Life Mon Dieu!
posted by on November 1 at 14:15 PM
Years ago I worked at the Egyptian theater, mainly during the busy Seattle International Film Festival—just one of many popcorn jockeys earning minimum wage picking up trash and tearing tickets. One of the few perks of the Festival, at least back then, was the amount of downtime we behind the concession stand would have for chess playing, book reading, and, on many an occasion, booze drinking.
One year, SIFF held a special retrospective of French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier. During the screening of his (then) latest film—I believe it was Capitaine Conan—Tavernier, himself no slouch with the bottle, came out to the concession stand in search of a drink. One was poured for him, then another, then another. Finally, as his film was nearing its end and Tavernier would soon be asked to take the stage for questions from the audience, one last drink was offered to him. His response: “My God! You drink more than the Finns!ā€¯
At the time, Tavernier’s quip seemed a little strange. Why the Finns? Were the Finns, and not the Irish, the traditional “lushesā€¯ of Europe? Was drinking so out of control in Finland that a common joke was that one “drank more than the Finnsā€¯?
The answer, if this BBC report is any indication, appears to be oui:
Alcohol has become the leading cause of death in Finland for men, and is a close second for women, a study says.Figures for 2005 released by the state statistics agency showed alcohol killed more people aged 15 to 64 than cardiovascular disease or cancer.
Almost as many women died of alcohol-related causes as breast cancer last year.
Well, at SIFF I've run into many a noted actor, director, or artiste who decided to take a smoke break - another deathly addiction - and ended up having a nice chat with them. It's one of the fun things about the fest.
I assumed he was talking about Jason Finn. That's his nickname: "The Finnz," or Finnzie.
I knew some finns in college. They really are a bunch of lushes. A lot of it has to do with how depressing it is to live in Finland during the winter.
It's fucking freezing and dark all of the time.
just because it's a cool story
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