Lögberg-Heimskringla - 05.06.1981, Síða 5

WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 5. JÚNÍ 1981-5
Iceland's Film Industry
by Linda Asgeirsson
(Condensed from an article in
Film Comment magazine)
A high national average
For a country of only about
225,000 people, Iceland has
developed an extraordinary culture.
Icelanders have theirown language;
their own remarkably rich body of
literature; their own publishing
houses; five daily newspapers; and
bookstores whose English sections
alone rival in size and quality those
of any small American city.
Icelanders not only like to read,
they go to the movies a lot. Perhaps
being in an audience is a way of
maintaining contact through the
long darkness of winter, but each of
the island's inhabitants sees eleven
films a year — a national average
that is one of the world's highest. In
Reykjavík, well over a million ad-
missions were paid to the city's
fourteen movie houses.
Foreign producers sell film prints
outright to the various exhibitors in
Reykjavík; the cinema owners then
subtitle the print and when that
copy of the film has finished its run
in the capital city (all ticket prices
are fixed by government decree), it
is distributed by the exhibitor
The sign of the Twins is one of the
most versatile of Zodiac signs, with
the reputation, derived from its dou-
ble symbol, for a natural ability to
handle two or more things at once,
and to see two or more sides to
every question. Gemini is our first
representative of the element Air,
which is the element of reason and
communication. Gemini's ruler,
Mercury, once considered the
Messenger of the Gods, reinforces
this sign’s aptitude for quick-witted
and useful communication.
Typical Geminians tend to work
with movement, both of mind and
body. They prefer an active life
which can stimulate as well as
satisfy their perpetual curiosity.
Their flexible minds are good at in-
venting reasons and ends for means,
so they are often called the Inven-
tors of the Zodiac. They are rarely
depressed for long, since their in-
terest in life always picks up when
their curiosity is aroused or they see
a chance to exchange ideas with
others. They are fluent and engag-
ing conversationalists and writers.
To more emotional types, the
traditional Gemini love may seem a
little cool with its emphasis on ver-
bal expression and variety. Gemi-
nians have a talent for sharing their
interests with their partners, but
may also give a disconcerting im-
pression that they are versatile
enough to love more than once.
himself to affiliated theatres in other
parts of the country. The print is
then returned to Reykjavík where it
is stored for a certain length of time,
and then apparently destroyed.
Foreign producers are not eager for
the Icelandic version of their work
to be returned; and exhibitors, for
a good reason, are not willing to
store a legacy of films that ac-
cumulate at a rate of 200-a-year. The
Government could easily establish a
superb international collection of
contemporary cinema. At the mo-
ment, however, the recently
established film archives is all but
non-existent and funded primarily
to preserve Icelandic cinema.
Iceland's pioneer filmmakers
There have been filmmakers in
Iceland since 1944. Prior to in-
dependence, Danish filmmakers oc-
casionally shot films on Icelandic
location. The first maker of native
Icelandic cinema, however, was a
still photographer, Loftur
Guðmundsson. Loftur made his first
film, a short comedy, in 1923. This
was followed by a series of docu-
mentaries which have been de-
scribed as "showing Iceland in liv-
ing pictures — the country and its
inhabitants, natural catastrophies,
They compensate amply, however,
by their stimulating companionship
and their appealing message that life
offers even more, just around the
next corner!
Typical astrological advice to
Geminians seeks to maximize the
potential of their native curiosity
while at the same time warning that
too many interests, picked up and
quickly dropped, may disappoint in
the long run, since no interest will
then be seen to its end. Yet there is
no use asking a typical Gemini child
or its adult counterpart to
methodically finish one task before
beginning another. Therefore,
Geminians must be encouraged, or
encourage themselves; to use their
natural ingenuity to find ways of
developing their interests in greater
depth. It is often suggested that they
look for a job or a life-style where
their Gemini abilities are valued,
and where they can perhaps ap-
proach a few interests
simultaneously from ever-changing
viewpoints. Geminians frequently
supplement the interests of their
regular work with contrasting night
classes, or freelance work.
The gift of Gemini to us all is its
unique interest in the ever-changing
pageant of life and its stimulating
belief that knowing more about just
about anything is a wonderful and
exciting reason for being alive.
national celebrations, and visiting
heads of state."
If Icelandic cinema has a father, it
would probably be Oskar Gíslason.
In 1919 Óskar assisted during the
Icelandic location shooting of the
Nordisk Co. film, the Borg Family
Saga. Subsequently, he trained as a
still photographer, and in 1944 com-
pleted in three days (home process-
ing and editing included) his first
16mm film, a documentary on the
celebrations attending the birth of
the nation. In 1949 he made a film
that secured his reputation in the
other Nordic countries. Lifesaving at
Látrabjarg, an exciting account of an
actual rescue from the sea, pays
tribute to those associations of
farmers and fishermen which
rescue sailors from vessels stranded
on the coastal rocks. At risk to life
and Bolex camera, Oskar scaled the
cliffs and participated in bringing
the luckless British sailors to
shelter. Lifesaving at Látrabjarg
belongs in the history of the
documentary film.
In 1950 Óskar himself released
what is probably Iceland's first
feature-length narrative, The Last
Farm in the Valley. Made on a
minimal budget, this fairy story of
trolls, ogres and clever children is
curious and charming. The
misadventures in Reykjavík of three
bumpkins from the Brakka farm
provided the very broad humour for
Oskar's most popular film, The
Bakka Brothers (1951). His most con-
troversial work, Greed (1952), was
shown for only a day. Made in an
expressionist style, Greed unfolds in
flashback from the bed of a dying
wealthy woman. A hypocritical
minister, while consoling the in-
valid, steals jewelry out from under
her. The clergy protested, and the
film was removed from exhibition.
Óskar's last feature, a domestic
drama entitled New Role (1954),
was the first synch-sound film to be
shot on the island. The film enjoyed
some popularity, but Óskar's own
production company went bankrupt
in the late 1950’s. When broad-
casting began in 1966, Óskar
becarne head of the stills laboratory
for television. He retired from the
photographic field in 1976.
The filming of
spectacular events
Documentary film-maker
Osvaldur Knudsen (1899-1975) was
at various times a champion athlete,
painter, house-painter, and
photographer. He bought his first
camera in 1945 and two years later
recorded the spectacular eruption of
Hekla. Subsequently, Osvaldur
covered the activity of Askja (1961),
the birth of the volcanic island Surt-
sey (1963), Hekla's repeat perfor-
mance in 1970, and the evacuation
and resettlement of Iceland's impor-
tant fishing center, Heimaey. Fire
On Heimaey is a spectacular record
of the sudden eruption early in 1973
and the return later in the year of
the population which dug its buried
village out from the ash. Osvaldur's
son, Vilhjálmur, continues the work
of VOK Film, not only by documen-
ting further eruptions, but by main-
taining a cozy home-made fifty-seat
16mm theatre next to his house,
called The Cinema For Tourists,
where his father's and his own films
are shown daily.
The effects of television
The establishment of television
broadcasting in Iceland in 1966 has
turned out to have been an impor-
tant turning point for the film in-
dustry. In 1966 the number of film-
makers could be counted on one
hand; in May of 1980, however, a
list of forty-four people working in
this field was compiled by the
Association of Icelandic Film-
makers. What had happened? Ari
Thorarinsson, a perceptive young
critic, notes that while some of the
filmmakers trained abroad, many
more "developed their craft during
years of work for television”. And it
is true that two of Iceland's most ac-
tive filmmakers, Agust Guðmund-
sson and Hrafn Gunnlaugsson,
made their earliest 16mm films for
broadcast.
Águst, who graduated from the
National Film School in London in
1977, completed a subtle half-hour
drama for television the following
year. Story of a War is seen for the
most part through a boy's eyes; the
child witnesses the deepening rela-
tionship his mother, a widow, has
with an American soldier stationed
near their town. There is little
dialogue and a careful re-creation of
the early 1940s. Another 16mm
work made for television, Águst's
hour-long Little Mound, records the
quiet behavior of a high school stu-
dent from the realization she is preg-
nant, through her decision not to
abort or marry, to the birth of her
child.
Land and Sons and Gísli-Súrsson
Águst's Land and Sons (Land og
synir in Icelandic) which premiered
in January, 1980, is one of Iceland's
first 35mm features. Produced for
Jón Hermannsson's ísfilm, Land and
Sons cost approximately $150,000,
of which about a sixth came from
the newly-established National Film
Fund. The narrative, set in the
Depression, is based on a novel
about a young man who inherits his
father's farm — which he hates.
Land and Sons has been shown in
Norway, West Germany, Austria
and Switzerland, as well as in the
Scandinavian Film Week at the New
York Museum of Modern Art and
other cities of the United States. The
original run of Land and Sons in
Iceland made enough profit to cover
the cost of producing the film,
which indicates the box-office suc-
cess it has enjoyed.
The latest project for ísfilm in-
volves the production team of film-
maker Águst Guðmundsson, writer
Continued on page 6
The Lögberg-Heimskringla Zodiac by Astrid Thorunn Einarson
• •
Gemim
(First publication rights) (May 21-June 21)
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