for Nazis and reindeer castration – a movie so inept and bizarre that I have to limit any mention of it to this one sentence, lest I get too carried away.Read More »

  • Jack Witikka – Nukkekauppias ja kaunis Lilith AKA The Doll Merchant (1955)

    1951-1960ArthouseFantasyFinlandJack Witikka

    Quote:
    The Doll Merchant (1955), a fairy tale for adults directed by Jack Witikka, is based on a radio play by Walentin Chorell. The titular doll merchant, played by Martti Katajisto, refuses to conform to the norms of an anonymous totalitarian state. The dictator of the state (Tauno Palo) thinks the merchant is a rebel and has him arrested. However, the dictator’s lover Lilith (Hillevi Lagerstam) is very fond of dolls, as is the little girl (Leena Kaprio), who is helped by an anarchist (Heikki Savolainen) in her search for the doll merchant. The many dolls seen in the film were made by Mona Leo.Read More »

  • Aki Kaurismäki – Pidä huivista kiinni, Tatjana AKA Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (1994)

    1991-2000Aki KaurismäkiArthouseComedyFinland

    Quote:
    The enigmatically titled Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana [Pidä huivista kiinni, Tatjana] is Kaurismäki’s take on the road movie. It represents something of a contradiction for non-Finnish viewers, being one of the director’s most accessible films but also one whose subtleties are unlikely to be fully understood by a foreign audience, and I’m including myself in that sweeping suggestion.Read More »

  • Aki Kaurismäki & Mika Kaurismäki – Saimaa-ilmiö AKA The Saimaa Gesture (1981)

    1981-1990Aki KaurismäkiDocumentaryFinlandMika Kaurismäki

    from cinematik
    Saimaa-ilmiö is probably the first properly made rock film made in Finland. Such basics as including the songs in their entirety, shooting with multiple cameras, reducing interviews to a minimum and using them to express the atmosphere, not as compulsory fillers-in, were unheard of in Finland at the time. Concentrating on the music, not everything around it, Saimaa-ilmiö captures much of the leisurely feel of the lake tour.Read More »

  • Aki Kaurismäki – Juha (1999)

    1991-2000Aki KaurismäkiArthouseFinlandSilent

    Quote:
    When I heard that Aki Kaurismaki was making a silent black-and-white feature, I expected something arch and postmodernist. Yet in spite of a few flashes of mordant humor, some wonderfully spare sound effects, and a few minimalist lighting schemes that suggest 50s Hollywood, this 1999 film is a moving pastiche whose strength is its sincerity and authenticity. A fallen-woman story set in the present, featuring a farm couple and an evil playboy from the city who lures the wife away, it conveys the sort of purity and innocence associated with silent cinema storytelling, including a love of nature and animals, a taste for stark melodrama, and an emotional directness in the acting–evocative at various times of Griffith in the teens and Murnau in the 20s.Read More »

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