This is the fourth feature length film I've seen by director Aki Kaurismäki. I chose to watch this film based on previous good ratings I've given other films by this director and to better my favorite directors by algorithm listing.
Ariel
I fell in love with the first Kaurismäki film I ever saw, The Man Without A Past. My experience so far has been that Kaurismäki's distinctive style is largely consistent between films. So I believe that if you see one and love it, you'll probably love the rest of them.
I'm not really sure what the title of this film means, but the plot is similar with the other films I've seen in that a main character goes through some significant life changing event but doesn't react emotionally. In fact, no one gets over emotional in these films. The lines and movements are often delivered with the deadest of deadpan. I find the contrast it creates to be highly amusing and often profound.
You have to take a lot of things for granted in a Kaurismäki film without too much justification. When two characters meet, fall in love, and dedicate their lives to each other forever on the same night, you have to believe it's true. In any other film, if two characters proclaimed such love for each other in such a direct and laconic manner after knowing each other for only one night and about five seconds of screen time, you would take it for a joke. But it's only because this is the way the characters always talk that we believe them.
Also, we have to accept things that are never shown and accept that they will never be shown because they are not important for this film. For instance, how many films have characters escape from a prison but never mention or show how they did it. There is just a cut from them in prison, to them running away. The only other movie I can think of it Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law. And you may know that these directors have a good friendship and have worked together and traded actors in the past. If you like Jarmusch as well, that might be another recommendation to check out a Kaurismäki film.
Aki Kaurismäki:
Total feature length films seen: 4
Previous average film score: 9.6667
New average film score: 9.5
Rating: 9/10