TOVE - BFI Flare 2012

TOVE is a beautifully filmed, fascinating biopic about Tove Jannsen, the creator of the Moomins. We first meet Tove as young woman in bombed out post-war Helsinki, stifled by her famous sculptor farmer, so much so that she moves into a flat with no water or heat. Like her graphic artist mother, Tove has a talent for caricatures and cartoons, but has internalised her father's disdain for anything other than fine art. Nonetheless, she has courage enough to publish anti-Hitler cartoons, and to live her life in search of happiness and without concern for convention. Accordingly, when we meet her she is beginning what would be a lifelong friendship and a fairly long affair with a married Member of Parliament. And when she meets the talented theatre director Vivica Bandler, she doesn't hesitate to express her love for her too.  What follows is a passionate love affair but also one carried out in post-war Finland where the risk associated with it and the pressure to marry leave both Tove and Vivica ultimately unable to live together. But - by the end of the film - a Tove empowered by her financial independence and success and increasing self-confidence - does find her lifelong love.  Though it's testament to her talent for friendship that she remans  close to both Vivica and her Arno, the politician.

Alma Poysti is deeply affecting as Tove Jannsen in a performance that is brave and vulnerable and joyous by turns.  A good example of the power of the writing and performance is a scene late in the film where she starts dancing to a Benny Goodman dance number - it seems riotous and joyous but then turns almost violent and angry before ending in tears and an extreme close-up. I also very much admired how much the film-makers had done on such a low budget with sumptuously shot interiors and a fantastic swing infused score. 

TOVE has a running time of 100 minutes. The filmed played Toronto 2020 and BFI Flare 2021. It opened in Finland last year but does not yet have a commercial release date in the UK or USA.

IRON SKY - Moon nazis!

There are lots of movie with hilarious titles, but few that live up to them. (SNAKES ON A PLANE, I'm looking at you.)  IRON SKY is, on the whole, a movie that's worth checking out.  After all, it would take a total bah-humbug kill-joy not to enjoy a movie who's concept is Moon Nazis!  The idea is that in the final days of World War II, the Nazis sent a colony to the Moon, which has since gathered strength and is now returning to invade a near-future USA run by Sarah Palin.

First off, for what is presumably a low-budget feature, the movie looks fantastic. All the space effects, space-station sets and costumes are superb, and the scenes on the moon are definitely the best in the film.   Second, the movie has a handful of absolutely on-point black-comedy moments. Like when the Moon Nazis use a highly edited version of Chaplin's Hitler spoof, THE GREAT DICTATOR, to make it look like its Hitler propaganda.  Or when the President's aide tries to tell her Moon Nazis are coming and she thinks that it's merely a WAG THE DOG like set-up to get her re-elected. Or when she totally identifies with the Blut und Boden values of the Nazis.   

That said, the movie has its weaknesses. Half the time the humour is just too broad for my liking, and veers from black satire to cheap lampoon. I guess that's just what you have to expect from an Udo Kier movie. I didn't particularly get or feel comfortable with the plot line that sees a US soldier turned white. And Sarah Palin is a pretty easy target. My suspicion is that there is a very funny, more intelligent 45 minute short film hiding underneath this baggy full-length feature.

IRON SKY played Berlin and SXSW 2012. It was released earlier this year in Finland, Norway, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Croatia, Poland, Australia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Ireland, the UK and Fiji. It will be released in Romania on June 22nd, in Singapore on June 28th, in Lithuania on June 29th, in the Czech Republic, Russia and Slovakia on July 12th and in New Zealand on August 12th.

AIR GUITAR NATION - who knew?!

AIR GUITAR NATION is a hillarious and bizarrely fascinating documentary by TV producer/docu director Alexandra Lipsitz. It follows a couple of American air guitarists as they compete for the American title and, most importantly, a chance to compete in the Annual World Air Guitar Championships in Oolu, Finland. At first, the film feels like a mockumentary or a spoof in the style of SPINAL TAP or even WAYNE'S WORLD. But pretty soon, you're aware that this is a genuine counter-cultural movement. For every C-Diddy that wears an absurd costume and strutts the stage Tenacious-D stylee, there are scores of real-life, serious-as-Sarbox metal-heads who do NOT permit you to mock the "art" of air guitar. The ultimate example of this is two-time world champion, Zac Munro who talks with unerring belief in The Zen of Air Guitar and the difficulty of handling the pressure of fame.

You can watch this doc. on two levels. First, and most importantly, it's just a lot of fun. It's great to hear those classic rock-tunes blasting out and a bunch of guys with, for the most part, serious day-jobs, unashamedly rocking out in public. I defy even the most grinchiest of grinches not to leave with a smile on their face. On another level, I find it fascinating to see the audience's expectations subverted. I mean, here are a bunch of people that a lot of people would consider to be losers - blowing a bit of stupidity out of all proportion. The guy I went to see this with couldn't imagine anything more stupid than being a semi-pro air guitarist and thought that the competitors would all be spotty teenage metal-head oiks! In fact, the guys in this doc seem pretty normal and if anything, admirably ambitious. So, there you have it!

AIR GUITAR NATION played a bunch of festivals in 2006 and was released in Japan earlier in 2007. It is currently on release in the UK. AIR GUITAR NATION is also available on Region 1 DVD.

LIGHTS IN THE DUSK/LAITAKAUPUNGIN VALOT - tragicomedy so deadpan it makes Droopy Dog look energetic

Koistinen is a loser. He has no friends, no lover, his co-workers take the piss out of him and he is so evidently a patsy that a cynical bunch of Helsinki thugs set him up for a heist, by way of a femme fatale. The artificial courtship takes up the first half hour of this short tragi-comedy and it is replete with director Aki Kaurismäki's trademark strained conversation, stylised framing and quirky set pieces.

Take the way in which the femme fatale breaks it off with Koistinen. He tentatively places his hand on her shoulder. She removes it. "Are you trying to break up with me?" he asks. "I need to travel. My mother is sick," she replies. "When do you need to leave?" he responds, forlorn. "Immediately." She gets up. Comedy so deadpan it makes Droopy Dog look energetic.

The second half of the movie is heavier work. The audience wills the movie to its obvious pay-off but Koistinen's masochistic passivity feels uncomfortably like sadism on the part of the director, the audience now complicit. Just how much more punishment can we watch? And perhaps the most damning thing I can say about this otherwise charming, though slight, film, is that at 77 minutes it feels around 15 minutes too long.

LIGHTS IN THE DUSK played Cannes, London and Toronto 2006 and was withdrawn by the director from the 2006 Oscar noms. It was released in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Greece, France, Poland, Russia, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands in 2006. It opened in Estonia, Spain, Italy and Hungary earlier this year. LIGHTS IN THE DUSK is currently on release in the UK and opens in the USA on June 13th 2007.