• Kaurismäki’s fourth film—clocks in at 72 minutes which is a trend with him- very short- almost like the old silent films or some of Woody’s work
  • Blue collar like almost all of his work—the title here is the name of the ship at the end but the Turo Pajala character is on demolition, then works on the docks like Brandon in On the Waterfront
  • Violence (almost every film someone is hit in the head and knocked out) in Kaurismäki’s comically tragic world—a Cadillac in almost every film— hard drinking
  • Realism- father kills himself—the garage literally falls apart as he pulls away and then he’s driving a convertible in winter
  • The one-shot strong composition is of Pajala lying in bed—really beautiful shot
  • Minimalist- sardonic — a Jarmusch acolyte
  • Another love story- falls in love with the meter maid who goes to work in the slaughterhouse
  • Laying on the rocks together – a comical little paradise like the same scene in Shadows in Paradise with them on the beach
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Laying on the rocks together – a comical little paradise like the same scene in Shadows in Paradise with them on the beach
  • A social statement here in a short montage of Kaurismäki cross cutting between her working in the factory free and him working and doing the same thing in prison (it then turns into a prison escape movie)
  • Fairytale fable ending—Finnish musical version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
  • Recommend