As of: September 11, 2023 6:00 a.m
Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s films have their own distinctive style: tragically funny, laconic and somehow as if they had fallen out of time. “Falling Leaves” is no exception.
Aki Kaurismäki has been making films for over 40 years, and “The Other Side of Hope” in 2017 was supposed to be his last. Apparently the director seems bored with being a pensioner. And that’s a blessing for his audience, to whom he once again gives a wonderful gift with “Falling Leaves”.
Kaurismäki almost always stages socially real melodramas. He portrays the eternal losers: desperate people, the unemployed, terrible musicians and criminals. His house band “Leningrad Cowboys”, 13 men in black suits, with their characteristic “unicorn” hair quiffs and very long, very pointed shoes, to which he also dedicated a film of the same name, plays weird punk, and Finnish tango is part of it him too most of the time.
Further information
Blockbusters such as “Killers of the Flower Moon”, “Wonka” and films by Wim Wenders and Charly Hübner will be attracting people to the cinema until autumn. more
Two lonely souls
After a karaoke performance, two men sit in one of those run-down bars that have apparently been seen countless times at Kaurismäki and utter monosyllabic sentences. Hollapa is an alcoholic, which is why he has already lost various jobs. A lonely soul who – this also sounds familiar – meets another lonely soul in this dreary place – a woman named Ansa. However, a few hurdles have to be overcome before the two find each other.
Ansa works in a supermarket in Helsinki. She empties the shelves, sweeps the floor and occasionally puts an expired sandwich in her purse that would be thrown away anyway. She gets fired for that. At home, she listens to news about the Ukraine war on her kitchen transistor radio. Finally, Hollapa takes courage and asks Ansa if she will go to the cinema with him. You’re watching Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy “The Dead Don’t Die.”
A relationship without a future
After going to the cinema, Ansa even gives Hollapa her phone number, but he immediately loses it. And so a while passes before the two meet again. Then Ansa even goes one step further and invites Hollapa to her home:
“Nice apartment. However, the bed is quite narrow.”
“You’re pretty cheeky. It’s enough for one person. I inherited the apartment from my aunt and painted it myself.”
“So you’re an heiress.” Dialogue from the film
An heiress whose father and brother drank themselves to death and who therefore shows no tolerance for Hollapa’s alcoholism. The relationship seems to have no future and Ansa’s friend makes the basics clear:
“You’re not saying anything. Is it because of this guy?”
“First he thinks my apartment is a bar. And then he doesn’t even call to apologize. I just thought he would be different.”
“In what way?”
“Somehow different.”
“They were all cast from the same mold. Unfortunately it was cracked.”
“You said that well.” Dialogue from the film
A classic Kaurismäki dialogue: not a word too many and always with an accurate punch line. “Falling Leaves” is another unmistakable part of the Finnish auteur’s oeuvre, who walks between cult and everyday poetry like no other.
Falling leaves
Genre: Drama Year of production: 2023 Country of production: Finland Additional information: With Alma Pöysti, Jussi Vatanen, Janne Hyytiäinen and others Director: Aki Kaurismäki Length: 81 minutes Rating: from 12 years old Cinema release: from September 14, 2023
This topic in the program:
NDR Info | Culture | Sep 11, 2023 | 07:55 am
2023-09-11 18:23:54
#Aki #Kaurismäkis #Falling #Leaves #cult #everyday #poetry
