Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Episode Bico for Visions of Europe

FI/PT © 2004 Sputnik. P+D+SC+ED: Aki Kaurismäki. DP: Timo Salminen. M: Abel Alves. S: Jouko Lumme. 5 min. A PEK print viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (A Tribute to Aki Kaurismäki), 5 Jan 2011

Aki Kaurismäki's visually most magnificent film with breathtaking views from the snowy mountains of Northern Portugal. The road was built to the village of Bico in the 1970s, and it took the young people away. There is a parallel to Las Hurdes, but there is no parody in Aki's film. It is a dignified account of the traditional way of life (cow rearing, sheep raising) facing modernity. Fine accordeon music by Abel Alves. The closest parallel to this picture is Ingmar Bergman's second documentary of his home island, Fårödokument 1979. A richly beautiful, finely nuanced, gorgeously photochemical print.

Revisited the beginning of the feature, Laitakaupungin valot / Harbor Lights. Laconic wit in Aki's delta blues version of the city of Helsinki.

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