FAVOURITE FILMS: Pickpocket

Pickpocket (dir. Robert Bresson, 1959)

Pickpocket’s lead Michel (Martin LaSalle) has striking looks. He’s handsome like a statue but what’s most remarkable about him is his gaze. He seems almost blank with his guarded body language. Eyes are the mirror of the soul; it’s the eyes and LaSalle’s way of watching that unveil the hidden excitement and suspense in Michel.

When I saw Pickpocket, I had woken up in the middle of the night - I couldn’t get any more sleep so I decided to watch a movie from local TV’s internet broadcasting service. My plan was to watch it for a while and then try sleeping again. But from the very beginning of Pickpocket, I was hooked.

Pickpocket tells the story of - well - a pickpocket. Michel lives with nothing in a sad little room in Paris. He’s lonely, he doesn’t have money, his mother is sick. And then he starts pickpocketing. He has nothing and thievery starts to fill his life.

The movie is a true gem. It says little but shows much with it’s magnificent cinematography. There's something quite Chekhov-y about the film that is loosely based on Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment: it's the simple plot and the way it peeks into the life of this interesting individual and pickpocketing. The importance of atmosphere - which is masterfully achieved - and not trying to tell the whole story but just the part of it.

This is one of the masterpieces of cinema.

REVIEW: Toni Erdmann

Toni Erdmann (dir. Maren Ade, 2016)
***

Toni Erdmann is a story of a man called Winfried who wants to get closer to his thriving adult daughter. When his dog dies, this old man just pops to Bucharest where Ines is working for an oil company. In the process of taking care of his daughter in his own unique way, Winfried creates an alter ego called Toni Erdmann. Things get weird and very funny.

This movie has a lot of hype around it, it won FIPRESCI Award in Cannes and the way it has been talked about made me think this was going to be something truly fresh and enjoyable.

For my surprise, the movie didn't live up with the expectations. The film is crazy long and for the first part I found myself staring at the screen and feeling like I had already seen this film. It was dragging along with handheld camera - I do not like handheld camera for just the sake of it. Very few movies have the justification in the plot/atmosphere to use it so it almost never looks good.

When alter ego Toni Erdmann comes into picture, the pace gets a bit better, but in the end, there was just so much footage that should have been left behind. Kill your darlings. Please.

Main problem was that the aim for this movie was to be not just comedy but also a drama. If they would have had focus on what they did the best, it would have been a fresh watch and I would have cared more about the characters. Instead, they tried to build deeper into father-daughter communication; and I couldn't find anything new in their way of picturing it. There wasn't enough change in the characters to stay interested for almost three hours and other themes that were slightly touched passed by and I wanted to scream after them "that was something I would have loved to see more about!"

Toni Erdmann is a good movie but for that length, I truly think the movie should have more in it. More of anything.

Julieta (2016)

Pedro Almodóvar's Julieta was truly a gift for the Finnish audiences after a scarily bad film summer. It premiered last Friday; me and my friend went to see it yesterday. Simply said, Julieta is a great movie. Although slow paced, the story goes inevitably on by rhythm well fitted to the soundtrack. It's a story of guilt, ghosts from the past and missing people you love the most; it's intense without being overly dramatic.

I might have wanted to dive deeper into the relationships of Julieta, but on the other hand it was great to see so clearly that it was her side of the story coloured with memories and guilt. And I definitely didn't want to see so badly animated moose (like what. the. fuck. You know what I'm talking about when you see it). All in all the movie was very enjoyable with natural performances and beautiful cinematography. Highly recommended.

Espoo Ciné International Film Festival 2016

Helsinki International Film Festival (Love & Anarchy) has been an annual event for me for couple of years, but this is the first time I’ll attend Espoo Ciné - partly because I’m going to miss HIFF this year.

I chose these six movies as my festival repertoire:

The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (Hymyilevä mies / Juho Kuosmanen / 2016)
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Hymyilevä mies won Un Certain Regard at Cannes. That’s enough reason to see it: generally there doesn't seem to be much artistic ambition in the Finnish movie scene. The movie seems fresh, fun and beautiful and I can't wait to see it.

All About Them (À trois on y va / Jérôme Bonnell / 2015)
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I saw The New Girlfriend at last year’s HIFF and really enjoyed Anaïs Demoustier’s performance as a lead. The movie promises fun play with clichés and what's greater in a comedy?

Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud / 2007)
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Even though I have never read Persepolis, it’s reputation could not be missed. Both comics and animation are dear to me so this is going to be very interesting movie to see. Learning about lives that differ so much from ours is also so so important.

Love & Friendship (Whit Stallman / 2016)
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If it's just even close to as funny and quirky as the trailer, I'm going to have a great time.

Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade / 2016)
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Described fun and weird - sounds just about right for me.

Le Fils de Joseph (Eugène Green / 2016)
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Interesting themes of family, parenthood and religion - seems like a movie that sums up everything and paints a big, beautiful picture about life.

Brace yourself, change is coming

I'm just over month away from the big moment: moving to London. The thought of new city, new country, new studies and absolutely new life used to scare me but now I'm surprisingly at ease with it. Why should I worry? I know I'll land on my feet. I always have.

Leaving soon makes me feel differently about myself and my surroundings. Due moving around quite much as a child, I have never really felt like I belong to a place; now I have found one home with dear co-workers at my usual summer job place. I know I'll be coming back there next year too. My mother's house feels cosier than ever as the cats are so cuddly after me being away for most of the summer.

I have even found some of my roots. I love Finnish language more than ever and want to buy everything Moomin item I lie my eyes upon. I have realised how much I actually love the sea - and that's it's not just me, but that seawater flows deep in my veins as there are connections to the sea from both sides of my family.

Lately I have had to learn some hard life lessons: and the most important thing was that I don't have to face them alone. The people that have given me so much compassion, love and understanding won't fade away.

They'll have my back, where ever I am. That's something that doesn't change, and for that, I can make it.

What to watch on YouTube: Tom Rosenthal's music videos

Tom Rosenthal is a London based artist, whose quirky melodies and lyrics make me laugh and cry. Almost as much as I love his music, I love the videos attached to the songs. There is different approaches to music videos and I appreciate the way I feel like Tom himself sees videos really connected to his artistic work.

Many of the videos are made by him and his friends; they might be simple but almost all of them include some clever hook that makes them special and beautiful. My favourites are the new poetic Lead Me To You (directed by Annlin Chao) and Middle of My Mind.

There's so much beauty, meaning and power in something so terribly vulnerable and humane. 

X-Men: Apocalypse

I'm honestly a big X-Men fan. I've heard bold accusations that they aren't good movies or that I like them, my movie taste would be otherwise questionable. That's truly a pet peeve of mine; underestimating and ranking peoples' personal views on movies. I have had so much faith in X-Men and have always fought back the annoying comments.

But now, sitting in cinema in front of big screen showing X-Men: Apocalypse, I felt awkward. Because even though I've enjoyed watching all of the X-Men franchise before (haven't seen Wolverines though), I left the cinema with mixed but mainly disappointed feelings.

I was drooling over Michael Fassbender with a beard - but still giggled and sighed at the hugely cliché I'm-a-good-man-I-found-love-oh-shit-they-died-now-I'll-destroy-the-world plot line. Many of the coolest characters (Psylocke, anyone?) didn't have almost any screen time. What about the mixed timeline that didn't have any sense at points? Characters didn't seem to be any older than before.

The worst thing, though, was the very awkward way they underlined the franchise. Lame jokes. Lame references. The movie seemed to shout WATCH ALL OF THE MOVIES ALL OF THEM WE ARE SO COOL AND FUNNY all over the place. It was not cool.

Because movies should work on their own. Because that's what I've always loved about X-Mens - they haven't felt like a money making machine.

The young actors really shined though - I had read an article on Empire, where they all told about their experience, but even without reading it beforehand it was very clear that this job was such a big deal for all of them. They gave their all. I've never really liked Jean Grey, but Sophie Turner (whom I admit to love unconditionally, but her skill was definitely not just my blind appreciation) showed a Phoenix that I couldn't help but admire.

There was a lot of potential, but it didn't deliver. I'm just hoping that the upcoming X-Men movies return to the quality we are used to.