Den nakna mannen
Plots(1)
Naked Finnish men sit in the sauna and speak straight from their heart. In the warmth of rusty stoves these men cleanse themselves both physically and mentally. The film takes us to many different Finnish saunas to let us hear touching stories about love, death, birth and friendship; about life. In all of its simplicity camera records the landscapes, saunas and men in almost magical pictures. The presence of the characters and the depth of the emotion reaches the limit where it is almost intolerable for the viewer to watch. This film reveals the naked souls of these men exceptionally intimately and creates a poetic portrayal of Finnish men. (Nordisk Film Fin.)
(more)Reviews (1)
A vain attempt at imitating Jim Jarmusch’s or Aki Kurismäki’s conversation-based movies, Steam of Life is made up of a bunch of short episodes of varying length: ordinary people having ordinary conversations about life at a sauna. These episodes are too ordinary and bland to capture the viewer’s interest, either separately or taken as a whole. The individual episodes lack screenwriting inventiveness and nuanced interplay between the characters, and its unifying message “Finnish guys don’t have it easy” comes out only as self-piteous whining.
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Photo © Oktober
