American Cinematographer - July 1989 - 86

theater

established

was

in

about

1903. The earliest known Finnish

films,

scenes

made

soon

of local interest,

were

after.

The

early history of the
picture is but little
known as only about 10% of the pre1920 films exist today. The movie
industry was never large because of
the country's cultural and geographic
insularity, its limited and largely
rural population - about 4.5 mil¬
lion people in an area of 130,000
square miles - and the barriers
imposed by a difficult language.
The country, which is spec¬
tacularly beautiful, is called Suomi
"swamp" - because it contains
some 60,000 lakes,
leavings of the
Ice Age. Forests cover two-thirds of
the land and the rocky, barely ac¬
Finnish motion

-

cessible

shores

are

dotted

with

80,000 islands. One-third of the
country lies above the Arctic Circle.
There

but three cities with popu¬
of more than 100,000:

are

lations

Helsinki, Turku and Tampere. The

language, incomprehensible else¬
where, is distantly related to Esto¬
nian, certain Northern Russian dia¬
lects, and Hungarian.
Yet, against all odds, there

developed a tradition of movies that
show
The

Japanese

making amateur movies

as

early

as

film, De brug (The

cinema at last

1911. A short

achieved
worldwide

Bridge, 1928), an impeccably photo¬
graphed and smoothly edited study
of the operation of the Maas River
drawbridge at Rotterdam, proved his
ability. Each scene is alive with
movement and relates organically to

rec¬

ognition with
Rashomon

(1950), with
Toshiro Mifune
and Machiko

Kyo.

all the

that surround it.

scenes

Regen (Rain, 1929) is the
most eloquent of Ivens' documenta¬
ries. Four months were spent pho¬
tographing the almost incessant rains
of autumn. From this footage
emerged a rhythmic depiction of the
effects of a rainstorm on the city. In
Branding (Breakers), made later that
year in the fishing village of Katwijk,
Ivens succeeded in combining his
documentary techniques with a
dramatic story. Greater successes lay
ahead for Ivens

over

the next five

decades.

Motion
Finland

via

the

Lumiere in the

pictures came to
Cinematographe
of 1896, six

minimum of outside artistic

or commercial taint. Atelier
Apollo,
founded by K. E. Stahlberg in 1906,
was the first
company established for
the making of movies on a regular
basis. Despite the lack of a profitable

market, the studio remained active
until 1912. Several other
were

companies

established later.

Salaviinanpolttajat (The
directed by Louis
Sparre and Teuvo Puro in 1907, was

Moonshiners),

the first Finnish narrative film and,
at about 20 minutes, the longest to
date. About 25 other such "features"
-

comedies, romantic stories and

where

100

-

the

country's first cinema

Year Start

on

Tomorrow

by Puro, Karl Fager and Erkki Karu
was an
important factor. While most
of the production companies were
collapsing, Karu's business sense
kept Suomi solvent, earning him the
sobriquet, "the strong man of Finn¬
ish cinema." The company, which
owns

a

theater circuit and is

an

importer of films, is still active.
Suomi Filmi's first

feature,

Ollin

oppivuolet (Olli's Years of Ap¬
prenticeship), directed by Puro in
1920, failed commercially and very
nearly wiped out the company. Puro
thereafter concentrated successfully
on
making dramatic films from no¬
table plays such as Kilhaus (The
Betrothal), Anna-Liisa (both in 1922),
and Meren kasvojen edessa (Before the
Face of the Sea, 1926).
Karu eventually produced
40 films and directed 18 of
them. He and Eero Levaluoma made

some

a

documentary, Finlandia (1922),
was distributed
internationally

which
-

a

"first"

for Finland.

Kosken-

laskijan morsian (The Lumberjack's
Bride, 1923), a strong influence on
future production in Finland, in¬
cludes a spectacular action sequence
in river rapids which was covered by
six cameras. Karu utilized subjective
photography in Nummisuutarit (The
Village Shoemakers, 1923), an imagi¬
native treatment of a youth's first en¬
counter with liquor, and the 1923
satire, Kun Isalla on Hammassarky
(When Father Has

a

Toothache), which

takes the forbidden booze from the
safe in the hope of quelling a tooth¬
ache shows a pursuing devil wield¬

duction

practical scale.
pre-1917 films
are known to exist
today save frag¬
ments of Sylvi (1913), produced and
directed by Puro. Despite production

pakolaiset

crudities this

Murmansk,

on a

None of the

conditions of the time.

part of the Russian Empire. The
Lumiere show was held in Helsinki,

emigrants.

The establishment in 1919
of Suomi Filmikivaamo in Helsinki

tablished in Finland. This was far
from sufficient to support movie pro¬

land,

premiere. Fin¬
blending of Eastern and

White Russian

pokes fun at Finland's prohibition
law. A sequence concerning the
guilty imaginings of a man who

months after the Paris
a

Republic's tiny but fiercely in¬
dependent local film industry en¬
tered an era of expansion. One
byproduct was Bolshevismin ikeen
alia (Under the Yoke of Bolshevism),
produced in 1919 by a group of
new

heavy dramas - were made during
the following 10 years. During this
period about 100 theaters were es¬

appears notable
for its revelations of the stern living

summer

Western cultures, was at that time a

28a

a

of Czarist rule in Russia in 1917, Fin¬
land declared its independence. The

picture

Acting is of
the theatrical tradition, bearing no
kinship to the austere styles seen in
Swedish and Danish movies.

Immediately after the fall

a giant hammer and
lished with red, blue and

ing

is embel¬
gold tint¬

ing. He also made Muurmannin
(The Refugees from
1927), an anti-USSR

story, and Meidan Poikamme (Our
Boys, 1929), an army comedy highly
praised for its cinematography.
The silent

era

ended with

Finland's 80-odd feature motion pic¬
tures and hundreds of
documentary
American Cinematographer - July 1989

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