Miehen tie

Paavo Ahrola's wife dies.Her parents take the baby they had.Paavo meets his old flame, Vormiston Alma.She has always been his true love.Is there the future together written for these two? Miehen Tie (1940) is directed by Nyrki Tapiovaara (1911-1940).But he never got to finish the movie because he lost his life during the Winter War.Hugo Hytönen finished the movie.George de Godzinsky is behind the fantastic music.This is based on F.E. Sillanpää's novel, and he also wrote the screenplay.At the moment I am reading that book.Gunnar Hiilloskorpi does amazing work in the lead playing Paavo.Just look at his drunken act.What a performance! Mirjami Kuosmanen is brilliant as Alma.Hugo Hytönen is terrific as Vihtori Taatila.Helvi Järveläinen plays Karjakko Hulda Tiirikka.Annie Mörk plays Tussan Muori while Emmi Jurkka plays Tussan Lyyti.Pentti Viljanen is Dude from Tampere.Irja Kuusla plays Anni.Sillanpää is seen as Man at the dances.This movie does great job psychologically depicting those characters.The movie also has some great nightly shots.The night sky above those hay-stack poles...It all looks pretty amazing.It's really sad that Nyrki Tapiovaara's life was taken so young.Who knows what he would have accomplished.

What a loss it was for the whole area of movie making when Nyrki Tapiovaara, maybe the most talented director ever in Finland, fell down defending his country in 1940!

Just before Tapiovaara's last days came out the last one of his five masterpieces; a strong drama called "Miehen Tie". In this film can be seen the strong influences of Sergei Eisenstein as together with Erik Blomberg they managed to make the storytelling so brilliant by using some beautiful silent shots combined with overwhelming emotions.

"Miehen Tie" is very different from its time and it can only be adored how acting is kept so cool and dark all along the way. The dialog works perfectly as the original writer of the novel, F.E. Sillanpää, adapted the work for the screen.

This is a real pearl from the old times. It's also a very important part of the history of Cinema and should be seen by everyone keen on early Soviet films.