Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Merkintöjä valkeasta kaupungista / [Notes from a White City]

Anteckningar från den vita staden. FI © 2011 Nostalgiafilmi. P+D+SC+ED: Georg Grotenfelt. DP: Alexander Burov, Georg Grotenfelt, assistant camerapeople: Päivi Kettunen, Jakob Hopmans, Georgi Portnik. On-line: Heikki Kotsalo / Parastus. M: Sanna Salmenkallio. The musicians: Koiton Laulu. Solo vocals: Rosa-Maria Perä. S: Sergei Moshkov. Translations: Jaakko Anhava, Tuomas Anhava. Production manager: Sonja Lindén. 54 min. A Nostalgiafilmi screener dvd with both a Finnish and a Swedish version. Viewed at the summer cottage in Punkaharju, 27 July 2011.

A poetic non-fiction essay on the poet Gunnar Björling (1887-1960).

The Finnish Broadcasting Corporation's presentation (The Documentary Project): "The narrator observes his home town through his notebook during one year approximately. He leads us through the streets, the squares and the parks of the city, he guides us to its architecture and monuments but takes us also behind the facades to search the characteristics of our age, the sense or the senselessness of technocracy and consumption."

"He listens to voices of past generations, the gentle flapping of the wings of history, he pursues our common moments drawn on the tiles of the walls, the paving of the streets and on empty spaces, on our voyage towards timelessness."

"His landscape stretches from the raindrop to the stars on the sky, from morning till night, from one season to another. He writes as he remembers: moving freely in time, moving from a place to another, at times observing precisely, at times looking through the mirror of stories and images. He records events of the year, delights and misfortunes, celebrations and crimes. He reaches towards the future - what is about to disappear, what new is emerging?"

"Each word is tinged with yearning and melancholy: we have to relinquish every moment, but in our mind, in our notebook, in our movie we can conjure up lost time."

The Swedish-speaking Gunnar Björling was one of the greatest Finnish poets. He was a true original, laconic, aphoristic, uncompromising, in his youth Finland's only Dadaist. Inspired by Gunnar Björling's poetry and life Georg Grotenfelt has made a poetic essay on the city of Helsinki in winter. He has found tape recordings where we can hear Gunnar Björling's voice as he is reading his poems. The film has been produced with loving care and sensitivity, complete with an original music by Sanna Salmenkallio and performed by Koiton Laulu. A work of lasting value.

Gunnar Björling's bibliography beyond the jump break.

Vilande dag (1922)
Kiri-ra! (1930)
Solgrönt (1933)
Fågel badar snart i vattnen (1934)
Att syndens blåa nagel (1936)
Där jag vet att du (1938)
Det oomvända anletet (1939)
O finns en dag (1944)
Ord och att ej annat (1945)
Och leker med skuggorna i sanden (1947)
Vårt kattliv timmar (1949)
Angelägenhet (1949)
Ett blyertsstreck (1951)
Träd står i sina rader (1952)
Att i sitt öga (1954)
Du jord, du dag (1957)
En mun vid hand (1958)
Hund skenar glad (1959)
Dikter (1959)
Allt vill jag fatta i min hand (efterlämnade dikter, 1974)
Jag viskar dig jord (1992)

No comments: