• 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 Shadows in 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
  • A Highly Recommend film