von Bagh, Peter
Suomalaisen elokuvan uusi kultainen kirja
[The new golden book of Finnish film]
Helsinki: Otava, 2005, 736p., ill.
ISBN 951-1-12705-5
€ 56.90, hardback

An untold number of films have been produced in the world since the year 1895. The output of 'cinematographic dramatic pieces' in Finland, which got its start in 1907 with Louis Sparre's farce Salaviinanpolttajat ('Moonshiners'), already includes thousands of fictional and documentary films. Numerical, statistical and biographical facts provide valuable information to those who want encyclopaedic historiography.
     But no mere list can give a sufficiently profound picture of one of the most significant inventions of the last century: besides entertainment, cinema is also an art form and a significant social force, through which millions of people have shaped their relationship to the world and other people. Lists tell us about choices, but not about the relationship of the author to the subject; they do not communicate passion, which is a part of art research and which alone also assures the value of cinema in the eyes of later generations.
     For this reason the best histories of cinema have always been personal introductions to 'the seventh art' by whole-hearted film freaks, often openly biased and thus 'imperfect'. In every country there is at least one trend-setter, who can be compared to an usher, decisively yet discreetly guiding latecomers to their seats in a darkened cinema: in France, Georges Sadoul, Henri Langlois or André Bazin; in Spain, Róman Gubern; in Switzerland, Freddy Buache; in Hungary Béla Balázs; in Germany Siegfried Krakauer; in the United States, David Bordwell; and in Finland Peter von Bagh.
     For the majority of Finns, von Bagh (born 1940) is synonymous with cinema - the style of this pioneer, for many years the director of the Finnish Film Archive, and the founder of the oldest critical film journal, Filmihullu ('Film crazy'), was made legendary by his popular television series about movies. It is in large part thanks to him that Finnish film production and popular culture, officially long overlooked as 'inferior art', have risen to the status they deserve in the cultural arena.
     Suomalaisen elokuvan uusi kultainen kirja is an updated and expanded edition of von Bagh's 1992 work Suomalaisen elokuvan kultainen kirja ('The golden book of Finnish film'), in the introduction to which he distilled the following: 'Domestic cinema is one of the most familiar-feeling parts of our lives. For nearly one hundred years it has offered us comfort and entertainment in our everyday lives, but it is also more than that: our unknown story, our parallel life'. Thus, we have permission to look for something in both von Bagh's books and his movies that we do not necessarily notice, but which nevertheless influences us during every day of our lives. It is easy to understand why film is 'larger than life' for von Bagh.
     One of the founders of the Midnight Sun Film Festival, in Sodankylä - 900 kilometres from Helsinki and above the Arctic Circle -, the artistic director of the Bologna Il cinema ritrovato silent film festival, and professor of film history at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, von Bagh has published more than 20 books about film and directed numerous cultural documentaries. In addition to profiles of people, von Bagh has recorded whole time periods; the 12-part Sininen laulu - Suomen taiteiden tarina ('The blue song - the story of the arts in Finland') from 2004 plots the history of the arts from the beginning of Finnish independence (1917) to the present day; the documentaries 1939, Viimeinen kesä 1944 ('The last summer 1944') and 1952 depict Finland's sometimes rocky journey from the Second World War and agrarian society through paying war reparations and the Olympics towards industrialisation and urban culture.
     The most famous Finnish film director, Aki Kaurismäki (born 1957), has continued the discussion begun by von Bagh, portraying the spiritual and physical state of emptiness caused by the country's rapid urbanisation during the 1950s and 1960s.
     Von Bagh's method appears simple, but it is a rich collage, in which sight and sound, documentary and fiction, collective, subjective, banal, sublime, universal and unique meet. The memories of both celebrities and so-called ordinary citizens blend together in clips from movies, newsreels, radio recordings, personal photographs, letters - everything that makes up life in a particular country during a particular time period.
     Mood, emotion and meaning rise from the collision, the cacophony, the amalgam of styles and contributing details. Von Bagh has said that the duty of cinema is, following in the footsteps of Marcel Proust, to search for lost time. The title of his doctoral dissertation, which deals with collage films, expresses it this way: Peili jolla oli muisti ('The mirror that had a memory', 2002).
     Suomalaisen elokuvan uusi kultainen kirja is a tapestry of chronological texts, photographs, period materials, facts, biographies, and observations and memories embedded in analyses of directors' works. In addition to landmark works von Bagh also presents artistically modest melodramas, comedies and farces, which nevertheless portray not only the state of Finnish cinema, but also their time and the needs of society. He does not sift out good films from bad when looking at the golden era, from the mid-1930s to the end of the 1950s; in his opinion the film world was 'a sort of national state of mind immortalised on film, an accounting of what Finns thought, wished for and felt, operating beyond "good" and "bad"'.
     During the golden age, around 20 films were made each year - in the peak year of 1955 30 of them were finished. The three most important production firms of the time are presented, Suomen Filmiteollisuus (SF), Fennada and Suomi-Filmi - of which only the last is still in existence. Of the film tycoons Erkki Karu, Risto Orko and T.J. Särkkä rise to the fore, thanks to whom, as the 1930s began, the industry obtained a professional framework with studios and laboratories, as well as publications to uphold the cult of fame.
     New, stately cinemas were constructed at the same time as films started to gain in popularity; in the war years of the 1940s, when activities such as dancing were forbidden, each domestic film was seen by an average of 400,000 viewers - nearly ten per cent of the population. According to Suomen Kansallisfilmografia (The Finnish National Filmography), over 21 million cinema visits were registered in Finland in 1941. For the sake of comparison, in 2004, in a country of five million residents, there were only seven million visits.
     Von Bagh describes the quantitative and qualitative collapse of the 'Finnish Hollywood' (an actors' strike lasting several years crushed studios that were pumping out weak farces - attempting to save their output at all costs - at the same time as television was taking over the place of cinema) as the 1960s arrived. Nevertheless, through a cinematic 'new wave' the decade turned out to be qualitatively lively. After the stagnant 1970s, another new boom period began, largely thanks to the Kaurismäki brothers, Mika and Aki.
     The many anecdotes, details and observations relating to historical and political events printed in the margins are enjoyable. One of the most touching anecdotes relates to the renowned actor, the charismatic and even idolised Tauno Palo (1908-1982). He was spending yet another lively evening at the traditional artists' restaurant Elite in Helsinki, and was forced to fall back on the aid of the staff when the folks at home began to miss the star - later the charmer's humble plea was printed on the menu: 'Maître d' - would you please say that I have left. I love my wife, but there are friends here.'
     In Peter von Bagh's opinion, Tauno Palo's statement 'beautifully reflects implications that have interest for us as well: when we go to see a domestic film we are going to meet friends'.

Translated by Owen Witesman