The fifth and last film of Nyrki Tapiovaara (1911–40), released posthumously after his tragically premature death during the last days of the Winter War, and finished by one of the film’s actors, Hugo Hytönen, with some help from Erik Blomberg and Mirjami Kuosmanen, future collaborators on The White Reindeer. As with Tapiovaara’s earlier films Stolen Death (1938) and Kaksi Vihtoria (“Two Henpecked Husbands”, 1939), Blomberg was the film’s producer and cinematographer, while Kuosmanen had one of her first major roles in the film. The film was an adaptation of recent Nobel laureate F. E. Sillanpää’s 1932 novel and, along with Teuvo Tulio’s rural melodramas of the late ’30s (including one Sillanpää adaptation, the now-lost Nuorena nukkunut), one of the crucial trope-setters for Finnish cinema in the years to come, with its depictions of breathtaking landscapes, love on the hayfield, and drunken brawls at country dances.

1.64GB | 1 h 31 min | 765×574 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/741B63E3C42EE2E/Miehen_tie_(1940).mkv
https://nitroflare.com/view/C8162C3E42C3324/Miehen_tie_(1940).srt

Language:Finnish
Subtitles:English (srt), Swedish hardcoded (partial)

The post Nyrki Tapiovaara & Hugo Hytönen – Miehen tie AKA One Man’s Fate (1940) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

A precursor of sorts to The White Reindeer (1952), featuring the same female lead, Mirjami Kuosmanen, and the same cinematographer, Erik Blomberg, who was Kuosmanen’s husband and went on to direct as well as shoot the later film. Disappointment in this film was one of the reasons that led Blomberg and Kuosmanen to make The White Reindeer as an independent production. The film’s nominal producer was Michael Powell, but in fact the production was supervised by John Seabourne (for some reason billed “Jussi” Seabourne in the opening credits), a close friend of Powell’s and the editor of many of the Powell & Pressburger classics of the 1940s. The male lead is played by Tapio Rautavaara, a popular athlete-turned-actor and world champion in javelin throw and archery (suitably enough for a Powell production). Along with the recently deceased Matti Nykänen, Rautavaara was also the only world champion sportsman in Finland to have crafted a successful career as a singer. His singing is not featured in this film, however, which has a score consisting of orchestral pieces by Jean Sibelius (used with the composer’s permission).

Description of the film from the Finnish Film Archive’s page (with some modifications and additions):
Aila – Pohjolan tytär (“Aila – Daughter of the North”) started out as an ambitious production, designed to be the first international success in Finnish cinema. The director of the film was Jack Witikka, who had a background in the theater and opera but had also studied film-making in England. It was there that had got to know Michael Powell and convinced him to be the producer of his first feature film. The film’s working title was Arctic Fury and it was to be set in Finnish Lapland, at that time much more isolated from the rest of the country than it is today – thus practically guaranteeing an uneasy production. The film’s shooting was delayed, many of the actors were changed, and the collaboration between the film’s co-writer, co-producer and cinematographer Erik Blomberg and production supervisor and editor John Seabourne wasn’t too harmonious. In the end the film wasn’t even distributed to the Scandinavian countries, and although Michael Powell received the distribution rights for the rest of the world, he apparently never made use of them.

By the time the film had its premiere late in the winter of 1951, most of the people involved had lost their enthusiasm for it, in particular Erik Blomberg, who later went on to write: “Somehow the film turned out to be a shoddy compromise: neither this nor that. I could see where the film was heading even while the shooting was going on and decided to withdraw from any financial responsibility. I did of course finish the cinematography and Mirjami [Kuosmanen] played her part, but that was it.” Blomberg also said that it was the disappointment in the finished film that led him and Kuosmanen to make The White Reindeer (1952), which turned out to be everything that Aila was meant to be: an artistic triumph and an international success both in cinemas and in the festival circuit.

In spite of Blomberg’s disappointment, the film’s reception in Finland was by no means disastrous. It was criticized for its story and dramaturgy, but also lauded for carrying the story forward mainly with images and music. The film has exceptionally little dialogue, only about 80 lines. Blomberg had already enchanted viewers and critics with the Lapland-themed short films he had made with Eino Mäkinen – Porojen parissa (“With the Reindeer”, 1947), Kultaa ja hiekkaa (“Gold and Sand”, 1948) and Lemmenjoelta (“From Lemmenjoki”, 1948) – and he won the Jussi prize for his cinematography, as he would do a year later for The White Reindeer.

The film’s plot is very simple. Aila, a reindeer herder’s daughter, and Reino, a reindeer thief, are attracted to each other and become secret lovers. Aila’s father catches Reino stealing reindeer and goes after him, resulting in a fight during which Reino stabs him to death. This in turn leads to a confrontation between Aila and Reino, which leaves both of them lying on the crust of snow, just a few feet from each other. Some contemporary critics compared this depiction of mad love to David O. Selznick’s epic western Duel in the Sun (1946), directed by King Vidor. Although the lavish production in blazing Technicolor couldn’t superficially be further away from the small-scale black and white film set in Lapland, the final insane shoot-out between Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones is remarkably similar to the corresponding scene between Reino and Aila. It’s not likely that there was any direct influence, however, as Duel in the Sun didn’t have its premiere in Finland until five years after it was made – coincidentally on the very same date (23 February 1951) as Aila did.

While the story itself is very basic and straightforward, it’s framed in a narrative device that’s somewhat peculiar and can even be described as postmodern. The film is narrated by an external character, an American writer of Finnish origin called Harm (originally Härmä; the voiceover is provided by actor Matti Oravisto, who would go on to narrate another troubled production set in Lapland, Teuvo Tulio’s Sensuela). The narrator doesn’t only tell us what he sees but actually makes up the whole story while observing Aila and Reino and even feels sorry for leading the two characters to such unfortunate situations. The result is a seemingly simple but actually complicated story that makes it impossible to know how much of it is the lovers’ truth (or, indeed, if they actually are lovers) and how much a figment of the sensation-hungry writer’s imagination.

1.31GB | 1h 11m | 768×576 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/E45A6E5F36141AA/Aila__Pohjolan_tytar_(1951)__DVDRip.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/1667B9ED902B5F2/Aila__Pohjolan_tytr_(1951)__DVDRip.srt

Language:Finnish,Sámi
Subtitles:English

The post Jack Witikka – Aila – Pohjolan tytär AKA Arctic Fury (1951) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Blending the vampire and werewolf mythology into a fascinatingly unique and inspired synthesis which also adds elements from pre-Christian folklore, filmmaker Erik Blomberg’s simple, lyrical parable about how all actions have consequences has the immediacy, intimacy and potency of an eloquently spun scary campfire yarn. Skillfully directed, produced, edited, co-written and shot in gorgeous monochromatic black and white by Blomberg, who began photographing movies back in the 30’s and made only four other films before spending the rest of his career doing documentaries for television, this plainly done and elegantly understated debut feature benefits greatly from not only its powerfully direct and unpretentious story, but also from its highly unusual and intriguing period setting. Further enhanced by an evocative chanted score, outstanding use of the wintry, desolate, godforsaken Finnish countryside, and frequently striking visuals (the burial ground ridden with scattered animal bones is memorably creepy), “The White Reindeer” deservedly won awards at both the Cannes and Karlovy Vary Film Festivals. A singularly spooky and spellbinding picture that’s strongly recommended to fright film fans who want to see something different and original.

1.16GB | 1 h 8 min | 788×576 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/739E3814FB5E76D/The.White.Reindeer.1952.BDRIP.576p.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv

Language:Finnish
Subtitles:English, Swedish

The post Erik Blomberg – Valkoinen peura AKA The White Reindeer (1952) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
Song of the Scarlet Flower was Teuvo Tulio’s first independently produced film, and the earliest of his surviving films. The plot was about Olavi, a farmer’s son who leaves his home after a dispute with his father and leads a life of a womanizing logger.

Review:
Teuvo Tulio is the best director you’ve probably never heard of. Every time I see another his films I’m absolutely stunned by their collective brilliance and the fact that hardly anyone knows they exist. Seeing this one as a double feature with Stiller’s earlier version of the story, I was particularly struck both by what Stiller taught Tulio, and by what Tulio brings to the story that Stiller doesn’t or can’t (and I’m a HUGE Stiller stan so if I’m openly admitting I like this better than his version, you know I’m serious). As in Stiller’s version, the homme fatale drives the plot, but here the pain he inflicts on women isn’t just a frame for his redemptive arc: the women and their subjectivity become the centre of the story, aggressively so by the end of the film. Characters like his mother and his discarded former flames are given space to be real people; they speak while he is silent. This alone would make it a masterpiece, leaving aside the gorgeous photography, brilliant use of music (a Tulio signature), and the eroticism with which the film positively vibrates.

— irmavep (Letterboxd)

https://nitro.download/view/3BB94F2FC4A7114/The_Song_of_the_Scarlet_Flower_(1938)_–_Teuvo_Tulio.mkv

https://rapidgator.net/file/45be31d4f5fe6349888b22ad2d1ed676/The_Song_of_the_Scarlet_Flower_(1938)_–_Teuvo_Tulio.mkv

Language(s):Finnish
Subtitles:English, Finnish, Swedish (muxed)

The post Teuvo Tulio – Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta AKA Song of the Scarlet Flower (1938) first appeared on Cinema of the World.