Quick takes on 5 Kaurismäki films

Never seen any films from Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki before, so time to rectify that. Going to look at 5 of his earlier films from the 80’s and early 90’s, starting with his “proletariat trilogy.” From my perspective, I think Shadows in Paradise has it backwards, and instead should be something like “Paradise in the Shadows.” It is about a garbage collector named Nikander, who lives alone and has seemingly a singly friend in the whole world, a coworker who dies suddenly one day of a heart attack (days after explaining he wanted to start his own business, so he’d die behind the desk and not at the truck). Nikander sees the need to have a new friend, so he latches on to a random guy, gets him a job to replace his deceased friend, and wham-o, has a new buddy. At the same time, Nikander starts dating a local grocery store worker named Ilona. Their interactions with each other are awkward, bordering on uncomfortable to watch, but their relationship seems to work for them. The film is mostly about these 2, finding moments of happiness in an otherwise dreary, hard world. I have to get a bit used to Kaurismäki’s deadpan style, the actors deliver lines with very little emotion, almost like they are reciting from a book, but I understand that is common to this director’s movies. That’s not to say there is no emotion in this film, but it lets you come to those feelings on your own, rather than having an actor lead you there. Strange first picture, will see how these others go. ★½

Ariel is so much better, and quite funny to boot! It follows a coal miner named Kasurinen, who’s on a string of back luck. The film opens with the mine closing, and all of its workers now out of work. Kasurinen sits in a diner with his father, also a miner, who laments that their way of life is now gone. He gives Kasurinen the keys to his prized Cadillac convertible, and then goes to the bathroom to shoot himself. Kasurinen takes the car out of the garage, and the house falls apart as he pulls out. At the bank, he empties his account to head to the city and start a new life, but is robbed on the way there. He shows up penniless, finds a single day’s work for some cash, and uses it to stay in a homeless shelter that night. The only bright spot is a girl he meets, Irmeli. She’s as lonely as he is, and the two hit it off. But Kasurinen continues to be unable to find solid work, and when he spots the man who initially robbed him, Kasurinen attacks him. Unfortunately the cops spot it, and Kasurinen is arrested and sentenced to a couple years for assault, attempted robbery, etc. He finally gets a buddy in jail, his cell mate Mikkonen, but the two only get in more trouble when they attempt to escape, and fall in with a rough gang afterwards. The humor is so much more apparent in this film, which makes it easier to watch and enjoy. The story is engaging, the acting, while still with a touch of wooden delivery, is more encompassing, and the film is just a whole lot of fun. ★★★

The Match Factory Girl is the first great film I’ve seen from this director. The referenced girl is Iris, who lives a mundane and joyless life. She lives with her deadbeat parents, who are freeloading off her, letting her pay the rent, cook, and clean. Her mom is the kind who pulls a book off Iris’s shelf to re-gift it to her on her birthday, and who berates her for spending her own money. Iris tries to go to a club to meet men, but has no luck until she buys a new dress. The man she goes home with is a real piece of work, but Iris latches on to him as her only hope for something different. He of course wants no part of her, even after she finds she’s pregnant. In the end, Iris has had enough with everyone, and her way of taking control of her life is fantastic. By now I’ve gotten used to Kaurismäki’s style, and maybe it is just growing on me, but the sparseness seems to fit perfectly in Iris’s dreary existence. Her life is so completely dreary, grotesquely comic even, that you can’t help but hope she finds some light somewhere. ★★★★

The Leningrad Cowboys were an idea from Aki Kaurismäki and members of a comedy Finish rock band called the Sleepy Sleepers. After putting together a few short films for the group, Kaurismäki made a full feature film about a fake band, Leningrad Cowboys Go America. Featuring outlandishly long pompadours and long pointy shoes to match, the band of brothers and cousins, struggling to find a following in the barren Soviet Union landscape, head off to New York, because “they’ll buy anything over there.” The one member who froze to death the night before the trip goes along too, with a cutout in his wood coffin for his hair and shoes to fit through. The band doesn’t find immediate success in New York, where they are told they need to play rock and roll music to get any attention, but an agent hires them to play at a wedding in Mexico, if they can make it there. And so begins the silly road trip movie that you knew was coming. It’s pretty darn funny, as the manager of the group fleeces them at every turn until they get wise, and they continue to try to incorporate aspects of American music to make some money. It’s a mostly English language film while the group is traveling the USA, so for those that hate subtitles, you can still enjoy this one. Fans of the early National Lampoon films can really dig the outrageous characters and events throughout this film. And was that a cameo by Jim Jarmusch as a used car salesman? Hilarious. ★★★★½

After the success of the previous film, the fake band became a real one, and the Leningrad Cowboys have sinced released multiple albums and continue to tour here and there to this day (albeit with only 1 original band member). In 1994, five years after the last film, a sequel was made, Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses. The boys have been stuck in Mexico for 5 years, successful at first, but have fallen on hard times since discovering tequila. They get a cryptic note about a job in New York, and head there only to find their long-lost manager Vladimir. After wandering the desert of Mexico, he says he’s found the light and calls himself Moses. He wants the Cowboys to return to mother Russia, so we get another road trip film, this time through Europe. At least, that’s what I assume, because I gave up 45 minutes into this picture. It’s just not funny the second time around. Like too many comedy sequels, it’s trying too hard and the payoff is never there. If you watch it and like it, more power to you, but my hunch is the film was funnier to the people making it than the viewers watching it. To put a bow on this group, I browsed through their final film, Total Balalaika Show, which is footage of a live concert the Leningrad Cowboys did in Helsinki to a raucous crowd of 70,000. Watch the Cowboys Do America, but skip the rest. ½