Northern Humour

Not, Like, North-of-England Humour
No, Conrad, he refers to the Scandinavian countries.  Norway and Finland specifically.
     You don't really picture happy jolly laughter when thinking of the mountain-ridden, snow-sodden, gin-marinated Northern latitudes of Europe, do you?  
     Ingmar Bergman I blame you!  Feted film-maker out of Sweden, he has pro-actively crafted how the rest of the world sees the Scands - black and white, arty, worthy and utterly, utterly miserable.
     Not tonight!  Tonight your humble scribe will attempt to overturn that stereotype.



Aki Kaurismaki
Aki is Finnish, and once described his camera style to Jonathan Ross as the result of usually having a hangover: "You don't push the camera around so much".  

Aki: typical pose No. 1

He is the auteur behind such comedy classics as "Ariel", "Leningrad Cowboys Go America" and "Take Care Of Your Scarf, Tatiana". He often works with his brother, Mika, and has an impressively long list of films to his credit, none of which have ever hit the mainstream, so you can seem impressive to your poseur friends by boldly stating ""Leningrad Cowboys Go America" is the funniest Scandinavian film ever made.*"

Aki: Typical Pose No. 2

     It's one of Conrad's favourite films and he can only agree with that.

Spare A Thought For The Swedes
Without going over to IMDB and putting into the Search box: "Swedish comedy", Conrad cannot think of any funny Swedish films.
     They might be out there, it's just I don't know of any.  Any Swedish visitors or readers that care to inform Conrad of such entities, please make yourself known to Reception and check in at "Hospitality: Non-dangerous" at the Mansion.
     Meanwhile, I have read a couple of detective novels by Sjowall and Wahloo - "The Missing Fire Engine" and "Locked Room".  They are Swedish authors, not merely mentioned at random.

Humour, Swedish style!

     Yes, they are police procedurals, and yes, they do deal with murder.  You might be forgiven for thinking this is pretty poor material to discover humour in, but you'd be wrong.  The characters, for one, are amusingly depicted: lazy, pompous, ineffectual or stupid, all those comedy tropes are here.  Then there are the farcical scenes - the police breaking into an unlocked apartment where the police dog attacks one of the search team and one member falls out of the window - not quite Laurel and Hardy, but getting there, getting there

Two distinctly grim-visaged policemen

Dead Snow/Dead Snow 2
The first of these films is more a straight-forward zombie movie.
      - if, that is, you regard Nazi zombies infesting the northern wastes of Norway as pretty much run-of-the-mill.

Also contains a "Making of"of interest to low-budget film-makers

     The second film, with a far bigger budget and cast, goes on to thoroughly explore and expand the boundaries of good taste - no, sorry, that should be bad taste - and features quite the sickest parade of bad taste scenes that your humble scribe has seen in a long time.  Funny, yes, except in a very macabre way.

One of the least-bloody scenes I can find to show you

     Only for those with a strong stomach and a very high "Tut Factor" toleration.

"Leningrad Cowboys Go America"
You might describe this as the Finnish equivalent of "The Blues Brothers" - a fictional band go on a road journey to - er - discover themselves make their fortune.  They supposedly set out from Leningrad - as you can tell from the name, made well before the failure and fall of Communism - to travel to the United States, where they are told the people will listen to any old rubbish.

 - almost anything

     They take with them their dead bass player, in whose coffin reside many hundreds of cans of beer**, trailed by their single fan, and end up in Mexico, where they end up having a hit record.

How can you not love them?

     And en route they discover a former Cowboy, the bass player comes back to life, and they meet Jim Jarmusch.

Sunbathing (obviously!)

"Trollhunter"
I know this film plays out as a thriller/horror genre entry, but you can't deny that the central conceit, that trolls are real, that the Norwegian government knows this and actively controls their behaviour and besides that, has a special class of civil servant who troll-culls - well, it is amusing.***

"Rare Exports"
I'm going to cheat here and simply copy-in the article from March, tee-hee!
"Rare Exports"
Conrad has been watching this Finnish horror-comedy* again, after having seen it when it first came out.  Hilarious! - well, the parts that aren't chillingly scary, that is.
      It is set in the wilds of Northern Finland, up against the Russian border, and the hero is Pietari, a small boy who can't be more than 10 yet who is trusted by his dad with a rifle**.  They live on an isolated farm, and anticipate the annual reindeer cull that provides them with meat and income for the rest of the year.

That's Pietari.  Teddy bear and rifle.

 Except this year a mysterious and feral somethings has slaughtered all the reindeer, somethings that came over the border from Russia, in the direction of the mysterious gigantic excavation atop the hill just over the border ...
     Pietari reads up on the frightening pagan background of Santa Claus - a primal, vengeful creature that tears naughty children to pieces.  On Christmas Eve, his friends have all vanished.  So have the village radiators - and a hairdryer.
     It does have a happy ending, but I shan't spill any more details.  Oh, except to say that the Finnish-Russian border is demarcated by a rather flimsy chain fence.  Given that every Finn in the film carries at least one rifle, the Russians were well-advised to keep away.

Pretty much our Code of Conduct here at BOOJUM!
(Except for the "No Drinking" bit)

* It's also true.** Them Finns like a drink or ten.
*** It IS amusing!  So there!