Varastettu kuolema

Nyrki Tapiovaara made a short career by directing only five movies. Still he can be remembered as one of the early masters of Finnish cinema. "Varastettu kuolema" is a great example of Tapiovaara's talent. It's a rare piece of work as being one of the few film noir -styled movies of the local products.

The film brings us among a group of revolutionists preparing for some militaristic actions. However this won't be so easy as the times are hard and people corrupted. "Varastettu kuolema" crawls through the dark alleys and twisted people just the way as the famous works of the Hollywood film noir do. The ending breaks out to be astonishing. Peter von Bagh claims it to be the best scene in the history of Finnish film!

There is something very special about the careful and intricate way Stolen Death is made. With a visual flair, strongly reminiscent of film noir and German expressionism, the film creates a bleak and cold world - but not one without hope.

It's staunch and calculated rhythmic journey also has a flare of romanticism, that peaks through it's harsh exterior. This makes it harder to put in a box, as a movie of this kind could easily be a brilliant exercise of style, it feels far too human to simply fit this label - despite the minimalistic atmosphere at hand.

This is a slow burner, that gradually let's you into it's time and world, and requires your concentration. Set while Finland was still a part of the Russian Empire, we follow revolutionaries through some fiercely banal groundwork, from their publication, to the attempts to gain guns - all with the police, authority and other betraying dangers lurking in the shadows.

And the shadows truly come out in this movie, they almost become their own character in the early portions of the film, rendering most noirs to shame, and interestingly utilizes many techniques we'll later find among the later American wave - at the same time as there are clear Russian influences. At the same time it's atmosphere and progression feels more true to the contemporary Japanese filmmaking of the time - though this is likely a coincident.

While watching it my most frequent thought, not relating directly to the plot, was the extraordinarily surprising talent of Nyrki Tapiovaara. He utilizes a wide variety of shots, and techniques, that all deliver the emotion and atmosphere intended - and he makes it all come together seamlessly. This is a level of film-making equal to that of Lang and Ozu in this era. I will need to investigate more of his filmography. I believe we have an internationally forgotten master here! 8.5/10

Nyrki Tapiovaara is the great lost genius of Finnish cinema - he died in action in 1940, aged 29, having completed only five films, of which two can be accounted mature works.

There was some talk about ten years ago that Varastettu Kuolema - Stolen Death - would be part of a British National Film Theatre Project to make available a central corpus of important cinema. I don't know what became of that; the film does not appear to be available in the UK, and when I saw it in Finland recently it was in a print of mediocre quality, with poor sound quality and no subtitles. So I saw a silent film with snatches of dialogue.

But then that is a big test of a film - does it work visually? Varastettu Kuolema undoubtedly does. You can see who is on what side at a time when being on the right side is a matter of more than loyalty, it is a matter of life and death. The characters are rounded and realistic. The use of outside locations is bold - and many of those locations are the same now as they were in 1918, when the film was set, in 1938, when it was made, and today. (It's strange and moving to see the city where you live in this way.) The set pieces all work.

The overall effect is of Nordic noir, not to be repeated until nearly fifty years later, when the Kaurismaki brothers started to take up where Tapiovaara had been tragically forced to leave off.