The_TJT

One of the best Finnish classic films. Watching the new HD print I was pleasantly surprised how cinematic it is; clearly the famed director, Mikko Niskanen, was influenced by French New Wave, perhaps Soviet cinema as well. It's a story about young love in narrow-minded small town, a town which doesn't accept the relationship between the two lovers. Could have been a brilliant film instead of a great film - if the commercially inclined producer, Donner, had not insisted cutting the whole film anew on editing table and even filming an unnecessary scene of his own, regardless of director's wishes... making the outcome become somewhat fractured and different from Niskanen's original vision. The director apparently never watched the finished product himself. Still, a great classic with social criticism on small town mentality and a heartfelt love story with good performances and many colorful characters.

ASFALTTILAMPAAT (1968) is the last film in Niskanen's youth trilogy, all three of which starred the lovely female lead, Kirsti Wallasvaara. The other two films were about complications of free relationships in KÄPY SELÄN ALLA (1966) and social/socialist movement in LAPUALAISMORSIAN (1967), the former having more of a cult status in Finland. I would argue that "Asfalttilampaat" is at least equally impressive as a film and even more so visually, although probably not as groundbreaking on depicting youth culture of the time. Great product of its time, with a timeless story.

The film got a very much deserved Jussi Award for best cinematography and is probably best remembered for the theme song "Sinua, sinua rakastan".

Forgotten gem of a classic war drama, delivered with taste and nice looking b/w cinematography. The story follows a platoon of US soldiers across several cities on their conquest of Europe during WWII. It's more of a compilation of vignettes on the platoon members' wartime affairs with local European women rather than a traditional war film, being almost devoid of battle scenes. Yet the presence of war is always felt; as in the superb bombing scene with Sgt Craig and the wealthy French war widow, played by Wallach and Moreau.

"The Victors" has a great all-round cast of characters, including George Hamilton as corporal Trower, Eli Wallach as the tough sergeant, Jeanne Moreau and Rosanna Schiaffino playing short but memorable segments as the conquered women, to name a few. The version I saw has a relatively long running time of two and half hours, and is sometimes slightly slow for all tastes.... which is however compensated with several high impact scenes that linger well after the fact... for example one with Peter Fonda and a doomed puppy. The film is a great character study on human condition and makes a strong anti-war message, especially in the snowy execution scene of a deserter with Sinatra's Christmas song playing in the background... a contrast of tender music and violence which contributes to one of the most striking scenes in cinematic history... a combination later seen in many films such as Kubrik's DR. STRANGELOVE (1964), Leone's THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1966), Peckinpah's CROSS OF IRON (1977) - and of course various Tarantino films where the meaning is to rather glorify violence instead of criticizing it.

"The Victors" is based on British writer Alexander Baron's book "The Human Kind", which is a collection of short stories based on the author's own wartime experiences. Excellent film.

Existential angst from Bergman; and a somewhat entertaining story of a knight (Max von Sydow) and his servant returning from crusades. A story which doesn't advance much but merely serves as a medieval backdrop for the protagonist's spiritual journey - in this film Bergman asks if God exists.

The film is supposed to take place in 14th century Sweden during bubonic plague (aka The Black Death), which fits the theme perfectly. However the costumes and props are rather low quality which doesn't make the film credible outside of its metaphysical introspection. Camera work is mediocre at best; the scenes consist mostly on static one camera shots focused on narrow view. The lack of production values is quite apparent while it was shot in one month, mostly inside a studio and with a budget of 150k dollars. In other words you can't make great panorama takes if there are only two medieval mock up shacks inside the studio...

The story is somewhat entertaining, not as boring as I expected from essential art cinema. The dialogue is often intellectually interesting and some images are very artistic, mainly on the scenes where the protagonist struggles with theological issues. So those are strong points of the film: dialogue and occasionally impressive, haunting, images.

On the meaning of grim reaper and chess, the talking point of the film... I wasn't quite convinced with grim reaper following Sydow's knight in first place - he seemed in perfect health to me, as did other characters. Yes, the knight had cheated death when returning alive from crusades but still. Perhaps the point was people seeking answer whether God exists from death while the grim reaper doesn't have the answer either. If this was the meaning then that would make it an atheistic film, or agnostic the very least. 7/10