THIS IS A PRE-ORDER SCHEDULED TO RELEASE ON OR NEAR 11/25 (may be slightly later).
PRE-ORDERS CANNOT BE CANCELLED OR MODIFIED.
YOU WILL BE CHARGED AT CHECKOUT.
ALL ITEMS ORDERED WITH A PRE-ORDER WILL SHIP TOGETHER. IF YOU WISH TO RECEIVE YOUR OTHER ITEMS SOONER, PLEASE PLACE A SEPARATE ORDER.
This item is included in the current (Jul-Dec '25) subscription. If you are a subscriber, only order if you want an additional copy.
DELUXE LIMITED EDITION (1900 UNITS)
3x Teuvo Tulio
A mad, dreamlike combination of surrealist imagery and unhinged emotional intensity, the films of Finnish director Teuvo Tulio (1912-2000) are melodramas untethered from any sense of naturalism or narrative logic (or often good taste), operating in the same glorious, hallucinatory space as the subversive, Brechtian melodramas of Douglas Sirk and R.W. Fassbinder. They are, in a word, wildly entertaining: unearthly and operatic and totally addictive, streaked with film noir and near-Expressionist horror tropes, and doused with tears and booze, prostitution and poison. His work has been rediscovered and restored in recent years by KAVI – the National Audiovisual Institute of Finland, for this first-ever worldwide Blu-ray release from Deaf Crocodile.
CROSS OF LOVE (RAKKAUDEN RISTI) – 1946, 99 min. Grizzled old lighthouse keeper Oscar Tengström spends his nights talking to his parrot, surrounded by German Expressionist shadows. There are deeper shadows in his mind: when he hears a drowning man out on the rocks, he grabs a rifle and shoots him! We learn why he hates strangers as he reveals the story of his daughter Riitta (Regina Linnanheimo) who is swept off to the city by rakishly handsome Mauri (Ville Salminen) --in no time she’s a cigarette-smoking prostitute with a black beret and jaded wink. She’s followed one day by a sensitive young man Henrik (Rauli Tuomi) who turns out to be a painter and wants her to model – DEAR GOD – half-naked, tied to a cross with her dress torn open. Later remade by Tulio as SENSUELA in 1973.
RESTLESS BLOOD (LEVOTON VERI) – 1946, 100 min. Blonde wife Sylvi (Regina Linnanheimo) seems to have an ideal marriage to playboy doctor husband Valter (Eino Katajavuori), despite his “innocent” flirtation with her kid sister – until her young son is killed by a speeding bus. She drinks poison in desperation – she survives but loses her sight. Kid sister returns, and now the grieving husband is interested in more than flirting. Look out: once Sylvi downs a shot of poison and dons her weird black shades, ooowee!! Features an intensely deranged performance by Linnanheimo in tailored suits and 1940s hairdos, sporting Peter Lorre-in-MAD LOVE sunglasses and giving the whole film a German Expressionist / neo-horror / neo-noir vibe.
SENSUELA (1973, 104 min.) Tulio’s notorious last film – and arguably his greatest achievement – SENSUELA opens on reindeer herder’s daughter Laila (Marianne Mardi) saving badly-wounded German WW2 pilot Hans (Mauritz Åkerman). Hans quickly seduces her off to the big city, where she descends into a polyester maelstrom of fabulous clothes and nudie photography and hippie orgies. (Oh, the action mysteriously leaps forward 25 years to the Swinging 60s with no explanation, don’t ask why!) What follows is an incredible mix of ethnographic reindeer herding docudrama, jawdropping John Waters-meets-Doug Sirk-meets Russ Meyer-meets-Anna Biller’s THE LOVE WITCH-style melodrama blending eye-popping Technicolor, softcore eroticism / sexploitation, and Mod 60’s / 70s Pop Art fashions and décor. SENSUELA seems to have been beamed in from an alternate universe where any standards of good taste are completely inverted and/or missing. Note: SENSUELA is intended for mature audiences and contains frequent onscreen nudity.
All 3 films in Finnish with English subtitles.
Special Features
-
The only remaining fragments from Tulio’s early features STRUGGLE FOR THE HOUSE OF HEIKKILA (1936, 9 min. clip) and FALL ASLEEP WHEN YOUNG (1937, 22 min)
-
Short documentary A FRENCH DISCOVERY - NUORENA NUKKUNUT (2015, 7 min., dir. Jani Jäderholm) on preserving the fragment of FALL ASLEEP WHEN YOUNG
-
Two Finnish educational films from the 1940s, I WOULD LIKE TO BE A QUEEN (1947, 13 min) and SHELTERS FOR NEWBORNS, 1946, 9 min)
-
Rare trailer for the Swedish-language version of CROSS OF LOVE (1946)
-
New audio commentaries by Dr. Eloise Ross, Rolf Giesen and Heidi Honeycutt
-
New visual essays by Reinert Kiil and Ryan Verrill & Dr. Will Dodson
-
New artwork by Beth Morris.
-
Blu-ray authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity In Motion
Deluxe Bonus Edition Content
-
60 page booklet
-
New essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
-
New essay by Walter Chaw
-
New essay by Dr. Eloise Ross
-
New essay by Venla Mäkelä
-
Slipcase featuring new artwork by Sam’s Myth
-
Limited to 1900 units
