The wide and strained smile

Interview with Finnish-born Ami Lindholm, whose animated short film The Irresistible Smile is available on the dvd Funny Films of the North.

In the Finnish director Ami Lindholm’s animated short film The Irresistible Smile a flight attendant tries to please all the demanding and difficult passengers. Her smile is wide no matter how unreasonable the passengers behave.

 

But the smile is just the facade of a service assistant and the smile is contrived, literally.

 

The Irresistible Smile is the first of three films that Lindholm had to make as a part of her education at Turku Arts Academy. The film is available on the DVD Funny Films of the North, which Rushprint has made in cooperation with three other Nordic film magazines.

AN EXTRA TWIST

– Ami Lindholm, how did you come up with the idea for the film, and under what circumstances did it come into being?

– It all started from the smile. I had many script ideas about a removable smile. Many of them were sad stories, but after many scripts it turned out to be a comedy. When the basic idea was clear I thought of different scenarios, from a hospital to a gas station. The fact that the story takes place 1000 meters above sea level with no outside help available gives it an extra twist.

 

– Are you inspired by any specific artists or works?

– I was inspired by Russian Konstantin Bronzit’s animation At the Ends of the Earth, in which a house on the top of a hill swings back and forth as the people inside move. I was inspired by the rhythm of the film and it’s very funny. Another important director when I made the film was Dutch Michael Dudok de Wit. His films The Monk and the Fish and Father and Daughter are told without words, but with so much emotion that I always start crying when I watch them.

 

THE SEAT IS A FIREPLACE

– In what way are you using humour in The Irresistible Smile?

– The film is a chain of funny events and characters. At first they are just a little bit funny, but as the film goes on they get funnier and weirder. Rhythm is important. In the beginning, it’s slower and as the film goes on more things get repeated and happen at the same time. At first you have to define the level of normality otherwise the funny stuff won’t be funny.

 

– A lot of set-ups and payoffs I planned backwards. If I want the door open, who could open it? What if an old lady is looking for a toilet and accidentally opens the wrong door? Why would she look for the toilet? Because her glass is filled up constantly and then she gets drunk.

 

– There is a lot of humour in the animation. It’s fun to come up with the characters’ movements. I tried to be economical in the animation. For instance regarding the chain smoker, I decided that the cigarette lights itself as it goes to the mouth, and that saved me about 25 frames each time and it looks funny.

 

-Also it’s funny that anything can happen. The back of a seat can be a fireplace and a suitcase can be full of cats. And of course the ending has to be funny, everybody is smiling but the plane is dropping with speed.

 

– What can one achieve with comedy that the tragedy is not capable of?

– Comedy is the sugar that makes the medicine go down. People are laughing and they don’t notice that I’m telling them something serious until it’s too late. I’m not a big fan of just ha-ha comedy. There should be something important to tell whether it’s told by the means of comedy or tragedy.

 

– Often, people expect animations to be funny. If the film is serious and sentimental, unprepared spectators can get overwhelmed. You can also take advantage of that. The saddest film ever is the Japanese animation Grave of the Fireflies. It’s like a slap in the face, the story is so sad and cruel. Crying and laughing at the same time is the best.

 

– What reactions do you wish to provoke in the audience with The Irresistible Smile?

– Laughter and fear of flying. And after the laughs they might start thinking what’s behind the story. If you try to smile all the time, even if you feel like hell, you end up in a disaster. If you don’t tell how you really feel, people will behave like everything is okay. Also, people especially in customer service could relate to the flight attendant’s smile, it’s like a uniform you put on in the morning and take off in the afternoon.

– What projects are you currently working on?

– As usual, I have many projects going on at the same time. I’m making an animated journal to a museum, murals for a hospital, illustrations, trying to get funding for my next short film, and the most important project at the moment is raising my six-months-year-old baby.

– What do you think of the current state of Finnish film, especially regarding animation?

– It’s going great, many talented artists and animators, many companies, many films of very good quality. The only bad thing is the disastrous situation in Finnish National TV (YLE). They can hardly fund any films at the moment.
 

By Mads Suldrup and Thomas S. Sejersen / Filmmagasinet Ekko


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The wide and strained smile

Interview with Finnish-born Ami Lindholm, whose animated short film The Irresistible Smile is available on the dvd Funny Films of the North.

In the Finnish director Ami Lindholm’s animated short film The Irresistible Smile a flight attendant tries to please all the demanding and difficult passengers. Her smile is wide no matter how unreasonable the passengers behave.

 

But the smile is just the facade of a service assistant and the smile is contrived, literally.

 

The Irresistible Smile is the first of three films that Lindholm had to make as a part of her education at Turku Arts Academy. The film is available on the DVD Funny Films of the North, which Rushprint has made in cooperation with three other Nordic film magazines.

AN EXTRA TWIST

– Ami Lindholm, how did you come up with the idea for the film, and under what circumstances did it come into being?

– It all started from the smile. I had many script ideas about a removable smile. Many of them were sad stories, but after many scripts it turned out to be a comedy. When the basic idea was clear I thought of different scenarios, from a hospital to a gas station. The fact that the story takes place 1000 meters above sea level with no outside help available gives it an extra twist.

 

– Are you inspired by any specific artists or works?

– I was inspired by Russian Konstantin Bronzit’s animation At the Ends of the Earth, in which a house on the top of a hill swings back and forth as the people inside move. I was inspired by the rhythm of the film and it’s very funny. Another important director when I made the film was Dutch Michael Dudok de Wit. His films The Monk and the Fish and Father and Daughter are told without words, but with so much emotion that I always start crying when I watch them.

 

THE SEAT IS A FIREPLACE

– In what way are you using humour in The Irresistible Smile?

– The film is a chain of funny events and characters. At first they are just a little bit funny, but as the film goes on they get funnier and weirder. Rhythm is important. In the beginning, it’s slower and as the film goes on more things get repeated and happen at the same time. At first you have to define the level of normality otherwise the funny stuff won’t be funny.

 

– A lot of set-ups and payoffs I planned backwards. If I want the door open, who could open it? What if an old lady is looking for a toilet and accidentally opens the wrong door? Why would she look for the toilet? Because her glass is filled up constantly and then she gets drunk.

 

– There is a lot of humour in the animation. It’s fun to come up with the characters’ movements. I tried to be economical in the animation. For instance regarding the chain smoker, I decided that the cigarette lights itself as it goes to the mouth, and that saved me about 25 frames each time and it looks funny.

 

-Also it’s funny that anything can happen. The back of a seat can be a fireplace and a suitcase can be full of cats. And of course the ending has to be funny, everybody is smiling but the plane is dropping with speed.

 

– What can one achieve with comedy that the tragedy is not capable of?

– Comedy is the sugar that makes the medicine go down. People are laughing and they don’t notice that I’m telling them something serious until it’s too late. I’m not a big fan of just ha-ha comedy. There should be something important to tell whether it’s told by the means of comedy or tragedy.

 

– Often, people expect animations to be funny. If the film is serious and sentimental, unprepared spectators can get overwhelmed. You can also take advantage of that. The saddest film ever is the Japanese animation Grave of the Fireflies. It’s like a slap in the face, the story is so sad and cruel. Crying and laughing at the same time is the best.

 

– What reactions do you wish to provoke in the audience with The Irresistible Smile?

– Laughter and fear of flying. And after the laughs they might start thinking what’s behind the story. If you try to smile all the time, even if you feel like hell, you end up in a disaster. If you don’t tell how you really feel, people will behave like everything is okay. Also, people especially in customer service could relate to the flight attendant’s smile, it’s like a uniform you put on in the morning and take off in the afternoon.

– What projects are you currently working on?

– As usual, I have many projects going on at the same time. I’m making an animated journal to a museum, murals for a hospital, illustrations, trying to get funding for my next short film, and the most important project at the moment is raising my six-months-year-old baby.

– What do you think of the current state of Finnish film, especially regarding animation?

– It’s going great, many talented artists and animators, many companies, many films of very good quality. The only bad thing is the disastrous situation in Finnish National TV (YLE). They can hardly fund any films at the moment.
 

By Mads Suldrup and Thomas S. Sejersen / Filmmagasinet Ekko


Les intervjuer med de andre kortfilmskaperne

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