Eating Muffins in an Agitated Manner

Espoo Cine: Sancharram - The Journey

R&A –festareille olin kyllä Parineetaa menossa katsomaan, mutta mörrimöykkypäivä ja kipeä jalka saivat jäämään kotiin. Eli tämän vuoden festari-intialaiselokuvaksi jäi Espoo Cinen ohjelmistossa ollut malayalaminkielinen Sancharram, kertomus kahden nuoren tytön rakkaudeksi kasvavasta ystävyydestä. Lesboutta ei intialaisessa elokuvassa ole vakavasti pahemmin käsitelty. Silloin kuin teemaa käsitellään tai siihen viitataan, lesbot joko koodataan voyaristisesti roistoiksi tai kyseessä on Intiassakin hyvin voivan naisvankilagenren edustaja. Ainut aikaisempi teemaa vakavasti käsittelevä leffa jonka olen nähnyt on The Fire vuodelta 1996.

Siinä missä Fire –elokuvan päähenkilöt löytävät toisensa petyttyään heteroseksuaalisiin suhteisiin, Sancharram on herkkä Romeo/Julia tyyppinen kasvutarina ja heräämisen kuvaus. Sen juoni on äärimmäisen ennalta-arvattava ja tempo vähän liian hidas. Kiran ja Delilah kasvavat rakastamaan toisiaan, mutta kun Delilahin äiti saa selville tyttöjen suhteen todellisen luonteen, pyrkii hän naittamaan tyttärensä nopeasti Amerikkaan. Vaikka Kiran järjestää tytöille mahdollisuuden karata kaupunkiin ja yrittää elää omilla ehdoillaan, ei Delilah uskalla astua yhteiskunnan sääntöjen ulkopuolelle ja suostuu avioliittoon. Elokuvan tuntuu kiertyvän kohti väistämätöntä tragediaa, mutta loppu onkin yllättäen avoin ja toivoa antava.

Teknisesti pienellä budjetilla tehty Sancharram on välillä horjuva, mutta onnistuu muutamissa hiljaisissa kohtauksissa vangitsemaan lähes hypnoottisesti hetken valkokankaalle. Pääosin sen kiinnostavuus on kuitenkin sen eksotiikassa: Keralan vehreät maisemat ja etelä-intialainen kulttuuri viehättävät vieraudessaan ja värikylläisyydessään. Intialaisen elokuvankaan kliseitä ei ole vältetty: rakastavaiset eivät tällä kertaa laula jyrkänteen reunalla, mutta seisovat siellä salwar-kameez hulmuten, ja ukkosmyrsky saa jälleen kerran symboloida seksuaalisuutta. Kivaa.

You gotta think more like snooker, poker and free-face rock climbing

Posted by Sari

In the honor of Finland's latest icon M15 and his team taking silver at Toronto, may I recommend the greatest curling movie ever, Men with Brooms. It's got Paul Gross, a training montage, a dead guy on the button, Leslie Nielsen doing something irregular to a cow, Tragically Hip doing a cameo and a heartwarming story about doing the right thing. Awww. Also, beavers. The animals that is.

The Call of Dracula

Posted by jukkahoo

It's finished, it's done!

The new Flame Mountain Extravaganza, a veritable cinematic masterpiece, The Call of Dracula (Aka. Draculan Hutsu) was shown to a choice audience at the Bio Flame Mountain, last Saturday. And what a feast of biomagic it was! Sensuous Colours, Thrilling Excitement, Horrifying Shocks and a Whole Lot More! A horror film to end all horror films, maybe even flicks.

You ask yourself: could one mix Bram Stoker with H. P. Lovecraft, and get away with it? Only if you're a true autéur á la Petri Hiltunen. That master of poise and dialogue, that Rollin of cinematography, that Fellini of austerity, that Dekker of humour and gore!

No, I tell you, it was better than that, and more. Many a people said that this is the best Flame Mountain production so far and I've seen them all. Heck, I've acted in all of those!

It follows a trusted formula: starring Matti Tanska and Veikko Laeslehto as fearless vampire hunters (as opposed to a dashing adventurer and a trusty mechanic from The Warlord of Saturn; of which M. John Harrison has said: "drinking a couple of beers in front of it"!), yours truly as a professor (no more a mere docent!) with a kidnapped daughter (Tuisku Hiltunen as you've never seen her before), and Petri Himself as the Count with that vile Radu (played with gusto by that hairy beast, Mika P. Nieminen - congrats on the happy occasion!) as his henchvamp, as the evil kidnappers. The three caballeros then fight the evil dudes and claim victory, and the babe. Errr... perhaps not the babe, as Tuisku is still (what, 9?) a very young girl indeed - and my daughter in this film!

It's fun, it's not too long - a mind-numblingly co-incidentally three-quarters of an hour long, just like ALL previous Flame Mountain productions - and it looks a way bigger than the real budget of €30. Go figure. Shot in FOUR different countries, it has the most advanced FX ever in a Flame Mountain production, as well as original score by the director-producer-scriptwriter-FXmaster-editor-star MC Petrus Himself! Is there no end to the talent of this Renessaince man? Evidently not.

Sari was especially taken by the editing, which she thought was seriously better than in two previous ones, and she also thought that us actors seemed to be more "in" with our roles than before. She also thought that surprisingly, prof. Carl-Gustav Apollonius is not a cardboard-copy of doc. Arimo Kaskelotti! Mein gott, who knew I had layers?

Go see it.

Oh... it probably won't be available at your local multiplex very soon. I gues you must wait for the commercial DVD. Coming soon to a very good filmstore near you (ie. Pieni Leffakauppa).

I'm OK, you're OK(?), we're all OK!

Posted by jukkahoo

Once more I have visited the hotsipal and once more my doctor has told me I'm OK. Blood, CAT and all that jazz were good. Hurrah and huzzah!

And as it has now been almost two years since the implantation of my veinal gate (laskimoportti), it is due to be removed. Should happen the 10th of Oktober. Sigh! Goodbye my sweet cyborg appliance, who remainded silent thru the Kittilä airport security check, the Seutula one and mightily beeped at the Brusselleux International, thus giving an excuse for that Belgian to frisk me. Farewell!

I'm taking this as a good sign, and so should you too. I wonder if they let me have the thing? Could it be turned into some kind of a pendant? I think I'll have to ask.

Other news: I have been watching the new Galactica. It isn't half bad. I just said today, that I think it is the best sf-series since DS9. Then Teemu (or was it Marko?) asked whether it is better than Firefly. I have to admit it is a close call, but galactica has better premise and no stupid sooooooooooo out of place element.

Anyway, me likes. It's not the best thing since sliced bread, but a very good sci-fi tv-series. I must admit I was more than a bit sceptic about the modernisation of an old and definitely camp series, but Ronald D. Moore has done a very nice job with combining the original idea and characters with today's perspective. Good casting, though I cannot see the sultriness of that Jessica Simpson -lookalike. Baltar, Starbuck, Adama, Tigh and president; great choices. Not too sure about Apollo, and very uncertain about Boomer. And the human cylons. Too much this "what am I?", "what is love?" and "gee willikins, I can have sex!". And some other things, but as that would really need getting into details, I think I'll pass. Check it out, though. Jukkahoo says: "verra nizza!"

What isn't very nice, is another childhood/teenage love: "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Oh, for f**k sake what a piece of c**p! Laugh-free near two hours, with decent choices as characters, but utterly dismal script and staggeringly fun-free dialogue. How the frag can they manage to distill Adams' radio-play/books void of anything funny? C'mon, the dialogue was there already! How can you possibly take out all the humour? What kind of a sick joke is this movie? How could that brainless twat at the showing snicker and giggle thoughout the entire movie? How is it possible, that I actually paid good money to see this... travesty? I could've just burned the tenner, or wipe my nose with it. Must have been both funnier and less painful that way.

New Galactica = Good. HHGG-movie = Bad. Health = Good.

Summa summarum = doubleplusgood. I can live with that.

Ken Burns Effect

Posted by Sari

Everybody and their sister is saying this but it is still true: Digibox is a worth-wile investment just because YLE Teema. Almost every day there is something really worth watching. At the moment my favourite is Ken Burn's documentary on American Civil war. Burns is justly famous for his documentaries, in fact his way of uniting spoken dialogue with zooming in and out of stills has become such a part of film-making that the zooming and panning effect is actually called Ken Burns Effect.

I love Burns documentaries, propably most because he is really good at picking interesting subjects. His historical documentaries have a pretty impressive range from Frank Lloyd Wright to Baseball  and from the history of Radio to American Suffragettes, and they all manage show light on one more piece of America.

Burns does follow the same pattern which can be a bit boring (you can and you really should download an absolutely brilliant Burns spoof "Old Negro Space Program" here), but the makers have made a real effort of digging up material for their films. The amount of pictures, paintings, letters, diaries and other documents make the story intimate and interesting. Even though his narrator frames the story and he obviously has chosen his original material to match, the scope of the narrative mixed with his nose for genuinely good human interest stories balance films out nicely.

Ken's brother Ric is also a maker of documentaries and had produced my favourite documentary ever: The history of New York. Last time I was over there I bit the bullet and bought the whole glorious fifteen hours of it. Now if YLE would buy that. Or better yet, make good historical documentaries. Sodan ja Rauhan miehet was the last good one, and that film is about quarter of a century old...

Edited to Add: Shelby Foote, the honey-voiced novelist/amateur historian who was the main talking head in the Civil War documentary died on last Monday night

Lord of the Rings query

Being incurable nerds we spent one (or two or three...) evenings in our extremely comfy log cabin at Levi arguing about the merits of Peter Jackson's LotR movies. Most of us, that is. Taru just watched our nitpicking baffled, Lauri was too young to be yet indoctrinated and the dogs did not really care one way or the other as long as there were cardboard wraps for them to destroy. The rest of us threw ourselves into the discussion wholeheartedly, aided with all sorts of alcholic beverages.

Numerous opinions were presented and their merits debated in friendly but extremely professional manner, nobody was physically assaulted and a consensus emerged that the movies, though flawed and different from our visions, were all-in-all a valid, lovingly crafted interpretation of Prof. Tolkien's saga.

But as at present during these discussions were a former chairperson, former vice-chairperson, two former treasurers, one former secretary and a former general éminence grise of the Finnish Tolkien Society, we each had pet peeves about the movies, some minor some major. Inspired by this here is a mission for you: name one thing you think the movies failed with abysmally and one thing they succeeded triumphantly.

Be specific, not something like "actors" or "battles", but specific characters, interpretations, scenes, sets etc. And yes you can only pick one of each. Be as silly and irrelevant and fanboyish as you wish. This is not about being fair and balanced, this is about being FOX-news: get on the barricades for your insignificant detail or major reinterpretation that for some stupid reason just annoys your fanboy/fangirl sensibilities and screw reasonability. It does not matter that that the movie logic might have demanded the change or that the new interpretation works well enough or in a way better; if you don't like it you don't like it.

Me first.
Abysmal failure: Aragorn. Yes really. The Aragorn of the books was not an angsty modern man who went through character-forming changes and grew up to be a king during the events depicted in the books. What he was, was a an almost hundred years old king-in-waiting abiding his time, he had learned what he needed and made the choices he had long before the narrative begins. He was a hero in the mold of Beowulf, not Henry V.

triumphant success: Mines of Moria. From the moment they enter the mines to the moment Boromir says "They've got a cavetroll", they do not put foot wrong. The sets, the dialogue, the music, the pacing. It just works like a dream.

Okay, your turn.

halling, hambo, reel, gopak

Posted by jukkahoo

Lately, I've been mostly ill. Confoundedly, I realise that this is actually the very first flu I've had in a long time. Over a year. I may have had a slight case of "nuhakuume" at some point, but no real illness. I wasn't even ill when I had my chemo, which in a hindsight can be seen as a very good thing indeed.

These past few days have been the most troublesome. The pleghm seems to like it inside of me and sees apparently no reason to come out via my nostrils. Thus creating a rather disturbing sense of clogged nose without drainage. And the blasted cough is hard-hitting and at times really annoying, but at the same time strangely subdued, like it is behind some unknown kerberos, unable to squeeze past the beast. Lying dormant there, waiting for the right moment to pop up and start it's merry rebelling.

This almost happened last Wednesday ie. yesterday, when I was giving a lecture/show-and-tell on fantasy literature, with Sini Neuvonen. I started with trying to define what fantasy really is (to a three scores of bewildered librarians) and before I really managed to mangle thru fantasy and SF, I realised that I was no longer able to speak properly. My throat was dry, I had trouble breathing and my body was trying to cough, but was unable to do so. I did lost my train of thought too, which was the really embarrassing point, but I was really, really unable to continue.

I took a wee brake, drank several cups of water (as well as popping some Strepsils and Silomat pills to my mouth) and continued with the show, trying to breath steadily, focus on the speaking - and eventually it went a lot better afterwards. We had a short break and I saw Leena who was participating and forgot to mention that Sari is in America and would most probably enjoy an email from her/anyone (wink, wink, nudge, nudge!!!). I drank a cup of hot chocolate and took another one with me to the auditorium, and the rest of the piece went very well, though I must say I was a bit dissappointed with the amount of questions we were asked. I know we're Finnish, but last time we did the same thing, the Espoo librarians had dozens of Q's to ask. Most of them even intelligent. Like the ones we had yesterday, too.

I'm happy with the over-all show, even if the beginning had the makings of a disaster, but luckily there were two of us. It was a basic explanation of what fantasy is, where it comes from and what it has to do with Libraries (the main point, really) and librarians. And they payed us money. Which is nice.

I had this other thing to say too.

Where are all the good SF-films nowadays? I have had a LOT of time to spend, while Sari has been in US and I've been ill. The local Filmtown may not be a perfect specimen of DVD-rentals at their very best, but still. There's precious little good SF available, not to mention made. This was also pointed out couple of weeks back, when we were out with Alastair Reynolds and (I guess it was Toni) pointed out, that not a single Great SF-film (and it's Science Fiction here) has been made since the 20th century. Or can you name one? Toni later raised a flick called Cypher out as the one that's a great one, but most of us hadn't seen it. It's directed by Vincenzo Natali who also made the original Cube.

Talking about SF-films, I saw a Japanese film called Returner, which was OK'ish. It had nice visuals, decent cgi and pretty people posing, but ultimately I have seen too many "mankind is going to be destroyd by the evil aliens/robots/younameit, unless this one guy/girl manages to return back in time and save the world, while the baddies are trying get rich by being way too stoooooopid" -plotted movies. It looked good and the way over the top bad guy was fun too. The thing I had in my to mention, was the translation. Our DVD tried to made me watch it in English. I changed the setting back to original Japanese, but due to some incredibly clumsy fingering on my part, I managed to shut my machine at one point. And again our DVD tried to offer me the English version.

And here's the fine point. The scene when I fumbled was one where the evil dude was rebelling against his evil Chinese boss-man, who was both speaking Chinese as well as commanding the evil gun-crazy weird sicko of a main baddie to speak the lingo too. This I know from reading the Finnish subtitles. None of which would've made any sense if I'd been watching the English dubbing. Since they were all speaking English and the Chinese fellow didn't order the other guy to speak Chinese. Which was still "said" with subtitles. Pleasant to see that the translation was really made from Japanese.

Next weekend will be Turkey Festival weekend at our place. Plenty of Turkish films and bheer, chili and late sleeping.

Mediakritiikkia

Posted by Sari

Mr. Elk (jonka kommenteihin en jostain syysta paase) kritisoi blogissaan suomalaisten medioiden, erityisesti maikkarin amerikkauutisointia. Ja aika lailla samaa mielta olen ja vahan toisenlaisesta mediaperspektiivista. Kun meidan huushollissa ei ole kaapelia ja antenni ei skulaa kauhean hyvin, ei telkkarista ole tullut vaalivaittelyiden lisaksi mitaan katsottua. Nain ollen oma uutisperspektiivini koostuu paivittain luetusta New York Timesista, Washington Postin netista ja silloin talloin kasiin eksyvasta USA Todaysta. Sita taydentavat sitten demokraattispainotteiset blogit kuten Political Animal, TalkingPointsMemo, Eschaton ja Matt Yglesias. Suomenkielella uutiset tulevat lahes ainoastaan hesarin netin sahkeuutisista. Ja huolimatta siita etta amerikkalainen uutisvalitykseni on vahvasti painottunut vasemmalle, niin hesarin kerryspin jaksaa silti aina yllattaa. Ei niin etteiko amerikkalainen eurooppa-uutisointi olisi viela paljon naurettavammalla tasolla.

Vaaleista puheenollen, Michael Moore on onnistunut ainakin yhdessa asiassa: dokumenteista on tullut merkittava vaalitaistelun valine. Kavin eilen katsomassa Kerry-dokumentin Going Upriver, joka kuvasi Kerryn aikaa Vietnamissa ja osallistumistaan sodanvastaiseen liikkeeseen. Siina haastateltiin Kerryn sisaruksia, opiskelutovereita, alaisia Vietnamista ja kolleegoita veteraaniliikkeesta. Jollain tapaa yllattavaa oli sen sanoisinko hienovaraisuus. Ottaen huomioon kuinka taalla on tapana vaantaa kaikki rautalangasta ja alleviivata viela kuuteentoista kertaan, oli tama Kerryyn kritiikittoman positiivisesti suhtautuva dokkari ihan katsottava.

Puhuvien paiden lisaksi sanomaa valitettiin kuvastolla: Alussa Coppolan kuvastosta tutut napalmin ja savuntaytteiset kuvat Mekong- joelta vuorottelivat filminpatkien kanssa nuoresta Kerrysta purjehtimassa ja pelaamassa touch-footballia. Haettu assosiaatio oli aika selva: JFK. Eika filmintekijoiden tarvinnut edes itsensa artikuloida tata, sen teki heidan puolestaan Nixon, joka yhdella Valkoisen Talon kuuluisista nauhoista keskustelee Colsonin kanssa Kerryn todistuksesta Senaatin ulkoasiainkomitealle: Very like JFK.

Otaksuttavasti aika pitkalle yleiso oli Kerryn kannattajia joten leffan vaikutuksesta on vaikea sanoa mitaan, mutta oli hauskaa katsella elokuvaa katsomaan tulleiden elakeikaa lahestyvien reaktioita, heista useampi jai juttelemaan nuorempien katsojien kanssa ja kertomaan omakohtaisia kokemuksiaan sodasta tai protestiliikkeesta. Niin se aika kuluu: "greatest generation" alkaa poistua keskuudestamme ja boomereista on tulossa oraalisen historian valittajasukupolvi joka lapikay menneisyyden traumoja.

Going Upriver pyorii elokuvateattereissa ja Fahrenheit 9/11 ilmestyi juuri DVD:na. Eniten keskustelua dokumenteista ja/tai vaalimainoksista on kuitenkin herattanut Sinclair Broadcasting Groupin paatos pakottaa paikalliset TV-asemansa muuttamaan ohjelmistoaan ja lahettamaan juuri vaalien alla Kerrykriittisen dokumentin "Stolen Honor", jonka esittamat faktat, kuten Swift Boat Veteran's For the Truth" -jarjeston eivat oikein kesta paivanvaloa. Federal Communications Comissionin puheenjohtaja Reed Hundt on ilmaissut huolensa.

 

Did the earth move?

HS says you guys had an earthquake around Baltic Sea. Golly! So did you feel it?

Here the weather is sunny and warm and the last of Ivan's wind and rain blew away already on Sunday. Flying in on Saturday was less fun as there was fair bit of turbulence. Which reminds me, one of the in-flight movies was Troy. And I watched it. Well, almost all of it. I suppose that watching the movie from the tiny screen on aeroplane does not do justice to the movie but even so, that was torture beyond words. Silly scenery, awful acting, still more awful dialogue, crappy plot obviously "based on some of the things this Homer-guy wrote about but not really", and if that was the face that launced a thousand ships...

NY review of books has an erudite if a bit long-winded review of the film which nontheless sometimes hits the nail right on:

What sets the climax of the Illiad in motion is the killing of Achilles' beloved companion, Patroclus, at the hands of Hector—another loss, but this time one that propels the sulky hero back into vengeful action. Fueled, no doubt, by a desire to expunge the vaguest hint of homoeroticism from the proceedings —by classical times, the debate wasn't so much whether Achilles and his beloved Patroclus were doing it, as rather, as in Plato's Symposium, who was doing just what to whom—Benioff makes Patroclus Achilles' "cousin," a bizarre choice that (particularly in an era when family ties have never counted for less) has increasingly hilarious results as the action progresses. Watching Troy, you'd think that there was no higher value for the Bronze Age Greeks than cousinage. "He killed my cousin!" Achilles shrieks at Priam when the latter comes begging for his son's body at the end of the story. "You've lost your cousin, now you've taken mine," a mournful Briseis (in this version, Hector's cousin) tells Achilles. "When does it end?" This film's notion that entire civilizations were destroyed because of excessive attachment to one's collateral relations is, surely, a first in world myth-making.

Matrix

Posted by Sari

Our video rental is moving, closer to us. This I found out when we decided to slack off on Easter Sunday and check out some DVD's. That was the good news. The bad news was that apparently I have not developed any kind of instinct about these things because I insisted we rented Matrix Revolutions. What a waste of money. Sound and fury signifying nothing, to use a cliché.

The romance did not work, and with that went all the believability of the love conquers everything -theme. I kept shouting "die already" at Trinity in her last scene. The plot (there was a plot?) did not work. Honestly what as going on? The pacing was terrible: boring pseudo-philosophical mumbo-jumbo (all things that have a beginning, have an end...) intercut with massive battle-scenes. The pseudo-philosophical mumbo-jumbo did not work and the allusions to all sorts of messiah-figures were so heavy-handed that the thing was almost a trite allegory. It is not enough to raise questions about life, death, humanity, individuality, free will, reality and causality if you do not do it well enough to get people thinking about these things.

Me, I am with my sister and her colleague who had a much better ending for Matrix: what if both the Matrix and the Zion world would have been simulations and the purpose of the experiment was to push Neo (a program) into becoming the first AI. That would have been really interesting and would have explained all the plot-holes and logical inconsistensies and the fact that Neo is a bit of a thickie...

On the plus-side, Carrie-Ann Moss still looks extremely cool, I want Neo's coat, Hugo Weaving hams brilliantly and the superhero battle at the end was comic-book like to make me feel all nostalgic about 1980s Marvel and DC. But really!