Sunday, February 01, 2004
Super Bowl Sunday has never been so festive. You should see this town, it's completely dead. Everyone must be at home, or in a bar watching the game. It's more quiet than Dallas when the Cowboys are in the Super Bowl. It's really quite remarkable, they must really love American football here in Joensuu. Either that or it's midnight and the game doesn't start for another 40 minutes. I don't know.
The movie premiere was yesterday and I will say this about that, I didn't fall asleep. It was the first time I've ever watched a movie in a foreign language without subtitles. And of course, it was a movie that apparently is dialogue heavy. It was really interesting to see this region of East Finland during the late 40's. Attention to detail towards the time period was well managed and to see what life was like in the area at that time - after the continuation war, which was Finland's battle with the Soviets before, during and after WWII - was great. Horses and sleds and everyone skiiing everywhere, it was really fascinating.
The problem with the movie was that the central character who suffered a head wound in the war and became an invalid was such a crappy actor that it was hard to watch. His choices of how to portray mental instability was to have a bunch of facial twitches and that's about it. And since I could only really understand the setting and the acting from a physical standpoint, this really took its toll on me throughout the movie. There were many verterans and older people who were children at the time in this area and the movie did seem to have a strong emotional impact on them, so I will reserve final judgement until after I read the script.
The after party was strangely non-celebratory. It took a long time for people to start having fun, like many hours. I was asked the same question maybe 20 times and you can read my response above - almost verbatim, except for the fact that I did not mention any criticisms. I suppose the premiere of a movie is not the time to say that I didn't think that it was great. I laughed, I cried, it was better than CATS, I will see it again and again.
Something very interesting about the Finns in general. They are a very reserved bunch. They say just what is necessary and usually nothing much more than that. If there is to be a personal conversation, it will be very short lived and pretty bland. UNTIL...the booze. It opens them up so much so that it can seem as if the person in front of you is not the same person you see everyday and the conversation is diverse, personal, sometimes provocative, sometimes funny and sometimes provocative, funny, personal but still extremely tedious and boring. Work should be interesting on Monday, considering how many people were way too open with me last night.
The movie premiere was yesterday and I will say this about that, I didn't fall asleep. It was the first time I've ever watched a movie in a foreign language without subtitles. And of course, it was a movie that apparently is dialogue heavy. It was really interesting to see this region of East Finland during the late 40's. Attention to detail towards the time period was well managed and to see what life was like in the area at that time - after the continuation war, which was Finland's battle with the Soviets before, during and after WWII - was great. Horses and sleds and everyone skiiing everywhere, it was really fascinating.
The problem with the movie was that the central character who suffered a head wound in the war and became an invalid was such a crappy actor that it was hard to watch. His choices of how to portray mental instability was to have a bunch of facial twitches and that's about it. And since I could only really understand the setting and the acting from a physical standpoint, this really took its toll on me throughout the movie. There were many verterans and older people who were children at the time in this area and the movie did seem to have a strong emotional impact on them, so I will reserve final judgement until after I read the script.
The after party was strangely non-celebratory. It took a long time for people to start having fun, like many hours. I was asked the same question maybe 20 times and you can read my response above - almost verbatim, except for the fact that I did not mention any criticisms. I suppose the premiere of a movie is not the time to say that I didn't think that it was great. I laughed, I cried, it was better than CATS, I will see it again and again.
Something very interesting about the Finns in general. They are a very reserved bunch. They say just what is necessary and usually nothing much more than that. If there is to be a personal conversation, it will be very short lived and pretty bland. UNTIL...the booze. It opens them up so much so that it can seem as if the person in front of you is not the same person you see everyday and the conversation is diverse, personal, sometimes provocative, sometimes funny and sometimes provocative, funny, personal but still extremely tedious and boring. Work should be interesting on Monday, considering how many people were way too open with me last night.
// posted by Howard @ 11:55 PM 
