Pähkähullu Suomi

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Pähkähullu Suomi
DVD cover
Directed by	Jukka Virtanen
Produced by	Spede Pasanen
Written by	Spede Pasanen, Ere Kokkonen, Jukka Virtanen
Starring	Spede Pasanen, Simo Salminen, Esko Salminen, Leo Jokela
Distributed by	Filmituotanto Spede Pasanen Ky
Release date(s)	1967
Running time	1 h 24 min
Language	Finnish
IMDb profile

Pähkähullu Suomi (Insane Finland) is a 1967 comedy by Spede Pasanen. It is occasionally cited as one of the best sources for his abstract sense of humour since the film has very little in the sense of plot and is more of a montage of various events. Some critics tend to call the film a "feature-length travel advertisement of Finland" rather than a movie due to the fact that the main-characters manage to effectively cover every Finnish tourist-trap in the duration of the film. Co-incidentally the film was released on the year of the 50th anniversary of the Finnish declaration of independence.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the film the son of a wealthy hair-creme tycoon, William Njurmi (Pasanen), becomes lost during his trip to Finland and is replaced by his personal stand-in, a stereotypical Italian mobster named Luigi (Esko Salminen) who is enthralled by the fact that he is allowed to impersonate the missing millionaire. On his travels Njurmi runs in to an inventor living in the woods (played by Spede's typical partner-in-crime, Simo Salminen) named Simo. After Njurmi is almost forced to marry a farm-girl by her redneck in-laws he is saved by Simo after which the pair steal a car and start a tour of country effectively covering every tourist-location in Finland.

Meanwhile Luigi is constantly harassed by the Finnish Commerce Council who are trying to get a sizable donation often pleading pitifully. Eventually Luigi gives them a check but not before he has seen traditional Finnish winter-sports (in spite of the fact that it's the middle of June) and even arranges a demonstration of the Finnish Armed Forces. Eventually Luigi is caught double-timing by his wife effectively terminating his role from the rest of the film.

The film itself ends with Will and Simo being chased by a pair of agents, after which Njurmi decides to marry a Finnish girl and settle down as wealthless nobody, after which Simo breaks the fourth wall by talking to the narrator asking "What the heck is going on?" He is then given a very brief and somewhat inaccurate explanation of the plot. Simo however seems to have no troubles understanding and after saving Luigi's girl from the swimming pool the following dialogue ensues:

Simo: Let's go.
Girl: Where?
Simo: To get married of course.

The movie ends with Simo winking at the camera as the frame freezes and the words "Happy End" appear on screen.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] The comedy

The comedy of the film is not based so much around gags and joke build-up, but in Spede's specific style on the over-explanation of things. The movie also displays a (for the time) high use of special-effects and linguistic jokes. The name of the protagonist "Njurmi" is a corrupted form of a real Finnish surname (Nurmi = grass) which is spelled in accordance to how most English-speaking people (particularly Americans) typically pronounce the name. Also one short scene is particularly famous for its mixed language value:

Njurmi: "Let's go!"
Simo: "Mitä?" (What?)
Njurmi: "Mennään!" (Let's go!)
Simo: "Mennään, mennään, mutta kerro ensin mitä se "let's go" tarkoittaa. (Let's go, let's go, but first tell me what "let's go" means)

Many parts of the film are made up of skits which continually break the fourth wall. At one point the narrator freezes a secondary character in order to use him at a proper moment during the film. The skit which ensues has three characters arguing what is the appropariate dance for a summer-dance (an event inside the film) and during the argument the costumes and dance-styles change with each argument (from Tango and Boogie to Folk-dance).

Also many sections of the film are build in montage form.

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