The 1960s saw many great Finnish film premieres, such as Matti Kassila's four Inspector Palmu movies, Aarne Tarkas' Hän varasti elämän (1962) and Edvin Laine's Here Under the North Star (1968) to name a few. One of the most famous examples of the French New Wave influence in Finnish cinema is Mikko Niskanen's 1966 film Skin, Skin a.k.a. Käpy selän alla, which originally overshadowed Rakkaus alkaa aamuyöstä, Jarno Hiilloskorpi's take on the same subject matter that was even released the same year. A pity, because Hiilloskorpi's film is not bad at all.
At the beginning a young man named Erkki (Martti Järvinen) is released from his obligatory military service and returns home to his parents. His gruff father Juuso (Kalervo Nissilä) has already arranged him a job for the summer, but Erkki chooses to have some vacation for himself and travels to the family's summer place to figure out what he would really like to do in life. His frustration with his journalist girlfriend Anne (Liisamaija Laaksonen) leads him to meet many other girls, most importantly a bank clerk named Eila (Elli Castrén), but it is clear that eventually he will have to sort his situation out properly.
The liberated techniques and styles of the new wave of filmmaking are utilized pleasantly in Rakkaus: some camera movements and angles and especially the music often directly mirror the feelings of the characters. The score by Ilkka Kuusisto really deserves praise all around as does Eila's beautiful song, but the nature scenery and photography are enjoyable as well. Besides the setting in the countryside, Rakkaus is also reminiscent of Niskanen's Käpy with regard to nudity that is more open and sexual than in typical older films, even though the actual sex scenes look very tame from a modern perspective.
More than a plot-driven story, Rakkaus relies on an atmosphere of restlessness and Erkki's youthful mood shifts. Amidst alternating scenes of funny comedy and serious love story, he changes from responsible to outgoing and back, always coming across as natural and realistic enough. His female objects of attraction are all very pretty and the actresses handle their roles well, particularly Laaksonen as the aggressive Anne and Castrén as the quieter Eila, even though some of the lines given to the latter sometimes sound oddly formal and literal. I also enjoyed Kari Franck's performance as Erkki's loud joker friend Matti who provides a lot of the humour in the film. Leo Jokela's role as Erkki's philosophical gardener uncle Jalmari belongs among the more pensive aspects of the tale, but Jokela's calm charisma supports the plot line easily.
All in all, I think Erkki's quest for finding his purpose in life is worth seeing and does not lose to the similar themes examined in Niskanen's Käpy selän alla. It is always nice to see this type of films from Finland; I wish Hiilloskorpi would have directed more films than just the two he is credited for now. The point is, I really enjoyed Rakkaus alkaa aamuyöstä and would recommend it to those who liked Käpy or, say, Eino Ruutsalo's Windy Day (1962).
