If you’re looking for some real fun and a romantic spark at the movies this weekend, make time for a gentle, expressionless face. Fallen leaves.
Finnish film director Aki Kaurismäki is known for a very specific and unusual style: ordinary Finns live in a bleak and recognizable world, both ours (it touches on the refugee crisis and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) and entirely their own. It takes time to get into the dynamics of Kaurismäki’s films: he uses unobtrusive static shots and shows actors who keep their emotions under control as much as possible. But the rewards are enormous.
Ansa (Alma Pöysti, funny and likeable) is a supermarket employee who was once fired for an absurd crime (she gave a homeless man excellent food that she should have thrown away). Lonely and lost, she wanders into a karaoke bar one evening and meets Holappa (Jussi Vatanen, a slacker and often monosyllabic guy), a construction worker who seems equally helpless.
They eventually meet at the cinema and their romance seems to progress at a rapid pace: although Ansa has to run out to buy a second set of cutlery and an extra plate for Holappa’s visit, her loneliness is so deep.
As fun as their budding relationship is, it comes with problems: misunderstandings, fights, and especially Holappa’s problem with alcohol, which also affected Ansa’s father. But despite these serious obstacles, there is a lot of humor to be found here, and in more serious moments there is a beautiful and sober visual solution: Kaurismäki trains his lens on the sight of a pile of cigarette butts or the wet eyes of a stray dog.
Fallen leaves spielt technisch gesehen im heutigen Finnland, aber da kein Smartphone oder Technologie in Sicht ist, scheinen Ansa und Holappa die meisten ihrer Nachrichten aus dem Radio zu beziehen, das beunruhigende Entwicklungen in Putins Russland überträgt – einem Land an der Grenze zu Finnland unmittelbar er Grund, Angst have. . Their fight is a fight against the current dehumanizing bigger picture.
In an exploitative and cruel world, this fragile, quiet love story reflects both the emptiness of loneliness and the warmth of human touch. After his last film, 2017 The Other Side of HopeKaurismäki announced his retirement from filmmaking: “If we got such a strange film, then I’m very glad that he didn’t keep his word.”
Source: I News
I am Mario Pickle and I work in the news website industry as an author. I have been with 24 News Reporters for over 3 years, where I specialize in entertainment-related topics such as books, films, and other media. My background is in film studies and journalism, giving me the knowledge to write engaging pieces that appeal to a wide variety of readers.