Westminster Wisdom (Free subscription) | 01/30/2010
I watched this film, sitting in the dark, with a mildly burnt hand in a bowl of cold water. I'd burnt it earlier in the evening whilst cooking. In a sense that incident sums up Aki Kaurismaki's style of film- he looks for the sad that would not be the subject of tragedy. It also sums up I think why this film is the only Romantic Comedy or one of the few Romantic Comedies I've ever liked and enjoyed....
HobbyPrincess (Free subscription) | 01/20/2010
One evening in the early 1990s Markku Perälä is sitting at a bar. He meets with with Aki Kaurismäki and starts drinking with him. When the bar closes, Markku invites Aki over to his place. When Aki sees Markku's apartment,...
Atlas Shrugs (Free subscription) | 01/17/2010
Hat tip Jewish Odysseus - Lots more video here 'Shabbat from hell' in Haiti | International News | Jerusalem Post The large field hospital established by the IDF Medical Corps at 10 a.m. Shabbat local time was already treating dozens of patients four hours later, when its commander, Lt.-Col. Dr. Itzik Reiss, was able to take a breather and speak to Israeli health reporters via a conference call. The...
The Evening Class (Free subscription) | 12/18/2009
Yesterday's announcement of nearly half the line-up for the 21st annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (January 7-17, 2010) (PSIFF10)—including the Opening and Closing Night Galas (Michael Hoffman's The Last Station and Daniel Adams' The Lightkeepers , respectively), three additional Gala Screenings, four Special Representations, ten films selected for the Modern Masters sidebar, and...
Film Experience Blog (Free subscription) | 12/08/2009
As you may have noticed, I will not be done with my Decade in Review until sometime into the new year. Hopefully we'll wrap up shortly after the Oscars; You know how distractingly all-consuming the Oscars can be! I hope you'll stay with it even though the rest of the media will move on any second now. They're always in such a rush. No stopping and smelling of the flowers. I've still got to update that...
Londonist (Free subscription) | 12/02/2009
Stranger Than Paradise Neat idea, this: the ICA is running a season of films by the inscrutable and laconic American filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, alongside work that inspired or was inspired by the director. Key Jarmusch staples like Stranger Than Paradise , Down By Law (whose improbable cast includes Tom Waits and a pre- Life Is Beautiful turn by Roberto Benigni), and Dead Man , are accompanied by classics...
DVD Times (Free subscription) | 11/28/2009
Capsule Review: Anyone who has seen Norwegian director Bent Hamer's delightful Kitchen Stories will know what to expect here in O' Horten, although anyone with a taste for generally bleak, low-key, and gently surreal Scandinavian comedies, be it Roy Andersson or Aki...
hamid & company (Free subscription) | 11/16/2009
The Trumpet: Directors: Chen Kaige , Werner Herzog , Victor Erice , Spike Lee , Jim Jarmusch , Wim Wenders , Aki Kaurismaki . Nicolas McClintock , on the genesis of the film: "I was reading Italo Calvino's collection of lectures, Six Memos For The Next Millenium, that quoted one old Sicilian folk-story-teller saying something that jumped out at me: "Time takes no time in a story." In...
The One-Line Review (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
Finland Feature Film Original Title: Laitakaupungin valot Writer/Director: Aki Kaurismäki Cinematographer: Timo Salminen Composers: Melrose Cast: Janne Hyytiäinen, Maria Järvenhelmi, Maria Heiskanen, Ilkka Koivula A clueless, innocent, who works as a night watchman when not deludedly dreaming of a better life, is made a patsy in the robbery of jewellery store by a Russian gang aided...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 10/28/2009
Know your Bill Murray from your Buster Keaton? This week, Pinkos smacks his lips and delivers a tray of bone-dry comic amuse-bouches for you to sample I like my comedy the way I like my sherry and my bathroom floor – dry. In fact, the greater the understatement, the finer the blend, the deader the pan, the more eagerly I lap it up. A straight-faced, down the line, mockumentary mickey take as...
Variety.com (Free subscription) | 09/18/2009
Film Reviews: An entertainingly horrific vision of the Oedipus complex in action.
DVD Times (Free subscription) | 09/15/2009
DVD Video Review: An amnesiac man tried to rebuild his life in Aki Kaurismäki's wonderfully absurd but touching 2002 comedy drama. Noel Megahey reviews the ICA Projects DVD release.
Seattle Times (Free subscription) | 09/10/2009
"You, the Living," Roy Andersson's deadpan Swedish movie, recalls the dry wit of Jacques Tati and Aki Kaurismäki. Sometimes a musical, sometimes an exploration of ritualistic behavior, it's essentially indescribable — and can be quite funny.
The Agitation of the Mind (Free subscription) | 09/09/2009
The Leningrad Cowboys are a Ukranian ensemble with a heavy balalaika influence to their repertoire. Their manager Vladimir (Matti Pellonpaa) - a man who gives orders in brusque fashion and wears a fur coat so big it looks like the fucking Yeti gave its life for it - gets them an audience with a producer. The verdict: the Leningrad Cowboys suck. So much, in fact, that the producer's best advice is that...
Chicago Tribune (Free subscription) | 08/21/2009
Rating: 31/2 stars (good-excellent) If you locked Michael "Transformers" Bay in a room with Swedish director Roy Andersson, one of them wouldn't make it out alive. Best known internationally for a series of droll, single-take television commercials (they're all over YouTube) and the 2000 feature-length mosaic "Songs From the Second Floor," Andersson favors a static camera and a...
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