Ake Lindman Movies
- 2007
For most Finns, the now-legendary military events of August 1944 have not only gone down as historically legendary, but qualify, to date, as the single largest 20th century battle fought on Scandinavian soil. That month, in the western part of Finland's Karelian Isthmus, a cadre of Finnish fighters valiantly fended off waves of incoming enemy forces and successfully protected their country from invasion. The conflict has since become known as 'The Battle of Tali-Ihantala; director Ake Lindman recreates the basic events in this sweeping historical epic, honing in on several smaller human stories with the larger conflict as a backdrop. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 1999
Lapin kullan kimallus is a film about a special period in European history, when gold was discovered in Northern Finland in the famine year of 1868. Hundreds of prospectors, Finnish and foreign, swarmed into the region, some of whom were hard workers, others mere swindlers and fortune hunters. Friendships were often put to test by extreme conditions, when man's greed met the cruel nature of Lapland. The film, which delivers a message that only hope and perseverance can make dreams come true, is partly based on true events and real-life characters. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- 1994
Most of this Finnish thriller was filmed at night. It follows the trials of a young couple who are harassed by a pair of creeps who play nasty pranks such as ordering a huge load of coal on the phone and having it dumped in the couple's beloved rose garden. Officer Harjunpaa and his partner, a woman check out the allegations. The poor husband goes mad from worry about what the persecutors will do next. The film ends two suicides. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kari Heiskanen, Riitta Havukainen, (more)
- 1990
In this antic comedy, Errki and Taisto are Finnish businessmen who are in trouble with the tax authorities. Consequently, they have run away with some of the loot they failed to properly report, to the supposed paradise of Florida, in the U.S. They have plenty of money, but soon tire of boozing and sitting in the sun, so they each take under-the-counter jobs to stave off boredom. Meanwhile, Errki's pregnant wife is not overjoyed by the circumstances she finds there. After Errki returns from an adventure which has him trucking live lobsters (and a cache of heroin) up north, and being nearly caught by the police, he discovers that his wife has returned to Finland in order to have their baby there. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kari Sorvali
- 1989
In this dark Finnish thriller, a the husband and brother of a young woman who has been raped attempt to expose the culprit. However, there are no witnesses, and since the rapist is a prominent, respectable citizen, the authorities react with disbelief. Unable to obtain justice, the two men decide to take the law into their own hands, and their actions land them in jail. The woman, who was the victim, is herself treated as a criminal, and begins to fall apart under the strain. First-time director Ville Makela and screenwriter Olli-Pekka Parvianiinen present a strong indictment of how the forces of the law deal with the crime of rape. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Taneli Makela, Kari Heiskanen, (more)
- 1985
In a fast-paced but unemotional tale of woe with an abrupt closure, a 60-year-old businessman faces first one crisis and then another, with no obvious escape hatch in sight. Gabriel Berggren (Erland Josephson) has rivals in the business world, given that he is an executive in a large company. At home, his marriage has hit the skids, and that does nothing to improve his attitude at work -- which distinctly deteriorates when the CEO dies while at Berggren's desk. That tragedy invites some nasty competition for the dead man's position, and all this pressure is not really made much easier when a charming young woman (Charlotta Larsson) starts working in the office. Berggren's troubles come to a head when he falls ill at the wedding party of one of his rivals -- and unless he is careful, he may be the next to join the CEO.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erland Josephson, Charlotta Larsson, (more)
Few filmmakers other than Warren Beatty would have had the courage and vision to fashion an epic film from the life of famed American Communist John Reed (who is the only US citizen buried in the Kremlin). The film is an effort to humanize a political movement that has previously been depicted on screen in a series of unsubtle and prejudicial broad strokes. The film begins in 1915, when Reed (Beatty) makes the acquaintance of married Portland journalist Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton). So persuasive is Reed's point of view--and so charismatic is Reed himself-- that Bryant kicks over the traces and joins Reed and his fellow radicals. Among the famous personages depicted herein are Emma Goldman (Maureen Stapleton), Eugene O'Neill (Jack Nicholson) and Max Eastman (Richard Herrmann). The second half of this nearly-200-minute film skims through the years when Reed, now a Russian resident, becomes disillusioned by the harsh realities of Bolshevism. Despite the celebrity line-up of real-life "witnesses" to the events depicted in the film (ranging from novelist Henry Miller to comedian George Jessel!), historians took Reds to task for its oversimplification of events and its laundering of the notoriously promiscuous Louise Bryant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, (more)
- 1977
- PG
Don Siegel took over the directing chores from Peter Hyams on this taut cold war action film, based on the novel by Walter Wager. With the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union thawing, old KGB hard-liner Nicolai Dalchimsky (Donald Pleasence) activates a group of Americans who were brainwashed twenty years earlier to blow up United States defenses when a passage from a Robert Frost poem is recited to them. When bombs go off at an abandoned United States defense installation, the Kremlin realizes that they have a rogue KGB agent on their hands who is trying to re-ignite the cold war. To stop him, the Russians send out KGB agent Grigori Borzov (Charles Bronson). Accompanying him is KGB double agent Barbara (Lee Remick). As the two agents try to stop Nicolai from starting World War III, they find time to fall in love with each other. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bronson, Lee Remick, (more)
- 1966
In this crime drama, a fellow takes the rap for a major financial swindle, but then, to clear his name, jumps bail and begins trailing the real culprits. To assist, he hires a mercenary who double-crosses him to collect a $5000 reward. Again the slippery fellow escapes, and this time offers the mercenary a much larger sum. Together they find the real swindler. The hero then decides not to kill him. In the end his innocence is proven and he is free. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Long, Ake Lindman, (more)
- 1963
In this drama, a lovely hitchhiker is picked up by an aging businessman who takes her to his summer cabin where they make love. Unfortunately, the businessman is married. The summer continues, and the hitcher begins an affair with a younger man. Later the business man decides to divorce his wife and marry her. The trouble begins when the other lover gets a ladder and climbs into their window. Unfortunately, he falls from the ladder and dies of a broken neck. To avoid a scandal, the businessman quickly hides the body. Unfortunately, the girl feels guilty and calls the police. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1959
When Swiss veterinarian Dr. Holm (Carl Möhner) volunteers his dog, Wolf, to enter a space project, the space capsule comes down in the Arctic region where a former love of Holm lives. The successful rescue mission also sees the reunion of Holm and the woman. Though it premiered in West Germany in 1959, Moonwolf didn't receive an American release until 1966. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1957
This unusual social drama was Finland's contribution to the 1957 Berlin Film Festival. The central character is a prostitute, played by Ann Savo. Briefly reformed through the kindnesses of a well-meaning priest (Aake Lindman), Savo ultimately returns to the streets when she finds she cannot control her carnal instincts. All of this is played against the backdrop of the 1918 Finnish Revolution. Popular in its native country, 1918 -- A Man and His Conscience was too provincial in its appeal to succeed worldwide, though the judges at the Berlin festival were duly impressed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ake Lindman, Ann Savo, (more)
- 1955
The Finnish Tuntematon Sotilas was released in English-speaking countries as The Unknown Soldier. Based on a novel by Vaino Linna, the story focusses on a group of Finnish soldiers as they defend their borders against Russia during WW2. So grimly explicit were the battle scenes, and so fresh in the memories were the political ramifications of the film, that Tuntematon Sotilas was withdrawn from the Cannes Film Festival at the behest of certain political interests. No matter: the film was one of the most financially successful Scandanavian releases of the mid-1950s. The haunting musical score was cowritten by no less than Jean Sibelius. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1953
Valkoinen Peura (The White Reindeer) was Finland's entry in the 1953 Cannes Film Festival. Written, photographed and directed by Erik Blomberg, the film stars Blomberg's wife Mirijami Kuosmanen. She plays a neglected young wife who responds to her husband's coldness by venturing into the snowy wastes and transforming into a reindeer. Symbolically, every man who hunts this deer comes to a bad end. And then the husband goes a-hunting . . . . On paper, Valkoinen Peura seems ludicrous; on film, everything works beautifully. The film proved to be Finland's first international postwar success. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ake Lindman
