1. THE HISTORY OF FINNISH CINEMA
Jaakko Seppälä
THE HISTORY OF FINNISH CINEMA

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-Filmi Oy
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.
Oy Suomen Filmiteollisuus was established in 1933 and it began to compete with Suomi-Filmi Oy.
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 Ansa Ikonen

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 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.
Uuno Turhapuro -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 Söderbergh Widding and Gunnar Iversen, Nordic National Cinemas (London: Routledge, 1998), pp
Pietari Kääpä (ed.), Directory of World Cinema: Finland (Bristol: Intellect, 2012)
Peter Cowie, Finnish Cinema (Helsinki: Suomen Elokuvasäätiö, 1990).