Gay movie dome
Straight director takes on Tom of Finland
&#;Tom of Finland,&#; from director Dome Karukoski, tells the story of the infamous homoerotic export. (Photo courtesy Protagonist Pictures)
I’m speaking with Finnish film director Dome Karukoski via cell. He’s in Europe shooting his modern project, a biopic of “Lord of the Rings” creator J.R.R. Tolkien.
“I’m in England,” he says. “Unfortunately, I can’t tell anything about that project other than that.”
Luckily for us, “Tom of Finland,” his recently completed highlight telling the story of Finland’s infamous homoerotic export, is a lot more accessible.
Finland’s entry for the Academy Awards, having screened at Outfest this past July, premiered in major cities in October but opens in Washington Friday, Dec. 8 at Landmark E Street Cinema ( 11th St., N.W.).
The film is good — sturdy Finnish cast, traditional three-act structure, stunning cinematography and some strong dialogue. When was the last time you heard a character affirm, “My cock is the boss?”
Karukoski has always felt enjoy he doesn’t quite belong. It’s a theme tying his
How to describe the art of Touko Valio Laaksonen, aka Tom of Finland? Shall I compare thee to a Village People wet dream? No, that’s not quite it. His depictions of gay masculinity, to my eye, are kind of a gender inversion of the iconography of, say, a female bombshell like Jayne Mansfield. The men who sprang from the imagination of Tom of Finland are perfectly chiseled, bubble-butted, well-endowed boys who can’t aid it. Their emotional range runs the gamut from friendly (there are some big smiles) to intimidating (there are more impassive-to-frownlike expressions, often camouflaged by thick mustaches). Heterosexual males had their Vargas pinups and other varieties of cheesecake. Tom of Finland drew their gay equivalents, but in a way that tended more toward the surreal/irrational, at least to my eye. A part of the influence had to do with the fact that so much of his artwork was done in black-and-white, pencil drawings of such exquisite and varied shading that one could marvel at the peculiar, painstaking craft as much as one might drool over the impossible physiques.
Laaksonen l
&#;Tom Of Finland&#; Trailer Bows From Filmmaker Dome Karukoski
Dome Karukoski&#;s critically acclaimed Tom of Finland, the film which has already been selected as Finland&#;s official submission to this year&#;s Academy Awards to be considered for Optimal Foreign Film, has just dropped its trailer. The director, who has been highly sought after since Tom of Finland bowed, is currently signed on for Tolkien for Chernin Entertainment and Fox Searchlight. Tom of Finland will release in Oct. in select cities (see below) from Kino Lorber.
Tom of Finland is about the life and operate of one of the most influential and celebrated figures of the 20th century, Touko Laaksonen. The film follows him as a decorated officer when he returns home after a harrowing and heroic experience serving his country in World War II. But life in Finland during peacetime proves equally distressing. He finds post-war Helsinki rampant with homophobic persecution, and gay men around him are being pressured to marry women and possess children. Touko finds refuge in his liberating art: homoerotic drawings of
Dome Karukoski brings gay creator Tom of Finland to the big screen
- The Finnish director is preparing his first English-language feature – an official biopic of Finnish musician Touko Laaksonen
Director Dome Karukoski
Finnish director Dome Karukoski – whose comedy The Grump [+see also:
trailer
film profile], about a die-hard old man facing the changing world, became the fourth Finnish production since to exceed , admissions – will next February shoot his first English-language feature, a biopic of homosexual Finnish painter Touko Laaksonen, aka Tom of Finland.
Karukoski himself scripted The Grump, which sold , tickets – almost ¼ of all admissions for local fare – and snagged a Jussi, Finland’s national film prize (Best Actor, for Antti Litja). This time he will work with Finnish producer Aleksi Bardy (who won the Jussi Award for Best Film with J-P Valkeapää’s They Acquire Escaped [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: J-P Valkeapää
film profile]).
Bardy has also written the screenplay for Tom of Finland, which he will produce wit