Valoa Valoa Valoa ( Light Light Light 2023)

Light Light Light (2023)
THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF YOUTH – AND ITS WEIGHT

Haruki Murakami once wrote in Norwegian Wood:
"No wisdom can heal sorrow. That kind of sorrow is beyond wisdom, honesty, strength, or kindness. We can only grieve it to the end and learn something from it..."

A small village somewhere in Finland. The year is 1986, and Chernobyl looms in the background. There is Mariia, and Mariia’s family. Then Mimi arrives in town — with her own family. Due to a misunderstanding, Mariia and Mimi become friends.
The film is based on Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen’s award-winning young adult novel of the same name, which won the Finlandia Junior Prize in 2011.

Coming-of-age stories in cinema have always fascinated me. Films like Tapio Suominen’s Täältä Tullaan, Elämä (1980), Larry Clark’s stark Kids (1995) and Ken Park (2002), or, more recently, Jonah Hill’s empathetic debut Mid90s all come to mind.

A similarly empathetic approach is taken here by director Inari Niemi and co-writer Juuli Niemi, who have adapted the book for the screen. Light Light Light is a story about the friendship, love, and everyday lives of two girls — and one formative summer. At the same time, it’s also a story about a dysfunctional “family,” about indifference and emotional neglect.
This is the crossroad where the vitality and lightness of youth collide with the absence and obliviousness of adults — who neither see the present nor foresee the future... nor much of anything at all.

Light Light Light doesn’t preach, doesn’t underline its points until exhaustion — in fact, it doesn’t at all. It simply shows — as a good film should.
The ethereal compositions by Joel Melasniemi blend seamlessly into the tone and rhythm of the narrative.

"I'm just so tired and tired and tired..."

Though the film is rooted in empathy, and perhaps even hope, at its core lies tragedy — a theme that always remains relevant in cinema. Despite their young age, Rebekka Baer (Mariia) and Anni Iikkanen (Mimi) deliver their roles with remarkable ease and professionalism.
There is space left between the lines, allowing the film to flow from beginning to end as a multidimensional pastiche on the meaning of existence — as well as its brutal consequences and pain points.

"Somewhere nearby, people still live. They fry potatoes and subscribe to newspapers, just like we do. They and their children have survived accidents. They plan to go on living. They breathe God’s air and radiate light, light, light — which is called the will to live."
— V.T. Huotarinen

The film is available to rent on YouTube

Comments

The Night Porter (1974 - Il portiere di notte)

Liliana Cavani – The Night Porter (1974) I wondered what I could write about two people who are “strangers” to each other, yet share a common past. An ugly and horrific past. One was subordinate. The other held power. What are the odds that they would meet again—and would they even recognize each other? One way or another, in Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter , they meet again. A man and a woman. Lucia, a former concentration camp prisoner, and Max, the former camp commandant. The film feels like a long, dark dream in its weightlessness— a feverish delirium trying desperately to change its nature. I couldn't help but think of New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle , though in this case, there are only two protagonists. When their eyes meet at the reception desk of Hotel Zur Oper, flashbacks from the past begin to rise slowly to the surface. After the initial shock and what follows, one begins to contemplate the dynamic between Lucia and Max. They become increasingly entangled ...

The Assessment (2024) When a film presents two worlds—an old one and a new one—it inevitably brings to mind George Orwell, and why not Aldous Huxley as well? The Assessment (2024) is not, however, an Orwellian dystopia, although it certainly is a dystopian portrayal—one that is multi-layered, sharp, and refreshing. Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) are a couple living in the controlled reality of the new world, and they wish to adopt a child. The setup seems fine—at least, on the surface. Technology has certainly taken the upper hand over the old world. The foreboding begins when the official Virginia (Alicia Vikander) arrives to assess the couple’s suitability as parents. The tone of the film is tense, at times unsettling, with Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch's brilliant film score subtly floating in the background, enhancing the atmosphere of instability. The visual quality is impressive and polished, and the casting is spot on. Above all, Alicia Vikander’s p...

Poetic Realism in French Cinema INTRODUCTION Two men walk along a dimly lit peninsula. They talk quietly. The air is misty. The sea is barely visible in the background, and further in the distance, a house emerges from the haze. There is something otherworldly, picturesque, and poetic in the atmosphere. This brief description is from the 1938 film Le Quai des brumes ( Port of Shadows ), directed by Marcel Carné. This film is where it all began—my fascination with the style of French cinema that emerged in the mid-1930s, later known as poetic realism . The term itself originates more from literary realism than from cinema. Typically, the protagonists are working-class people, fugitives, criminals, or those living on the fringes of society. Love, its loss, and the presence or nearness of death are ever-present themes. The cynicism and pessimism of poetic realism reflect the past while foreshadowing the future: the rise of fascism, the impact of the Great Depression, and the ons...

Noir Renoir Films

Search This Blog