Omena The Apple

synopsis

The main character in this three-act visual gag is an apple, subjected to extremes of lightness and heaviness. Méliès’s camera magic enchants it in such a way that, in the most realistic shot, it ultimately seems the least real.

“The fruit levitating over a table was done with the help of a stiff steel wire contraption in Myllymäki’s parents’ home in Turenki.” — Mika Taanila

Source: Mika Taanila. “Outsiders of The Seventh Art. Finnish Experimental Cinema 1933–1985”, in: Väkiparta, Kirsi, Sähkömetsä – suomalaisen videotaiteen ja kokeellisen elokuvan historiaa 1933-1998, Valtion taidemuseo / Kuvataiteen keskusarkisto, Helsinki, 2007 (unpublished, in English), https://mikataanila.com/texts/

biography

Pasi “Sleeping” Myllymäki (1950–2007) was a Finnish graphic designer who worked at the Iittala glassworks. In the mid-1970s, he met Risto Laakkonen at an amateur film club, and together they shot over forty short films, in their spare time, between 1976 and 1985. Their tools were a Super 8 camera and an old Uher reel-to-reel tape recorder. The film Omena the Apple (1976) was their first joint work.

film details

director:	Pasi "Sleeping" Myllymäki
producer:	Pasi "Sleeping" Myllymäki