Valentin Vaala

Biography

Valentin Vaala (1909-1976) was a prolific and highly successful craftsman of the more commercial Finnish cinema that followed a period of political controversy in the 1930s, and one of war followed by subservience to the USSR in the 1940s.He specialized in sophisticated comedies in the style of Clair or Lubitsch, with happy endings where marriage and inheritance are preserved and family and community duties are paid attention to. He was known for his ability to cast actresses in suitable roles, such as a country girl coming to the city for a career and husband, or an older woman in a melodrama of class conflict and unrequited love. Though these works were not known in the US, several were later exhibited in a series, Baby It's Cold Outside, in the spring of 1998 at New York City's prestigious Museum of Modern Art.