Juha

Juha. Aki Kaurismäki. 1999. ⚂

Oops. I seem to have the movies in the wrong order here… I was going to watch the … Tatjana? movie from 1994, but this is Juha instead. From 1999.

And… it’s a silent movie?

OK, Aki. OK. But this mean… that I’ll be listening to Kaurismäki’s horrible, horrible taste in music all throughout this movie?

I don’t think I can survive that.

Let’s see.

[forty minute pass]

I had to mute the audio, because it was too horrible. And that, of course, gets in the way of enjoying the movie, because silent movies were never silent.

The cinematography on this movie is better than anything before (and Kaurismäki was pretty good already), but… It’s not difficult to understand why this is a silent movie, because it’s a classic, classic melodrama (a simple country girl is lured into big-town prostitution). It’s perfect for over-the-top imagery and emotions.

But instead it’s just kinda flat?

[the end]

I like the idea of this movie, but it’s… just not good?