PSIFF AND SFFLA 2011: STEAM OF LIFE

A scene from Steam of Life.

Hot air

By John Esther

In the highly entertaining 1991 feature film, Night on Earth, one of the five segments is set in Finland. Unlike the previous four segments, which are variably comical, this one by writer-director Jim Jarmusch has two Finnish men lament away in a taxicab. The second monologue is more tragic than the first. Amusing and making a sort of "independent" film by ending on a down note, I think the scene lasts about 25 minutes. 

It was about 26 minutes into Joonas Berghäll and Mika Hotakainen's 84-minute documentary, Steam of Life, when I started to get bored.  

Set in a series of seemingly random saunas, various naked Finnish men deliver monologues about the some tragic tale: the loss of a loved one (alive or dead), a traumatic experience, personal problems, etc. Some of the men can tell their tale well, some of the men are clearly there to talk on cue, and other men are sometimes there to listen to his friend's problem – something many of them have seem to have heard numerous times already. 

Sure, there is something to be said about allowing a film of full of naked men into American theaters without garnering an NC-17 rating (Steam of Life is Finland's Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film to boot), and hearing men bare their calamities (and cocks) for all the world to view, and some of the sauna locations are humorous and there is even a bear here for laughs, but eventually the scenery and stories, well, run out of steam. 

Steam of Life will also screen at the Scandinavian Film Festival L.A. 

(Steam of Life screens at the PSIFF Jan. 9, 4:30 p.m., Regal Palm Springs 9; Jan. 11, 1:30 p.m. Regal Palm Springs 9; Jan. 12, 6 p.m., Regal Palm Springs 9. For more information: http://www.psfilmfest.org)

(Steam of Life screens at the SFFLA Jan. 8, 7:30 p.m., WGA Theatre. For more information: http://www.scandinavianfilmfestivalla.com)