007 Travelers interview: Taneli Topelius, Journalist and Film Critic

I studied film and television sciences, media research later, in the University of Turku. I have been a film critic for 20 years this spring. I started in 1994, which was my last spring in the high school, to write film criticism to Ilkka newspaper, where I worked from 1994 until 2001. I was also a summer reporter in Ilkka for four years, during the winters as a freelancer. In 2000, I had a summer job in newspaper Turun Sanomat, where I was a summer reporter and a freelancer and from 2003 to 2005, also a non-permanent reporter. Then I made film criticism to Turun Sanomat until 2012. I have been in Ilta-Sanomat and in IS Tv magazine since 2010 as a part-time journalist and film critic. Beside criticism I have done other journalistic work as well, for example news stories, interviews and columns, as well as TV programs for Turku TV.

Sanomatalo

You started your work career in Ilkka newspaper. Are you from Ostrobothnia?

The best Bond movie and why? 
“GoldenEye” (1995) and “Casino Royale” (2006). It is really difficult to decide which one of them will go ahead. Both defined again what Bond could be, movies pointed out the specific features of an agent’s work, and broadened the Bond image. They are also the first Bond movies of their male leading actors. Both movies are directed by Martin Campbell. There is a good balance of speed and content in these films.

As a film critic, how do you see the Bond films compared to the other films? 
Of course, I like the Bond films a lot, although as a film critic, sometimes I find some parts even clumsy, I see plot holes, and sometimes even horrible people profiles. Some of the Bond movies, however, are also exceptionally well-made adventure films such as “The Living Daylights” (1987), “GoldenEye” (1995), “Casino Royale” (2006) and “Skyfall” (2012). Also, Sean Connery and Roger Moore have made interesting Bond films, although they do not always rise to corresponding level. While writing criticism I have to be honest to the weaknesses of the Bond movies, but through the eyes of a fan like me, the clumsy parts of the movies are just interesting, of course.

How meaningful is the fact that Sean Connery was the first Bond? 
It means quite a lot, I think. He was able to define the role. Roger Moore also tried to imitate Connery in his first Bond films, before Moore found his own style. Was it then Moore’s own thing or producer´s and director´s choice? In the beginning Moore was serious, but then found his own interpretation as a smooth gentleman. Also, Timothy Dalton and Daniel Craig owe a lot to what Connery did, even though both defined the Bond role again. Pierce Brosnan on the other hand, seemed to be moving smoothly somewhere between Sean Connery and Roger Moore. There is always something new in Bond movies in the different eras, which is significant to heroes of their time.

Press screenings are organized by Finnish movie importers, and they agree with an American movie studio or the distributor, when the movie can be shown to film critics and movie journalists here in Finland. A typical scenario is that the film can be shown to the press in Finland as soon as it has received its first public performance in the United States, either at some festival or at some other special event. Sometimes a movie can be seen here in Finland even before the screenings in North America, but then journalists must sign an embargo, and the movie cannot be commented until after a certain date. For Bond movies, it has always been a matter of honour that the premiere is in the UK, and they are seen only after that in the rest of the world – even in Finland, they can be typically seen before America.

Have you seen the Oscar Gala live on site?

Are you interested in 007 locations and have you been in any, for instance in New York? 
I have not been yet. Yes, I went to Harlem, but didn’t specifically go to track down Bond locations. During one of the future trips I could visit one of those as well.

Whose idea was to make “Bond 50 years,” special magazine? 
I don’t know all the possible background discussions, but info to editors came from Editor-in-chief Ulla Appelsin. Practical work was kick-started by Ulla, with help of Riika Kuuskoski, who was responsible for theme magazines at that time, and also Marienka Pakaslahti was involved. Her responsibility area was the visual look.

The example pages of the James Bond  special magazine of Ilta-Sanomat  (Published 4 October 2012)

How did you end up making your own sections? 
First we got an e-mail from Ulla (Appelsin), which said: “If you drink your Martini rather shaken than stirred and like beautiful women or handsome men, who like beautiful women, please contact me”. There was not mentioned Bond directly in the message, but of course I guessed that something related to Bond was planned to be done. All who were interested in the subject came to meeting and the subjects were shared. For me, of course, it was natural to make magazine’s movie sections. Bond car thing came a little bit later, when we got permission to use pictures of James Bond cars.

You’ve done an article about Bond cars to the Ilta-Sanomat’s “Bond 50 years“, special magazine. Are you interested in Bond cars? 

Yes, I am interested in them, even though I am not really a “car person” and I’m not interested in cars as such. My wife knows everything about cars. If there are any questions related to cars, I ask her. But Bond cars interest me for the very reason since they are Bond cars. There are certain mystique, fineness and glamour in Bond cars, which are also things that can be found in Bond films anyway.

JAMES BOND 50 YEARS – 50 PHOTOS – EXHIBITION 15 – 28 OCTOBER 2012 

Whose idea was the Bond photo exhibition? 
The exhibition was connected to the special magazine from the start. Ilta-Sanomat made ​​the special magazine and Nelonen – which is also part of the Sanoma Group – had bought the TV performance rights of the Bond movies . It was natural that the photo exhibition was organized in cooperation when the James Bond’s 50-year film career was celebrated anyway. The exhibition was created at the same time, when magazine was in making process as well. The images in the exhibition were Bond movie film stills. We got also extra pictures from FS Film (currently SF Film Finland), which was the distributor of “Skyfall” (2012). It was great that there were pictures from every Bond adventure, and it became a reminder of long history of Bond movies.

007 Travelers had an opportunity to see part of exhibition’s pictures once again in year 2014. The original exhibition was in 2012, organized by Ilta-Sanomat and Nelonen

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How popular was the exhibition? 
There is no official estimation about the amount of visitors, because it was an open exhibition and everyone who visited Sanomatalo´s lobby, were able to see the exhibition. However, quite many saw it. You could see the popularity in quite special way also: Halle Berry‘s bikini photo from the movie “Die Another Day” (2002) was stolen directly from the exhibition. When we commissioned a new picture of Berry, it was stolen too. In addition, one of Pierce Brosnan’s pictures was stolen as well. We never caught the thieves.