WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: The White Reindeer 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:06.840 Hey, you welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind This is 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:09.680 Rob Lamb. Today we are reairing an episode that came 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:13.760 out seven eleven, twenty twenty five. It is The White 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.760 Reindeer in nineteen fifty two finish folk horror film, and 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:21.119 it is it's an interesting one. So this is a 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:23.640 way of yours, particularly if it's a little hot outside. 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:27.480 This is a nice bit of winter escapism. Let's jump 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:27.840 right in. 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:38.440 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:44.680 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.320 And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:50.720 Cinema we're going to be talking about the nineteen fifty 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:56.480 two Finish folk horror film The White Reindeer, starring Miriami 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:01.520 Quosmanan and directed by Eric Blomberg. If I may say, 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:04.920 I think this is the finest where ungulate movie I 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:05.640 have ever seen. 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:10.440 It may be the finest where ungulate movie I can envision, 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:14.959 because the concept to many of you, I imagine where 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:17.920 wolf fans uh. To the last of you, I'm assuming 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:22.319 you might struggle to get excited for a where Reindeer 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:26.560 picture and yet this one is really good. It's it's classy, 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.760 it's it's basically art house and has some you know, 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:33.600 almost kind of documentary vibes to it at times. It's 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.319 very well done and ultimately makes you buy in completely 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:39.160 to this concept that I have to I have to 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.360 admit that on the surface to many of us might 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:43.479 seem a little silly. 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:48.920 Oh by the end, I was terrified of reindeers. That 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:51.360 is that a correct plural would not be reindeers. It's 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.600 still be reindeer. That's plural, just to say the dear Yeah, okay, 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.120 but yeah. So this movie is set in the culture 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:03.920 of pre Christian Lapland today the northernmost region of Finland, 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.680 and The White Reindeer tells a story of love and loneliness, 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:14.919 of women's dependence and independence in culture, of longing and desire, 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:19.560 of witchcraft, of transformation, and of murder. It's got all 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:22.640 kinds of stuff going on. So the basic premise of 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:26.280 the story is that Pirita, a woman of the north 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:30.120 married to a hard working reindeer herder in Lapland, finds 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:34.000 herself unhappy with life, and she seeks the help of 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:37.839 a wizard who prescribes for her a ritual that will 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:42.600 make her irresistible to men. But unfortunately, this magic spell 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:46.880 has a toxic interaction with the pre existing condition of 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:50.680 her being a genetic witch since birth, and instead of 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:54.680 merely becoming the bell of the Ball, Pirita is transformed 0:02:54.720 --> 0:03:00.120 into a kind of seductive, somnambulist and reindeer version of 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.760 a werewolf, assuming fur and antlers by the light of 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:09.440 the moon and luring unsuspecting herdsmen to their deaths Now, Rob, 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:12.080 there's one little random claim I read on the internet 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:14.320 that made a lot more sense of the story to 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:16.919 me after I read it. I don't know this is true, 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:20.560 but it seems likely given the story here. It's not 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:24.680 explained in the story itself, but apparently the Sammi people, 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:29.799 whose culture is depicted in this story. Among the Sammi people, 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:33.480 it was a common folk belief that there was something 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:37.920 special about a white or albino reindeer, and if you 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:40.920 could catch a wild white reindeer, it would bring you 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:41.880 great fortune. 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:45.000 Yeah, that does help flash things out a little bit. 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:49.480 So the white reindeer has a kind of interesting release history. 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.000 I was reading a bit about it in a book 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:56.000 called one hundred European horror Films edited by Stephen J. Schneider, 0:03:56.440 --> 0:04:00.480 and apparently it's nineteen fifty two debut in the Finnish 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:05.839 capital of Helsinki happened during the summer Olympics in Helsinki, 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:09.960 which resulted in what the author calls near vacant screenings. 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.080 Nobody was gone to see it, but so not a 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.160 good way to start. But it caught on domestically after 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.200 this in a second run later that summer or maybe 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.960 in the fall, and it started getting good press and 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:27.839 would eventually become something of an international hit, receiving a 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:31.640 number of awards, including at the con Film Festival. We'll 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.880 get into more on that later, but it's kind of 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:39.119 interesting that this was a sort of sensation at the time, 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:41.320 and I think for most of my life I'd never 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:43.400 even heard of it. I never became aware of it 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:44.440 until just recently. 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.080 I was not aware of it until you texted me 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:49.640 over the weekend and said, I have chosen for this 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:54.720 week it's the White Reindeer. And at the time I 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:56.800 was like, of course, you know. One percent. I'm like, 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:58.839 all right, let's do that, Let's do the White Reindeer. 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:01.880 But I was also thinking this is an interesting summer choice. 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:03.360 But of course we just did a core stuff to 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:06.040 Blowy Night episode on skiing, so it's not out out 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:09.440 of keeping with us to do something that seems seasonally opposite. 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.880 But oh, ice skating, Yeah, ice skating, Sorry, not skiing. 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.880 We haven't done skiing yet, but we should skiing. 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:17.720 There's a lot of skiing in the movie. 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:21.760 Seeing But now that you mentioned that this originally came 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:24.520 out in the summer, it is fitting that we're talking 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:25.440 about it in the summer. 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:28.720 I mean, I happen to personally love counter seasonal programming, 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:32.120 yet you know that's just me. Now, I think it 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:36.240 could be interesting to compare this film to other Rare 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:38.600 Beast movies we've covered on the show, But maybe we 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.400 should come back to that later or just as it 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:44.120 occurs to us throughout. One thing I do think we 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:47.400 should talk about briefly at the top is this movie's 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:51.919 visual stylistic virtue. As many reviewers mentioned this as a 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:56.080 real highlight of the film, the bold, stark way that 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.719 it looks. It was shot on location in real snowy 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:03.560 landscapes of northern Finland in Lapland, and so you get 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:07.159 these the fells, you know, these kind of like like 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:11.839 low sloping or rounded mountaintops or hilltops, many of which 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:15.000 are bear some of which have just kind of, I 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:19.920 don't know, sad looking like snow covered tree limbs poking out. 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:23.120 Like every portion of the tree, trees iced over in 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:28.920 ways that those of us in more southern climates scarcely 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.240 can imagine. Like it looks almost Sussian, you know, the 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:32.599 way these trees are iced over. 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:35.080 Yeah, true Arctic strangeness. 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:37.560 Yeah, Jack Frost hit this landscape hard. 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.120 But also like herds of reindeer stretching to the horizon 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.080 in some shots, those are quite striking. And then these 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:47.280 little and then the way that the movie deals with 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:53.680 both absolutely empty expanses and then these little closed boxes 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:56.840 in the homes. You know that. So you'll go out 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:59.240 in this field and it's just like seeing far to 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:01.680 the horizon and there's nothing there but a few like 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.680 you know, leafless shrubs or this, you know, this train 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:09.120 of animals just stretching over the horizon and there's like 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:11.640 nothing else to see. But then you arrive at the 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.200 Wizard Shack and you go inside and it looks like 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:17.080 it's about like eight feet by eight feet. Inside it's 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.160 like tiny but crammed with evil magic. 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:22.200 Yeah, now that you mentioned it that way, it reminds 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.480 me of some past discussions we had on the on 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:26.960 the Core and stuff to blow your mind episodes about 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:29.920 the art of Tibet and like interior spaces in Tibet, 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:35.800 interior sacred spaces versus the exterior world where you have 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.480 like huge sky and sweeping vistas. And we have a 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:40.840 similar vibe going on here, you know, with these these 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:44.200 little enclosed off in you know, very dark, cozy spaces, 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:48.560 and then outside it's just like a white wasteland, but 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:50.000 in the most beautiful sense. 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:52.440 Yeah, these things filmed in a way that is both 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:53.800 frightening and beautiful. 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.120 If we haven't mentioned it already, this is a black 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:59.280 and white film, which, especially in these shots of the 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:04.080 of the landscape, it seemed very fitting. You know, everything 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:08.040 is very very white, and the shadows have this depth 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:11.480 to them, and then the indoor scenes, especially at night, 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:14.800 also feel it feels appropriate. I will say there are 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.760 a few scenes of just sort of normal everyday life 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.679 or celebration within the community that I kind of wished 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:23.440 we could have seen in color because I feel like 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:27.160 those were Yeah, I just kind of wanted to see 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:29.600 the colors there, but on the whole, yeah, the black 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:31.480 and white, and this is absolutely beautiful. 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.360 I just realized there's really no way around it. But 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:38.240 we're gonna say the words reindeer and snow so many 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.800 times in this episode. I was just like going through 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:43.360 my notes trying to think of synonyms, so I wasn't 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.760 repeating myself so much. But in a way it's fitting 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:50.080 because this movie is just it's just plowing straight into 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.320 your brain with reindeer and snow. There's so much of both. 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:56.719 Most of the location is snow, and there are far 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.600 more reindeer in the picture than human beings. It's it's 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.080 just a fact. There's just so many reindeer on the 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.120 screen at different points. But in a way that is again, 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.800 it feels very when you see people interacting with the reindeer. 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:13.280 When you see it feels almost like a documentary, like 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.280 a snapshot of life. There's not a sense of like, 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.680 all right, let's get the reindeer wrangler out there so 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.840 it can get this shot like this, This film feels 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:22.440 very real. 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:26.720 I believe the director of it had made documentaries and 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.440 maybe even on this subject right correct. 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:32.719 His first short picture as well. We'll discuss here in 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:38.080 a minute, was about the Lapland reindeer herders, So it's yeah, 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:41.480 it's very fitting. I should also point out that this 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:44.920 film is in many spaces very light on dialogue. It 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:47.840 has almost a silent film sensibility. 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.280 That's notable in multiple ways. It does contribute to the 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:52.960 mood of the film, because there are long silent stretches 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:57.480 where there's just music, no talking in between the dialogue scenes, 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:00.240 and that I think that does contribute to the kind 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:04.160 of lonely, eerie feeling that they're attempting to conjure, especially 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:08.360 when we're just alone with Perita. Yeah. But in addition 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:12.079 to that the lack of dialogue, it shows a real 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.480 what seems to me to be a conscious choice of 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:21.080 narrative restraint that keeps many things about characters, motivations and 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.680 thoughts a mystery very different than I think most other 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:26.400 movies at this time would have done. 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:26.520 That. 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:29.800 I feel like if this same kind of subject had 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.520 been approached by an American filmmaker at this time, there 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:37.199 would have been a lot more voiceover explaining the interior 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:41.640 thoughts of characters of perioda and aslock. But we don't 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.320 get that so very often we're just sort of left 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:46.840 wondering what they're thinking about what's going on. 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.000 Yeah, it has a very European art house sensibility in 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:54.560 that respect. And yeah, and there will be no transformation 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:56.560 scenes in this in the way that you get them 0:10:56.600 --> 0:11:00.920 in a certainly American and many your pen examples of 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.320 ladder monster movies and so specifically wear Wolf movies. But 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:07.680 then again, you don't need a transformation scene for a 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:09.319 great shape shifter. 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.400 Movie, that's right, I mean, And in fact, this movie 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:14.880 it doesn't really have a lot in the way of 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:18.400 special effects, but it doesn't really need them because the 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:22.400 way it handles its subject matter is just very natural 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:23.160 and graceful. 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:23.360 Like. 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:28.480 So, there's a character who transforms into a reindeer in 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:31.360 these in these murder scenes, and you'll see her just 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:33.920 sort of leap out of frame, and in the next frame, 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:36.760 the reindeer leaps into frame. It's a very simple way 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:40.640 to depict this kind of transformation without showing it in frame, 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:42.439 and it works just fine. 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:44.880 Yeah, this reminds me, I want to mention really quickly. 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.200 When I was looking up the reviews on letterbox for 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.720 this film, one of the people I followed, John from 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:55.480 Video Drum here in Atlanta made the comment, somehow this 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.560 is one of those low budget or enormous budget watching 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.880 experiences which I can totally I can totally feel, because again, 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:04.160 I think a lot of it has to do with 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:08.240 that naturalistic vibe, this kind of like documentary feel to it. 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:10.120 At times, you can feel like, well, all they did 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.120 was turn on the camera and this is just this 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:14.800 is just what it is there, this is life. But 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:16.960 then again, when you start thinking about, like you know, 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:19.800 any documentary about filmmaking you've seen, like, no, maybe this 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:24.560 was absolutely an enormously expensive picture. It's just hard to tell, 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.960 especially you know, being so far from this environment. 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:30.400 And from this time, I agree that it feels that way. 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:33.240 Though I guess we should just flag that I don't 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:38.080 necessarily want to vouch for this film's cultural authenticity and 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:40.440 how it depicts the Sami culture and all that, because 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:42.720 I don't really know how well it captures that. I 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:47.360 didn't find sources addressing this. It clearly is trying. It 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:49.840 seems to me to be trying to capture a kind 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:52.800 of cultural authenticity, but I don't know how well in 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:54.360 reality it actually did that. 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.080 Right, we can point to other examples from the nineteen 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:00.680 fifties and different cinema traditions where there's there's not a 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:03.520 lot of finesse shown in that sort of cultural depictions. 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:06.679 So yeah, we would. I think it's reasonable for us 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:18.000 to have a healthy amount of skepticism, all right. You know, 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:22.440 I don't know if this had a trailer, or if 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:26.040 whatever kind of trailer it originally had in Finland, if 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:30.040 it exists online anywhere, we may air just a little 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:32.440 bit of what I think is a modern trailer for 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:36.480 it that Eureka Entertainment put out. Eureka Entertainment is responsible 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:38.920 for what I believe is the main Blu Ray option 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:41.680 for this picture. I did not watch it on this 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.800 Blu Ray. I streamed it. It's widely available for streaming 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.400 wherever you get your streaming pictures. But it looks like 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:50.199 the Blu Ray is a really nice package with a 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:51.520 number of extras. 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:11.199 Oh tears in Sinu two level and many you are more. 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:18.480 Zero two level sil say the lench and line and 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:21.800 yellow and an old Toyo car too, lever star on 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:31.640 the Malayah. 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:33.200 You beca a boy? 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:01.640 All right, Well, let's let's get into the cast and 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:06.480 crew here a little bit, and I always want to 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:11.280 apologize for any pronunciation errors with names and such. We 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.880 haven't done really any finish films before. We've done some 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:16.480 Russo finish co productions. 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:20.400 Yeah, but this Rose is a Russo finished thing, right, Yeah. 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.400 Yeah, but this is I think this is our first 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:26.400 like purely finish film from the golden age of Finnish cinema. 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:29.600 I'm to understand, and I want to note I'm going 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:35.000 to refer several times to the Juicy Awards, JUSSI. There 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:39.080 may be more USY Awards. They're essentially like Finnish Academy Awards, 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.000 and I think maybe there's a little Emmy energy in there, 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.840 because I think they also recognized television projects or at 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.280 least came to at some point. They've been held since 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:51.680 nineteen forty four, and so I'm going to refer back 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:55.680 to them several different times here. Okay, So the key individuals, 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.800 as we've already noted, are going to be Eric Blomberg, 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:02.400 who is it did as the director, one of the writers, 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:06.240 certainly the cinematographer and also the editor, as well as 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:12.400 his wife mir Jammi Kuzmanin, and she is our star. 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:16.240 She is also credited as one of the writers. But 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:20.720 I was reading about her specifically on a website called 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:24.200 Nordic Women in Film dot com and in this this 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:28.240 write up they mentioned just how closely these two work 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.280 together on their projects. I think the quote is from 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:33.400 one of them, is that when it came to projects 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:35.120 they worked on, you would have to use a pair 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:39.760 of tweezers to separate what each one did. So this 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.240 division of labor here we get is in many ways 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.240 maybe just a reflection of what their backgrounds were. Her 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:49.920 background wasn't acting. His background was in cinematography and was 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:52.880 behind the camera, and therefore they're credited as such. And 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:55.520 it's also been pointed out that there were very few 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.240 female directors in Finnish cinema at the time, so maybe 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:02.280 that was another reason that her name wasn't at the top. 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:06.280 But like they work so closely together, just keep that 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.399 in mind as we're talking about these divisions, because it 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.359 seems like this whole project was a collaboration. 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:12.639 Right, so it should be kind of thought of as 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:14.560 that them as co filmmakers. 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.119 Yes, yeah, and they were very open yeah about this. 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:22.320 So let's start with Eric. Though he lived nineteen thirteen 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:27.040 through nineteen ninety six finish cinematographer, producer, screenwriter and director. 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:29.720 Not to be confused with a Swedish poet of the 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:33.560 same name. This Blomberg started off as a cinematographer with 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:36.040 credits going back to nineteen thirty six, and he was 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.600 a producer from nineteen thirty eight onward. His first directorial 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:43.440 credit was a nineteen forty seven documentary short titled with 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:45.960 the Reindeer, about the reindeer of Lapland. 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:49.160 Yeah, as we alluded to earlier, that is not surprising 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:51.560 if you've seen the film that he had shot documentary 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:56.200 footage about reindeer herding or about reindeer in general. There 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:59.639 is a I don't even know how to identify what 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:02.400 the the points leading to this impression are, but there's 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.200 just a feeling of familiarity with the subject, if that 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:06.960 makes any sense. 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:11.240 Absolutely, yeah, and it was well received. This documentary short 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:13.879 won a Ucy Award. I'm gonna go ahead just say 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.680 ucy instead of juicy, just because it sounds better to me. 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:20.040 But that may also be incorrect, Okay. He followed this 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:22.960 short up with a handful of additional shorts before tackling 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.760 this his first feature length film, again a collaboration with 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:32.440 his wife. She co wrote it, and again that you'd 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:34.320 have to use a tweezer to separate what they were 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:38.160 each working on in their own words. As you pointed out, 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:40.880 nobody seemed to go to see it at first because 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:43.920 they released it during the summer Olympics, but then it 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:46.440 began to pick up steam domestically and then ultimately was 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:50.600 very well received internationally. Not only did it earn them 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:54.200 a uc for cinematography, it was nominated for the Grand 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:56.920 Prize of the cons Film Festival in fifty three and 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:01.840 it won in its fairy tail film categor which excited 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:03.760 me and I had to research this. I'm like, what 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:06.840 else won? What else was nominated? I don't think this 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:11.040 category existed previously or afterwards, so I'm not sure what 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:14.879 the story is here. If they invented a category to 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:17.920 honor this film, which if that's the case, great, this 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:21.520 film totally earned it, or if they were like, yes, 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.560 fairy tale films, they need their own category, and then 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:26.920 it just they decided not to keep doing it. I'm 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:27.280 not sure. 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:30.000 I'm getting out of the pitchforks. Bring it back, Bring 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:32.000 it back to the con judges, we need a fairy 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:33.960 tale film category, do it? 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:36.680 Yeah, and maybe you'd encourage even more fairy tale films. 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:38.760 I don't think we have enough of them. So Blomberg 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:41.200 followed this up with a handful of feature link films, 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:43.680 some more short works, and finally a couple of TV 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:46.960 movies in sixty six and sixty eight. Of these, his 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:52.320 nineteen fifty five film Killouse also won a UCY for cinematography. 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.160 But The White Reindeer I believe, remains his most well 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:59.080 known film, certainly internationally, and continues to resonate not only 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.120 as an example of cinema during from the golden era 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.320 of Finnish cinema, but also as a rich entry in 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:06.320 Global full car. 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:09.600 I've read that Blomberg did not do a lot else 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:12.280 in this sort of magical category. 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:14.760 Right, that's I'm to understand that as well. Looking at 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:19.000 his other pictures, I don't think anything else could qualify 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:21.879 as you know, specula as having a speculative elopment. 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:26.240 Okay, but that was Eric Blomberg. Let's talk Miriami Kosmanan Yeah. 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.920 So. Kospannen lived nineteen fifteen through nineteen sixty three. She 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:35.520 plays our witch reindeer, Finnish actress, writer and longtime wife 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:40.119 of Eric Blomberg. I was reading her this profile of 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:42.879 her in her work on Nordic women in film. They 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:44.560 point out that she was like a real wild child 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:46.960 as a kid, like she played played sports with the boys, 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:50.040 she loved swimming and fishing. There's some story about her 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.560 putting out a fire in their house. So yeah, she 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:55.879 seemed to be a real spirited individual. And she was 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:59.800 active from thirty seven through fifty six, and they're a 0:20:59.880 --> 0:21:04.199 good I think dozen collaborations between her and her husband. 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:07.960 She is often credited as a writer and sometimes she 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:11.400 is an actress. But this film, in particular, I'm to understand, 0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:14.800 was a case where it was at least partially inspired 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:17.800 by a dream she had of a woman turning into 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:20.439 a reindeer. And I think it's also, you know, as 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:24.680 we'll discuss, based on some existing bits of folklore and 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:27.440 Bret and Sagas and so forth, but also there's a 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:31.719 dream element something that you know, that emerges personally from her. 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:35.119 There's also a quote in that article about how like 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:37.840 they had a unified vision for this picture and that 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:42.040 they each could see every scene before they shot it. 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:45.320 So she's a really beautiful thought, I. 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:49.400 Think, especially for a film that has deadly premonitions within it. Yeah. 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:53.920 Yeah, yeah that they Yeah, they saw the vision together. 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:57.119 Other notable films of hers include nineteen thirty eight's The 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:00.840 Song of the Scarlet Flower, which, like much her filmography, 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:03.320 was a romance drama. Again, I don't think there are 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:07.000 any other films in her filmography that you could think 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:10.000 of as being horror, fantasy, or certainly sci fi. I 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.400 think The White Reindeer stands alone. She won a uc 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:16.160 for Best Leading Actress for her role in The White Reindeer. 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:20.560 And Yeah, she's amazing in this. It's a captivating performance. 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:26.000 You know, she's often silently channeling these intense feelings of loneliness, 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:31.040 of love and hope and eventually other worldly power. 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:33.399 She really carries the film. I mean, it is her 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:36.160 burden to carry, and she takes it up that snowy hill. 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:40.320 We spend huge amounts of the movie just alone with her, 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:45.040 with nobody else, and even in scenes where she's with 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:48.359 other people, often it's just sort of the audience in 0:22:48.480 --> 0:22:51.520 her and the other people are kind of peripheral. Yeah, 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:56.760 and so we have and it's a really interesting way 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:01.840 to render a protagonist in this way because we our 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:04.119 main relationship is with her, and we spend all this 0:23:04.320 --> 0:23:08.160 time with her. But also she remains so mysterious through 0:23:08.200 --> 0:23:10.680