Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Consolation service
Consolation service is a short film and an installation. It deals with the theme of endings, death and time from the point of view of a young woman.
The work is about a young couple's divorce process - the end of their story. It starts with some remarks by the narrator, which form a second level running through the narrative. The story is divided into three parts. It is early spring, and the landscape is still covered with snow.
In the first part a therapist gives advice about how to end a relationship. The second part takes place in the couple's living room, where a group of people is celebrating a birthday. Later they leave for a restaurant across water. While they are walking, the ice breaks. An underwater monologue contemplates the past and death in an ice-cold sea. The last part is a consolation service - a final giving up of the relationship.
The installation version is a two-screen-projection. Two adjacent images tell the story of a young couple. The right-hand projection concentrates on taking the story forward by describing the events, while the left-hand projection concentrates more on showing the landscape, emotions and the essential details related to the narration of the subtext.
In the film version the material has been re-edited and the story unfolds in a single image. This shifts the position of the viewer from that of an active observer making choices from the material unfolding in the space to that of a spectator following the story from a privileged point-of-view intentionally built into the one-screen narrative.
The style of the work is a combination of documentary realism and cinematic fantasy. The everyday is present in the events, set design and costumes. This is combined with more poetic elements in the dialogue and non-realistic scenes, e.g. drowning, invisible people at the therapy session, the materialization of the husband. The narrator is not completely external to the fictional level, but is gradually mixed up in the events that she herself narrates. The camera work also remains part of the scenes. The use of sound creates links with the surrounding nature and the city, with the theme of a couple splitting up, and it also plays with the notions of the real and the imagined.
Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Consolation service. Photos © Crystal Eye, photography Marja-Leena Hukkanen. Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, Paris, London.
Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Consolation service. Photos © Crystal Eye, photography Marja-Leena Hukkanen. Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, Paris, London.
Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Consolation service. Photos © Crystal Eye, photography Marja-Leena Hukkanen. Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, Paris, London.
Restoration 2020 | 23 min 50 sec | 2K DCP 25fps | 1:1,85 LetterBox | Audio 5.1 | Original language Finnish with English subtitles
1999 | 23 min 40 sec | 35 mm | 1:1,85 | DD5.1 | Original language Finnish with English subtitles
Written & Directed By Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Actors Mervi Rannikko, Jarkko Pajunen, Anna-Maria Klintrup, Karoliina Blackburn, Tuomas Uusitalo, Jussi Johnsson, Leevi Vainio, Ella Hurme
Cinematography Arto Kaivanto
Editing Tuuli Kuittinen
Sound design Kauko Lindfors
Set design Tiina Paavilainen
Production support Avek, Finnish Film Foundation
In Co-Operation with Daad, Finnish Committee For Venice Biannale, Frame, Kiasma, Kunstverein Hannover, Saltzburger Kunstverein
In Co-Operation With Yle/Tv1
Production Ilppo Pohjola/Crystal Eye
Restoration 2020
From the original camera negatives
and the master audio sources
Image Jari Hakala
Color Pentti Keskimäki
Audio Olli Pärnänen
Edit & Files Heikki Kotsalo
Graphics & data Niko Skorpio
Dcp Tommi Gröhn
Producer ILPPO POHJOLA
Digital restoration support
AVEK, FINNISH FILM FOUNDATION
https://crystaleye.fi/eija-liisa_ahtila/films/consolation-service