Teuvo Tulio x3: Cross of Love, Restless Blood, Sensuela - Deaf Crocodile (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Dates: Finland, 1946 (Cross of Love, Restless Blood), Finland, 1973 (Sensuela)
Director: Teuvo Tulio (All Films)
Cast: Regina Linnanheimo, Oscar Tengström, Ville Salminen, Rauli Tuomi, Pentti Viljanen (Cross of Love), Regina Linnanheimo, Eino Cataraqui, Toini Vartiainen, H. Stenroos, Lauri Korpela (Restless Blood), Marianne Mardi, Mauritz Åkerman, Ismo Saario, Ossi Elstelä, Maria Pertamo (Sensuela)

Release Date: February 10th, 2025
Approximate Running Times: 99 Minutes 35 Seconds (Cross of Love), 101 Minutes 46 Seconds (Restless Blood), 109 Minutes 10 Seconds (Sensuela)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC (All Films)
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Finnish (All Films)
Subtitles: English (All Films)
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: $53.95

Cross of Love: "Grizzled old lighthouse keeper Oscar Tengström spends his nights talking to his parrot, surrounded by German Expressionist shadows. There are deeper shadows in his mind: when he hears a drowning man out on the rocks, he grabs a rifle and shoots him! We learn why he hates strangers as he reveals the story of his daughter Riitta (Regina Linnanheimo) who is swept off to the city by rakishly handsome Mauri (Ville Salminen) --in no time she’s a cigarette-smoking prostitute with a black beret and jaded wink. She’s followed one day by a sensitive young man Henrik (Rauli Tuomi) who turns out to be a painter and wants her to model – DEAR GOD – half-naked, tied to a cross with her dress torn open." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Restless Blood: " Blonde wife Sylvi (Regina Linnanheimo) seems to have an ideal marriage to playboy 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. Kid sister returns, and now the grieving husband is interested in more than flirting. Look out: once Sylvi downs a shot of poison and dons her weird black shades, ooowee!" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Sensuela: "Tulio’s notorious last film – and arguably his greatest achievement – Sensuela opens on reindeer herder’s daughter Laila (Marianne Mardi) saving badly-wounded German WW2 pilot Hans (Mauritz Åkerman). Hans quickly seduces her off to the big city, where she descends into a polyester maelstrom of fabulous clothes and nudie photography and hippie orgies. (Oh, the action mysteriously leaps forward 25 years to the Swinging 60s with no explanation, don’t ask why!)" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4/5 (Cross of Love), 3.75/5 (Restless Blood), 4.25/5 (Sensuela)

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfers, "Teuvo Tulio's work has been rediscovered and restored in recent years by KAVI – the National Audiovisual Institute of Finland, for this first-ever worldwide Blu-ray release from Deaf Crocodile."

Cross of Love comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 36.2 GB

Feature: 27.2 GB

Restless Blood comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 36.2 GB

Feature: 29.3 GB

Sensuela comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 38.2 GB

Feature: 29.1 GB

All three films have source damage that remains; it is most prominent on Cross of Love and Restless Blood. Flesh tones look correct, black levels and contrast are strong, compression is solid, and the image always looks organic. Also, Cross of Love and Restless Blood have instances where the image clarity fluctuates. That said, this is another exemplary encode by David Mackenzie of Fidelity in Motion.

Audio: 4/5 (Cross of Love), 3.75/5 (Restless Blood), 4.25/5 (Sensuela)

Each film comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in Finnish with removable English subtitles. Although all of the tracks sound clear and balanced, they all exhibit some sibilance issues, most notably on Restless Blood. That said, Sensuela has the strongest audio track of these three films.

Extras:

Extras for this release are spread over three discs. Extras are a trailer for the Swedish-language version of Cross of Love (4 minutes 54 seconds, LPCM mono Swedish, no subtitles), two Finnish educational films from the 1940s, I Would Like to be a Queen (12 minutes 47 seconds, 1.37:1 aspect ratio, LPCM mono Finnish with removable English subtitles) and Shelters for Newborns (8 minutes 29 seconds, 1.37:1 aspect ratio, LPCM mono Finnish with removable English subtitles), a short documentary about preserving a short fragment of Fall Asleep When Young titled A French Discovery—Nuorena Nukkunut (6 minutes 35 seconds, LPCM stereo Finnish with removable English subtitles), the only remaining fragments of Teuvo Tulio’s early feature films, Struggle for the House of Heikkila (8 minutes 29 seconds, 1.37:1 aspect ratio, LPCM mono Finnish with removable English subtitles) and Fall Asleep When Young (21 minutes 42 seconds, 1.37:1 aspect ratio, LPCM mono Finnish with removable English subtitles), a video essay by Ryan Verrill and Dr. Will Dodson titled They Talk of Love—Teuvo Tulio’s Two Visions of Pushkin (21 minutes 30 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles), a video essay about Sámi culture by Reinert Kiil (20 minutes 48 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles), an audio commentary with Rolf Giesen for Cross of Love, an audio commentary with Dr. Eloise Ross for Restless Blood, and an audio commentary with Heidi Honeycutt for Sensuela.

Summary:

Cross of Love: The daughter of a lighthouse keeper flees to the big city, accompanied by a businessman she helped recover from the wreckage of his ship. Instead of finding happiness, she ends up selling her boy to survive. Demoralized and resigned to her fate, she meets a painter who wants her to be his model. They quickly forge a bond and fall in love; unfortunately, her past comes back to haunt her.

Cross of Love is an adaptation of Aleksandr Pushkin’s short story The Station Master. Teuvo Tulio would revisit The Station Master 27 years later for his final film, Sensuela. Teuvo Tulio filmed simultaneously two versions of Cross of Love, one in Finnish and the other in Swedish.

The narrative, which is mostly told via a lengthy flashback, is bookended by scenes that do a superb job of setting the stage for what follows and providing a bittersweet climax that serves as a perfect coda. In the opening setup, the lighthouse keeper’s story is fleshed out, while his daughter's story unfolds once the lengthy flashback begins. The narrative never struggles with pacing issues and gives key moments an ample amount of time to resonate.

All of the cast are excellent in their roles, especially Regina Linnanheimo in the role of Ritta, the lighthouse keeper's daughter. Her character's transformation from a naive, carefree person to a jaded soul is flawless. Through all of her character's ups and downs, you root for her to overcome, and when her sins overwhelm her, it is a gut punch. Another performance of note is Oscar Tengström's portrayal of Ritta’s father.

Although Cross of Love is a film where everything falls into place, one cannot overlook Teuvo Tulio’s contributions. There are a handful of visually striking moments, like a scene where Ritta emerges nude from the sea (an early example of full frontal nudity in a film) and the scene where the painter paints Ritta, who's on a cross. That said, the most jarring moment is the scene where Ritta, on her first night in the big city, is raped by the businessman. While the score is a collection of existing songs, it is nevertheless very effective, with music cues like Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 'Moonlight' III. Presto agitato and Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata und Fuga. Ultimately, Cross of Love is an archetypal example of Brechtian melodrama that stands out as Teuvo Tulio's crowning achievement as a filmmaker.

Restless Blood: Two sisters fall in love with the same man; when the older sister becomes his bride, the younger sister goes away for a few years. While she was away, her older sister has become distant from the man both of them love, and after ingesting poison, she’s now blind. Because of the older sister's blindness, the husband and younger sister secretly engage in an affair. Sensing their betrayal, the older sister does not tell them when she has regained her sight so she can catch them in the act.

Restless Blood is a melodrama that has traces of film noir in its last act. The opening setup does a superb job fleshing out characters and building a foundation for a love triangle that has dire consequences for one of the three involved. Although the story begins on a fairly lighthearted note, the tone shifts dramatically when the older sister and her husband's child die. The latter half of the narrative is the older sister seeking redemption for her husband, who has become distant and blames her for their child's death.

While all of the performances rise to the occasion, it's hard to imagine Restless Blood without Regina Linnanheimo in the role of Sylvi, the wife who becomes blind after trying to kill herself by drinking poison. She was a frequent collaborator and longtime companion of Teuvo Tulio. She delivers a remarkable portrayal of a woman scorned, and the moments where she conceals her regained sight are flawlessly executed.

Although the narrative relies heavily on dialogue, it is important to note that Teuvo Tulio also creates striking visual moments. Teuvo Tulio's directorial choices elevate Restless Blood beyond a typical melodrama, particularly through his skill in crafting moments that build momentum toward a significant payoff, culminating in the tragic fate of one character in the love triangle. Ultimately, Restless Blood is a film that takes its time to settle in, and its climax and the buildup to it reward those with patience.

Sensuela: The daughter of a reindeer herder runs away to the big city with a German fighter pilot whom she nursed back to health after his plane crashed. Once in the big city, her life spirals out of control, and it is not until it's too late that she discovers what she’s always wanted.

Sensuela, like Teuvo Tulio’s Cross of Love, uses Aleksandr Pushkin’s short story The Station Master as its starting point. Where Cross of Love is a textbook example of a Brechtian melodrama, Sensuela is a product of its time, employing many elements synonymous with exploitation cinema. That said, there are several moments in Sensuela that veer into softcore erotica.

The thing that really grabs you while watching Sensuela is its disregard for time and space. There is never an attempt to explain how things move from Lapland during World War II to what is clearly the 1960s or later, and no one has aged. While the differences could have been explained away by the Sámi’s simple life, which is the complete opposite of a big city, it's difficult to explain away a 25-plus-year time lapse from World War II.

Although the events that unfold often veer into the outlandish, the performances are really good considering most of the cast's limited onscreen acting experience. That said, the main attraction is Marianne Mardi in the role of the protagonist Laila, the reindeer herder's daughter. Her ability to flawlessly go from naive to seductress greatly enhances what could have been a by-the-numbers performance.

For someone who had directed 17 feature films and a short film, Teuvo Tulio does not feel like a filmmaker in decline. Sensuela is easily his most inventive and daring film, notably when it comes to pushing the boundaries of sexual themes for that time. Sensuela is also the only time he ever shot in color and the visuals are filled with bold use of colors, which heightens the mood. Ultimately, Sensuela is best described as a psychedelic, Alice in Wonderland-like journey that has ample amounts of Brechtian melodrama.

Deaf Crocodile’s Teuvo Tulio x3 is an exceptional release that gives each film its best audio/video presentation to date and insightful extras that provide further context about these films and Teuvo Tulio. Highly recommended.

Note: There is a deluxe release of Teuvo Tulio x3: Cross of Love, Restless Blood, Sensuela that comes in a slipcase and a 60-page book with an essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, an essay by Walter Chaw, an essay by Dr. Eloise Ross, and an essay by Sam’s Myth.

 

Written by Michael Den Boer