The Earth is a Sinful Song
UW Cinematheque 821 University Ave., UW Vilas Hall, Room 4070, Madison, Wisconsin
press release: Finland | 1973 | 35mm | 108 min. | Finnish with English subtitles
Director: Rauni Mollberg; Cast: Maritta Viitamäki, Pauli Jauhojärvi, Aimo Saukko
This adaptation of a Timo K. Mukka novel tells of a promiscuous 18-year old in a small village in Northern Finland in the late 1940s. One of the biggest box-office successes in the history of Finnish cinema The Earth is a Sinful Song is cast almost entirely with non-professional, local actors. The way of life on the vast plains and hills of Lapland comes across as thoroughly soaked in a unique combination of nature, love, sex, death, religion, and alcohol. Sexually frank, sometimes violent, and vividly real, director Mollberg’s movie is unlike any film of its era. The screening will be presented in person by David Spencer, Senior Curator, Moving Image Archives at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
From the Archives at UNCSA
Founded in the 1990s, the Moving Image Archives at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem provided a home for thousands of 35mm film prints once kept at dozens of National Film Service depots across the country. Slated for destruction, the prints were rescued and trucked to a state-of-the-art archival facility, providing a foundation for what is now one of the largest 35mm collections in the world. Consisting primarily of titles released in the 1950s to the early 1990s, the holdings include widely distributed Hollywood classics, subtitled releases of foreign-language titles, grindhouse staples, cult movies, and some truly rare oddities. The series of all 35mm prints will include nine feature-length rarities from three continents and a personal appearance from the UNCSA’s senior curator, David Spencer, who will discuss the history of the collection and its holdings.
All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.