Author: Antonio Díaz

Categories
Features Music

Last Bluesman Standing

{mosimage}The story starts close to a river,
at a crossroad. This time it's not the Mississippi (next to which "Honeyboy"
Edwards came to this world 92 years ago) but the river Emajõgi in Tartu,
the second most important city of Estonia, and I am not waiting for a young Ralph
Macchio to go challenge the skills of Steve Vai, but for Bullfrog Brown, an Estonian
band that is going to open the show for Honeyboy Edwards in Tallinn.

The rest of the ingredients could well be taken from a classical
road movie: a ramshackle car, many miles of road ahead, and the excitement of
young guys who love blues music over all things, looking forward to the chance
of meeting and playing with one of the last blues legends, not even worrying if
they get their gasoline expenses covered or not.

David "Honeyboy" Edwards
is a true living legend. Born in Shaw in the heart of the Mississippi Delta in
1915, he is the last survivor of a generation who basically invented the blues
as we know it. An itinerant musician and gambler, surrounded by women and cheap
bottles of whisky, sleeping many a night under starry skies, Honeyboy spent his
youth wandering the American South, learning and improving his guitar skills
here and there on the dusty street corners of New Orleans, Tennessee,
Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas, playing with Charlie Patton, Tommy
Johnson, Tommy McClennan, Sonny Boy Williamson II,  Howlin' Wolf and Robert
Johnson, the legendary bluesman who – according to legend – achieved an
agreement with the Devil himself, exchanging his soul for the skills of playing
the blues like nobody else. The continuation of the story is well known to
many: Robert Johnson was poisoned with a bottle of whiskey by the owner of a bar
in Honeyboy's hometown of Greenwood,
Mississippi for having an affair
with his wife, and died at only 27 years of age in 1938. But it is heart
touching to hear the story from the lips of Honeyboy during the press
conference minutes before the show; he claims to have been really there when
everything happened: "Robert said that he was not feeling well. We knew
that he was able to drink a lot of whiskey, so we told him to drink a bit more
and that would make him feel better. But no, he did not feel any better…"

Honeyboy Edwards has arrived a few
hours earlier to the Tallinn
international airport, and after taking a nap, looks in excellent shape for a
man of his age. Never without his cap, his Southern accent is difficult to
decipher but at the same time captivating; a presence that sounds and looks
like a reminiscence of other times.

{sidebar id=13}But the most impressive feature is
how accurate and fresh Honeyboy's memory is. He is like a little encyclopedia
of blues music, and can remember places and musicians he played with six decades
ago much better than he remembers his contemporary gigs. "Yes, I played
with that guitarist of The Rolling Stones… what's his name?" he
says while chatting with some inquisitive fans. "That" guitarist is Keith
Richards, who was invited at the end of a gig to play with Honeyboy and Rocky
Lawrence three years ago at the Boxcar Café, Connecticut. I ask Honeyboy who is the most
impressive musician he has got to know in all these years of a blues life. For
a man who has played or shared stage with basically every legend of the blues
and is widely admired by more contemporary "younger" stars as Eric
Clapton or B.B. King, I'm amazed by his humble and emotive answer:
"Well, my daddy is the first musician I saw playing. He is the one who
taught me to play guitar".

One cannot be less than amazed about
Honeyboy's vitality. Sitting on a comfortable sofa at the back of the club, his
manager, Michael Frank, who will accompany Honeboy during the show
playing the harmonica, tells me that they have had almost 8 shows in a row.
"We were playing in Norway last week, then yesterday in Denmark, two days
here in Tallinn, and then to Tampere in Finland". Although having
visited and played in more than 20 countries, this is the first time that they
visit the Baltic region, and they feel really glad to have been given the
chance to play there.

One must wonder, what is the secret
for keeping going on? "Well, playing is my thing, it is what I do.
Before I played for some pennies or a bit of whiskey, now I am lucky I get paid
for this", Honeyboy jokes. And it's not like he keeps himself fit by
leading an austere life. When the waiter comes to offer a drink, Honeyboy
quickly asks for "a couple of beers". But during the
compulsory break in the middle his show, when he can rest and relax, he admits
to me "Yeah sometimes I feel tired, very tired of travelling. But well,
as you see now, I try to take it easy".

As for the show itself, the presence
of Honeyboy in Tallinn
does not go unnoticed among my colleagues in the media. A broad TV and radio
coverage is made while Honeyboy appears in an old Cadillac crossing the old
town towards the club. Raising the temperature inside, Bullfrog Brown finally
has the chance to hit the stage. Their young singer, Alar Kriisa, looks
fragile and skinny, but when he takes the mic, he sings strongly and deeply,
with a confidence that seems like he had been born in the Mississippi delta instead of a small town in
the Estonian South.

{sidebar id=14}
The first part of Honeyboy´s concert
is welcomed effusively by the audience, but it is during the second part after
the break when most of the media members are gone and the atmosphere is more
intimate, when "Honeyboy" gives his best. Classic delta tunes like Catfish Blues, Sweet Home Chicago,
Cross Road
Blues or Rollin' and Tumblin' are displayed in
front of the enthusiastic public. At the end, other musicians are invited to jump on stage
and share some minutes playing with the legend. "Honeyboy" goes on
accompanied by the harmonica of Harry "Dirty Dog" Finèr, who
came straight from Finland, and the guys of Bullfrog Brown, Andres and Üllar,
also get their dream moments of glory.

It is late at night and during the
car trip back to Tartu,
the usually introverted Estonians cannot stop talking about the excitement of
the last hours, having gone through probably the most important gig of their
lives, sharing stage with a blues legend and satisfied, too – they had sold
enough albums to pay for the trip. Some booze, a crying guitar, the memory of
lost loves and always future places in mind to play. The spirit of the blues
goes on.

Photos by Andres Roots and Antonio Díaz

Categories
Cinema Features

Open source European animation

{mosimage}

Elephants and
animation films seem to be extremely linked in the past recent times. Just last
year, Norwegian director Christopher Nielsen surprised us with the irreverent
and not much political correct film Free Jimmy, and now, Dumbo’s
colleagues are again represented in the title of this European new short film: Elephants
Dream, just released a few months ago, developed by the minds of the
Blender Foundation and the Orange Open Movie Project settled in Amsterdam,
Holland.


As director, you can find the Syrian Bassam Kurdali, but the crew
that made the film possible is just a melting pot of nationalities from such
different places as Germany,
Austria,
Holland or Finland itself.
Globalization serving the noble purpose of creating animation!

But this time, do not expect to find another lovely huge animal wandering
around the screen. The short film take us into a surrealistic universe, dark
and oppressive, with machines that look like animals (or animals that look like
machines), monsters and platforms that move up and down this post-apocalyptic
landscape, just like extracted from a Salvador Dali's bad dream. In the
middle of all this, we find the two human main characters: Emo and Proog. While
the younger one fights against a world that is strange and unknown for him, the
other tries to make him understand how wonderful it is. You can find quite many
references to other films all over the action, maybe being one of the clearest
ones while they are crossing the invisible precipice
{sidebar id=12}(Does the third part of Indiana
Jones ring a bell to anyone…?), but farther than just a moral or
philosophical analysis of what is happening there between the characters, the
main virtue of the film is the originality in its conception and accessibility.
Elephants Dream is the world’s first open movie made entirely with open
source graphics software and with all production files freely available to use
however you please, under a Creative Commons license. As well, a German company
launched a DVD about the film that happens to be the first European film
released with the format HD DVD.

Some months ago, we had an exclusive interview in FREE! Magazine
with the young creators of Star Wreck, Samuli Torssonen and Timo
Vuorensola. They made possible, after seven years of huge effort and
limited resources, the creation of an open source movie, freely available in
Internet, that would quickly become the most ever watched Finnish movie of the history.
The success was so big that Universal launched an extended version in DVD with
many extra features. Finland is represented as well in Elephants Dream with Bastian
Salmela as one of the lead actors and Toni Alatalo as technical
director, so once more we find a clear example of the good health that the
European animation market (and particularly the Finnish one) is enjoying when
exploring the new possibilities of open source movies. Will this become an
extended trend and the big companies will pay extra attention to those products
that show success in the free Internet market? Time will tell, but there is no
question that breaking projects like this Elephants Dream put on the
table new alternatives of accessing and distributing free films made with high
quality. 

http://www.elephantsdream.org

http://www.blender.org

 

Categories
Interviews Music

Just fucking love, beer and vampires!

 {mosimage}

These wise words are thrown at the Finnish
audience by Fernando Ribeiro, the front man of the gothic metal band Moonspell,
during last Tuska festival in Helsinki.
The Portuguese singer is, apart from an excellent showman who knows how to
encourage the public, an interesting character who splits the time between his
band and his passion for literature and philosophy. FREE! Magazine had a
long and exciting talk with him at the festival backstage just after the show,
with some cold beers cooling down the hot summer evening.

How was the gig today?

Well, we started at 2 p.m. and there was a lot of daylight! They
have this midsummer sun here, but I think that it was a great show. Definitely
different, less “atmospheric” and more “rock and roll”, but worthy every minute
of it.

Some people say that Finnish audience is a
bit cold. Did you have that impression?

No, they are just different. I mean, I
always think that speaking about an audience is something always very
difficult, and people jump too fast into conclusions, especially people from
Portugal, Spain or Latin America, they always think that the others are cold,
because they are very reactive, they have this “caliente” Latino feeling, but I
think that people in Finland are quite “into the music”. You see it here, where
metal scene is huge. Metal music scene is respected by everyone, from the Prime
Minister to the metal fan, and that does not happen in Spain, or Portugal or Latin America, so I think that it is just different ways
of appreciating. For Moonspell, when we get into the stage, we know how is
going on, and I think that in their own way, Finnish people were enjoying very
much, believe me, they were not cold at all.

Do you know that this year there is this
huge “heavy metal trend”, even in Idols TV show, the winner is heavy metal
singer.

Oh, is he?

Yes, his name is Ari Koivunen.

No way!!!

You have had a tight relation with Finland all
over the past years. During the recording of your album The Antidote you
were working with the producer Hiili Hiilesmaa and also with the bass player
Niclas Etelävuori from Amorphis. So how did it happen that you had these links?

I think that all started on the road. We
love playing in Finland.
First time we played here I think that it was in 95. Our album, Irreligious,
always charted very high here. So basically we had already a very good
impression about the Finnish crowd and the Finnish scene. Then we did a Tour
with Amorphis in the States, and even when they were from up north and
we were from down South, we got along very well. A big connection and we became
friends after that. This was a butterfly effect. When we thought about
recording Darkness and Hope (the first album we recorded in Finnbox in
2001) we said, why not to try Finland?
So we spent 5 weeks recording here, and we loved it, because it is much laid
back, very relaxed. albums, especially

Did you record on winter?

Yeah, we always record lots of stuff on
wintertime. But for us it was a break from the routine.And then when we came
back from The Antidote tour with Hiili it was even a better experience.
We were always switching a bit the producers, not to get them “used to our
work”, so it can be a novelty from album to album, but we loved our time in Finland. I mean,
recently we did a 5 days tour here; we played Helsinki of course, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Nivala and Tampere. And it was very successful. There is
a great empathy between us and Finland
and I think that playing here in Tuska was like the cherry on top of the ice
cream

Do you have preferences for other Finnish
bands, apart from Amorphis?

I like a lot of Finnish bands. I like the
early stuff from HIM, especially up the Razorblade’s Romance, I like The 69
Eyes, I like Before the Dawn, Swallow the Sun…they are countless. There are so
many bands from black metal, heavy metal…

It is kind of amazing how relatively small
the country is, and how many great bands come out!

Yeah, it is amazing, and a thing I know
about the Finnish, very different from some of Swedish bands for example, it is
that they can be the biggest band in the world, and they are still very nice
people, very down to earth, and they like what they do, they like the music and
hang around, and they have this metal feeling inside, which is basically a great
thing to be around them. There are so many bands… Apocalyptica is a great band
as well, Ita-Saksa… lots of them…

Were you thinking when you started in music
business that you would reach so far? Do you consider yourself a privileged
being able to tour around the world?

Yes, of course. Sometimes you do not even
have time to think, because this life is very fast. We only started to think
about our career in 1998, when we were doing Sin/Pecado,  I was not expecting it but at the same time I
worked hard to get it, so I am happy that I have it, and I am happy to have the
consciousness that there is nothing for granted, and you have to work everyday.
I now come here to Tuska festival in Helsinki,
and we have an excellent position in the band list, we have a 75 minutes set,
in the big stage, but I don´t come here thinking “we are Moonspell”. I come
here to seduce the audience, so they will have a good experience and they can
have what they paid for, rewarding them in many ways. When bands take things
for granted, believe me, they start to do shitty music and shitty things.

It is quite notorious this collaboration you
did with the Portuguese writer Jose Luis Peixoto. How was it?

It was great! We always had this literature
influence in Moonspell. We have learnt from the best, from Iron Maiden, from
Celtic Frost… they always quoted authors in their lyrics. So we didn’t do
anything groundbreaking. We just introduced this influence to Moonspell as
well. My other activity is doing books; I have already published my third book
of poetry and is doing great in Portugal.
At any time I am invited to write short tales, but I do not have much time to
do it… In any case, I always try to find the time to read…

Tell us more about how started this project
for The Antidote with Peixoto.

Peixoto is a big metal fan, and he always
wanted to do something like this. And we are big literature’s fans, and
particularly Peixoto's fans, so I think it was something, like a marriage not “in
heaven” but “in hell”, or something like that… He invited us to make some music
for a crazy presentation of his book. People from book industry are quite
conservative so they were not much into the idea, so we switched around, and
the idea was that we did the music. We did all the energy for the music and he
took pieces of the lyrics, the images…and he wrote a novel composed by short
tales, and each chapter was based on a song. It was a big success in Portugal,
people were very interested in it, and I think that turned out to be very
original. I mean, it is not that we are planning to do this in every album, but
I loved it, and I am very good friend of Peixoto, and it was something really
groundbreaking.

Have you read the Kalevala?

Yes of course. Well, it is not the kind of
book that I would read from page 1 until page…2000 or whatever… but I reckon
that it is a special book. I bought a paperback copy, I have read a bit. I
think Tolkien ripped off a lot!

{sidebar id=8}Saramago, the Portuguese Nobel prize of
literature, was here visiting Helsinki
a couple of months ago. What is your opinion about him?

I love Saramago. I am very proud that he is
Portuguese and I am very sad that he had to move out to Spain, to
Lanzarote, because his country could not accept him as he is. I haven’t read
all the books but I think that he is an amazing writer and he is worth every
word that is written about him and the Nobel Prize. We had a show where there
were Saramago, Peixoto and Moonspell playing. We met him, he is very old, he is
like 82 but very lucid, and he told us that he liked what we do. He was very
nice and his label gave us a lot of books. We were very nervous, playing a
metal song for a Nobel Prize, but in the end came out very well. 

And you are also kept busy translating books.

Yeah, I am translating one now: I am a
Legend; it is going to be a movie now with Will Smith. The book is going to
be translated into Portuguese and released by the time of the movie. It is a
great story. Richard Matheson Is a very good author, very well known in the
States, he did a story called Duel that was the script for the first
Spielberg movie, and I am going to translate it into Portuguese. Honestly I do
not have time for that, but I am so hooked into books and literature and
translations, doing something else than the band that I also find time to do
it.

Have you read or seen any horror story you
specially liked lately?

I have been reading a lot of fiction, but
not really horror fiction. I read the book Behold the man – Ecce Homo; it
is a good book. I am reading now fiction about philosophers, about Schopenhauer
and Nietzsche…but it has been a while since I have read pure horror literature.
I am definitely going to read again I am a Legend. I already read it 2 at
least, but it is a fucking great book!

Do you give a lot of importance to the
concept of death?

Of course. In Portugal there is no bigger
obsession than death. There is always a conception about the end. Not that I
see myself as a morbid person but it is something that fascinates me in all the
aspects.

I heard you are going to work in your new
album in Denmark.

Yeah, we are already settled in Denmark. The
album is recorded and we are going to start mixing next Wednesday.

How was the experience?

It was amazing, considering that it is just
a re-recording, but it is a project that we assumed very seriously. We wanted
to give a chance to play good songs that were badly played and very badly
produced in the past. So it will be a bit of a surprise for many people. It is
not our new album but it is not that we are just doing for people to buy it. It
proves that we already did good songs when we were very young. It is all the
stuff pre Wolf heart and it is going to be called Under Satannae.

When is going to be released?

Probably in Spring or Autumn of next year,
2008 .I am very happy with the work of the producer Tue Madsen. And I was very
happy to work in Denmark.
It was very relaxing; I was like on vacation in a way. We did it in Aarhus, very quiet place.

Talking a bit about the near future, you
will play in Wacken festival, that is one of the most important metal festivals
in Europe. Excited about that show?

Well, for us it is just another festival.
Being honest, we could have played in a better position. A lot of people go
there to see Moonspell. I think that Wacken could have shown a little bit more
of respect for Moonspell, because we showed a lot of respect for Wacken, but
well…maybe the festival is becoming too big…

So you are not so happy about it?

I am happy about playing in Wacken but I am
not happy about the position. Moonspell deserves much better but on another
way, that is not what is stopping us for making a show. But for me Wacken is as
important as Tuska, or as important as other festival where we could play for
2000 people, as important as Istanbul,
where we are playing in August. I hate when people are making a ranking of
festivals, for me it does not matter, I respect all the festivals and all the
audiences! 

{mosimage}
Wolfheart (1995): Our first album. We were
kind of “marking territory”. I think that it was an album that nobody thought
it would work, but it became a classic in the underground. I am very proud of
that album because I think that it is very original in the scene.

Irreligious (1996): It is probably
altogether our best album, because it has really great songs, and normally it
is all about the songs. And still today when we play Opium or Mephisto. Those songs were ahead of their time. I don´t want to sound big headed, but for
me it is one example of how gothic metal should definitely be.

{mosimage}Sin/Pecado (1998): It was a rupture album.
It was a very good album with different stuff, and hits like Second Skin,
but a lot of people were not interested in listening to it, because they were
totally hooked to Irreligious and they did not give a chance to the
album, so I think that it is one of our most sensitive albums, and I still love
it. Probably a lot of people did not understand the album. For us it was an
album that we had to do.

The Butterfly Effect (1999):  It was going completely nuts in London. It has to do with
the fact that came out in the period of 1999-2000 and I was very interested in
what was going on, about this tension. Now we settled down, well…not exactly,
but not so crazy as in 1999. It seems we are fans of that album more than
composers.

Darkness of Hope (2001): It is probably our
most heartbreaking and sad album… it is not called Darkness of Hope for any
reason. It comes from the heart and it is very dark, but I think that it is a
great album. Not to listen when you are depressed because it can get you very
down, I think.

{mosimage}The Antidote (2003): It is one of the best
Moonspell albums. It is very tribal and one of the most original albums. It has
this song that I love called everything invaded, you saw the response
today: killer! It is an album we did very well.


Memorial (2006): It is a bloody album; I
would say “In your face” album, with very good metal songs. It was “our baby”
in the past months and I think that people really enjoy it.

Categories
Antonio's blog Blogs

That forgotten album

When writing for FREE! I often suffer of
nostalgic moments looking back to my younger years when living in a suburb near
Madrid. And I
remember, in 1996, to have listened dozens of times the original cassette that
I bought from the Germans Scorpions: Animal Instinct.

Scorpions, as many other rock/heavy bands
with great success in the 80s were not going through their best moment,
although there were still big. It would be in their next work,when recording
their classics tunes with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, that they would
come back to main positions in the media coverage and charts.

{sidebar id=7}I remember being 16 and running wild in the
streets with my gang of friends, heading to the fair where we could spot some
chicks, jumping and singing Wild Child, or feeling a shadow of sadness
every time I listened to the last track alone at my room: Daddy’s girl;
emotive son about a girl harassed by her father. But I could hardly tell you a
song I did not like from that album. For rock and Scorpions fans, the work was
released without a great success, but for me, that will be always “my Scorpions
album”. Something similar happened with Aerosmith, when I received as a
present from my sister and my mother the cassette of Done with Mirrors,
but the Americans still save one song from that work in some concerts and
special occasions: Let the Music do the Talking. How wise Aerosmith are!
A question of age, definitely.

Do you remember what albums that never got
big success made you feel great when you were younger? Write a comment and let
the reader share the experience. Maybe there is a great album out there waiting
to be re-discovered.

Finally, for motor sports and F1 lovers, and
being a follower of Alonso, I show you here a funny link that my friends
sent me some days ago, with a very special “Finnish touch” at the end of it.
Enjoy it!

Categories
Misc News

27th Helsinki City Marathon August 18th 2007

{mosimage}The marathon starts in the vicinity of the statue of the legendary
Paavo Nurmi. The finish line is at the Olympic Stadium. Twenty
refreshment points guarantee that runners are well taken care of.

 Every
participant will be given a fine medal, T shirt and  diploma. The
runners are also offered facilities for an exotic experience of Finnish
sauna, shower and swimmin pool at the Swimming Stadium near by.


Program:

Friday August 17th 2007

The race
office is open at the Olympic Stadium from 12am to 8pm

Marathon expo from 12am to
8pm

Saturday August 18th 2007

Disney
minimarathon for kids 5-13 years from 10am to 1pm

Marathon starts at 3 pm

The race
office is open at the Olympic Stadium from 8am to 9pm

For registration and more information
check: www.helsinkicitymarathon.com

Categories
Art Exhibitions

Colours in a natural relation

{mosimage}Dan Beard is
a young British artist who works and lives in Tampere. A couple of months ago he had his
first solo show in Galleria Oma Huone, and now continues moving around the art
scene of Helsinki with this new current exhibition that brings his paintings to
Kanneltalo, the cultural centre in Kannelmäki, Helsinki.

 

 

There, you can see a total of 15 woks where
the colours sometimes get mixed and other times fight with each other, trying to
find their own space in the canvas. Sensual shapes appear as a final result on
some paintings that could even remind of the matrix of our existence: the
vagina. Some other times the colors adopt the form or a millenarian dragon but
most of the times they simply let you explore your own feelings when
contemplating his palette of bright blues, greens and yellows exploding in
front of your eyes. A risky conception of art that maybe will not satisfy the
most conservative viewers, but worthy to check nevertheless.

Together with Beard’s paintings, the
galleria exhibits the sculptures of Jussi Aulis, pieces of metal and
rusty tin composing human shapes that resemble strange warriors or even a
reminiscence of Don Quixote. It is fresh and pretty recommended.

2-27.8
Jussi Aulis' sculptures and Dan Beard’s
paintings in Kanneltalo Gallery, Helsinki (next to Kannelmäki railway
station)
The exhibition will be open also during Helsinki
Night of Arts 24.8.07

 

{mosimage}{mosimage} 
Categories
Albums Music

HIM – Venus Doom

{mosimage}The equally
beloved and hated Finnish band is back with possibly the most internationally
awaited Finnish album (with permission of Nightwish) of the year.

Venus
Doom is the
sixth studio album for the band from Helsinki.
And His Infernal Majesty comes with a stronger and dirtier sound than
the previous one Dark Light, due in great part to the harder and more
predominant guitar riffs by Mikko “Linde” Lindström. But the band of the
heartagram is undoubtedly known overall by his charismatic vocalist Ville
Valo. Valo explores again his darker registers and shouts to the micro,
transmitting the feeling that he feels more confident with his vocal skills now
that in previous years, and that enriches the sound of the album that reminds
for some moments their fist couple of records. But do not get confused. This is
not a heavy metal album even when some want to compare it to Black Sabbath
or Metallica. The “love metal” formula that has attracted so many young
listeners around the world (particularly many new female listeners) must keep
working, and for that heavy riffs have to get mixed in a considerable
proportion with pop style to create a balance that could satisfy (or repulse )
equally to rock and pop fans all over the world.

The album’s
first couple of tracks, Venus Doom and Love in Cold Blood come
out as two of the best to be highlighted, but later the rhythm of this powerful
beginning falls into more monotonous lyrics to rise again with my favourite
song in the album, Dead lovers´ lane with great vocal skills by Valo,
leading to a more than decent final part that keeps the quality up again with Bleed
Well and Cyanide Sun.

Probably we
will never have the same powerful and fresh sound from the first albums of HIM,
but this Venus Doom supposes a good effort to go one step farther in their rock
and metal roots and satisfy some of the fans who had turn the back to the
Finnish band during recent years. Not a bad trick.

Rating: 4/5

Categories
Cinema DVD

Magic against Fascism

{sidebar id=19}
Reality and
fantasy world get mixed in the last work of director Guillermo del Toro: Pan´s
Labyrinth, being the second of his films framed on times of post civil
war in Spain,
after his terror tale in an isolated orphanage in The Devil's Backbone
(2001).  

The film is
visually astonishing, with detailed and marvellous scenarios that catch totally
the attention of the spectator in the fantasy sequences, all seen through the
eyes of Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) who turns to be one of the youngest
revelations of Spanish cinema. But the narration has undoubtedly its best
moments when the very real characters step into screen. The cast of Spanish
well known actors is simply magnificent, with an excellent Álex Angulo
as the rebel rural doctor and one none less excellent and more mature Maribel
Verdú, far from the usual erotic roles of years ago. All of them turning
around Ofelia's stepfather, Captain Vidal interpreted by Sergi Lopez in
a superb role  as a violent fascist who
has to face the guerrilla hidden in the mountains of north Spain 4 years after
the end of the Civil War. Lopez is almost better known in France than in Spain and after
this praising work, it is about time that his skills get more recognized
internationally.

The film is
a beautiful cry in favour of the liberty and the hope in own believes until the
end, surrounded by a fairytale atmosphere. But do not get mistaken, this is not
a film to offer to your children while eating popcorns in front of the TV set.
Violence is often and brutally present all over the film, and the final is not exactly
what you would call “happy made in Hollywood”.
All in all, Del Toro has achieved a very difficult task: fidelity with history in
a film where historical happenings are wrapped into a fabulous atmosphere,
achieving a product that can satisfy equally to fans of American and European
cinema. Brilliant!

Categories
Antonio's blog Blogs

From rainy Tartu with love!

I assisted to Tuska festival in Helsinki at the beginning of June; the
streets of the capital were literally taken by an army of metal fans dressed in
black. There I had the chance to talk for almost one hour in the backstage with
Fernando Ribeiro, the singer of Moonspell (interview will appear
in our pages pretty soon) while outside Stratovarius was totally blowing
the audience. Fernando and the rest of the band were very friendly with me and
it was a pleasure to spend some time with them before they left to their hotels
to celebrate the amazing gig they offered to the public. One of the best
performance at Tuska this year. Also the festival made me remember what a good
band Stratovarius is! I sadly had the chance to see only the first half an hour
of concert before the call of duty leaded me to the backstage, but what I saw
is the powerful coming back of one of the best metal bands of the last decade.
They sounded tight, aggressive and in excellent shape, which really makes me
very happy. Stratovarius reminds me of my younger years where together with Blind
Guardian, they were absolutely my gods! The Germans were also present at
the festival, so this was like a flashback to one decade ago, but I did not
enjoy their set list and sound so much.

Among the huge list of bands I want to highlight a couple more of
names: 45 Degree Woman that exhales tones of quality, great lyrics and a
great voice for their singer Mikko Viman (It is a pity that the
audience’s response is not so massive like with some other bands) and the
exoticness of the Japanese D'spairsRay that counted with many fans, specially
among the young female teenage audience.

Well, but if we really want to complain about the weather, nothing
better like looking back at the first day at Roskilde festival in Denmark. It
rained cats and dogs over there! That was literally a battlefield, and people
could not survive without rubber boots. I was quite a privileged since I
arrived the second day, and could stay every night at friend's place in Copenhagen, where a nice
hot shower awaited me. But I suppose that more than one regretted to get the
ticket for finding themselves surrounded by so difficult conditions. In any
case, the festival atmosphere was nice and more relaxed that in the Finnish
ones, thing that surprised me pretty much. Musically, I received the, maybe,
greatest disappointment of the summer due to the poor show of Red Hot Chili
Peppers. What was the problem with those guys? They did around 10 solos all
over the show, they were not able to link one song after another, and the
singer hardly spoke 3 words to the audience, hiding his face with a hat that
covered half of his head. Maybe they did not take care of themselves too much
before the late show at night (it started at 1:00 a.m.), but, come on guys!…you have to be more
professional when coming to play to Roskilde in front of such a huge audience.
In the bright side of the festival, the Swedes The Ark, gave another magnificent
concert. Ola Salo is really a great showman who knows how to entertain
the audience, with his funny speeches or with his voice, and they showed what a
good concert is about, while featuring old and new songs from their last
recently released album A Prayer for the Weekend. The Muse and Arctic
Monkeys also came to Denmark
meaning business, while during Beastie Boys and Queens of the Stone Ages
shows I was more interesting in the research of the quality of the Spanish wine
sold in the supermarkets of Denmark.
Also to remark the big amount of Finnish who assist to the festival, you can
meet groups of them quite easily all over Roskilde.

About books recently read, I was totally hooked to A World Apart,
the odyssey by the Polish writer Gustaw Herling in the Communism work
camps, years before The Gulag Archipelago 
was published. Pretty recommended, although not suggested for sensitive
people. Hard stories about a hard life and how human values can get so twisted
during war times. Second World War continues present in my present literature,
since I am now embarked in the reading of Mephisto by the German Klaus
Mann. And on Wednesday a quick visit to Helsinki. The reason: I can’t get no
satisfaction!!! Their satanic majesties, The Rolling Stones, are coming
to town !!!

Categories
Albums Music

Maija Vilkkumaa – Ilta Savoyssa

After her big success with the last studio albums Ei and Se Ei Olekaan Niin, now Maija offers a special present to the fans with this
double album, Ilta Savoyssa (and not Ilta Savoyassa as appeared funnily
in some Internet music shop services) that registers her live performance in
Savoy Theater, Helsinki, during last March gigs.

The album starts with a funny intro, where with good sense of humour
we listen how the managers are looking for somebody to replace Maija since she
does not show up for the concert, and go to ask to…Maija faking being other
person who sings awfully.

Musically, the album consists of 22 tracks where Maija sings one after
another her greatest hits. The atmosphere for singing in Savoy is slightly
different from a summer festival, and Maija takes advantage to explode her most
intimate side in tracks like Mun Elämä or Ei. In general the tone
of the album sounds more pop oriented than usual, with a bit excessive orchestral
flourish accompanying Maija’s voice.

I must admit that I prefer
Maija when singing for wild audiences in student parties or festivals, and she
shows her rock and roll side, usually linked with a wilder behaviour on stage
that makes her connect deeply with her audience. Songs like Kristiina does not sound as powerful in this live album as they should be, but
nevertheless, Maija’s singing skills, with her soulful voice,
work well enough to delight our ears and it is exciting to hear once more
performing Satumaa Tango as a big end to the album.

A slightly different album that shows new features in Maija’s
repertoire. Recommended for those who are already fans. For the new ones, try to
approach the older albums first.

Categories
Cinema DVD

Friends in love

{mosimage}Based on Zoe Heller's book, one of
the most exciting female acting duels that you could imagine has arrived on DVD:
Barbara vs. Sheba,
or what is the same, Judi Dench vs. Cate Blanchett, both winners
of the Academy Award in previous years. Notes on a Scandal, directed by Richard Eyre,
introduce us into a normal English school scenario where two different
professors will become close friends, linked in their destinies in a fatal way:
The old and grumpy Barbara trying to guide the young and beauty Sheba.

 

 

{sidebar id=9}Cate Blanchett really looks astonishing in
the film (not a surprise for many since more than one fell in love with her
ambiguous Galadriel during Lord of the Rings, even rejecting Arwen’s
charms). The friendship relation will became vicious when Barbara discovers
that Sheba, who is married and with a daughter of 16 and a son with Down’s syndrome,
is having sex relations with a 15 years old pupil from her school. But more
than judging the morality of the actions by the professor, the plotline is
aimed at showing how dangerous can be to share secrets with the wrong friends. Both
actresses are superb in their roles, but I was expecting a bit more of “punch”
for the last third of the film.

The role of the young boy is pretty much
obliterated in many parts of the movie, and the shared scenes between Dench and
Blanchett turn to be a bit boring at the end. The best moments usually happen
when there is a third guest between the two main characters, as when Barbara is
sharing dinner with the family (mention apart for the great job of the betrayed
husband Bill Nighy), or in the erotic scenes with Blanchett and the
young Andrew Simpson (who made his debut here while having to assist to
his own normal lessons at school).

There was quite a polemic when the film was
about to be released about the sex scenes in the British media, but from my
point of view, that part has been treated with extreme delicacy. In any case,
if you want to find the “leitmotiv” that leads to the female characters in the
film, think more about loneliness and boredom than about lust.

 

Categories
Interviews Misc

The spirit of the Dancing Man

{mosimage}When speaking about contemporary dance in Finland, one reference name is Tero Saarinen. He has achieved a worldwide recognition with the best formula: talent, hard work and the collaboration of a great team formed by top-class artists and professionals. Even when sometimes his popularity has been bigger outside the borders of Finland than inside his own country, his merits were finally rewarded in his native country with awards such as the Pro Finlandia Medal in 2005.

After having lived in France for some years, Tero is back in Finland (as long as his other compromises allow him, since he spends a great part of the year traveling around the world, working and performing) running his own dance company, Tero Saarinen Company, and preparing everything for the conquering of the Finnish spectators during the incoming representations of Petrushka / HUNT that will be performed all along August in Alexander Theater, Helsinki.

There are different features that maybe give a key explanation about the success in Tero Saarinen´s works. One is the risky attitude towards his art, always looking for new ways of expression, and not worrying about the immediate success. Tero Saarinen is a person who enjoys discovering new places in the world the same than enjoys discovering new and interesting people all along his career to collaborate with. This natural approach to life is reflected also in the natural dialogue with the audience. During the incoming shows, the spectators will have the unusual opportunity of staying after the performance and talk to the dancer about their impressions, feelings and whatever other question they want to make. Tero affirms that this same experience has been tested before, with excellent results “In general, it is amazing the nice and interesting feedback that the spectators give. I am very satisfied with this idea of having an open discussion after every show”.

Tero does not only take care of his own solo performances, but makes sure that he is surrounded by the best professionals to achieve an optimal result. As an example, we collected the opinion of Satu Halttunen, one of the company dancers and Tero´s collaborator, who has worked together with him creating pieces for, among others, the NDT (Nederlands Dans Theater): "It was interesting to be there. Everybody who works in the field of dance knows the reputation of the place and the dancers and it was true that all the dancers were amazing. But I also think the nature of NDT has changed after Jiri Kylian left the company".

Satu obviously is one of the persons who can give a best opinion about Tero´s style when dancing, having being his second pair of eyes when working together, helping to create a choreography for other dance companies: "Tero uses lots of mental images when creating a movement. Physically he emphasizes a lot the sensitivity of the arms and fingers and feeling of the bodyweight".

 

Everything can be said in the art of dance.

Tero Saarinen

{mosimage} Tero Saarinen receives FREE! Magazine in Alexander Theater in the center of Helsinki, the place where soon the spectators will be able to assist to his forthcoming performances: Petrushka/HUNT. He is calm and friendly, and makes a great effort to put his many varied thoughts into English language for us, laughing when he gets lost in the middle of an answer. Although being on his forties, he looks extremely young and fragile, but when he starts speaking, (and he does speak a lot indeed!), you realize that Tero is a man who knows exactly what he wants to achieve in life. A man whose personal philosophy is to live under a “controlled risk”, extrapolating this to his performances on stage. A man who is not afraid to explore new ways of expression traveling to remote Asia, or just turning this exploration into a deep look at his soul. Tero Saarinen represents beyond everything else the true spirit of the Dancing Man.

It is very interesting to see in your biography that you spent some time in Japan studying Butoh dance. Tell us more about the experience, please.

I wanted to expand this image of dancing man inside me. I think that it was limited in the National Ballet of Finland, and I had a “hunger” to go outside. I was in Tokyo for nearly a year.

Were you feeling alienated at some point?

It was a lot of alienation feeling when you were there. When you come as an outsider, it is hard to find the right connections. It takes a lot of time to make you “known”. It is very long way to get into this routine of Japanese culture, in a way. So it took two months before I could find the way to go to the traditional Japanese classes. You need to know the right persons. One door opens and slowly you get in. That was a long process

So it is a closed society…

Very close. And the traditions of dance are very different. For me sometimes was very difficult to understand the mentality behind and of course, the amount of people in Tokyo… it is such a huge city… it was a big difference, coming from Helsinki where you can go cycling to your work, and there in Japan I had to travel 1-2 hours to find the places where I studied. The distances were hard, and the amount of people was quite heavy to take at the beginning. I remember that there were days I did not want to go out because I thought there were too many people there. And I was also missing the sea. I am a “water person”, I was raised close to the sea and I had to travel to find some sea.

I know you were practicing also martial arts. What martial art did you practice?

I practiced Aikido. It took two hours to go to the place where I took the classes. It became too hard; the days became too long, so I had to give it up. I thought I could study later martial arts in Finland. So I selected to study Butoh dance “from the source”.

What do you think of the Butoh dancers emigrated to Europe? There are even some big names here in Finland.

There are, starting from the 90s, a lot of people who are teaching Butoh. They are very good teachers. An innovation of Butoh philosophy. But I think nowadays the original idea of Butoh is lost. When it started after Second World War, there was a lot of things boiling in Japanese culture. It wanted to break the estheticism established in the society. It was violent, and now all we see is about beauty, so it was turned around the original idea. The revolution feeling has been lost, but maybe because there is no need of it anymore.

{mosimage} In your dancing style, you like the feeling of “being on the edge”. Is it a reflection of your life?

I think it is. It is an interesting state. But the main idea is that you feel safe, you can take risks but under control. You have the sensation of the leap. When we talk about art, I think that the risk-taking makes it more exciting. If it is too calculated and comfortable, and does not have a possibility for the participants to take risks, then it is not alive. It is a risk with some kind of safety. And I think that is also in my life. I never cared about my contracts, my pensions. You have to take other injections of inspiration from other cultures. It is all about the structure. The ideology of our company is like that, we take risks but under control, on stage and off stage.

Yeah, for example, in your previous piece Kaze you took a lot of risks, you invested a lot of money.

You need to invest for the pieces. Maybe the credits do not come immediately. I always thought the money would come later if you believe in that product, The works of mine defy the time in a way, and they will last. So the reward will come.

Is it stressful to find perfection in your art and to be a business man at the same time?

To be a business man requires stress. Of course it is part of this business. But I think that you minimize stress and the risks when you have the right people in the right places. Years before I had a lot of stress because I took care of everything. I was designing the clothes; I was sticking the posters at night in the streets. It was ridiculous! I had this understanding that you need other people. I went out of Finland and I saw how things were done outside, where people were surrounded by producers and sharing values with the workers. The artistic and the human values, and also the business values.

How many people are there in your company?

Now we have 6 people, including administration. It depends, the body is very flexible. If we go on tour in my solo evenings, it can be only four people, but we can go with 25 people on the road. It depends on the production

You dance and you also make choreographies for others. Apart from all that, you have to run your dance company. How do you take care of yourself?

It is not an easy concept. Running the company is why I have to have good people helping me both in administrative and artistic field. I have dancers with whom I have been working for 10 years, and some of these people come with me as assistants. So they know the “alphabet of the style”. When we go to work with other companies, we really transmit the “alphabet of our style”, something essential about being a dancer. So there is a deeper reason to meet than just getting the money. Dance is not just steps; it is a way to perceive life.

How long do you want to continue dancing professionally?

I read days ago an interview I did when I was 25, saying “I am not afraid of getting old…” So I think that there is this dilemma of the dancer, you feel you do not have to exhaust physically yourself to transmit things. You can do less but still transmit more things. People ask “when do you stop?” I still have not decided when I stop. I am quite critical with myself, so I suppose I will decide to stop when I am not able to transmit anything anymore. When the dialogue with the audience does not happen, I will stop before that.

You have been collaborating with very important people in dancing and art business, like with Nederlands Dans Theater or Batsheva Dance Company. Is there anybody you have as a dream to collaborate to?

I do not think like that. I think that who comes on the way, comes. I do not look like “I would like to work with…” I do not feel I have to work with a person I see in a magazine. I think my best meeting was with the Japanese professor, Kazuo Ohno.

You go to Germany and then back to Finland. What the spectator can expect from the show Petrushka/HUNT?

It is bigger than experience. It is a special evening; it has live musicians who have adapted Petrushka into accordions. It is an amazing adaptation. And the next piece HUNT is my solo. It is a big risk, it has been written for the big unit of men and women, and I dared to make it only for myself, plus Marita Liulia, the multimedia artist who collaborated in it. It is a wonderful integration of different expertises from different fields of art.

Is it not risky to express on stage masculinity and femininity just dancing solo?

I like risks. I could not integrate other person in that, because I do not feel it. I have a lot of things boiling from inside me to make this piece. All of us have masculinity and femininity. It was interesting and challenging to dare to do it with style and taste. I wanted somehow to talk about the media we are surrounded by. How we cope with the new technologies and this attractive new ways of communicating (and isolating) ourselves. We forget the physicality. There was a kind of frustration that I wanted to talk about it. If we are sacrificing our roots, the knowledge we have and we carry. So I had this battle inside me, and I wanted to bring this battle into the piece. This is why there is a strong connection with Marita Liulia and with interactive media tools she was working with.

Alienation seems to be very present in your work.

Yeah, maybe that is my eternal subject. The thing I want to dive into. I dance because I do not want to talk. Everything can be said in the art of dance.

Any anecdotes from previous shows?

It was very special in Mexico. The tension between the audience and us was special. It is hard to find the right words. In Finland we meet the audience after the performance. I like a lot to talk to audience, it takes out this borders that the artists are something so special. There are no secrets there, no artificial mysterious symbols. It is nice to have a dialogue. The mysticism evaporates.

 

A man with a team!

{mosimage} Mikki Kunttu – Lightning designer

How did you get involved in Tero Saarinen´s Company at the beginning?

We did a project together with Tero when I was a second year student of lighting and sound in Tampere.

Is there any special feature, difficulty or exception that you find in your job as lightning designer with Tero Saarinen different from other different jobs and projects you have made before?

The real difference is that we have worked together for so long and have shared similar visions of what we would like to create for the stage.

Light in Finland is very important and has radical changes all over the year. From total darkness on winter to the midnight sun on summer. Do you take inspiration from the real nature when applying to your job?

In my opinion you carry your memory with you no matter what you do. So in other words of course it has an effect on my work, but it is a very natural part of me. Nature is one of the most inspiring elements for my work.

We also had some issues ago a long interview with Kimmo Pohjonen. How was to collaborate with him?

Kimmo is really one of the most talented and most original artists I have ever had the pleasure of working with. It is very rewarding to work with someone whose own expression is developed so far and who is so visually sensitive too.

You were involved also in the lightning of the Eurovision show. Are you happy with the experience? Was it very hard and demanding to prepare everything for a worldwide audience?

Eurovision was really a dream job for me. It was one of the rare occasions where you can just set your imagination free without real restrains of budget or other issues. Very, very challenging and complicated structure in the whole production, but at the same time very rewarding. I got to make all the big decisions on who I want to work with and to choose all the equipment. The fact that we had a huge audience was not really anything I would have considered too much. I’m extremely happy with the result!

 

{mosimage} Marita Liulia – Multimedia artist 

Was it Tero the one who came to ask for collaboration in his company, or was it you?

My collaboration with Tero started with Tarot (www.maritaliuliatarot.com). I took photographs of Tero and he became The Hanged Man and Two of Coins and Five of Cups. I liked him very much since the first meeting and collaboration continued in Hunt. During last years we have traveled a lot (100 performances in 25 countries) and it has been a great time for me.

Is it complicated to apply the scent of the new technologies to old classics, without damaging the main essence?

Naturally it is demanding and challenging. I always do a lot of research work for my art work and it helps to avoid clichés and quick solutions. My work as an artist is to bring the contemporary time to a classic. In Hunt the multimedia brings the media world to the classical theme of Rite of Spring. 

You published acclaimed works about femininity and masculinity. Is the dichotomy of the sexes a topic that you like investigating often and deeply? Do you have conclusions or personal ideas you want to share with our readers?

Instead of dichotomy I find femininity and masculinity in everyone. They are deeply rooted roles and models we use in different ways depending of the context. This is something to observe in everyday life. Tero has a sharp eye to the multiple faces of gender. This is one reason I like to work with him. I also share his compassion and aim to understand the complexity of human mind – and body.

Is the reaction of the people usually in favour or applying new technologies and visual solutions to dance, or do you receive critics from purist sectors?

It seems to be that appropriate use of technology brings new audience to classical art forms. I have long experience of both and I must say that I have been utterly satisfied by the critics, also from the purist section!

What people can expect from your work in the next shows of HUNT?

As always, we do our very best in every performance. The audience participate every performance with their presence. I hope the collaboration will be like it has been, touching and unforgettable. I expect this Stravinsky evening will not leave anyone cold!

 

Tero Saarinen Company: Stravinsky Evening
Petrushka | HUNT
August 2–19, 2007
Thu-Sat at 8pm, Sun at 3pm
Alexander Theatre, Bulevardi 23-27, Helsinki
Tickets 15-40e
www.terosaarinen.com/stravinsky

Categories
Cinema DVD

Hide your drugs in an elephant’s ass

{mosimage}A poor elephant
escaped from a circus and finds itself lost in an alienated landscape in the
middle of nowhere in the mountains of Norway. This could be a perfect
introductory line for a new animation movie of Disney or Pixar… or not? Imagine
that you start to add to the plot features such as that the elephant is a
junkie, has kilograms of cocaine inside his huge ass, and is followed without
compassion by mobsters and even the Lappish mafia on two wheels!

 
 

 

{sidebar id=5}The name of this
eccentric product is Free Jimmy, and was born from the mind of the
Norwegian director Christopher Nielsen, who brings the spirit of his
tacky underground comics to the big screen. With Free Jimmy we are watching to probably, the most non-political correct animation movie of the
history. The characters have no problem at all along the action to use swear
words, have sex or consume drugs. So I suppose that at this stage, there is no
need to warn that this is not the classic animation movie to watch with your
little children, but more like gathering with some friends, drink some beers
and smoke some…cigarettes, enjoying the adventures of the gangs of freaks that
will wander the screen.

 Technically, the animation is excellent, and the irony
and winks to the spectators (the appearance of the Lappish bikers must be especially
appealing to the Finnish audience particularly, and to the Scandinavian ones in
general) reveal the hard work to create a good script. In any case, there is
also time for the sentimental side, especially in the parts where our poor
Jimmy finds the help of the friendly moose during the runaway.

The cast was
joined by Hollywood super star Woody Harrelson
(that is not going through his career’s peak lately) as the voice of Roy Arnie,
the “animal lover” whose dream is to own a circus some day in the future.

This is the first
animation movie totally created in Norway, and shows one more that the
European animation market is not only going through healthy, but also
innovative times. As negative aspects, I have to pinpoint that is not very
long, 86 minutes, and that I could not avoid to have a feeling of pity for poor
Jimmy all over the film. Nielsen has created the closest equivalent to Trainspotting
in the animation scene nowadays, and it is a crazy journey, as addictive as all
the dope that huge Jimmy carries, so do not better miss it!

Categories
Cinema Interviews

The perfect son in law

{mosimage}Mikko Leppilampi looks relaxed and confident
when we enter the studio where his future new project is being shot: 8
Days to Premiere. Like a person who is satisfied with his own life. Nevertheless
he is one of the hottest names in Finland nowadays. Not only for
being considered one of the best young and talented actors, but also for his
obvious charisma for the big masses. Being the host of Eurovision festival has elevated
him into an international status. And apart from all that, he is as handsome as
you can get!


I suppose everybody has been asking you in
the past few days about the experience of hosting Eurovision.

Yes, actually everybody has been asking but
you are the first one I am answering to… because after that I started to shoot
this film 8 Days to Premiere straight away. The final of Eurovision Song
Contest was on Saturday night and on Monday morning at 8 o’clock I was shooting.


So no holidays at all after Eurovision…

No, but it is all right, because this is
like a holiday. Actually I enjoy working at this. It was a very good experience;
the entire week when all the delegations were in Helsinki was a lot of fun, although we were
working very long days, many hours. The audience was changing and I was all the
time in interviews, pictures, etc. It was very tiring but everybody knew that
it was just that week, so we tried to enjoy it.


Were you nervous hosting an event that was
broadcasted live worldwide?

No, I was more kind of excited. When you
have an audience of 15-20 people that you know, you are nervous, but in things
like that, with thousands of people inside the arena and then millions on TV,
you do not even get that. I felt I was just making a TV show and performing for
the audience in the arena as good as possible. After that everything has been
nice. I think I was lucky I went straight away to work. Probably if I had had
one or two weeks off, I had been thinking more about it, or “missing it”.


You started to be really popular in Finland after
appearing in the film Helmiä ja Sikoja, in 2003. How was your life
before that?

I was always doing sports, more than arts. I
would say. I have always been a “physical” person. I was playing ice hockey
almost professionally. I quit when I was 20 because I realized I did not want
to be a player. I spent 2 years in Canada in a boarding school and I
played in school teams. During the years there I realized I wanted to be an
actor.


Did you like it there in Canada?

I loved it. I took part of drama courses and
in plays, and then after I got back and I did military service, supposedly I
was going back to Canada to study cinema production but then I applied in
Finland for the theater academy and then I got it and I stayed. That was pretty
much it. This was my dream and I never thought that it happened, but it did.


Do you feel  that everything was going
very fast? Helmiä ja Sikoja was released only four years ago.

I think my life’s pace has been very fast
all the time. I was going from one hobby to another, kind of “I am going to try
that…and then I am going to try that other thing”. I was skating and
snowboarding also, then playing hockey, playing drums (that was the musical
part of my youth). When I got inside theater school I realized this was really
my thing. Then after that everything has gone pretty fast, but that was what I
was hoping to be like. It is just the way it goes, so it does not feel so bad.
My work is more public than some other work from my theater colleagues, who
work in 3 plays at the same time, but they do not write on newspapers about
them, so people don’t know about them so much.


But you do not have the feeling of being too
busy?

That was I was seeking for. I definitely
want to keep both music and acting for the rest of my life. I have been very
lucky.


Did it have something to do the fact that
your father was a singer too?

Well, we never had the question whether it was
all right to become an artist or not. It was more like nobody was pushing me. I
never felt pressured; it was more that I had to find myself, and realized what
I wanted to do.

{mosimage}
If somebody would offer you to participate
in Eurovision in the future, as the singer representing Finland, would
you accept?

It is very hard for me to comment on that. It
depends on the people who vote about the one who deserves to go there. I am
not even thinking about it now. 


You appeared in Paha Maa and you
appeared in a short  cameo in Valkoinen
Kaupunki. How is your relation with director Aku Louhimies?

The cameo was made before Paha Maa.
Valkoinen Kaupunki at the beginning was not made to be a movie, it was made to
be a TV series called Irtiottoja. So
it was just a cut from that material the taxi driver’s character. I was just
lucky enough to be in one of the clips they put in the movie. Aku kind of tried
me out, to see if I was good enough for the role in Paha Maa. I felt it
was a bit like a test.


What can people expect from this new
project, 8 Days to Premiere, from director Perttu Leppä?

It is probably the most challenging role
that I have ever done. It involves making 3 most known love scenes in the
theater history, they are from Romeo and Juliet, so to be able to act
like that, in Shakespearian language… it was quite challenging, and then with Laura
Birn is very easy to work, she is very talented. The director writes his
own movies himself, and then they direct them and cast them himself. It is
going to be romantic and funny. When the audience is watching, they won’t be
sure if they are watching a scene from Romeo and Juliet or from 8 Days
to Premiere.

The plot in 8 Days to Premiere
reminds me a bit of this other production, Shakespeare in Love

Do not tell that to Perttu! He would not
like that comment much…

Categories
Cinema Features

Children of Men

{mosimage}Alfonso
Cuarón belongs to
the new generation of Mexican directors that keep conquering the Hollywood cinema industry, at the same level than those other two greatest representatives of this new Mexican wave: Guillermo del Toro and
Alejando González Iñárritu.

Iremember watching three years ago his film Y Tu Mama También (2002) at my
place, together  with my two Mexican
flatmates that I had at that time, and I faced that film in the same way that I
was facing days ago Children of Men, just with no particular hope of
finding anything special. In both cases Cuarón´s movies really got me by
surprise. I liked a
lot Y Tu Mama También. I considered that the director had been able to
create a very personal new style of “road movie”. This new film has still many
features of road movie as well, being the feeling in a certain way similar to
years ago. Cuarón achieves one of the freshest science fiction movies of the
last years.

The film is
based on the book The Children of Men by P.D. James, and brings
us into the year 2027, in a violent city of London that reflects the chaos and lost of
hope of all the humankind. Immigration is brutally fought back by a
semi-totalitarian government and meanwhile, the youngest man on earth has died
at the age of 18, and the women are not able to get pregnant anymore. People
live immersed in an existence with no hope, since no more children run in the
parks and the streets, but then a miracle happens when suddenly a new baby is
going to be born in this brave new world.

Clive
Owen finds a role
just made tailor-sized for him. After his shocking appearance as
“taking-no-shit  hero” in Sin City,
this time the character has more human features, more weaknesses that make them
at the same time closer to the spectator. Julianne Moore and Michael
Caine have surprisingly small roles, but decisive to catch the audience
into the plot. Caine, same than the good wines, just seem to be better and more
adorable actor with the past of time, and as the old hippie smoker Jasper, he
looks superb.

There is no
space here for a future time imagined full of hyper-intelligent robots or other
overwhelming special effects. The action is very natural all over the film, and
that is one of the features that shock the viewer: its realism. A couple of
scenes like the chase between the motorbike and the car in the woods, or the
birth of Kee's baby in a filthy room will be recorded inside you memory for a
long time.

Cuarón is
able to show that he does not need elves and orcs to create an amazing trip for
his actors. He just need to surrender them by all the miseries of the humankind
(where to start: war, terrorism, egoism, intolerance search of power, racism…)
to make us feel uneasy facing the thought that maybe this imaginary future
could not be so far from a real one in a couple of decades…

Undoubtedly,
one of the nicest surprises of this year.

Children of Men

Director:
Alfonso Cuarón

Cast:  Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Claire-Hope Ashitey

Rating: 5