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One of the most famous and highly acclaimed Finnish silent films, Teuvo Puro’s and Jussi Snellman’s Anna-Liisa was released yesterday on DVD (I could say at last, because I have watched this great film for over 10 years from a poor VHS). Now Anna-Liisa is restored very beautifully and it has new music too, recorded in Forssa Silent Film Festival in 2013. Anna-Liisa has never looked better and although the film can be watched from Internet Archive, I highly recommend this new restoration.

The story was written by Minna Canth and it has a very strong connection to the real life. It tells a story of Anna-Liisa, a young woman who has had a baby with her parents’ hired hand Mikko. When Anna-Liisa gets pregnant, Mikko leaves her and the only possibility to get rid of the shame is to kill their baby. So Anna-Liisa does it and buries the baby in the woods. This horrible secret is known only by her and Mikko’s mother. Time passes by and now Anna-Liisa is going to be married. Suddenly she hears that Mikko is coming back to the village.

If you are interested to get this film, send me a note because unfortunately we still have very few shops in Finland which sell items abroad.

Does anyone know if this film has English intertitles?

I feel as thouh I know this film really well because I downloaded it from Internet Archive and got hold of a translation of the intertitles and added the English titles underneath. Took me a while but I really enjoyed the resulting film. Therefore would only fancy upgrading if it has optional English titles!

This DVD includes both Finnish and Swedish intertitles and English subtitles. There is also a brief clip about restoration, a view from Kuopio (1923) and 100th Anniversary of the birth of Minna Canth (1944).

I just viewed the new dvd of this restored film, which has the option of english sub-titles, and found it dramatically gripping.
From a play, the interiors retain the stage blocking and acting mannerisms, but much takes place outdoors and, perhaps by simply being outside, the acting is natural. After viewing, one's first inclination is to find out more about the author, Finnish realist writer, Minna Canth (1844-97). She was a woman's rights pioneer ahead of her time.
Here's a clip. It's not clear, but it's a flashback, the man seen at the end of the clip is recalling his seduction of Anna when she was a 15-year-old. This was made clear in the play, though her age isn't specified in the film.

This is a rather wonderful edition of a very interesting and beautifully made film. The image quality of the DVD is astonishing. As with Cineteca di Bologna's edition of MA L'AMORE MIO NON MUORE this looks more like a Bluray than a DVD. The tinting of the film has been done expertly and adds a lot to it.
The film itself reminded me in some ways of WAY DOWN EAST (without the hokum bits). It tells a similarly simple and moving story. There are stagey elements in the indoor scenes, but they do not detract from what is essentially a Scandinavian outdoor style of filmmaking.
Gray market copies of ANNA-LIISA have been floating around for ages. I'm glad I resisted the temptation to watch them. Presented like this the film is a joy to see and deservedly adds Finland to our silent map of the world.

If you are interested to get this film, send me a note because unfortunately we still have very few shops in Finland which sell items abroad.
To:Kari from Lappeenranta, Finland

Yes, I would like help to get this. You helped me last year and I got the two Finnish films issued then at a very reasonable price and quick delivery. This DVD business seems to have gone bankrupt last July.

Any alternative would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Ken

Hi,

How can I get a copy?
Jack Dougherty
[email protected]" target="_blank

You've got e-mail.

Kari

Over the holidays I found time to watch both Anna-Liisa (1922) and Noidan Kirot (1927), both directed by Teuvo Puro (and both courtesy Ms. Murnau, thank you!). The story of Anna-Liisa has similarities to George Eliot's Adam Bede; I know nothing about Minna Canth, so don't know if she was influenced by Eliot's book, if she based it on a Finnish tale, or if she created the story herself--it's not as if the events portrayed were unusual or unheard of. It's beautifully filmed and the tinting is evocative and perfectly done. I loved the live score, recorded at Forssa; it's modern and dissonant in places, but it works very well with the film. The acting is good, although it threatens to tip over into the melodramatic at times, which is where the score works best.

As much as I liked Anna-Liisa, I preferred Noidan Kirot, an unusual ghost/supernatural story. The titles on this were not translated into English, but Ms. Murnau graciously sent me a translation so I could follow the story. It is engrossing and different in tone from the classic English ghost stories (or even the classic Japanese ghost stories, which are weirdly similar to the English tales).

Both of these films made extensive use of locations. I looked at maps but had no luck locating where both might have been filmed; the landscape seemed half wetland, half grassland, flat and glaciated but very beautiful. Logging and timber play a part in both films, and transportation was by canoe (I particularly enjoyed the scene in Noidan Kirot wherein the family cow was strapped into a canoe and transported to the farm, although I doubt the cow enjoyed it.) Both films featured interesting scenes of women's work--Anna Liisa works what looks like loom of some sort, and Selma in Noidan Kirot is shown spinning wool into thread. Textile production was a critical and time consuming part of a farm woman's day...any farm woman's day, universally...but other than the ubiquitous fireside knitting I've rarely seen it portrayed in American silents.

After watching both films, I decided I needed to know more about Teuvo Puro and Finnish film, so I attempted to read the dvd liner notes. Since these were in Finn and I am American (and therefore rigorously and patriotically monolingual), that attempt was an epic fail. Web searches for Puro and Minna Canth proved equally unenlightening, as did my LA Public library search for books on Finnish film history. I did locate a book on amazon by Peter Cowie, and one called Nordic National Cinemas, by Astrid Soderbergh Widding and Gunnar Iverson, are either recommended?

Again, thanks very much to Ms. Murnau for sending me both these films, they have certainly whetted my interest in seeing more cinema from Finland. I recommends them.