Click here to edit.
Finnish-French musical film praised at the Moscow International Film Festival - completed without the support of the Finnish Film Foundation
Director Valto Baltzar and composer Heikki Sarmanto were inspired by the film classic The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
Director Valto Baltzar and composer Heikki Sarmanto were inspired by the film classic The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
Theatre maker, now film director, Valto Baltzar in Helsinki 24th of May 2021. Picture by Vesa Moilanen
STT, Kalle Kinnunen 26.5. 10:24
THE FINNISH-FRENCH self-published motion picture production called The Café of my Memories recently received exceptional attention in Russia. It was selected to be the closing film of the Moscow International Film Festival. The final gala was held at the Rossija Theatre on the 29th of April. Director Valto Baltzar, the lead actress Eveliina Kauhanen and cinematographer Kimmo Koskela from Finland were invited to attend the gala.
”It was quite an amazing experience”, Baltzar says. ”After the viewing we went to the after party a hundred metres from the theatre. The walk lasted for nearly two hours, because we were constantly asked to be in pictures with the rest of the festival goers”.
The Moscow International Film Festival is filled with tradition and was a while back one of the most important events in the film industry, but is not noted as much in the West anymore. The leader of the festival Nikita Mihalkov is a widely known film director and a central culture influencer in Russia.
BALTZAR was inspired by the movie The Umbrellas of Cherbourg by Jacques Demy. Years ago he was arranging a movie night to his neighbours. He couldn’t find the Luchino Visconti film that he wanted from the video rental shop, so instead he picked up the work of Demy - and it made a huge impact. ”I fell in love with the film, the atmosphere and the visual aspects. I decided to write a French speaking musical. A two person play was born and it was presented at the Alexander Theatre in Helsinki, where I had directed several plays before. But I also wanted to get into film which was new territory for me, and I precicely wanted to make a musical film”.
Musicals directed to adults are quite rare in Finland. Latest of them being Urban Family (2015) by Oskari Sipola, If You Love (2010) by Neil Hardwick, and Shadow of the Eagle (2005) by Timo Koivusalo.
THIS UNDERTAKING did not receive production aid from the Finnish Film Foundation. Baltzar resorted to the support of private investors and sponsors. Slow funding led to negative headlines when some of the collaborators decided to withdraw. Filmed in Helsinki and Cherbourg in France at the beginning of September of 2018, The Café of my Memories is set for cinema distribution in Finland by the end of this year. The Finnish streaming service Elisa Viihde has received streaming rights to the film. The most famous of the cast in the film include Irina Björklund who plays the mother of the female protagonist, and Anouchka Delon - the daughter of the French superstar Alain Delon.
The budget of The Café of my Memories is under one million euros, although it was filmed in two countries and the score is played by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, a name that can be found under several American film titles. THE MUSIC TO THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG was composed by Michel Legrand. Baltzar got to work with composer Heikki Sarmanto, who he had met already as a teenager while being raised in a cultural family. ”The first time I met Heikki at the birthday party of Tove Jansson when I was fifteen”, Baltzar says.”We became friends a few years back. I presented him with my project and Heikki got excited. I handed him themed poems that I had written and he began to compose them at once”.
Finnish jazz legend Sarmanto had composed film score only one time before. A thriller called Farewell, Mr. President, filmed in 1984 and directed by Matti Kassila. An additional challenge was that the actors, from which some of the actors do not have a musical background, sing themselves in The Café of my Memories.
STT, Kalle Kinnunen 26.5. 10:24
THE FINNISH-FRENCH self-published motion picture production called The Café of my Memories recently received exceptional attention in Russia. It was selected to be the closing film of the Moscow International Film Festival. The final gala was held at the Rossija Theatre on the 29th of April. Director Valto Baltzar, the lead actress Eveliina Kauhanen and cinematographer Kimmo Koskela from Finland were invited to attend the gala.
”It was quite an amazing experience”, Baltzar says. ”After the viewing we went to the after party a hundred metres from the theatre. The walk lasted for nearly two hours, because we were constantly asked to be in pictures with the rest of the festival goers”.
The Moscow International Film Festival is filled with tradition and was a while back one of the most important events in the film industry, but is not noted as much in the West anymore. The leader of the festival Nikita Mihalkov is a widely known film director and a central culture influencer in Russia.
BALTZAR was inspired by the movie The Umbrellas of Cherbourg by Jacques Demy. Years ago he was arranging a movie night to his neighbours. He couldn’t find the Luchino Visconti film that he wanted from the video rental shop, so instead he picked up the work of Demy - and it made a huge impact. ”I fell in love with the film, the atmosphere and the visual aspects. I decided to write a French speaking musical. A two person play was born and it was presented at the Alexander Theatre in Helsinki, where I had directed several plays before. But I also wanted to get into film which was new territory for me, and I precicely wanted to make a musical film”.
Musicals directed to adults are quite rare in Finland. Latest of them being Urban Family (2015) by Oskari Sipola, If You Love (2010) by Neil Hardwick, and Shadow of the Eagle (2005) by Timo Koivusalo.
THIS UNDERTAKING did not receive production aid from the Finnish Film Foundation. Baltzar resorted to the support of private investors and sponsors. Slow funding led to negative headlines when some of the collaborators decided to withdraw. Filmed in Helsinki and Cherbourg in France at the beginning of September of 2018, The Café of my Memories is set for cinema distribution in Finland by the end of this year. The Finnish streaming service Elisa Viihde has received streaming rights to the film. The most famous of the cast in the film include Irina Björklund who plays the mother of the female protagonist, and Anouchka Delon - the daughter of the French superstar Alain Delon.
The budget of The Café of my Memories is under one million euros, although it was filmed in two countries and the score is played by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, a name that can be found under several American film titles. THE MUSIC TO THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG was composed by Michel Legrand. Baltzar got to work with composer Heikki Sarmanto, who he had met already as a teenager while being raised in a cultural family. ”The first time I met Heikki at the birthday party of Tove Jansson when I was fifteen”, Baltzar says.”We became friends a few years back. I presented him with my project and Heikki got excited. I handed him themed poems that I had written and he began to compose them at once”.
Finnish jazz legend Sarmanto had composed film score only one time before. A thriller called Farewell, Mr. President, filmed in 1984 and directed by Matti Kassila. An additional challenge was that the actors, from which some of the actors do not have a musical background, sing themselves in The Café of my Memories.