Film: Fallen Leaves

I am on Pontio’s mailing list, and sometimes I just delete it because I figure I have no time for films anyway, but recently I had a quick look. And I saw an Aki Kaurismäki announced! His newest: Fallen Leaves. I like his films, and I didn't really expect to have the opportunity to see one in this area. I saw most of the other ones I saw (the Man without a Past, Lights in the Dusk, Ariel, and Le Havre, if memory serves me well) in continental Europe, which for some reason is a lot more attuned to continental European films. So I figured I needed to seize this opportunity. It looked like that would be easy to achieve as it happened, I was teaching on main campus until five, and the film started half an hour later. Ideal!

When I walked into buy a ticket I saw someone wave at me. And I saw a man at the table, eating a pizza, that I had met before. Peredur had introduced us on the picket line; it was Andrew, the slightly confusing American who tends to communicate with me in either Dutch or Welsh. But his phone speaks German. He was going to see the film with two friends, and I was invited to join them. That was kind!

We got in and watched the commercials and the trailers. We were talking quite a lot, but I always think that isn't such a big issue before the film has started. Other people did think so; we got growled at by someone nearby before the film had even started. I didn't think it was necessary to bring up the matter that aggressively, but I agreed that during the film you should tone it down, so we just watched and kept our mouths shut.

It was very Kaurismäki! Very little dialogue, very little expressed emotion. Life, but slightly exaggerated. And a lot of the untidy fringes of Helsinki.

For those who don't mind a spoiler: in a desolate karaoke bar in Helsinki, a man and a woman catch each other's eye. The woman first has a desolate job in the supermarket, then a bar, and later in a steel plant. And she has a good friend who stands by her. What the man initially does for a living wasn't entirely clear to me, but he gets fired for drinking and then finds a job on a construction site, where he gets fired for drinking. And he has a good friend who stands by him. Anyway; things develop from that encounter in the karaoke bar, and they go to the cinema together and he comes over for dinner. But she spots that he is an alcoholic, and says she won't have a drunk. He storms off in a huff. And she adopts a dog. And all of this is done in the most Finnish possible way.

At a fairly random moment he decides to stop drinking, and gets back in touch. From there on, things get a bit slapstick; she is very happy to hear it, and hopes he'll come over right away, but he doesn't. Why? On the way to her place he gets run over by a train. But he is still alive! And the make-up division of the film didn't go overboard; he lies in hospital in a coma, with a token bandaged head and leg. I doubt anyone run over by a train has ever looked that pristine. But that's okay! As I said; I didn't expect gritty realism.

From there you probably see it coming; he wakes up out of the coma and is discharged, and they basically walk off into the sunset; man on crutches, woman, and dog. One is free to imagine them living happily ever after!

I quite enjoyed it. I was glad I went! And from the trailers I knew there were a few more promising films coming up. Andrew thought so too. We might do it again!