Le Havre. Aki Kaurismäki. 2011. ⚅

Getting financing for movies these days is more complimacated. Just look at this:

I think that’s ten institutions doing the financing? And we’re not talking big budgets, either:

4M Euros.

[the end]

This is a wonderful movie. The actors are amazeballs, and the limited teal/green palette makes everything cohere. And it’s all very moving.

Kaurismäki nails it once again.

Watching this box set has been a journey.

I got it because I was thinking YAY THOSE 80S MOVIES WERE SO MUCH FUN, and then it turned out that I hadn’t really watched that many of them before, and… they… weren’t that much fun? Crime and Punishment, Calamari Union, Hamlet Goes Business… they’re all good, but they’re not brilliant. Kinda sophomoric?

So that was a huge let-down and I was thinking that Kaurismäki was just kinda meh (except for his key movies like The Matchstick Girl Factory Girl Match)…

And then the fantastic movies started! Drifting Clouds! Amazing! The Man Without a Past! Wonderful! Le Havre! Sublime! The Other Side of Hope! Yay!

So it’s opposite land totally. I was expecting early brilliant movies and later boring movies, but the early movies were goofy friendly exercises in movie making, and the later movies are fantastic.

(With some exceptions.)

So I’m really happy I got this box set now.

(And it’s a really good set, with great-looking 2K transfers, a bunch of shorts (but otherwise not a lot of extras), and a nice booklet:

Good stuff, as usual, from Curzon/Artificial Eye.

Toivon tuolla puolen. Aki Kaurismäki. 2017. ⚄

This is it! The final movie in the Kaurismäki box set!

When I got to 1994 in the box set and saw that it was three movies that year, I was thinking O GOD THIS IS NEVER GOING TO END. I mean, that’s one third into the career (approx) and it’s like a dozen (?) movies?

It’s not that I don’t like these movies; I do — but sometimes when I buy a box set I’m illogically overwhelmed by the number of movies that I now “have” to see.

But 1994 was getting towards the end. This movie is from 2017, and the previous movie on this box set was from 2006.

I see that this box set doesn’t have Le Havre, but the other ones here look like anthology movies?

So that’s a huge slow-down in movie rate from Kaurismäki. Did Kaurismäki just not get money to do movies? Lights in the Dusk was a huge disappointment, so… perhaps? Or perhaps Kaurismäki is just slowing down?

Let’s see what this one is like.

[ten minute pass]

Oh! This box set does have Le Havre! I just forgot to rip it or something. Now I’m watching things all out of order again!

[ten minutes pass]

Kaurismäki doing a movie about refugees and immigration seems like a very natural shift from his movies about down-and-out working class people. And he’s got some of his old troupe back! That’s fun to see.

[forty minutes pass]

I really like this movie. It’s got a plot and everything. And very likeable characters.

As usual, my main problem is with the music. Let me draw you a Venn diagram that clearly explains the intersection of Kaurismäki’s and my taste in music:

[the end]

Despite appearances, this is a movie with really broad, embarrassment-inducing humour… and it works. You feel for all these misfits, and you want everything to go well for them.

It’s funny and it’s touching. (The interrogation scenes, for instance.) But it’s not perfect: It sometimes feels like it doesn’t know where it’s going… but that’s a fleeting feeling; then we’re back to the next funny scene.

Laitakaupungin valot. Aki Kaurismäki. 2006. ⚂

[fifteen minutes pass]

None of Kaurismäki’s regulars are in this? Instead it’s a bunch of more traditionally pretty actors?

How odd.

[ten minutes pass]

And yet another scene with an evil bank? Is this the third movie? Kaurismäki has his things he has to have in any movie… We’ve had the concert scene, there’s been an old large-engine car, lots of people smoking, there’s been a cute dog…

What’s unique here is that there’s an antagonist. I think that’s a first for Kaurismäki? It’s usually just… circumstances…

[half an hour passes]

It’s just strangely uninspired. Now they’re reusing the “Rich Little Bitch” song in a scene where it doesn’t even make much sense? Just how small a music collection does Kaurismäki have?

I also find it pretty annoying why the movie makes no effort to explain just why nobody likes the hapless lead character. There doesn’t seem to be any particular reason for that… except that he’s the lead in a Kaurismäki movie? He seems aggressively average (although quite handsome), which makes it odd that all his colleagues hate him so.

Perhaps it would have worked if they’d cast somebody that didn’t look that hot?

[the end]

Kaurismäki’s movies usually feel like they’re coming from a good place. I’m not sure where this is coming from… it’s so aimless. It’s almost callous towards its characters, giving people like the woman in the gorgeous fast food stall no trajectory whatsoever.

It’s a sloppy movie, and not in a good way.