Movies Hannele Lauri plays an aging shock goddess, but can’t sing herself – This is how Seija Kuula’s character was created, with Lea Laven as the voice

Hannele Lauri no Sing. Despite this, he plays percussionist Seija Kuula Johanna Vuoksenmaan directed and screened in the film 70 is just a number.

“Johanna said‘ I haven’t thought of anyone else for this, ’” Lauri said in December while sitting on the sinking red bench at the Maxim Cinema. “I was quite taken, but I said there’s only one problem with that: I can’t sing.”

Lauri laughs, with his familiar hoarse voice. “Johanna said it’s not a problem.”

“When I invented the character of Seija Kuula, it didn’t take many days before Hannele Lauri grabbed a place in the script,” Vuoksenmaa confirmed on the phone in December.

Originally the film was due to premiere on 6 January 2020, but was repeatedly postponed due to the due to the operating restrictions of cinemas.

The nationwide premiere of the long-awaited comedy on Wednesday, December 29, also did not materialize as cinemas were ordered to close again. However, the film premiered in stages and was seen on December 29 in the locations where cinemas remained open.

Now, starting February 25, 70 is just a number will finally be available for theatrical distribution in Helsinki, for example.

Read more: The percussion comedy starring Hannele Lauri will have to be postponed just before the premiere, once again – “Black Christmas is coming to the industry”

Read more: 70 is the only number to be premiered all over Finland

Although Hannele Lauri is not a singer, Seija’s stage performance is herself, the actress assures. Performing Seija is credibly expressive, like most older percussionists, she doesn’t move much on stage but focuses on contacting her audience with gazes and hand movements.

“I didn’t imitate anyone. I thought Seijan should sing like this, behave like that on stage. ”

Hannele Lauri really surrendered to her character, Vuoksenmaa praises. This is the first time in Lauri’s career that she has played the only lead role in a full-length film.

The character was carefully constructed, as was the Finnish music world around it. The film is seen in cameo roles as well Paula Vesala that Lauri Tähkäand Eppu Normal is familiar Juha Torvinen makes his first actual film role as Seija’s manager.

Seija Kuula’s vocal parts in the film are sung Lea Laven. Find a suitable voice together with the composer, the musician Esa Nieminen with whose expertise he praises.

“We had Hannan [Lauri] a sample of speech, and Esa went to rehearse different singers. We compared their voices and ended up with Lea Laven, who played Hanna’s voice the best. ”

In addition, a separate discography was created for Seija for the props of the film, and Vuoksenmaa himself photographed posters describing the different stages of the singer’s star’s career.

The director has shared images on social media of background materials such as Seija Kuula’s gold record:

70 is just a number is the final part of the Vuoksenmaa “pain point of adult life” trilogy, the previous parts of which 21 ways to ruin a marriage and A week to adulthoodwere successes in terms of viewership. 21 ways to ruin a marriage was the most watched movie of 2013 and garnered over 400,000 viewers. A week to adulthood did not rise to similar figures, but still gathered more than 100,000 viewers.

In the movie Seija is a “love star” of the entire nation, soon to be 70 years old, suffering from loneliness and fear of aging.

Seija’s fear of old age is portrayed in the film in both comic and tragic light. In the film, “the elderly” live in a rehabilitation home in Virkkulinna, which in Seija’s eyes looks like a hell’s pre-mansion.

Old age is a contagious disease for Seija, although manager Klaus Granholm (Juha Torvinen) tries to pat him to deal with his aging in both his music and interviews.

Vuoksenmaa worked soon after high school in a nursing home in Pori and Hämeenlinna. Since then, he has been plagued by bundling people based on some external factor such as age, skin color, or gender.

“I wanted to make a film that would deal with age and aging. Where one could try to make visible how valuable it would be for everyone to be able to live a life that looks like themselves at any stage. ”

In the film’s poster, Seija is a glittering goddess in her glittering sequin dress.

“This film isn’t just glitter, and it’s black great,” says Hannele Lauri. “Through comedy, you can tell even difficult things, it doesn’t have to be any laughter.”

“I think comedy makes it easier to breathe and receive things,” explains Johanna Vuoksenmaa. “When your mouth is smiling and a little cracked, things go in easier.”

Seijan tragedy is a shiny shell behind which he does not easily get anyone, and so-called friends are just good-natured. 70 is just a number begins with a scene in which Seija invites her “good friend” Paula Vesala to the stage, which she says she has met Only life in the program descriptions.

At first, the audience, who cheered Seija’s name, goes wild about Vesala, who plays the cameo role, and the injured irritation flashes on Seija’s face. After the gig, it also turns out that Seija doesn’t even know about her “friend” that she has a child.

“Sometimes Seia felt sorry for Mua, and sometimes she laughed. She lives in her own bubble and considers herself a goddess, ”says Hannele Lauri.

The bubble crumbles when Seija falls in love with Lauri, who is thirty years younger (Mikko Nousiainen). Presenting a couple in love with Mikko Nousiainen was very easy, Hannele Lauri says.

“What was that love scene like?” Lauri asks. She herself hasn’t seen the film herself at the time of the interview, but she is still laughed at by the remarks of the love scene.

As much, if not more, than the romantic love in the film, the love for friends grows when Seija rediscovers the best friend of her youth, Mirjana (Marja Packalén), who is the mother of the beloved Lauri. Follow the misunderstandings and quarrels, but in the end, love wins, in many ways.

“I want to see it that way, and I tried to do it so that even at that age you can grow as a person, learn to love,” says Hannele Lauri.

The whole people In the film about the singer she loves, the music of Finnish female artists plays a big role, and several of the songs are loosely related to age and aging.

Vuoksenmaa wants to remind how much different music music can give to its listeners.

“Finnish music has been really important to me,” says Vuoksenmaa. “There are really a lot of people who get support and comfort, compassion and emotional boost from music and lyrics.”

“As Seija herself says: I am a friend of my audience, a Therapist, a Beloved and a God.”

70 is just a number in Helsinki’s cinemas on 25 February. since.

Read more: For the first time in her career, Hannele Lauri will play the only main role in a full-length film – Johanna Vuoksenmaa’s novelty is a tribute to Finnish female artists