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Filth - LavCat - 05-10-2010
This is a movie thread. Thought I would share an unusual film that I've been watching, Antti-Jussi Annila's Filth, or as it's titled in the U.S., Sauna. I use the progressive tense as each time I watch Sauna I see a little more. If SoS is your favorite zone, you may like Sauna too.
I was in the mood for horror. Last night grew colder as the wind picked up. I donned more layers of winter clothes. The door blew open twice, and my seventeen year old cat hissed at what only she could see.
Sauna takes place in 1595, at the conclusion of the Russo-Swedish war. The Treaty of Teusina specifies that voivodes of Sweden and Russia would jointly survey the border. Some film commentators have found this a strange premise for a movie, but it makes for facinating history.
Like Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures the end is shown at the beginning. All that remains is to portray how events unfold. Sauna has been criticized for being slow and disjointed, but there are no wasted shots or scenes. Dialog is as sparse as the Finnish landscape, beautifully filmed in color to appear almost as black and white. I was reminded of Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev.
Critics either love the film or hate it. There is little middle ground. Some commentaries (including perhaps mine) are totally a crock. This one can't even keep the characters straight, or rather, gay. And what's so unbelievable about a bleeding statue? That goes back at least as far as Shakespeare and continues to the present. Aren't statues supposed to bleed in the presence of great evil? The icon without a face was a nice touch however.
I don't care for books or films where the plot is spoon-fed. Though I must say I found Sauna difficult. Not a film for someone looking for pat answers. The acting is good, particularly from Ville Virtanen, who plays Erik Antinpoika Spore, a Swedish/Finnish officer with many innocent deaths upon his soul. Costumes were beautiful. I'm not sure they fully matched the period. Eyeglasses I'm pretty sure did not.
In Carl Dreyer's Vampur the question is asked: "Why does the doctor always come at night?" In Sauna the questions are: "Why would any dog scratch his own eyes out?" and more existentially "Is it too late?"
According to Finnish belief, some say the dead return to the sauna. Others blame the gnomes. The sauna was a place for worshiping the dead. Though if you find something that looks like a half sunken temple in the middle of a swamp, it is perhaps better to keep moving on. Even if it is too late.
When Erik knows that all is lost he screams: "I can still save someone!" Even though not in the way that Erik hopes, the question remains for me: "Does he?"