 |
 |
not familiar with the historic gem you cite, but Kaurismäki & von Bagh are familiars. the snap I can't, shan't, comment on: the context is not wholly known to me, & even then I question its integrity as a poem due to the superhigh referential element. KS 2009/1/7 Barry Alpert <[log in to unmask]> > THE SONG OF THE SCARLET FLOWER > > via Teuvo Tulio, Aki Kaurismaki, & Peter von Bagh > > > You've liked something and then suddenly you lose interest. > > You've plowed so much today. > > You were made to wander. > > You can't shoot these rapids. > > You take us--why don't you rather keep us. > > > Now I know what it is to long. > > > Barry Alpert / Silver Spring, MD US / 1-7-09 (10:51 AM) > > > Written during my first viewing of this dazzling Finnish melodrama directed > and edited by > Teuvo Tulio in 1938 and revived for screening outside Finland because of > the efforts of > the leading contemporary Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki and the major > Finnish film > historian and critic Peter von Bagh. I have to admit that I was wary of > this film because > of the diction of the advance publicity ["wildly melodramatic", > "exaggerated metaphor > and feeling"], but once I granted this director his "donne", I found that > the numerous > films I had already witnessed by Aki Kaurismaki, not to mention Douglas > Sirk and Rainer > Fassbinder, had prepared me for and allowed me to enjoy the excesses. I'm > looking > forward to the remaining 3 films in the mini-retrospective at the National > Gallery of Art. >