Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Tove: Bounded by Art, Love and The “Moomins”

 By José Alberto Hermosillo

Once upon a time in Helsinki, a young lady full of dreams and vitality wanted to transcend history but didn’t know how. Her name was Tove Jansson, her superpower was drawing, and her immeasurable creation was "The Moomins."

At the end of WWII, in Finland, culture was moderated by politics and religion to reunite society. At that time, the arts were a fundamental part of the country’s economic recovery. Tove’s renowned father, acclaimed sculptor Viktor’ Faffan’ Jansson, wanted to see his daughter become an extraordinary painter, but destiny had other plans.

 

While Tove’s father worked on his art, the daughter consumed her precious time drawing sketches. The concerned parent asked her to continue painting, and she responded sarcastically, “Should I paint something for our fatherland?” The dialog and the visuals create relevant symbolism throughout the entire movie. 

She wanted to gain independence and freedom from her parents. But those idealistic goals have a price. First, she must create a sanctuary to get inspiration, connect with her interior light, and perhaps a muse. She wants to use her experience as a well-traveled, liberal woman who knows how people in Morocco live.

Meeting a guy is a start to opening to her sexuality and a deeper existentialist level. Tove is a free-spirited woman who thinks having sex with another woman resembles a flying dragon on fire. Still, she believes that life is a beautiful adventure. In her artistic field, rejection does not come from her father’s disapproval but from academics.

She starts moving away from paintings to sketches and plays with the idea of having stripes with dialogues. Soon, her original and fun illustrations transformed into many satirical cartoons.


Actress Alma Pöysti plays Tove flawlessly. Before filming, she was already familiarized with the project because she previously participated in the animated feature film “Moomins on the Riviera,” giving voice to Niiskuneiti in the Finnish version.

Among the bourgeoisie, Tove feels sorry for people who are not artistic. “Ingenuity is a hallmark,” she says, referring to a personalized birthday card she drew for the wealthy father of her new best friend, Vivica Vandler (Krista Kosonen). Vivica is a theater director with whom Tove falls in love and decides to live the intensity of the Palme d’Or winner “Blue is the Warmest Color,” explicitly speaking.

Throughout the film, her graphic work becomes more relevant, and Tove’s unassuming and original work gains followers. Her friends and loved ones are drowning in the mysterious world of the Moomins, and Vivica treasures a blueprint of The Moominvalley and makes it hers. 

In Tove Jansson’s life, sometimes, opportunities came from connections with other artists and politicians. She is soon chosen to paint a fresco for the City Hall. A controversy regarding class conflict occurs, not as tense as Diego Rivera’s mural at the Rockefeller Center in New York depicted in Tim Robbin’s “Cradle Will Rock,” 1999. Still, both are in favor of the oppressed.

Vivica convinces Tove to write and stage a children’s play and elaborates that costumes and sets were a titanic labor of love that would pay off later in her life.

 

In the play, her ideology and lifestyle are reflected in some of the characters. Smoking, drinking, and swearing can be inappropriate for some children, and the press questions her. As an author, Tove wants to materialize her work as it is, without affliction.

 

The film becomes heartfelt when we see Tove’s loneliness and struggle to make ends meet, forcing her to take a more commercial direction in her career. 

In the 1950s, her debut as a cartoonist reached a bigger audience by signing a juicy contract with the London Evening News, the world’s biggest newspaper. She had to publish a comic strip weekly. She asks her brother Lars Jansson to come on board to meet the demand. 

The music evolution enriches the story beautifully, evolving from an impassioned Tango to Jazz, Classic, and some fantastic “Chanson Françoise,” including the magnificent compositions of Matti Bye (“Everlasting Moments”). 

The Moomins are physically ambiguous in form and color; for instance, they are white and neutral. Their shape is not precisely a hippo, but those charming, chubby creatures are the cutest.

Book cover courtesy of Drawn & Quarterly

Children and adults get fascinated reading the gentle sense of humor of “The Moomins.” Besides the sarcasm, they are part of the modern art movement. The creatures criticize the socialites’ pretentiousness and walk of life, and they have the ambition to explore the world. The cartoons are groundbreaking for other successful, irreverent, and popular animated series with a similar sense of humor, such as “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy,” or “Mafalda” from Argentina.

“Tove” is structured similarly to “Tom of Finland” - the 2017 biopic of an artist pioneer of LGBTQ rights. Tom revolutionized the world of graphics with his risqué and daring illustrations.

Without smearing the feminist crusade in the face, director Zaida Bergroth (“Last Cowboy Standing,” “The Good Son”) recreates Tove’s world in Europe during the 40s, 50s, and 60s wonderfully and portrays the life of Tove Jansson delicately. Bergroth focuses on Tove’s art and humanism, social class, and women’s sexuality eloquently.

Written by Eeva Putro, “Tove” is the final biographical film of Swedish-Finnish author and illustrator, creator of the world’s acclaimed Moomins, who transcend through time. The film was selected as the Finnish entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards. 

“Tove” is an impassioned and imaginative work of art worth watching to expand our knowledge about essential creators worldwide. 

  
 
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Tuesday, February 9, 2021

THREE LATIN-AMERICAN FILMS AMONG THE FIFTEEN ACADEMY SHORTLISTED INTERNATIONAL FEATURES

 By José Alberto Hermosillo

IN THE INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM CATEGORY Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico, among the fifteen extraordinary works in foreign language, passed to the next round of the Academy qualification.

"The Mole Agent," "La Llorona," and "I'm No Longer Here" are the three celebrated films from Latin-America and will be facing off with other twelve strong candidates such as the front-runner "Another Round" from Denmark. The French sublime, evocative, profound, and unforgettable love story "Two of Us." The powerful work from the Ivory Coast, "Night of the Kings." The marvelous teen's action-drama "Better Days" from Hong Kong. And the dark horse Quo Vadis, Aida? from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Chile

"The Mole Agent" or "El agente topo" is nominated for Best Documentary at Spirit Awards and a Goya Award in Spain. The Chilean Oscar submission directed by Maite Alberdi is a heartwarming, inventive documentary. It records a 90-year old undercover who investigates how the golden-ages are treated in a nursing home. The project has an engrossing conclusion that lifts the spirit way up.

"The Mole Agent" could repeat the luck of last year's North Macedonia's entry "Honneyland" and get two Oscar nominations, one for Best Documentary and the other for Best International Feature film. "Collective," the entry from Romania is also a documentary, and it could also land with a double nomination as well.

Guatemala 

La Llorona/The Weeping Woman, directed by Jayro Bustamante (Ixcanul/Volcano), is an elegant and well-constructed film about overcoming powerful dictators in Latin-America, by the people, by the courts, and by the shadows of the spirits. This highly politically motivated genre film has what it takes to be among the five nominated films for its artistic value. It conveys the atrocities of war-crimes by dictators and justice seekers equally.

México

With a heart-stopping ending, the film distributed by Netflix presents the Mexican youth's predicament, to emigrate to the USA and survive, or remain in the country to enroll in the Narco lines of delinquency. This unprocessed reality keeps thundering in the viewers' mind way after seeing this powerful film. 

 

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

🇧🇦 Bosnia & Herzegovina, “Quo Vadis, Aida?”
🇨🇱 Chile, “The Mole Agent
🇨🇿 Czech Republic, “Charlatan”
🇩🇰 Denmark, “Another Round”
🇫🇷 France, “Two of Us
🇬🇹 Guatemala, “La Llorona”
🇭🇰 Hong Kong, “Better Days”
🇮🇷 Iran, “Sun Children”
🇨🇮 Ivory Coast, “Night of the Kings”
🇲🇽 Mexico, “I’m No Longer Here”
🇳🇴 Norway, “Hope”
🇷🇴 Romania, “Collective”
🇷🇺 Russia, “Dear Comrades!”
🇹🇼 Taiwan, “A Sun”
🇹🇳 Tunisia, “The Man Who Sold His Skin”


Fifteen are the films advancing to the next round of voting in the International Feature Film category for the 93rd Academy Awards. Films from 93 countries were eligible in the category.

Academy members from all branches were invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must have met a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category. 

In the nominations round, Academy members from all branches are invited to opt in to participate and must view all 15 shortlisted films to vote.

Nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards will be announced on Monday, March 15, 2021.

The 93rd Oscars® will be held on Sunday, April 25, 2021, and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

TWENTY BEST MOVIES OF 2020
THE WORLD'S BEST FILM FESTIVAL POSTERS 2020

IF YOU ARE READING FROM A MOBILE DEVICE, CLICK: view web version FOR OTHER COOL FEATURES SUCH AS TRANSLATE POWERED BY GOOGLE, AN INTERACTIVE FILM FESTIVAL CALENDAR, AND MORE AWESOME ARTICLES.

Festival in LA ©2021