from Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2013

loads of my reviews, interviews and pictures in the special "Nisimazine Karlovy vary 2013" issue:

http://issuu.com/emiliep/docs/nisimazine_karlovy_vary_2013


confession for Nisimazine blog:
http://nisimazine.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/there-is-always-an-open-door-by-jore-janaviciute/
video interview with Finnish director Mika Ronkainen (Finnish Blood, Swedish Heart) in participation with "Cineuropa": http://cineuropa.org/vd.aspx?t=video&l=en&did=240793

straipsnis apie festivalį delfyje: http://pramogos.delfi.lt/kinas/karlovi-varu-kino-festivalyje-kino-spindesys-ir-cekiskas-siautulys.d?id=61807139
@7 meno dienos: http://www.7md.lt/kinas/2013-07-19/Grozio-paieskos-

“Juha“ – Worldwide Cinematic Phenomenon

“Juha“ (1999) by Aki Kaurismäki“

   Juhani Aho`s classical Finnish novel “Juha“ (1911) was applied to cinema four times and two times to operas. The novel got the attention also worldwide. The first film version – silent film in 1921 was created by Swedish filmmakers, later versions made by Finnish filmmakers. The latest version was made in 1999 by Aki Kaurismäki. In his version he replaces the narrative from 17-18th century, where originally it takes place, to 1970s and inverts some ideas originally expressed in the novel on his own needs.

   A farmer Juha and his wife Marja lives their happy life in the Finnish countryside, but soon one day Shemeikka with his elegant American car appears in the horizon. The car breaks and while Juha fixes it, a new stranger tries to seduce his wife. She resists, but later she realizes that he was a chance to have a life she is dreaming of, so when he is back to the village, she escapes with him. At first, everything looks perfect for her, but later he jails her in the brothel together with other lovers. Marja decides to escape, but then she gets to know that she is pregnant with Shemeikka`s child, so she stays. Meanwhile Juha is left alone in the village suffering for the loss of his wife.

    It was not the first film when Kaurismäki took the classical novel and replaced it to newer times – he did it with “Hamlet Goes Business” (1987) and “Crime and Punishment” (1983). But he does not only replace the narrative, but also modernizes the characters and inverts the ideas to nowadays. For example, in Kaurismäki`s “Juha” the idea of nationalism (Shemeikka, trader from East Karelia – something evil (bad is something connected to Russia, the Eastern occupier) is replaced by the good/bad confrontation of village and the city. In Finnish film history, films we see that village is something pure and innocent, while city is something where the sins are. Kaurismäki also adds this confrontation to his film with Shemeikka`s character who represents the city from which he is coming from (in the film it is cleared out that is Helsinki, some famous objects as the Railway station or Sokos hotel are shown and used in the narrative). Also social problems such as alcoholism or the position of woman in the society are touched. Even though, Kaurismäki replaces the characters and the narrative to 1970s, the universal and timeless ideas about love and the human tragedy expressed in the novel are in the film. The director constructs the characters from the clichés and by using cinematic simplification (Marja, typical village girl dreaming about the prince and city life, Shemeikka, typical don-juan), the inner dramas of characters` are expressed. Especially Juho`s and Marja`s (after the moment when she realizes where she is and that there is no escape), Shemeikka`s character doesn`t show any feelings even in the moment of his death – he is dehumanized. Also in the Kaurismäki`s film Juha`s line is changed – in the novel originally he suicides, in the newest version he kills the seducer of his wife, but also after the fight dies himself. Usually violence in Kaurismäki films is something what never leads to good (vice versa than in Hollywood films – hero usually is the one who kills the enemy), here Kaurismäki plays with the genre – on one hand, Juha becomes a hero after making his revenge, on the other hand – he dies in the dump. This is a kind of symbolic ethical deheroization of character – the character doesn`t reach anything with the murder, by braking the rule of society and killing, he automatically pushes himself out of society – becomes a dump for it.

   The film is also worth attention stylistically. Kaurismäki takes a challenge in story telling and decides to make a silent film, accompanied by the music (not always emphasizes the dramatic mood). There not a lot of dialogues and they appear in the intertitles as it is usual for silent films. Also the Black & White aesthetics is chosen. In the end of the film (the scenes in the brothel) we can also find aesthetic references to Film Noir. The eras are mixed up – that`s what is also usual for Kaurismäki. He plays with the melodramatic silent film genre (that`s also as the village as a place for paradise is a reference to the Finnish film history), he mocks at the genre playing with clichés.  The director is ironical not only with the form, but also with the content of the film (f. e. The motive of a massive three-foot wrench to the engine). Even though the human tragedy is depicted , so the film can be described as tragicomical.

    The famous Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki is also known worldwide and he brings the classical Finnish novel to cinemas in all the world. Even though he uses some references to Finnish history, identity and films, his film “Juha“ can be understood and well accepted worldwide (that can be proven by mentioning the Berlinale Film Festival award the film got), mostly because of the attractive film form and the universal human feelings depicted in the novel.

Written for my Finnish film class back in JYU, 2012

Miserablism in Frozen Land (2005) and Frozen City (2006)

   The two films by Finnish director Aku Louhimies “Frozen Land” and “Frozen City” tests the edges of the dark human nature, shows the dark side of Finnish society and its social problems both lack of hope and lightening elements and can be described as miserablistic.

   “Frozen City” talks about a man, a father, who works a taxi driver and whose wife one day just doesn`t come back from her holiday, so he takes care of their three children. When the wife is finally back – it is clear that the couple can continue together, so they start the process of divorce. Wife tries to make everything that the husband would see the children less and less. That is the first thing what makes the main character to feel oppressed and nervous, so it causes his impulsively rude and violent behavior at his work and finally he loses the job. Then he has debts, an irritating neighbor, finally, when he tries to pick up a woman in the bar – she appears to be a prostitute and asks money, which he doesn`t have, he is drunk and feels humiliated in all possible ways. All this leads to meaningless violence. The film draws the psychological portrait of the protagonist by placing him among nearly all the possible worst things that can happen for a man – loss of family, job and freedom. The film depicts the crisis of men in Finland (also as in a documentary “Steam of Life”). The shame of the character is awakened and according to Finnish historian Juha Siltala, unemployment causes the strongest feeling of shame for the Finnish men. Also social oppression and closed modern city life causes the feeling of loneliness. The character is left nearly without any hope. Just some in the end of the film after unsuccessful attempt of a suicide when he lies in the jail hospital a sunshine lights into his eyes.

   In “Frozen Land” a school teacher of literature is fired from his job due to the change of school profile to the exact sciences. As a result, he spends his time drinking and fighting at home with his son Niko. Finally, Niko is thrown out from home, he is hanging around with his best friend Tuomas and Tuomas' girlfriend. He (while dazed from drugs) forges a 500 € banknote and uses it at a pawnshop. The pawnshop owner forks it over to a low-rent half-crook salesman named Isto… The is a story constructed from sub-narratives (network narrative) and all of them are connected that gives the impression that people`s fates are meaningfully connected. All the events are devastating and totally pessimistic, “Frozen Land” also doesn`t offer any hope until the end of the film when we see that Niko was able to start a normal life. But he is the only one. The film gives the idea that every wrong movement causes some other wrong one what leads to violence, crime or disaster. Even though the film world is totally pessimistic it leaves the ethical moral with a reference to The Decalogue that if the wrong actions are not taken, there still is hope, light and also the way back (the example of Niko).

   So the both films mostly talk about the lower part of society and its social problems as drugs or alcohol, alienation of society, lack of solidarity, social oppression – the environment that causes loneliness and the feeling of no way out. The film depicts the total loss of paradise even though the action is taking place during the economical boom. This can be seen as an opposition to Kaurismäki`s Proletariat trilogy which also talks about the lower part of society and its problems during the economical boom, but still there is much more hope and the paradise is not lost, it is just “Shadows in Paradise”. We are left to judge what is more objective to reality.

Written for my Finnish Cinema class back in JYU, 2012.