Kaurismäki. This spot here is a placeholder—Kaurismäki will be higher on the list when I update it as I just recently had a chance to study his work closer. He’s the Finnish Jim Jarmsuch in many, many ways—they are minimalists, deadpan, dark comedies—came onto the scene in the 1980’s. Kaurismäki became a household name on the festival scene with the proletariat trilogy (Shadows in Paradise, Ariel, The Match Factory Girl). The collective oeuvre here is much greater than any one single film and that’s his strength- films 2-7 below are almost interchangeable and La Vie de Bohème as a very impressive work for a fifth best film this far down the list near #200 on the all-time directors. His artistic stamp is all of his work—most include at least one (and sadly, sometimes only one) absolutely jaw-dropper of a perfect frame.
Best film: Le Havre
- Kaurismäki’s mise-en-scene arrangements get stronger and stronger as I go through his oeuvre- there’s a naturalism, or comically/ironically dingy or neo-realist in his earlier films, like the proletariat trilogy that, over time, have given way to a more Sirk/Fassbinder-like set design—gorgeous—many of these moving paintings
- A story of immigration in a very cruel world
- Like Kaurismäki’s Match Factory Girl in 1990 news reel footage is used to highlight some of the ugliness in the world
- Jean-Pierre Léaud shows up at 48 minutes- another collaboration with Kaurismäki
- A gorgeous medium shot at the train station at 41 minutes
- Kaurismäki is his own voice- but I see so much Jarmusch and Roy Andersson here as well
- Hilarious scene of André Wilms’ lead character reading aloud to his dying wife (Kaurismäki regular Kati Outinen) and they cut to the book and it’s short stories by Franz Kafka- haha
- The honorable inspector here is almost cut from a Melville film
- Deadpan, drinking, live music, flowers—all the traits you come to know from decades of work from Kaurismäki
- For the first time in Kaurismäki work there’s an absolute dedication to color here in the production design- Kieslowski’s Blue – here it’s greens or an almost teal green/blue—the bar, the boat, his little home, the taxi is even this color
- Like The Man Without a Past Kaurismäki is choosing to end this happily though much of the vicious world set before it would lead you to believe it shouldn’t. I don’t think this is form breaking though- this is a fable—he tracks in on Outinen at the hospital– Wilms’ character’s good deeds have cured her
total archiveable films: 8
top 100 films: 0
top 500 films: 0
top 100 films of the decade: 0
most overrated: Kaurismäki doesn’t have one. The Match Factory Girl is the only one in the TSPDT top 1000—and that’s at #850 which is a good spot for it. The Man Without a Past, Le Havre and Drifting Clouds are between 1001-2000 on the consensus list—I haven’t had the opportunity to catch Drifting Clouds yet but the other ones aren’t overrated.
most underrated : Shadows in Paradise. It should be somewhere on the TSPDT top 2000—as far as I could find this is the film that started it all. And has that breathtaking frame (here) at the 45 min mark)
- Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki’s third feature but the first I can find
- Blue collar protagonist in a comically harsh world—blending dry laughter and bitter realism
- The routine of a garbage man to jazz music to start—the two actors most associated with Kaurismäki—Matti Pellonpaa and Kati Outinen (she plays a cashier who fixes his hand and he asks out)
- Ironic deadpan—Kaurismäki is curt and matter of fact but certainly in on the joke (I’m not sure all of the uninitiated to Kaurismäki will be)
- The holes in his apartment wall—talking about Florida (not the only think that makes you think of Jarmusch or Strangers Than Paradise)
- They take off like a modern day Bonnie and Clyde—a fable and love story with a wink “can you support both of us?” “Small potatoes”
- The shot at 45 min is a jaw-dropper- framed by the doorway– like much of Kaurismäki’s work there is one of these shots—that’s it. Perfectly framed—reminds me of Fassbinder—it’s a shame he didn’t do it more or we’d just have a much better film- painterly composition
gem I want to spotlight : The Match Factory Girl
- 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
stylistic innovations/traits:
- Short films, Match Factory is 68 minutes—many under 90
- Long silent stretches—minimalist
- Protagonist often beaten over the head (often literally) repeatedly by life
- it is a little frustrating that each film includes one or two stunner compositions like the final frame in La Vie de Bohème or the kiss in the doorway of Shadows in Paradise–Le Havre is the closest he’d come to putting it all together–
- naturalism, or comically/ironically dingy or neo-realist bend in his earlier films, like the proletariat trilogy eventually gave way to a more Sirk/Fassbinder-like
- A companion to Jarmusch- ironic deadpan, use of music, rigid in structure—visual arrangement may be closer to Roy Andersson’s paintings when Kaurismäki is at his finest—but most of his works have just one or two of these
- Often uses news footage from real life events to show the ugliness of the world
- Live music, drinking, flowers, blue-collar/working class
- He’s on record saying nobody else is allowed to improvise on his films- not the cameramen or the actors – haha
top 10
- Le Havre
- The Man Without a Past
- The Match Factory Girl
- Shadows in Paradise
- La Vie de Bohème
- The Other Side of Hope
- Ariel
- Leningrad Cowboys Go America
By year and grades
| 1986- Shadows in Paradise | R/HR |
| 1988- Ariel | R |
| 1989- Leningrad Cowboys Go America | R |
| 1990- The Match Factory Girl | HR |
| 1992- La Vie de Bohème | R/HR |
| 2002- The Man Without a Past | HR |
| 2011- Le Havre | HR/MS |
| 2017- The Other Side of Hope | R/HR |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
What about Jacques Rivette? Do you plan a study of him in the future?
@Cinephile– Yes- I have only been able to catch a few from Rivette over the years. Just recently a few more have been made available on criterion channel so my plan is to catch those sometime after my Kurosawa and Fuller study
@Drake It is estimated that Ebert saw 10,000 movies in his lifetime. 15000 including rewatches.
How many do you think you’ve seen? Have you surpassed Ebert?
@Azman– Not sure- I’ve seen 7500 since April 2011 when i started keeping track. Probably another 5,000 between 1999 and 2011 would be my guess. I don’t keep track of new ones vs. rewatches.
Hi Drake, I had never heard of this director, always saw his name with Kiarostami, thought it was some kind of typo. I think critic/reviewer Jonathan Rosenbaum likes him though. Anyway, ‘Ariel’ is a very funny film, sad I guess in a way(watched this AM). He reminds me a good bit of Jim Jarmusch.
That is a lot of films that you watch, over 2 every day I guess on average. How do you decide if a film is worth a re-watch versus a new one?
@David Tindall– the Kaurismäki study was great— and yes- if the paper/book hasn’t been written on Jarmusch and Kaurismäki it is sitting there waiting to be written. As far as a rewatch vs. a new one- I try to mix it up. Some of it is planned and some of it I plug into a random number generator
Did you manage to catch Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves(2023)?
@Lionel – Not yet- think it his select theaters November 17th and eventually MUBI