THE 34th PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, DAY 6

"steam of life," finland, dir. mika hotakainen and joonas berghäll

despite a reputation as a tear jerker, "steam of life" is ultimately a crowd pleaser, which is why it didn't do all that much for me. to begin with, i generally prefer narrative features to documentaries, and this documentary, about finnish men pouring out their hearts to each other while sharing saunas, was porked up with maudlin sentimentality, a business that i try to avoid not just in film but in art at large. sure, i understand that the "stripping down" of the (what we're encouraged to assume are) otherwise stoic and impassive men on screen is the emotional program of the directors. and, "steam of life" is definitely one of those documentaries that keeps its audience wondering how the directors were able to get what they got on film: a lot of naked men talking candidly about their feelings. unfortunately, those feelings seemed intentionally overblown in their presentation in order to effect an odd kind of feelgood feeling sad response. for my part, i was charmed more by the grasping gestures of certain listeners to console their stricken friends than by the gushing of those friends over their tales of woe. when the tears started flowing, those timid shoulder pats and mumbles of "...take some time..." seemed more honest, raw, and were honestly more moving than the more obvious focuses of the film. (i wanted to offer my own condolences, because the audience at the whitsell auditorium last night was in perfect festivalgoer character and laughed whenever it felt uncomfortable.)

outside the saunas, "steam of life" does an amazing job of capturing the hushed -- and sometimes bleak -- beauty of finland, especially its forests and countrysides, and i'm almost tempted to recommend seeing it just for the landscape photography. it also does well in representing the special relationship that the finns have with water (i'd not an inkling), and not just the steam in their saunas but their pools, lakes and rivers as well. finnish immigrants, with their long knowledge of fishing and logging, played a starring role in the early settlement of oregon, and there's still a finnish social club in astoria under the astoria-megler bridge. it's directly across the street from the defunct union steam baths ("authentic finnish sauna, est. 1928"). maybe the building owner would fire up the boiler for people who showed their "steam of life" ticket stubs. the men in the movie cracked quite a few beers after leaving the saunas. i'd join the crowd in astoria in that.