No. 61 (2021) GAMES PEOPLE PLAY (SEURAPELI) Palace; Scandinavian Film Festival JULY 27th.

 

Film No. 61 (2021)  July 27th.  6:30 PM   Cinema 1   LUNA,  Leederville. 

"A comedy about the tragedy of being forever young." (Promo tag selling this Scandi film to an English speaking market).

Did THE BIG CHILL (1983) start the 'Friends Reuniting' genre in contemporary cinema? No, Australian film Don's Party (1976) came before, but CHILL made the style famous.  Done well it is social drama fuelled by alcohol, reflection, lost love, sex, regrets and 'such as life' resolutions familiar to us all. SEURAPELI brings a Finnish take on the genre. 

Eight friends gather at an idyllic seaside villa to celebrate Mitzi's (Emma Parviainen) birthday. It's high Summer, so the long weekend has endless brightness, typical of the Scandinavian weather  around the time of a midnight sun. These hip thirty somethings take us on an alcohol fuelled ride into their past. Six characters, family, friends, and two outsiders.

Mitzi is temperamentally unpredictable, the gathering is partly a surprise. Her best friend and wanna-be high flyer  Veronika (Laura Birn) generally gets what she wants and flies in (sea-plane) with her actor boyfriend Mikael (Christian Hillborg). Gradually the past for each of the others is revealed and analysed with forensic detail depending on which alcoholic mixture fuels the thoughts of the protagonists.

Was SEURAPELI (Finland 2020) a post ANOTHER ROUND (Denmark 2019) where we gain further insight into the Scandinavian drinking culture? Or does it explore the frailties of the human condition and regrets related to either past loves and / or career choices. 

We watched this with friends. It's a good flick to watch with friends. For us the discussion revolved around who of the eight we most saw through, or conversely related to. We are in our sixties, we were frivolous in our discussion. Thirty/Forty somethings may be more serious with their interpretations considering their stage of life. The promo tag that this is a comedy about the tragedy of being forever young sits well here.  9GUMS.