La croix de l'amour

This ancient Finnish drama is a lost little gem. The direction is a bit sloppy, but quite ambitious, starting with the expressionist overtones (weird angling in location, glitter and blur idyll, menacingly lit theatric face close-ups etc), and without forgetting the iconoclast imagery (the cross of love painting). Actually, it predates trends that would surface in, say, Fassbinder's work. Complementing the visual side, the film explores a number of interesting themes, starting with the father's oppression towards the daughter, the lure of money and the big city, the sleaze of the demi-monde, the feebleness to avoid succumbing to destiny etc. Actually you could say that it works as a kind of metaphor: the father's oppression causes the daughter to mythologize aspects of life (an ideal love, a Cinderella framework); when unavoidably her life comes at odds with the mythology, she becomes a crucified martyr for a world unable to cope with it's own desires.