hidden treasure helsinki

Matti Pellonpää - the soul of Finnish actors

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If you want to discover Finnish actors, I recommend you to watch carefully Aki & Mika Kaurismäki's movies. From my point of view you can pick up some of the best actors and actresses in Finland from these movies. One of my all time favorite is : Matti "Peltsi" Pellonpää. From him a man can't get much more charismatic. 

 

Pellonpää has it all: the voice, acting skills, life experience - which is probably important if you are acting in some of the Kaurismäki's movies, because the movies are about ordinary life. As a person Peltsi must have been very good on making perceptions, because especially Aki Kaurismäki's movies are all about perceptions Aki has made.

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Peltsi was not actually only an actor - he did also music, spoke in the radio programs, been scripting and directing short docs and long movies, studying both theatre, film and movies in the best academies/universities in Finland in these subjects. 

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But it hasn't been that shiny all the time: Pellonpää applied four times to the Theatre Academy in Helsinki until he got in, during this time he was working like ordinary working class were: in sausage factory as a packer, as a seller, in the tax office...

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Sounds like anyone's life in Finland, before success most of people have done the same. 

 

Peltsi was very clever on finding utterance for any situation, some like: 

 

"Hurrah for me, anarchy and alcohol, and mutilated, but deep relationships." 

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"In love I follow the lines of: the movement is important, not the goal. A person who knows where he/she's going to end is doomed to fail, or at least a member of the Social Democratic Party. And the one who's not romantic can become an MP."

"Life must be taken seriously, so it could be a laugh."

 

Matti died at the age of 44 in 1995. He said before his death: "You have to hop in the train, because you never know if it is your last one". Maybe this was his secret to manage so well as an actor as well.

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I think Peltsi is very good example of the kind of person who has worked his way to the top. He didn't grow up in a family where the parents were already famous, Peltsi earned his fame himself. He made his dreams come true. American dream - kind of - this fame didn't include money - it was more about making it possible to work in field he loved. It's better than money. I mean, he could have worked in sausage factory for rest of his life (or that short life he had) and have acting as his hobby, but he could make his hobby his career. 

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You'll find Peltsi from these Aki Kaurismäki's movies:

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 "Shadows in the paradise", "Calamari Union", "Rocky VI", "Ariel", "La Vie De Boheme"...

Mika Kaurismäki's "Zombie and the Ghost Train", "Cha Cha Cha", "Arvottomat"....

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It's hard to explain his magic - watch his movies!

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Hot tip!

Visit Corona bar to get some vibes of Aki Kaurismäki and Matti Pellonpää