THE HISTORY OF FINNISH CINEMA

1. THE HISTORY OF FINNISH CINEMA Jaakko Seppälä Jaakko.i.seppala@helsinki.fi

2. The Early Years • First film screening in Finland 18.6.1896. • First Finnish feature film: The Moonshiners (1907) • Themes and characteristics of Finnish cinema: • Consumption of alcohol • Depictions of nature • Adaptations of domestic plays and literature • Strong female characters • Many of the early films were rather local than national • In 1916 filmmaking activities were forbidden by the Russian authorities. • In these early years 25 fiction films were made and hundreds of short documentary-like films. • Fictions films made in this era are considered lost.

3. Atelier Apollo’s landscape film

4. Atelier Apollo’s landscape film

5. A Secret Command Behind the Inheritance (1914)

6. The Formative Years • New production companies were being established in the late 1910s. • Among them Suomi-FilmiOy • Finnish film industry faced a crisis • Film was not recognised as art (heavy taxes) • Civil war had divided Finnish people in two • Hollywood films dominated national markets • Companies began to produce distinctively national films. • Finnish rural films proved audience favourites.

7. The Burglary (1926)

8. Sound Film • Synchronised sound films have been made in Finland since 1931. • Spoken native tongue became an important attraction. • In 1937 an average domestic film made seven times as much money as an average imported film. • OySuomenFilmiteollisuus was established in 1933 and it began to compete with Suomi-FilmiOy. • New genres and film cycles: • Military farces • Logroller films • Modern city comedies • Historical patriotic dramas

9. Popular Themes in Hard Times • The Winter War (1939–1940) • The Continuation War (1941–1944) • Finnish film industry was doing well. • People craved for escapist entertainment. • Every new Finnish film was seen by 10% of the entire population. • New film cycle: elaborate costume Films • Romantic fantasies set in the 19th century • Biggest stars: Tauno Palo and AnsaIkonen

10. Tauno Palo and Ansa Ikonen

11. The End of the Studio Era • Problem films as representatives of the post-war era sentiments • These were also known as syphilis films • 1950s started with an ascending economic curve for the Finnish film industry. • Remakes of old favourites, detective films and ballad films (Finnish musicals) • The biggest success: The Unknown Soldier (1955) • The film was seen by 2 700 000 spectators

12. The Unknown Soldier (Laine, 1955)

13. Changing values • Finnish cinema faced a crisis in the late 1950s and it deepened in the 1960s. • Big production companies suffered the most. • New generation of film critics began to criticise the trends and style of the old Finnish cinema. • There was a demand for art cinema. • The 1960s saw the birth of new kind of Finnish cinema. • Finnish new wave was influenced by European art cinemas. • New films failed to attract large audiences. • UunoTurhapuro -comedies were smash hits.

14. Skin (Niskanen, 1966)

15. Vesa-Matti Loiri as Uuno Turhapuro”Numbscull Emptybrook”

16. Contemporary Finnish Cinema • Finnish cinema suffered from lack of spectators throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s. • The new wave was short lived. • Aki and Mika Kaurismäki began their careers in the early 1980s. • Films were favourably received at film festivals. • Boom years 1999 and 2000 • Old genres and representations of past became popular once again (now treated with nostalgia). • Internationality mixed with Finnishness • Car chases in Helsinki, Kung-fu in Finnish forests etc.

17. Lordi – new national hero?

18. Introductions to Finnish cinema • Tytti Soila, ’Finland’ in Tytti Soila, Astrid SöderberghWidding and Gunnar Iversen, Nordic National Cinemas (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 31-95. • Pietari Kääpä (ed.), Directory of World Cinema: Finland (Bristol: Intellect, 2012) • Peter Cowie, Finnish Cinema (Helsinki: Suomen Elokuvasäätiö, 1990).