Categories
There goes the family
{mosimage}Last summer the directors of programming at the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) needed a soap opera to fill the hours of the summer afternoons. They chose a Spanish series featuring a loud speaking and eccentric, yet traditional, family. Surprisingly, Los Serrano (Serranon perhe) became so popular that in autumn, YLE needed to rebroadcast the series from episode 1 and to reschedule it to the more convenient weekend afternoons.
In Spain, the first season of Los Serrano was first produced and broadcast in 2003. Soon it become one of the most successful Spanish TV series ever. The second season, the one currently broadcasted in Finland, reached an average audience of seven million viewers and an audience share of 38% in evening prime time.
The series follows the successful and original formula that Spanish TV series developed in the mid 1990s. This formula goes beyond the tradition one-hour episode. They are usually 75 minutes long allowing much room for commercials and covering the main programming slot in the evenings. The theme is not exactly drama or comedy, but a balance between both that differentiates the Spanish series from the American productions. The popularity of these series is based on its portrayal of middle class characters and families. The viewers can feel very close to the situations and stories told in the plot.
Médico de Familia (Perhelääkäri) was the first big hit of this genre and it was the first Spanish series to be broadcast in Finland. Daniel Écija, the producer of Médico de Familia, is also the man behind Los Serrano. This time there are no doctors, but school teachers and tavern owners involved. The Serrano family is formed by Diego Serrano, owner of a typical Spanish tavern with his grumpy brother. Diego is married to a school teacher called Lucía Gómez. Together they formed a big family with three sons and two daughters from a previous marriage. To make a long story short, the series is about the common problems and not so common adventures of the family and their friends and relatives at home, school and at the tavern. As it should be, there's love: flirting, humor and also some touching moments.
The popularity of the series in Finland is quite surprising. It seems too Spanish for a Finn. First of all, the language is complicated. Characters are very expressive, they speak loud and they curse a lot. A team of eight translators is in charge of writing the subtitles for YLE. They have a lot of work. It takes one week for a translator to translate one episode. The heavy use of slang does not make the job easy. Every episode is a window to the less glamorous, but friendly, Spanish way of living.
The leading role of Diego Serrano is played by popular actor Antonio Resines. Born in 1954, he has a long experience in cinema and television, especially in comedy parts. But the series has also been a tool for promoting new talents. When the series started young actor Fran Perea, who plays the old brother Marcos Serrano, became an idol for teenagers. Also his musical career was built around the main theme of the series that he sang. For some time he topped the charts, but at the moment he is more focused on his career as an actor and has participated in several feature films, including Antonio Banderas' El camino de los ingleses (2006). In any case, every other episode there is an opportunity for Perea showing him playing a song with his acoustic guitar.
In Spain, the last episode of the sixth season of Los Serrano was shown. The series has reached more than 120 episodes and in January there will be a new season. There have been many and surprising changes in the plot, but Finnish audience still needs to wait what happens to this peculiar family. Meanwhile, to avoid unpleasant spoilers we recommend not to google Los Serrano.
Los Serrano – Serranon perhe
Weekends at 14.45 YLE
Fran Perea is visiting Helsinki this week. He will be signing autographs at the Anttila Megastore in Kamppi: 27.11 at 18:00
Categories
Happy Birthday, Suomi!
{mosimage}It's Finland's birthday! Today the country celebrates its declaration of independence from the Russian empire. It has not been an easy way down the road since 1917. One civil war, a war against the Soviet Union during World War II and a severe economical crisis at the beginning of the nineties before joining European Union have been the major obstacles in 90 years of sovereignty of the Republic of Finland. The recently released DVD Itsenäinen Suomi describes the most important events along this long road.
Nowadays Finland is a healthy country that enjoys an established welfare state system, ranks at the top of technology development and also at the top of the lists about education among youngsters. But how did it all begin? That's what Itsenäinen Suomi (Independent Finland) tells. By the way, don't be scare if you don't speak a word of Finnish, the dvd has English subtitles to reach a wider audience.
The documentary begins with a birth. At the same time as the parliament declares the independence of Finland, a baby is born in a house in the woods of Finland. She's Aino and her life, the life of an average working class Finn in the 20th century, will be told while history is being made for Finland.
Aino tells about the Civil War, about Paavo Nurmi and the mighty Finnish long distance runners who won so many medals at the Olympics, the "Lotta" nurses during the Second World War, the reconstruction of the country, the alcohol prohibition, the beggining of the electronics industry, the relations with the Soviet Union and the leftish opinions of the students in the sixties.
But this is not Forrest Gump. No fiction here. The film is based on archival footage. For a foreigner it will be very thrilling to see the White Army march through the streets of Helsinki or to see President Kekkonen establishing good relations with the Soviet Union or the old cable factory in Ruoholahti or lots of rubber boots being made by Nokia. All the typical Finnish symbols can be seen.
Itsenäinen Suomi was written by Antti Tuuri. It as a light tale, though. There are no deep political analyses or historical findings. But it is a nice introduction to the recent history of Finland. In spite of not being marketed for foreigners and tourist, this documentary would be appealing to those who cannot easily find images about Finland and its story. For Finns, it might not bring anything new, just a recognition of well known images and story from History class.
The rest of the extra funds for the film industry will go to, among other things, the digitalization of small countryside cinemas and films for children.
In the previous proposal there was no extra money allocated to support domestically produced films, despite earlier suggestions by Wallin.
The over 10 million euros extra to directly benefit cultural, youth work and sports activities were freed up from the National Lottery profits. In the earlier proposal much of that money was reserved to partly cover rental expenses, paying off loans of cultural bodies and renovations (including the renovation of the National Theatre).
Funds to cover those real estate expenses will now have to be found elsewhere.
The Parliament will likely vote on the proposal on Friday.
Related:
Finnish film producers in protest: no new films
Categories
Bitchin’ all over Europe
{mosimage}The Donnas may not be the correct daughters that every papa
dreams about, but surely they would be excellent partners for some wild
fiesta! They are at these moments touring around Europe with their new
album Bitchin’, and dedicated some time to answer the questions that
FREE! Magazine shot at them.
Power to the girls! Lately our website seems to have been overwhelmed with female rock bands (a dream comes true!!!). From the young new Finnish talents of Stalingrad Cowgirls or Pintandwefall, to the raw power of the British McQueen or the older generation still able to attract a big mass of fans in Sweden Rock like the American Vixen. But if we would have to talk about an American female rock band that is able nowadays to remove the foundations of the venues where they play, that would be undoubtedly The Donnas. We were lucky to contact the girls from Palo Alto while being on tour, and Allison (guitar player) and Brett (vocals) kindly openly chated about everything related to their past and present.
Was it difficult during your first years to study at high school and play at the same time? Could you have a normal attitude in the classrooms just after touring Japan, or the rock and roll lifestyle affects?
(Allison) No, we mostly focused on school the whole time we were in high school, we practiced a lot after school and played shows here and there, but mostly just high school shows with other bands from the school. We didn’t go on a full on tour until after high school, and our first trip overseas as a band was to Japan near the end of our final year, so at that point we were pretty much nearing the final days of school anyway!
How is the present tour going? Do you have time and energy to party between the gigs?
(Brett) The American leg of the Feather Nation tour was amazing and so fun and so far the European leg is proving to live up to the first half. We love the bands we’re touring with so that gives us something to look forward to watching every day, and the audiences are great so we look forward to playing too! Having a bus is the best because we have time to see some sights for once and have some great food and even… shop!
It seems like one of you had a not very nice incident with the police, because of drinking whiskey in the street, in Canada during your last American tour. Can you tell us a bit more about it?
(Allison) Yeah, our bass player was drinking on the bus and ran outside to sign something for a fan, unfortunately not realizing that it’s illegal to have alcohol on thestreets in Canada (and the US as well). The police rolled up and she resisted which enraged the officer, but luckily our smooth talking friend was able to get her out of trouble nicely!
In November, you were visiting some Scandinavian countries, but not Finland. Why? Didn´t anybody show interest in booking a gig?
(Brett) We actually LOVE Finland but there is a lot that goes into booking a tour besides where you’d like to play. The length of the tour, money, and the route the bus takes and whether the opening band can keep up in a van are all factors that a booking agent and tour manager has to consider.
I saw you a couple of years ago playing in Provinssirock here in Finland. Do you remember that concert? As far as I remembered, the feeling with the audience was great.
(Allison) Yes, it wasn’t so long ago! I enjoyed the show, it was rocking and sweaty!
There is a young Finnish female rock band called Stalingrad Cowgirls that is getting quite a big success lately. Have you heard anything about them?
(Brett) That’s a little off my radar, but I’d be interested to check them out! Maybe we could come and play in Finland with them!
{mosimage}Male rock bands usually have a lot of female "groupies" around. How is it among your fans, the Donnaholics, are there many male fans following you? Is there any special anecdote you can tell about this, male underwear thrown onto the stage or something like that?
(Allison) Haha yes, we do get male underwear thrown up on stage sometimes, boxers and briefs galore, even female underwear and bras! In Belgium and Germany we had two different flashers jumping onstage, and just recently in North Carolina a boy jumped onstage and started unzipping his pants. Our guitar tech clobbered him!
How does it feel that you can play Take it off in the Guitar Hero videogame? Have any of you played the videogame?
(Brett) It’s surreal! It’s really fun to play along and look at the characters and hear the funny fake track!
Tell us about your new album, Bitchin’. In what way is it different (or similar) to previous ones? Do you feel different from that teenager band that was rehearsing in a garage a decade ago?
(Allison) The funny thing is that this album is like a return to that feeling of being teenagers in our garage, because we had all the time in the world to work on it, just like back then. Once we graduated and signed onto Lookout! records and then Atlantic, we were just touring, recording, touring, non stop—no time for anything in between. Now is the first time we could just chill out with our ideas and bat them around like we used to when we were kids, and it greatly affected the outcome! It is much more fun because of that extra thought we put into it and we had a killer time making it!
Do you consider the 4 of you friends on and off the stage?
(Brett) We’re definitely friends first before we’re a band, that’s how we started and that’s always what’s most important. I feel sad for bands that aren’t really friends off stage, what do they do for the other 23 hours of the day? How do they handle sharing hotel rooms and sitting next to each other for 11 hours straight on international flights? How do they write fun songs with inside jokes that make them laugh every night? It seems like a bad life to me, but hey, I guess that’s not my problem! And I’m thankful for that!
Why that title: Bitchin´? Do you consider yourselves to have sometimes a "bad girl’s attitude"?
(Allison) Well we of course called it "bitchin’" cos that means "awesome" or "radical" and it’s very Californian. I think we prefer "bad ass attitude" to "bad girl’s attitude"!
The festival drawing the largest amount of visitors this year was the Maritime Festival in Kotka. An estimated 300,000 people visited the Tall Ship Races and other events in the port town 130 km east of Helsinki.
The festival with the biggest number of paying visitors (almost 65,000) was the Helsinki Festival. With 264,376 visitors in total, it was the second biggest Finnish festival overall in 2007.
TOP 10 BIGGEST FESTIVALS* – OVERALL
1. Kotka Maritime Festival – 300 000 visitors
2. Helsinki Festival – 264 376
3. Pori Jazz – 153 000
4. Kaustinen Folk Music Festival – 121 000
5. Tampere Theatre Festival – 76 000
6. World Village Festival, Helsinki – 70 000
7. Puistoblues, Järvenpää – 70 000
8. Savonlinna Opera Festival – 68 753
9. Provinssirock, Seinäjoki – 55 000
10. Imatra Big Band Festival – 52 000
*) Includes only festivals that are members of Finland Festivals
(Source: Finland Festivals)
TOP 10 FESTIVALS* – PAYING VISITORS
1. Helsinki Festival – 64 845 paying visitors
2. Savonlinna Opera Festival – 58 555
3. Pori Jazz – 58 000
4. Kaustinen Folk Music Festival – 41 000
5. Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival – 32 436
6. Orivesi Summer Festivals – 26 741
7. Art Centre Salmela, Mäntyharju – 26 000
8. Tampere Theatre Festival – 26 000
9. Provinssirock, Seinäjoki – 21 500
10. Kotka Maritime Festival – 20 000
*) Includes only festivals that are members of Finland Festivals
(Source: Finland Festivals)
The statistics given above are only based on the amounts of visitors of member festivals of Finland Festivals. Big events like the Tango Festival in Seinäjoki (104,390 visitors in 2007), the Raumanmeri Midsummer Festival (about 90,000) and Ruisrock in Turku (65,000) are not included.
Tango Festival, Seinäjoki
Obie Trice – Official website
Obie Trice – MySpace
{mosimage}Stan Lee (who makes a cameo again in this third part) and Steve Ditko created in 1962 a new superhero that after the past of decades has been even able to steal the love of many fans from other untouchable legendary characters like Batman or Superman. The name was Spider-man, and Sam Raimi took the responsibility to take his adventures into big screen.
{sidebar id=40}They usually say that third parts were never good, but Spider-Man 3 is a clear exception to the rule. Not only the best film of the trilogy, but in my opinion, the best comic adaptation from the last years. Raimi has caught all the spirit of the comic, the charming of a Peter Parker that can be very strong after his fragile appearance. But obviously one of the features that make Spider-Man 3 stand out is the new and visually shocking enemies: the raw power of Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and overall the most awaited and probably beloved evil guy of the whole Marvel comics sagas: Venom. Tobey Maguire shows once more that he is perfect for the role; when Peter Parker behaves good, people like him, but when he is bad you just have to love him. Kirsten Dunst as the red-haired Mary Jane exhales sensuality every time she talks or sings, and the new incorporation of Topher Grace adds a new fresh value to a film full of dualities, from Spider-Man himself and all the characters surrounding him, where not everything is just black and white and there is not absolutely evil or innocent behaviour; a great example to take with us for the real everyday life.
If you have the chance, pursue the Special Edition with a very interesting 2-disc format, a great design on the cover and some good extras, being specially interesting the one that explains the creation proccess of the character of Venom. If you like comics, cinema and action that will make you be literally stitched to your seat for a bit more than 2 hours, do not miss Spider-Man 3.
Participate in our competition and get the official Spider-Man 3 trolley bag. Click here!
Finnish Minister of Culture Stefan Wallin finds the decision a great honour for the City of Turku, for Finland and for Europe. “Turku is Finland’s oldest city, and a place from which culture originated and remains to this day. This is a great day for us all. It feels wonderful to be from Finland and, even more specifically, from Turku”, Wallin commented in Brussels.
Every year cities in two EU countries get the honour to carry the title of European Capital of Culture for one year, based on a system of rotation. This year’s European Capitals are the cities of Luxembourg and Sibiu (Romania).
Cultural capitals have been chosen since 1980. The cities are given the chance to showcase their cultural diversity and development and promote their cultural activities internationally.
The cities of Turku and Tallinn are planning close co-operation.
Celebration
On Tuesday (20.11) the City of Turku is organizing a big Turku On Fire celebration on the Aura River banks to thank the thousands of people who took part in the bidding process. From 6 p.m. there will be a big fire show with dozens of performers at the Theatre Bridge next to the Turku City Theatre.
The organizers are kindly asking the audience to gather on the western side of the river close to Pharmacy Museum and the Student Theatre.
Categories
Bringing theatre people together
{mosimage}Theatre lovers do not often have many opportunities to enjoy good plays in other languages than Finnish. The 4th International Baltic Circle Theatre Festival will bring temporarily a solution to the problem.
Finnish and foreign audiences have an excellent opportunity to discover artists from different places in Europe in the International Baltic Circle Theatre Festival, since one of the goals of the festival is to build a bridge for theatre lovers, companies and actors all over Europe.
The quality of the plays featured this year is really high. Latvian director Alvis Hermanis, who won the European Theatre Prize this year, will show his play Ice, an extraordinary tale focused on a sect that hunts for “living hearts”, a stage adaptation of the Russian author Vladimir Sorokin. Meanwhile, Belarusian group Free Theatre, that is also a European Theatre Prize winner, will perform three plays, one being a world premiere. The three performances are subtitled in English. Lithuania is also represented in the festival with the Theatre Laboratory Atviras Ratas, visiting with its play Open Circle, aimed at being an open forum for the young actors.
Not only Baltic groups come to the festival, but also many others with a great presence of Scandinavian ones. The Swedish Teater Terrier will perform its brand new performance Dallas, and the Norwegian Verk Produksjoner will bring on stage a work from the most famous Norwegian dramatist, Finn Iunker. All these plays are in English.
The Slovenian director Janez Janša will bring some polemic to the festival with his interactive movie DemoKino, dealing with topics like abortion, cloning, etc. The audience can vote in favour or against each topic and decide how the movie continues. This is a totally innovative concept, a “choose your own adventure” book idea turned into a film.
Apart from plays, the festival offers much more for those interested in the world of theatre. Jeff Johnson, an American theater scholar, will give an international theatre seminar where the present situation of theatre in Baltic countries and Finland will be discussed.
Performances
Ice
Jaunais
Rīgas Teātris (Latvia)
Directed by European Theatre Prize
winner Alvis Hermanis.
18-19.11 – 7 pm
Being Harold
Pinter
Free theater (Belarus)
The play is based on the text of Nobel prized author Harold
Pinter. The plot lines are held together by one central theme: the
problem of violence in its many diverse forms.
18.11 – 5 pm
Legends of
Childhood
Free Theater (Belarus)
The play is based on the personal stories of the
actors.
16.11 – 8 pm, world premiere
Generation
Jeans
Free Theater (Belarus)
A monologue about jeans, rock music and freedom.
17.11 – 7 pm
Ifigeneia
Verk Produksjoner (Norway)
Norwegian
dramatist Finn Lunker ponders the reasons for war in his adaptation
of Euripides’ classic.
17.11 – 7 pm
18.11
– 3 pm
Solesombra
Teatr
Akhe & Theatre Satire on Vasilyevsky Island (Russia)
A tender
and bitter story about the universal loneliness, the ideal of
happiness – and the impossibility of it.
21.11 – 7 pm
Open Circle
Atviras
Ratas (Lithuania)
The goal of the Open Circle’s young
Lithuanian actors is to talk straight theatre language abiding by the
rules of theatre.
21.11 – 7 pm
22.11 – 4 pm
Best of Dallas
Teater Terrier
(Sweden)
The greatest cliffhanger in television history will be
solved: Who Shot J.R.?
23-24.11 7 pm
I Do Not Speak of
Love Here
Teatr Cinema (Poland)
A visually formal and physical
study of loneliness.
16.11 – 6 pm
17.11 – 5 pm
Films
Demokino
Aksioma
/ Janez Janša (Slovenia)
DemoKino makes the audience interact giving answers to the questions of life.
21-23.11 – 7
pm
24.11 – 3 pm
Kinoteatr.doc (Russia)
Kinoteatr.doc presents five movies from its repertoire.
21-22.11 – 7 pm
Baltic Circle 2007: 16-24.11 IN HELSINKI
For more information and full schedule with the list of venues:
www.Q-teatteri.fi/baltic_circle
Nominated for the Finlandia prize 2007 are:
Kohti [‘Towards’] by Juha Itkonen
Det har varit kallt i Madrid [‘It’s been cold in Madrid’] by Agneta Ara
Romeo ja Julia [‘Romeo and Juliet‘] by Jari Järvelä
Lakanasiivet [‘(The) Bed sheet wings’] by Sirpa Kähkönen
Sakset [‘(The) Scissors’] by Laura Lindstedt
Toiset Kengät [‘The other shoes’] by Hannu Väisänen
Literature researcher Laura Lindstedt is the debutant on the short list. Hannu Väisänen is a well-known Finnish artist. Swedish-speaking Agneta Ara is a Finnish novelist and poet who earlier won the Runeberg Prize for literature. Sirpa Kähkönen is a novelist and translator who has written both books for children and young adults and historical novels.
Well-known Finnish writers Jari Järvela and Juha Itkonen have both been nominated for the Finlandia Prize before. Itkonen is also on the short list for the 2007 Finlandia Junior award (literature for children and young adults) for his book
Taikuri Into Kiemura.
The 3-person selection committee read a total of 94 works. The final receiver of the Finlandia Prize for fiction is this year chosen by cultural editor Kaisu Mikkola. The winner, who will also get a 26,000-euro award sum, will be announced on the 4th of December.
Related:
Nominations for Finlandia Junior award announced
Finlandia Prize – Wikipedia
The Board of Directors of the Finnish National Opera Foundation decided on the appointment on Wednesday (14.11), after it had proposed him for the job two weeks earlier. Also the personnel groups of the Finnish National Opera agreed unanimously with the nomination.
As Artistic Director, Greve will be responsible for the artistic planning and development of the classical ballet and modern dance programme of the FNB. He will also be in charge of the content and artistic policy of the Ballet.
The term of the current Artistic Director, Dinna Bjørn, ends at the end of July, 2008.
Related:
Danish dancer nominated for director post at National Ballet
Kenneth Greve in Etudes (Royal Danish Ballet) – DR1/YouTube
Interview with Kenneth Greve – Ballet-Dance Magazine (May, 2006)
Finnish National Ballet (at the Finnish National Opera)
Press release about the nomination of Greve – Finnish National Opera (31.10.2007)
Categories
Moving pictures experience
Every year, when it’s dark and cold,
the Avanto festival presents the most innovative tendencies in music
and visual arts. This year’s edition focus on films under the title
of International Free Cinema. The festival is held this weekend in
several venues around Helsinki.
{mosimage}
Like dancing to the rhythm of
free jazz, the moving pictures shown at the Avanto festival question
traditional ways of making and watching films. The festival has
invited two pioneers of experimental filmmaking: the Canadian artist
Michael Snow and the Austrian artist Peter Kubelka. Both will be in
Helsinki and present a retrospective of their essential works.
Last
year the festival paid tribute to the local experimental filmmaking.
This year’s programme turns to the neighboring countries and brings
some rarities of Swedish and Russian experimental cinema. Curated by
researcher John Sundholm, the series Närä ögat
features a wide selection of Swedish experimental films from the
1950s and 1960s. On the other hand, the series Stekliannoe pole shows
the most vanguardist filmmaking currently done in Russia, in a
programme curated by filmmaker Masha Godovannaya.
Avanto has
also room for more widely known films. The festival offers a unique
opportunity in Finland to watch Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, a
visual tour-de-force about the French football star, directed by
Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno.
The festival also
premieres Esko Lönnberg’s documentary Saturnus Reality, a film that portraits the Finnish band Circle, and the recording
sessions of the album Miljard, where the group has coined the new
genre of NWOFHM (The New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal) that can mean
“mean fragile atonal piano improvisation or catatonic one-note
walls of sound”.
The music side of the festival is
offered in co-operation with the Äänen Lumo and the
Potlatch clubs. The first was founded in 1995 to promote
electroacoustic and experimental music and sound art in Finland.
Within this framework, Avanto will feature the comeback gig of the
synthesiser pop band Organ, one of the pioneers of Finnish electronic
music, and from Japan, the noise band Pain Jerk. The atmospheric
bonfire organ music of the Swedish trio Tape will counterbalance the
noise experience.
The Potlatch club brings two British
and two Finnish acts to the stage that base their music on
improvisation to achieve different goals. Eddie Prévost and
Alan Wilkinson take free jazz as the starting point of their journey
while Volcano the Bear take their arsenal of instruments to create
“ritual out of absurd humour and free association”. Collective
Avarus and female band Kuupuu represent the new Finnish underground.
The Potlatch club will bring two British and two Finnish acts to
the stage. The four acts all base their music on improvisation, but
the results are wildly divergent. Eddie Prévost and
Alan Wilkinson take free jazz as the starting point for a
journey into the core of heat. With their arsenal of instruments,
Volcano the Bear creates a ritual out of absurd humour and
free association. The Finnish collective Avarus confounds the
audience with its concoction of spontaneous and energetic
improvisation, while Kuupuu investigates rich textures of tone
and timbre, representing the female power of the new Finnish
underground.
Avanto Festival
16-18.11.2007
Full programme:
www.avantofestival.com
{mosimage}Five years ago, Joe Strummer, the leader of The Clash, died unexpectedly aged 50, victim of an undiagnosed congenital heart disease. He descended to the hell of punk after the break-up of The Clash, but a few years before his death, Strummer had revamped his musical career embracing global sounds with his backing band The Mescaleros. The recently released documentary Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten accounts this fascinating journey.
In a bit less than two hours, the documentary narrates Strummer’s traveling childhood (after his father, a British foreign-service, was located in places such as Cairo, Mexico City and Bonn), his teenage years (marked by the suicide of his brother), his stardom with The Clash, the turbulent post-Clash years and his comeback to music with The Mescaleros. Starting with impressive footage of the singer laying the vocals of the classic White Riot, director (and old friend) Julien Temple portraits the life of Joe Strummer through archival footage and personal interviews. Temple planned those interviews around a campfire (one of Strummer’s favorites activities). Former Clash members (like Mick Jones and Topper Headon), close friends and celebrities such as Johnny Depp, John Cusack, Steve Buscemi and Bono share memories and celebrate the life of Joe Strummer.
The editing is innovative and makes the storytelling quick. All the material comes together thanks to the voice of Joe Strummer himself that appears to underline the facts or just to set the mood of the journey spinning some records and introducing songs on the BBC World Service’s radio show London Calling.
Obviously much is told about The Clash. The story of the band becomes the centerpiece of the film: the origins, the success, the fame, the break up. Those were years of youth for Strummer. Wild and outspoken, but at the same time avoiding confrontation while his band mates were fired in the latter days of the group.
{sidebar id=39}In 1986, after the failure of the album Cut the Crap, the singer disbanded The Clash. There Strummer started long rambling years of different projects of mild success, soundtracks, a tour with The Pogues, legal disputes with Sony Records and even appearances in several films, including Aki Kaurismäki’s I Hired a Contract Killer (1990) and Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train (1989).
Those were difficult years for Strummer, but they are also the time when one would have wanted Temple to spend more footage of his documentary. It’s the “lost decade”. The images of Joe, alone in the studio, trying to find the right vocals and trying to find himself are some of the most valuable in the two-hour film.
But like happy end of a movie, Joe Strummer found content and peace of mind. He did it in an expected manner, in campfires around hippies. The punk made peace with his enemies. New sounds, a world folk, seemed to revitalize the singer, who put together a new band of young and talented multi-instrumentalist. The Mescaleros recorded three albums in three years and took successfully Strummer back to the road.
Even a reunion of The Clash seemed possible when Mick Jones joined Strummer on stage and the Mescaleros played a benefit concert for striking fire fighters. It was the first time both played together since 1983.
However that was also the last time. Just one month later, three days before Christmas Joe Strummer passed away. The world lost its hippiest punk.
The Future is Unwritten is a moving testimony of genuine rocker that remained true to himself, true to the idea that music has the power to change the world. It’s just too bad the film is only two hours long.
Categories
Tell me why I DO like Mondays
Time ago, when I was working or
studying, Monday was (like i suppose for most of the people in the same
situation) the most hated day of the week.
Saturday was great and relaxed; on
Sunday I started to feel a particular stomach ache while assimilating the
connection again with the harsh reality and to feel the anxiety that the good
free time was over…and on Monday morning the same resignation to face a long
and monotonous week, until Thursday (…I am in Love), when the light at the end
of the tunnel was visible again.
But now, being unemployed in
Finland, I am looking forward Mondays with the same anxiety with which not a
long time ago I was waiting for Fridays. Monday is a great day: new job offers
in the recruiting websites, people answering emails and phonecalls at their
office, a new hope that the luck will be with me this time. And when Friday
comes…oh my god!, Finnish start not to answer emails, to leave early from their
jobs with their minds full of week end plans at the cottage or at the nearest
pub and my last hope of getting a job interview, a couple of lines that could make me feel like a worthy human being again, and not like a person whose profile is not suitable for the required position, fades away.
3 days of agony and desperation
until Monday comes and the cycle starts again. So I can only wait and pray to
get a job soon for starting to hate Mondays (like any other civilized human
being) again.