Change Your Image
shop
Reviews
Gohatto (1999)
love between samurai
Although thoroughly traditional, this movie is in no way difficult to understand. Here every word and movement has its own profound meaning. The movie craves for your attention. Characters being subtle enough to get close to a modern audience, this film is really worth seeing. And the eventual scenario couldn't have been more witty- filled with the lovely taste of surprise and horror. This is a kind of harsh romance that is seldom seen in films produced in the West. Not a single trace of sentimentality can be found in this excellent work of art.
Det gode og det onde (1975)
the absurdities of everyday life
I found this film rather confusing, and for different reasons. OK, the 'philosophical' purposes might have been praiseworthy, but somehow my reactions about the film were rather ambivalent. Some of the scenes, or tableaus, raised many interesting questions. How did the audience react in front of the 5-minute, and totally quiet shooting of naked faces? And what was the point in showing some every-day-activities drawn out of their context? There were people eating, sitting, talking...but were they really eating, sitting or talking? The human figures in front of the audience seemed somehow to dissolve; I experienced some kind of estrangement to their humanity. But then there was some 70's chliches, which blurred the thoughts for me; naked people, men wearing fancy suits smoking fat cigars, some hippie songs.... But, as a whole, it was an interesting 'film'. Or was it a film, perhaps it was a demonstration of the absurdity resting under the surface of ordinary language and everyday-life.
American Psycho (2000)
Deep or superficial?
When I waited for the film to start, I expected to be an ordinary horror film. I must say that I was quite surprised. The opening scene with Bateman taking off his skin care mask was great- under this mask he is wearing another one, a mask which isolates him from any type of human contact. The film refers, although in an ironic way,to the discussion about the postmodern man, who is what he wears. As Bateman himself claims: "the modern man cannot feel anything but disgust and greed". I found the film very depressing- there is no "real" world or identity; everything we have is our own conception of the word.
There are also other interesting comments about modern culture in the film. The references to Psycho and a Clockwork Orange are obvious.
I liked the way that the film was arranged. The director didn't concentrate too much on the violence. Perhaps the focusing on the eightíes-stuff stole someone's attention , but it was still necessary, because it revealed Bateman's own outlook on the world. I thought that this film was at least as good as the other work of the director.(I Shot Andy Warhol is to be recommended)
Tuntematon sotilas (1985)
a realistic film about the 2 world war
This new version of Tuntematon Sotilas is very different from the earlier one made during the fifties, when Finland still had vivid memories from the war. In Mollberg's version there are less humour, and in addition to this there are nothing left of the nationalism, that we are used to connect with this kind of movies. Tuntematon Sotilas reflects about the situation of the soldier and the front-men as a mass. Instead of pathetic patriotism the film tells about the war without great gestures and bloody action scenes. The director keeps Väinö Linna's very critical outlook on the world.