MAN WITHOUT
A PAST
(Mies vailla menneisyyttä)
Dir: Aki Kaurismaki 2002 Finland/Germany/France
1hour 37 minutes In Finnish with English subtitles
Aki Kaurismaki and his brother Mika are prolific filmmakers. Between them they have been responsible for some 20% of the entire output of the Finnish film industry since the early 1980's. Born on 4 April 1957, Kaurismaki did a wide variety of non-film related jobs before forming a production and distribution company called Villealpha. Many of his films last no more than 70 minutes and most are under 90 minutes.
Review by FilmFour.com: [Read The Review Here]
Like his earlier Drifting
Clouds (1996), Aki Kaurismäki's The Man Without A Past (Mies Vailla
Menneisyyttä) is set amidst Finland's unemployed underclass, and performs
a similar juggling act of style and tone: mixing zany comedy with violence,
misery with humanity, absurd, cut-out characters who nevertheless strike a chord
of empathy. It's a film so delicately judged as to almost defy description.
Though it won the Grand Prix prize in Cannes 2002, most critics agreed that
it was robbed of the Palme d'Or (by Polanski's The Pianist).
A man arrives in Helsinki and is immediately set upon by a gang, who rob and
savagely beat him. The doctors assume he is dead, until he leaps out of bed
and, his face still shrouded in bandages, leaves the hospital.
The mystery man (Peltola), who has lost his memory, settles with a group of
people barely surviving in makeshift homes, whose idea of a Friday night out
is a visit to the Salvation Army soup kitchen. It is here that he falls for
a volunteer, the dour-faced Irma (Outinen, who won best actress in Cannes 02).
As love blossoms, the stranger proves an energetic influence amongst the hard-up
enclave.
The film looks a treat, not least when the director sets dramatic close-ups of his characters against rich colour-saturated backgrounds. The actors provide the familiar, deadpan minimalist Kaurismäki performances that, while verging on the robotic, somehow manage to be extremely funny and moving.
Ultimately, the film is a warm, optimistic treatise on people mucking together. When a young electrician helps the newcomer, he is asked what he is owed. "If you see me face down in a ditch," he says, "turn me onto my back".
Verdict
Another touching and hilarious gem from the fabulous Finn, who has become one
of the most distinctive auteur directors in Europe.