The third film in the Proletariat trilogy with Shadows in Paradise in 1986 and Ariel in 1988– Kati Outinen (a staple
in Kaurismäki films) as the lead- Iris- the title character
Brisk—68 minutes- again I see some Fassbinder here— the harsh world
around the protagonist just pulverizing these characters and a very nice construction
of a frame near the end at the planetarium place like Fassbinder would create
in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul especially
Minimal Jarmusch or Ozu in camera movement or style- when asked
about the lack of camera movement I guess Kaurismäki said that’s a lot of work
when you’re hungover (drinking heavy is a big motif (actually Ozu had that too-
haha))
Iris doesn’t speak at all until the 14 minute mark (to order a
beer)- silent cinema
A the opposite of a Cinderella like fairy-tale, grim (and this
one doesn’t have the sunshine at the end)—she lives in bomb shelter looking
house, father calls her a whore, slaps her, the guy she sleeps with is an
all-timer of a villain
Opens with montage of factory like a documentary- making of
matches – blue collar minimalism—desaturation of story and style is big for Kaurismäki
She’s getting ready to go out and make some sort of interaction
with the world with the Tiananmen Square atrocity on the news
She receives one gut punch after another
I laughed out loud at her sobbing to the Marx Brothers film, I
also laughed a little when her father said “I hope you find another home” as
she lays there in the hospital after getting hit by a car as he hands her an
orange and she peels and eats it. “Rat poison” and the clerk says “Small or
large” and she says “Large”—very black black comedy
The films are best viewed in a series—formal works– Kaurismäki
is a voice- consistent themes
The frame at 59 minutes is Fassbinder again- one of Kaurismäki
finest like the kiss in the doorway in Shadowsin Paradise—a total wow—and he knows
it holding on it for one minute and then cutting to a flower after that scene.
It is easily the film’s high-water mark and the reason it’s a HR—moving
Fades to black during the scenes like Jarmusch often did
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