Teuvo Tulio(1912-2000)

As the melodramas, so often looked down upon, of various national cinemas are now being rediscovered, those of the Finnish director Tulio are among those reassessed, similar with the melodramas of the Italian Raffaello Matarazzo. Tulio was a heartthrob silent actor who played several gypsy type roles and graduated to directing toward the end of the 1930s. His films combine strong erotic elements and beautiful Scandinavian landscapes in the style of Swedish pioneers Seastrom and Stiller, with musical accompaniment pushed to the forefront and Russian style montage ( he edited most of these films) .Add to this heady brew a strong component of feminism, as the Finnish auteur identifies with the plight of his women who are treated unfairly as sex objects.