Happier times, Grump (Ilosia aikoja, Mielensäpahoittaja)

Once there were greenfields kissed by the sun

Once there were valleys where rivers used to run

Once there were was blue sky with white clouds high above

Once they were part of an everlasting love

We were the lovers who strolled through greenfields

Life is a fine journey.

Shall I call you a taxi?

I came in the Escort, I'll leave in the Escort.

Call the police if you feel like it.

HAPPIER TIMES, GRUMP

Directed by Tiina Lymi

Kolehmainen!

These sure will last you 'til July.

60 ahead, eat.

Boil in the evening, fry in the morn.

But why?

Why won't you eat them?

I intend to die.

Everything is clear...

My love.

Ford? No GPS? I reserved a fully equipped...

- Nice to be in Finland. - Don't you know your way home?

Belgium is home, It's a matter of principle for dad.

What now then? A paper map? Stupid country.

Dad, go and check the gate for mother's plane.

Thanks, we'll take the car.

There are no boards here!

39.80. In Brussels it'd get you oysters and a bottle of wine.

No.

- What now? - Mother's plane is 90 minutes late.

Of course it is. Small wonder.

Think about it: Helsinki-Vantaa. In a crap country.

Your airport is now JFK.

When will Grandma's funeral service begin?

At two, You got 90 minutes to study.

Woo-hoe!

That's an interesting point.

That one, underline it.

Immaterial rights. A good thing for you to master.

You might question them,

Hi! Darling. How are you?

A god-awful country. When I reserve a car with GPS -

I expect to get one with GPS,

That's stressing you most?

- Sofia darling! - Mother.

We haven't seen for so long. I've been traveling so much.

Oh?

- Ladies! Let's go. - Missed you so much.

Quick action now. A change of clothes,

a small salad, coffee, what have you.

Liverwurst! Jesus Christ!

Finnish gourmet food.

Pants are liverwurst-hued. Faces are liverwurst-colored.

But it's the same as paté.

Liverwurst and paté, the same thing?

Sofia understands.

She's not liverwurst people. We are paté people.

- Butter eye buns! - Wonderful. Don't use your hands.

Can't I just get a summer job at the ABC?

You can only get these in Finland.

Can't see Sofia baking frozen ABC buns.

Honey. Next time you deal with that dump

you'll redesign their concept, change operational management,

and charge them 70,000 plus VAT for it. Right, Katri?

Give me a bun, too,

Sofia and the grated food buffet,

Roll it.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

And the idea of continuity touched me

right by this source of Mother's spiritual heritage.

It's like this: The Church is essential as an institution.

Especially at these breaking points of human life.

Yes. Hertta was a fine laborer and a mother.

Hers was the life of a smallholder

where life and death went hand in hand.

Mother was quite firmly a woman of her era.

Emancipation never quite reached Father's yard.

- I see. Scorn. - Pekka didn't mean that, Father.

- Pekka meant exactly that. - Here goes.

Sure had a tractor in the yard.

And I bought a Siemens. For her 60th birthday.

- A dishwasher. - Right.

No, Father. Women don't have to

crawl in potato fields any more, or milk the cows at five.

Sauna's not the only high point of the week.

I miss Mother.

Sofia, Princeton, really?

That's fabulous. They don't take too many people.

Guess how many applied? 18,000.

Guess how many got in? A hundred.

How many of the Princeton alumni have got the Nobel Prize?

Eight. Famous Princeton graduates: Obama.

Wilson, Fitzgerald. Our Sofia, Steve Forbes.

The list goes on.

Ahtisaari got one although he'd let himself go fat.

So the girl should get a Noble. That's hard work.

Nice of you to be concerned. You've been so interested.

Did you have to?

What did I do? This is how they talk in Finland.

Just let it go, honey.

It is customary to say something.

I said to the Missus before... Before she died.

So many things you can't get back.

Like a back with no pain,

long-distance running success and a life together.

And the circular saw Kolehmainen borrowed. Return it.

You'll get your saw. Tomorrow, if you want.

I return to my speech.

It sure ruined my day when sorrow moved in.

You remember things.

The Missus insisted on a wedding waltz.

I sure don't dance. I had to.

Or our union will be a short one, she said.

My son Hessu. And Pekka.

For a time you learned the ways of man in my house.

You left.

The walls grew quiet.

The Missus went to the kitchen to do the dishes.

To cry.

I turned up the volume on the TV.

The Missus wanted us to talk together.

I was happy to be silent together.

That's it. At my funeral, coffee and mineral water will be enough.

I'll make the coffin myself.

That's the speech. There are the cakes.

Reminisce. I will go and die.

Insufferable man.

He's really making a coffin. He's got frontal lobe dementia.

I miss Mother.

There has to be a disposal site for someone like him.

You're being so wonderfully sensitive, darling.

- Salut. - What did I do now?

Emotions are like this in Finland.

- Right, Father, we're going. - Goodbye.

Father. Killing yourself

will be very traumatic for us.

If you put a bullet in your head or play the human yo-yo

we'll be guilty of negligence when we now leave.

Sure ain't a self-killer.

A messy affair.

How did you plan to die?

In the sauna. Our family dies in the sauna.

You take your antihypertensives?

I got pump meters in the house.

Checked myself. Fine figures, high ones.

Want to know what you got? Frontal lobe dementia.

- Really great. - Hessu, for real.

How about October 17th? A good day to kick the bucket?

- Shall I mark it down? - Do that.

There. Father dies, location: his sauna.

Thanks for a swell party, so nice to meet again.

It's his decision...

- Father, I'll call you on the weekend. - I won't!

Pekka.

Did you have to?

On Mother's funeral day.

Washing machine in the yard.

- I'll find a disposal site for him. - A nursing home, you mean.

This went really fine again for a change.

Hertta,

let's talk about this.

Sure hasn't been an easy day.

Sixty years together with the Missus.

It's hard to see where to step.

Sure ain't grief water in my eye.

You mean what?

Helsinki Business Forum. A very important event.

Avoid these: drunks, con men, Finns.

You'll just catch the diabetes and gap year gabbing.

Network with the Yanks.

They're irritating but you'll get used to them fast.

Oh Sofia. The most important years of your life.

Look at me.

I just want you to have a totally different start than I did.

Here's a debit card for you. Use it wisely.

- Thanks. - Honey. Hug.

Let's message.

Let's go, darling, we have to take are of the old man's disposal site.

And the meetings, and all that.

- Bye. - Bye.

Intercity train 50 from Tampere to Helsinki will arrive on platform two.

The attic room, 17.4.1954,

My love. You said you don't use words like those.

- What you reading? - What? You sure mustn't scare people.

Grandpa darling. Wonderful to see you again.

Never use big words lightly,

You can have feelings when you know someone. We don't.

- I'm staying here. - You sure aren't!

Someone must take care of you.

Listen! Always taken care of myself.

But you need help. I can sleep upstairs.

Girl!

Just great! Is the sauna on? Sweet! Women's round!

Boyakah!

I remember that bucket, and the beating branches.

So cool!

A pail and a birch-switch and you can move on, girl.

I'll be dead in two months. This is no inn.

But I'm here now. I've really missed you.