Finnish VHS cover for Jaws
(courtesy of FIx Gallery)
A provincial town somewhere in Finland, late 1975.
Three boys in their early teens admiring a towering, monstrous presence that had appeared in a display window of a local cinema. In a large poster, a tiny female swimmer was blissfully unaware of the toothed iceberg of a shark approaching from beneath. Since that jaw-dropping, awesome sight, "JAWS" became an object of feverish anticipation for the prepubescent trio that was us.
In those days you had to wait weeks after the national premiere before the film made its way into provinces, so the poster stood there for quite a while for us to admire. When the local premiere was finally announced, we decided not to take any chances with the big event.
Seasoned in childhood sleuthing, we looked up the address of the cinema owner in a telephone book and hopped on our chopper bikes. Arriving at the house, we knocked on the door and politely asked the surprised cinema owner if we could reserve three tickets for the premiere.
Visibly amused, the owner played along and asked us to meet him right away at the Kino. We hopped again on our bikes to make the short trip to the cinema where the owner was already waiting for us. Not only did the he sell us the tickets but allowed us also to enter the dormant movie theatre and pick and choose the best numbered seats in the hall.
Jaws the movie lived up to all our expectations and more, and the royal treatment we were given added an extra dimension to the experience. For me, that particular screening was the crucial moment of a lifelong love affair with movies – a love affair which later in life turned into a profession as well.
Arto
Helsinki Base
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