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118 pages

English

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Mika Kaurismäki’s films challenge many boundaries – national societies, genre formations, art/popular culture, fiction/documentary, humanity/nature and problematic distinctions between different zones of development. Synthesizing concepts from a range of thematic frameworks – e.g. auteurism, eco-philosophy, genre, cartography, cineaste networks, global reception, distribution and exhibition practices, and the potential of postnationalism – this book provides an interdisciplinary reading of Kaurismäki’s cinema. The notion of 'transvergence' – thinking in heterogeneous and polyphonal terms – emerges as an analytical method for exploring the power of these films. Through this method, the book encourages a rethinking of transnational cinema studies in relation to many oft-debated notions such as Finnish culture, European identity, cosmopolitanism and globalization.

A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via the OAPEN Library platform: The Cinema of Mika Kaurismaki. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License and is part of Knowledge Unlatched.

Introduction: The (trans)national and the Global in Mika Kaurismäki’s Films

Chapter 1: The Aki/Mika Syndrome: Cosmopolitan Auteurism and the Search for Cinematic Stability

Chapter 2: Cross-genre: Transnational Genre Mutations

Chapter 3: Mapping Transnational Space at the Margins of the Global Metropolis: Representations of the City in Kaurismäki’s Films

Chapter 4: Post-road: Deconstructing the European Road Movie

Chapter 5: Auto-ethnography: Merging the Self and 'Other' in Brazilian Music Documentaries

Chapter 6: Post-nation: Kaurismäki’s Films in a Global Spectrum

Chapter 7: The Potential of Post-humanism: Kaurismäki and the Ecological Imagination

Chapter 8: The Polyphonality of Transvergence: The Reception of Kaurismäki’s Cinema

Conclusion: Beyond the Happy Ending

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Arts visuels

Histoire des Arts

Cinéma

Cinema

Film

ART

History

General

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Film director

Película fotográfica

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Publié par	Intellect Books
Date de parution	27 mai 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781841504520
Langue	English

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The Cinema of Mika Kaurism ki
The Cinema of Mika Kaurism ki
Transvergent Cinescapes, Emergent Identities
Pietari K p
First published in the UK in 2011 by Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2011 by Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2011 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover designer: Holly Rose Copy-editor: Heather Owen Typesetting: Mac Style, Beverley, E. Yorkshire
ISBN 978-1-84150-409-4
Printed and bound by Gutenberg Press, Malta.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The (trans)national and the Global in Mika Kaurism ki s Films
Chapter 1: The Aki/Mika Syndrome: Cosmopolitan Auteurism and the Search for Cinematic Stability
Chapter 2: Cross-genre: Transnational Genre Mutations
Chapter 3: Mapping Transnational Space at the Margins of the Global Metropolis: Representations of the City in Kaurism ki s Films
Chapter 4: Post-road: Deconstructing the European Road Movie
Chapter 5: Auto-ethnography: Merging the Self and Other in Brazilian Music Documentaries
Chapter 6: Post-nation: Kaurism ki s Films in a Global Spectrum
Chapter 7: The Potential of Post-humanism: Kaurism ki and the Ecological imagination
Chapter 8: The Polyphonality of Transvergence: The Reception of Kaurism ki s Cinema
Conclusion: Beyond the Happy Ending
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
T his book is the result of a long fascination with Finnish cinema, specifically with those films that try to find new ways for exploring the transnational and increasingly global scope of this form of cultural production. Many individuals have been instrumental in providing substantial support for the project. Tommy Gustafsson, Kimmo Laine, and others have provided suggestions and feedback on different aspects of my work. Andrew Nestingen and Mette Hjort, Henry Bacon, Claire Thomson and Andrew Higson have been astonishingly supportive of the directions of my academic career. They have provided opportunities for publication and pervasive constructive criticism that constantly shapes my work. Mika Kaurism ki has graciously devoted time amongst his busy schedule to provide interviews and information on his films. Kansallinen Audiovisuaalinen Arkisto s library and publications provided valuable research data for the project as did the online services of Project LUMIERE. My editors at Intellect have been extremely helpful and supportive throughout the writing of this book. Jelena Stanovnik has especially been a constantly and invigoratingly motivating participant in the editing process. Oskar flund Stiftelse and the Research Committee at University of Nottingham Ningbo provided the book with generous funding, for which I am very grateful.
This book is dedicated to my family, both Finnish and Chinese, and especially to Yan, for all her enduring support during the production of this work.
Pietari K p October 2010
Introduction: The (trans)national and the Global in Mika Kaurism ki s Films
I n summer 2008, cultural columns of Finnish newspapers were reporting an unusual occurrence - Mika Kaurism ki, one of the most well-known Finnish directors, was starting production on a major new film: Haarautuvan Rakkauden Talo/The House of Branching Love (Mika Kaurism ki, 2009). Normally, the start of a new Finnish production would be met with some enthusiasm, but certainly not the type of large-scale interest afforded to Kaurism ki s film. Shortly after this event, on 14 November 2008, the Finnish multiplexes started screening a somewhat unusual film amongst the usual Hollywood Christmas blockbusters and large-scale domestic productions: Kaurism ki s Kolme Viisasta Miest /Three Wise Men (Mika Kaurism ki, 2008). The film, focused on three middle-aged divorced men who meet by chance on Christmas Eve, was a no-budget production that presented a distinctly bleak alternative to all the popcorn-fodder available for vacationing consumers. The reviews for the film were mostly positive, but most of the column space was devoted to Kaurism ki and his return to Finland after years of international co-productions. Yet, the film attracted only 1054 spectators.
How can we explain these contradictory modes of reception for Kaurism ki and his films? What are the reasons for the critics enthusiasm for Kaurism ki s return and the clear disinterest of the audiences for Three Wise Men? Why would the Finnish multiplexes release a distinctly non-commercial film at one of the busiest times of the year? And what is the significance of Kaurism ki s intervention in the topic of Christmas celebrations: a festival seen in Finland as a distinctly family-centred national event? The discourses of national culture, popular entertainment, non-commercial art-house characteristics, and a distinctly bleak view of societal alienation intertwine in Kaurism ki s films and the discourse around his work. The introduction of this work will explore these questions as many of these seemingly banal instances hold a key to unpacking Kaurism ki s complex relationship with Finland. Before we move on to discuss some of the potential implications of Kaurism ki s complex relationship with his native country, we have to explore the implications of return in more depth through a brief retrospective of his career.
Mika Kaurism ki and nation
Kaurism ki s career spans nearly 30 years and involves productions ranging from small-scale Godardian exercises (Valehtelija/The Liar , 1981) to multinational commercial productions (Helsinki-Napoli: All Night Long , 1987), from Finnish heritage films (Klaani - Tarina Sammakoiden Suvusta/The Clan - A Tale of the Frogs , 1984) to documentaries on Brazilian music (Solar Mirror , 2007). He completed a degree in film production in Munich Film und Fernsehen Schule, where he produced the Finnish-set The Liar as his dissertation project. The film gained positive notices on its release in Finland s Tampere Short Film Festival and moderate success on its commercial release in domestic art-house cinemas. Critics invariably discussed the Godard-inspired work as instigating a Finnish New Wave , a conceptualization that both indicates the film s transnational inspirations and its status as something novel and distinct in the annals of Finnish cinema. Working alongside brother Aki (who starred in The Liar ), Mika Kaurism ki became one of the leading producers of the Finnish New Wave of the 1980s with films such as Arvottomat/The Worthless (1982) and Rosso (1985).
These films were a response to what Kaurism ki and many of his contemporaries perceived as the stilted, inward-looking state of the Finnish film industry, dominated by lengthy, monumental historical epics and farcical comedies. During the 1970s and the 1980s, few of these official films, reliant on state-subsidies from the Finnish Film Foundation (Suomen Elokuvas ti ), met with any substantial interest from domestic audiences - despite the occasional national blockbuster such as Tuntematon Sotilas/The Unknown Soldier , (Mollberg, 1985) and Talvisota/The Winter War , (Parikka, 1989). It was up to independent farces, such as the immensely popular Uuno Turhapuro series, and imported films to cater to domestic cinemagoers. The contemporary situation was a result of far-ranging debates over national cinema in both policy and critical circles, debates which reflected concurrent national cinema rhetoric Europe-wide. The delineation between the artistic (experimental, or more often in Finland s case, nationally-relevant film production) and the populist (sensationalist or farcical films) has a long history, ranging from the high taxation levied on popular cinema in the 1940s and 50s to the Foundation s support for historical epics and politically-engaged, modernist art films in the 1960s and 1970s. Both Foundation-approved and independent productions dealt with the many tumultuous changes Finnish society had gone through in the previous decades. Fast-paced urbanization and the decrease of traditional agrarian lifestyles became collectively known as the Great Migration , as thousands vacated the countryside for the city, or moved abroad to Sweden or other neighbouring countries. These ideas were metaphorically reflected in the class divisions and contrasting lifestyles of the protagonists of the historical epics and farcical comedies, but they largely avoided socio-realist discussion of the contemporaneous disappointment and alienation these transformations were causing amongst the population.
Established film-makers such as Mikko Niskanen and Tapio Suominen also took part in chronicling these experiences in distinctly socio-realist terms with the financially and critically successful youth-oriented productions T lt Tullaan El m /Right on, Man! (Suominen, 1980) and Ajol ht /Take-off (Niskanen, 1982). While depictions of alienated and rebellious youth culture are nothing new, productions by middle-aged directors in the 1950s, such as Kuriton Sukupolvi/The Unruly Generation (Kassila, 1957), portrayed the youth of the nation as a threat to social order. It was now these young artists that sought to destabilize established conventions with anti-institutional agit-prop theatrical productions like Pete Q (1978), where the avoidance of casting these themes in terms of a moral panic fostered understanding of the need to have these previously marginalized and victimized voices heard. Furthermore, punk rock and bands such as Sielun Veljet and Eppu Normaali were engaging in similar modes of protest via popular music that was increasingly a locus of identification for their target-audience groups. Youth culture of the 1980s thu