Finnish director Aki Kaurism...ki's most recent film, The Man Without a Past, was one of the best films of 2003. Part of the reason it landed on so many top-10 lists was because it received widespread distribution and people were able to actually see it. Such was not the case with most of his previous films. And despite being an acclaimed, world-class filmmaker, most of Kaurism...ki's earlier films are not available on video. Lucky for us, the Grand Illusion is hosting a complete retrospective of his work, including a handful of shorts.
Kaurism...ki began making movies in the '80s at about the same time that Jim Jarmusch started. I mention this because the two of them share a similar style and sensibility, though Kaurism...ki is much more prolific. Both are patient filmmakers willing to hold a shot for as long as it needs to be, and both have an engagingly deadpan sense of humor that is funny and often quietly absurd. Not surprisingly, they knew each other well enough for Jarmusch to land a cameo in Leningrad Cowboys Go America (Tues-Thurs Jan 20-22) as a used-car salesman, while Jarmusch used some of Kaurism...ki's regular actors in the Helsinki chapter of his Night on Earth.
Really, the timing couldn't be better for a Kaurism...ki retrospective in Seattle, this being winter and the economy being what it is. There's a quality of light to our winters that goes well with overcast Finnish landscapes and cityscapes; the low blanket of clouds pushes people into bars or clubs, where they can drink away their time while waiting for the "economic recovery" to actually reach them. In fact, if you removed Microsoft and the tech boom and replaced them with more factory jobs, Seattle would be exactly like Kaurism...ki's Helsinki.
In his soul, Kaurism...ki is a poet of the working class. His movies are populated with good-hearted, economically challenged folks who are so self-sufficient that their underlying need for human contact sneaks up on them. In Ariel (Fri-Sun Jan 9-11) a man inherits a Cadillac convertible and drives to Helsinki after the local mine closes. Even after his severance pay is stolen and he's lining up for day-labor work down at the dock, he never complains. When a meter maid says the only way out of a ticket is to take her to dinner, he tells her to hop in, and she impulsively quits her job to go with him. As it turns out, she's working multiple jobs in order to support her kid. It's easy to see that these two outsiders are perfect for each other, but that doesn't mean they can survive together. Crime, prison, and escape follow, and the movie ends with a lovely version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" sung in Finnish.
Women in Kaurism...ki movies have a strange sort of idealized impulsiveness. The actress Kati Outinen is commonly referred to as his muse not just because she's in so many of his movies, but because she embodies this trait in its various forms. In Shadows in Paradise (Fri-Sun Jan 16-18)--the first in Kaurism...ki's self-described "loser trilogy"--Outinen plays a laid-off cashier who falls for a garbage man (Matti Pellonp......, another Kaurism...ki regular). Even though they seem a perfect match in the world of the movie, that doesn't stop her from having an affair with her new boss at a clothing store. Kaurism...ki never blames her for this decision, and instead looks at her through the lovesick eyes of the spurned garbage man. It's sweet and makes forgiveness entirely possible.
Even the happiest endings in Kaurism...ki's movies are tinged with a bit of sadness and regret. In The Match Factory Girl (Tues-Thurs Jan 13-15)--the final film in the "loser trilogy"--Outinen stars as the uncommunicative Kaurism...ki hero who doesn't need other people yet longs for their contact. When she's not affixing labels to boxes of matches or taking care of her parents, she is going to community dances where she sits on the bench as other girls are asked onto the dance floor. When she finally does connect with a man, he breaks her heart. This is the last straw for a woman who feels stuck in her life, so she decides to make a change by getting revenge on those who hurt her by using a little thing called rat poison.
Though he's been called a "miserablist" because his movies so often deal with depressing subject matter, what keeps audience members from wanting to commit suicide while watching Kaurism...ki's films is the fact that they have a wonderful sense of humor and a good heart at their respective cores. What also keep his movies bouncing along are the rocking soundtracks. Along with big, old American cars, Kaurism...ki is obsessed with rockabilly and old-school rock and roll. Unsurprisingly, his movies that follow the Finnish rockabilly band the Leningrad Cowboys come closest to straight-up comedy. Along with Leningrad Cowboys Go America, he made the concert film Total Balalaika Show (Tues-Thurs Jan 20-22), which will show with a bunch of shorts that play like Leningrad Cowboys music videos, and he made a sequel to Go America called Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (Tues-Thurs Jan 27-29).
Even when he's adapting other people's stories--as with Crime and Punishment (Fri-Sun Jan 9-11), La Vie de Bohéme (Fri-Sun Jan 23-25), or Hamlet Goes Business (Fri-Sun Jan 30-Feb 1)--the movies remain steadfastly his own. Aki Kaurism...ki is an auteur in the best sense of the term, and Seattle is one of only four cities hosting the complete retrospective of his work. Don't ask why we were so blessed, just go to the movies.
