A pair of films that have proved elusive for a while, finally unearthed, thanks to Mubi.
THE HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE OF OLLI MAKI (2017) (A-minus) - The Finnish boxer Olli Maki gets the retro bio treatment in this sweet story of the romance that threatened his chance to take the featherweight crown from American boxer Davey Moore in 1962. Olli (Jarkko Lahti) gets distracted in the weeks before the bout when he finds himself falling in love with Raisa (Oona Airola) and suddenly caring a lot less about preparing for his opponent.
This does not sit well with his gruff, greedy manager, Elis (Eero Milonoff), who is looking to put Olli's little hometown in Finland on the world map. Elis (who gets top billing on the promotional fight card) is hyping Olli for monetary gain, himself distracting the boxer with ad shoots and a film crew chronicling the run-up to the momentous event.
Olli is having trouble making weight (he's usually a class or two above featherweight), and he can't stop thinking about Raisa, who tries to stay out of the way but can't help it if she's irresistible to our hero. Olli starts to question his role in the media circus, particularly when he goes to an arcade and gets a backstage glimpse of one of the women who performs in a dunk tank. Is Olli, too, just a jester in a sideshow?
Director Juho Kuosmanen shoots this wistful period piece on luscious black-and-white, and at times this truly feels like a film made in the early Sixties. The script gives Lahti plenty of space to let his character evolve. The details are meticulous at times, including the scenes of Olli's training and the climactic bout with Moore. (Moore would die after a fight in 1963 and be eulogized in song by Bob Dylan.)
As the story casually unspools, it might become apparent which particular day will serve as the happiest in Ollie's life. It's a bittersweet battle between love and war.
FIFI HOWLS FROM HAPPINESS (2014) (B+) - Filmmaker Mitra Farahani pursues a labor of love as she crafts this final, seemingly definitive profile of the artist Bahman Mohasses, an itinerant iconoclast sometimes referred to as the Persian Picasso. Mohasses is a nihilistic misanthrope who reportedly destroyed many of his paintings and sculptures, thumbing his nose at the art world and, fleeing Iran, disappearing into a hermetic existence at a hotel in Rome.
Farahani tracks him down and earns his trust. Quite aware that his chain-smoking lifestyle was steering him quickly toward the grave, Mohasses opens up to Farahani, whom he refers to as "lady," as he tells tales of life as a gay provocateur in Shah-era Tehran. (Mohasses also translated poetry and directed plays, a true renaissance artist.)
Mohasses rarely lets a cigarette leave his lips, and his asthmatic rasp (he has a rascally scratchy laugh that recalls the snickers of Muttley and Shane MacGowan) grows a bit more dire as the story progresses. Mindful of his impending demise -- he would die in 2010, a few years before the film finally found release -- the subject directs the director, suggesting lively cutaway shots to break the monotony of his cramped hotel room. Farahani complies. She also tags along as Mohasses makes arrangements with a couple of fanboys who commission a final masterwork from the legend.
The film makes time to linger over the artist's impressive images, including muscle-bound minotaurs, plenty of fish and birds, and the image above that gives the film its title. Mohasses has no regrets about his scorched-earth journey on the planet, having, in the parlance of sports, left everything out on the field. And he burns a few bridges on his way to the afterlife.
BONUS TRACK
The title track from "Olli Maki" serves up some surf noir:
No comments:
Post a Comment