3 X Teuvo Tulio: Sensuela / Cross of Love / Restless Blood - [Blu-ray]

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. CROSS OF LOVE (1946) Grizzled old lighthouse keeper Oscar Tengström loses his daughter Riitta (Tulio's frequent collaborator Regina Linnanheimo) to the pitfalls of the city and rakishly handsome Mauri (Ville Salminen). One day she meets a sensitive young man Henrik (Rauli Tuomi) who turns out to be a painter and wants her to model - DEAR GOD - half-**, tied to a cross with her dress torn open. RESTLESS BLOOD (1946) Blonde wife Sylvi (Regina Linnanheimo) seems to have an ideal marriage to 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. Features an intensely deranged performance by Linnanheimo, sporting Peter Lorre-in-MAD LOVE sunglasses and giving the whole film a German Expressionist / neo-horror / neo-noir vibe. SENSUELA (1973) Tulio's last film - and arguably his greatest achievement - opens on Sámi reindeer herder's daughter Laila (Marianne Mardi) saving wounded German WW2 pilot Hans (Mauritz Åkerman). Hans quickly seduces her off to Helsinki, where she descends into a maelstrom of fabulous clothes and nudie photography and hippie orgies. What follows is an incredible mix of ethnographic reindeer herding docudrama, jawdropping John Waters / Doug Sirk / Russ Meyer / Anna Biller's THE LOVE WITCH-style melodrama blending eye-popping Technicolor, softcore eroticism / **ploitation, and Mod 60's / 70s Pop Art fashions and décor. Note: SENSUELA is intended for mature audiences and contains frequent onscreen nudity.