User:Prolog/Cinema of Finland
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[edit] Early history
Film arrived in Finland on June 28, 1896, precisely half a year after the first public screening at Paris's Salon Indien du Grand Café, when several Lumière films were shown in Helsinki. The first filming in the country took place in 1904 by photographer and engineer Karl Emil Ståhlberg. Within the same year, the first Finnish documentary films were released. Ståhlberg had bought a film projector from Charles Pathé while on his honeymoon in Paris, France and also owned the movie theater Världen Rundt - Maailman ympäri ("Around the World"), which was among the first ones in Finland. The first permanent movie theater was Kinematograf International, which situated at Lundqvist Business Palace and was owned by a baker named Gustaf Nord. Kinematograf International opened on New Year's Day 1901.
The first Finnish fiction film, Salaviinanpolttajat (The Moonshiners), directed by Teuvo Puro and Louis Sparre, opened on May 29, 1907. The film was a 20-minute comedy short film.[1] The first Finnish company solely concentrated on filmmaking was founded in 1910 by Puro, Frans Engström and Teppo Raikas. The company aimed at releasing three films in the year 1911; two of them based on plays Anna-Liisa and Sylvi, written by Minna Canth, and one based on Brottsjöar, a novel by Swedish writer Axel Jädern. Anna-Liisa and Hyökyaaltoja were released as planned, but despite being finished in 1911, Sylvi wasn't released until March 10, 1913. At the same time, Helsinki-born Mauritz Stiller began to gain prominence in Sweden and turned out to be Finnish cinema's lost talent. Stiller had fled Finland to Sweden after being conscripted to the Russian army.[2]
When World War I began, the growth of the film industry in Finland froze. Purchasing equipment and film became expensive and filming outside wasn't allowed anymore. Erkki Karu, originally named Erland Fredrik Kumeander, founded Suomen Filmikuvaamo which was to become a prominent figure in Finnish cinema. In 1921, Suomen Filmikuvaamo was renamed to Suomi-Filmi and the studio quickly released many popular films.
Anna-Liisa (1922) was advertised as the first Finnish major production. It also became the first film to be banned from children. The first and only film to be banned entirely was Konrad Tallroth's Eräs elämän murhenäytelmä, which was released before the war in 1916. 1923 saw the releases of two of Suomi-Filmi's most popular early films; Nummisuutarit and Koskenlaskijan morsian. Nummisuutarit was based on a novel by Aleksis Kivi and is now remembered as one of the biggest classics of the Finnish silent film era.
In the late 1920's, Finnish film industry was struggling. A fire in a movie theater in Tampere resulted in the deaths of 21 movie-goers in 1926. Foreign sound film arrived in Finland in 1929 and as economy was struggling people could not afford going to the cinema very often. The biggest production company, Suomi-Filmi, instead truggled with internal differences as Karu had got to quarrels with the company's board members.
