The Witch
An archaeological team unearths a body of a young woman, who was told to be a witch buried in the bog some 300 years ago. Soon a naked woman appears and drives the men of the village crazy...
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- Cast:
- Mirja Mane , Toivo Mäkelä , Hillevi Lagerstam , Sakari Jurkka , Helge Herala , Aku Korhonen , Rakel Laakso
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Reviews
You won't be disappointed!
Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .
I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Elsewhere in a review on IMDb I read that this film was based on a play - not at all to my surprise. There are loads of dialogues which make it hard to follow at times, because I don't speak Finnish and there was a lot of (subtitle) reading to do. But the dialogues aren't the most important thing here; they become chaotic at times, as much as the characters seem to be talking in circles (mostly horny talk plus arguments for and against science and old wives' tales). Then there's the use of the old 'it was all a dream'-trick in the last part, which only really works because the magical horror part can (finally) get going from there.But what's most attractive about this oldie horror, is of course 'Finnish Bööberellå': Mirja Mane, who plays the 'witch'. The full frontal nudity (well, no groin area up close) is refreshing to see in such an old horror; it is appropriate and quite tasteful. I'd never heard of her before, but she may well have become a horror icon in Finland, and with more luck, in the world, but according to IMDb she only did five films, and she died at the tragic age of forty-four after a short period of (unknown) illness.So all in all, 'Noita palaa elämään' is mostly a more than decent Finnish answer to many of the usual American and English old horror movies, but with Mirja Mane as a considerable extra.A small 8 out of 10.
I was 14 yrs in 1967 when I saw this first time on TV and the movie was just terrifying and I was really frightened. All I remember was the foggy swamp, impassioned music and horrified people talking about some awful witch who was buried there.Mirjami Mane was so powerful and crazy that she run every men to craziness. The critics didn't see her wild playfulness but thought that her acting was just helpless. In my mind she acts exactly like a girl who is not used to live attached to the present day but has been some kind of loner living somewhere for maybe hundreds of years.She is just so crazy and wild that the people don't understand her and men just fell into the snares of this unexplained witch. There are more and more evidences that she really is a witch who was buried to the swamp three hundred years ago.Also cinematography and art decorations are marvelous and they both received "Jussi" trophy (Finnish counterpart for Oscar).
Made after the Second World War, this film, which would translate to English as 'The Witch returns to life', shows the lack of funding so common in the post-war era in Finland. But yet, to keep people's humor up, the film industry did everything to ease the living of the poor households. The 'horror' part of this film might seem to us now more or less amusing.The seemingly light subject of the film has underlying social issues: The Second World War had ended just barely seven years ago. The heavy war indemnities forced Finnish industry to boost up its productivity. The agricultural Finland was moving faster and faster towards city-life. Women's rights were still in the developing stage. Especially in the countryside and farms the women were the ones to take care of the household while the men were busy out in the fields to secure the year's crop. 'Unconventially' behaving female was prone to draw negative attention - especially if she was young and attractive. The villager's moods could have easily turned to witch hunt-like persecution.Mika Waltari (September 19, 1908 August 26, 1979) is one of the best known writers of Finland. His works have been translated to many languages all over the world. The most famous book is 'Sinuhe - the Egyptian', which made the Bestsellers list in many countries and is translated to 40 languages. 'The Egyptian' - a Hollywood movie was made according to 'Sinuhe' in 1954 (Director Michael Curtiz). The theater play 'Noita palaa elämään' (1947) is one of his 26 plays and was made for film in 1952 - the year Helsinki had the Summer Olympic Games. Altogether 33 books of Waltari have been filmed.
It's intriguing that so many diverse cultures have independently developed legends of the witch: a supernatural female, frequently erotic, with powers usually devoted to evil. Most peasant cultures are nominally ruled by men, but the two great mysteries of life -- birth and death -- are controlled by women. A woman gives birth, aided by midwives, in the absence of men. Women prepare a corpse for its journey to the afterworld. It may well be that the power of the witch is merely male fear of women's secrets, women's wisdom, women's sexuality.'Noita palaa elämään', which I translate (probably incorrectly) as 'The Witch Must Burn', is a fascinating Finnish version of the witch legend. I was surprised that this film is adapted from a stage play, as it features clever use of multiple locations and exteriors. There's nothing stage-bound here.Hannu and his pretty blonde wife Greta are young archaeologists excavating a grave on the estate of Baron Hallberg. (I cringed at their excavation technique, which involves removing earth as rapidly as possible, in large quantities.) They seem to be working under the patronage of the baron's son Veikko, rather than the baron himself. One of the diggers uncovers the grave of a witch who was buried 300 years ago at the behest of one of the baron's ancestors. The archaeologists remove the witch's remains, including the surviving scraps of her garments and a leather pouch. Working from these scraps, Greta tries to reconstruct the witch's original garments.Soon, the local peasants find a naked woman in the grave! Mirja Mane gives an astonishing performance as Birgit, the foundling. She dances naked through the Finnish countryside, her limbs contorting at weird angles and her long dark Betty Page hairstyle flying seductively. The peasants are scandalised. (One of the peasants looks amazingly like Rondo Hatton; another one resembles Jane Darwell.) Birgit is welcomed into the baron's castle by Veikko, Hannu and Kauko (a comic-relief portrait painter), and soon she's wearing the witch's dirndl made by Greta.SPOILERS COMING. There are suspicions that the erotic young Birgit is the ancient witch reborn, but at first these rumours seem to be superstitious misogyny: all of the 'supernatural' acts manifested by Birgit's arrival could be explained rationally. Gradually, though, as she seduces Hannu and Veikko (while causing Greta to begin an affair with Kauko), it becomes clear that Birgit indeed has supernatural powers. The climax of the film is powerful, raw, elemental and erotic ... but not scary. This film has many good points, but it simply isn't eerie enough to be a horror film.Despite an obtrusive music track, I was deeply impressed with the photography and editing in this film. There are a couple of bad cuts, but several other cuts are made very intelligently (including one reminiscent of Hitchcock's 'Rope'), and an unusual montage sequence without any dissolves. I was especially impressed by two jump cuts when Birgit causes objects to vanish: these jump cuts were filmed outdoors, in daylight against a formation of cumulus clouds ... so the director had to risk that the sun and the clouds might change position between the two camera set-ups either side of the cut. I can't recall that 'Bewitched' or 'I Dream of Jeannie' ever had the guts to do an open-air exterior jump cut. Throughout this film, the Finnish locations emphasise the alien and exotic aspects of the story.The peasants and servants, alas, are mere stock figures, perhaps more laughable than the filmmakers intended. But all of the primary actors in this film give first-rate performances. As Greta, Hillevi Lagerstam is sexy and flirtatious without ever becoming implausible. In the lead role, Mirja Mane gives an astonishingly physical and erotic performance, reminding me of Hedy Lamarr's famous nude scene in 'Ekstase'.I strongly recommend 'Noita palaa elämään' as an efficient (and erotic) example of low-budget film-making. The story, direction, editing and performances are excellent. However, if you're looking for a spooky horror film, look elsewhere. This movie, for all its powerful narrative, is NOT scary ... unless you're one of those people who think that the female form, in its naked glory, is something to be afraid of. I'll rate this excellent movie 9 out of 10.