Aki Kaurismäki

Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (Finnish: [ˈɑki

ˈkɑurismæki] ( listen); born 4 April 1957) is
a Finnish screenwriter and film director.
He is best known for the award-winning
Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a
Past (2002), Le Havre (2011) and The
Other Side of Hope (2017), as well as for
the mockumentary Leningrad Cowboys Go
America (1989). He is described as
Finland's best-known film director.[1]
 Aki Kaurismäki

Aki Kaurismäki at the 2017 Berlin Film

Festival

Born Aki Olavi Kaurismäki

4 April 1957
Orimattila, Finland

Occupation Film director,

producer, editor and
screenwriter

Awards Silver Bear

2016 The Other Side
of Hope
Cannes Grand Prix
2002 The Man
Without a Past
Cannes Ecumenical
Jury Special Mention
1996 Drifting Clouds
Cannes Prize of the
Ecumenical Jury
2002 The Man
Without a Past
FIPRESCI Award
2011 Le Havre
Jussi for Best Film
2006 Lights in the
Dusk
Jussi for Best Debut
Film
1983 Crime and
Punishment
Jussi for Best Script
1983 Crime and
Punishment
1996 Drifting Clouds
2002 The Man
Without a Past
2011 Le Havre
Jussi for Best
Direction
1990 The Match
Factory Girl
1992 La vie de
bohème
1996 Drifting Clouds
2002 The Man
Without a Past
 São Paulo Audience
Award for Best
Feature
1996 Drifting Clouds

Career
After graduating in media studies from the
University of Tampere, Kaurismäki worked
as a bricklayer, postman, and dish-washer,
long before pursuing his interest in
cinema, first as a critic, and later as a
screenwriter & director.[2] He started his
career as a co-screenwriter and actor in
films made by his older brother, Mika
Kaurismäki. He played the main role in
Mika's film The Liar (1981). Together they
founded the production company Villealfa
Filmproductions and later the Midnight
Sun Film Festival. His debut as an
independent director was Crime and
Punishment (1983), an adaptation of
Dostoyevsky's novel set in modern
Helsinki. He gained worldwide attention
with Leningrad Cowboys Go America
(1989). In 1989 he emigrated with his wife,
Paula Oinonen, to Portugal, saying "in all of
Helsinki there is no place left where I could
place my camera".[3] In 1992, the New York
Times film critic Vincent Canby declared
Kaurismäki “an original ... one of cinema’s
most distinctive and idiosyncratic new
artists, and possibly one of the most
serious.... [He] could well turn out to be the
seminal European filmmaker of the ’90s.”[4]

Aki Kaurismäki in 2012

Style
Kaurismäki is known for his extremely
minimalistic style. He has been called an
auteur,[5][6] since he writes, directs,
produces and usually edits the films
himself, and thus introduces his personal
"drollery and deadpan"[7] style. The
dialogue is famously laconic: the
articulation is unadorned, direct and in
strict standard language, without showing
much emotion or drama. Characters
frequently stand still and recite the
dialogue as if it consisted of eternal truths
or nothing at all. These characters rarely
smile, nod sadly, and smoke constantly.
The camera is usually still.[8] Events are
shown in a plain manner and characters
are usually left alone facing the
consequences. However, despite their
tragedies and setbacks, the characters
don't give up and eventually survive.[6]

Much of Kaurismäki's work is centred on

Helsinki, such as the film Calamari Union,
the Proletariat trilogy (Shadows in
Paradise, Ariel and The Match Factory Girl)
and the Finland trilogy (Drifting Clouds,
The Man Without a Past and Lights in the
Dusk). His vision of Helsinki is critical and
singularly unromantic. Indeed, his
characters often speak about how they
wish to get away from Helsinki. Some end
up in Mexico (Ariel), others in Estonia
(Shadows in Paradise, Calamari Union, and
Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana).
Kaurismäki also uses, on purpose,
characters, elements and settings that
hark back to the 1960s and 1970s.[6]

Kaurismäki has been influenced by the

French directors Jean-Pierre Melville,
Jacques Becker, and Robert Bresson, the
Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu, the
American director John Cassavetes, and
some critics have also inferred the
influence of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. His
movies have a humorous side that can
also be seen in the films of Jim Jarmusch,
who has a cameo in Kaurismäki's film
Leningrad Cowboys Go America.
Jarmusch used actors who have appeared
frequently in Kaurismäki's films in his own
film Night on Earth, part of which takes
place in Helsinki.

Kaurismäki has been a vocal critic of

digital cinematography, calling it "a devil's
invention"[9] and saying he "won't make a
digital film in this life".[10] In March 2014,
however, he reconciled, saying that "in
order to maintain my humble film oeuvre
accessible to a potential audience, I have
ended up in rendering it to digital in all its
present and several of its as yet unknown
forms."[9]
In Helsinki, Kaurismäki is the co-owner of
a complex, Andorra, that incorporates a
cinema, several bars and a pool hall
featuring a giant poster for Robert
Bresson’s L’Argent. It also features the
jukebox from Leningrad Cowboys Meet
Moses.[11]

Awards and protests

Kaurismäki's film Ariel (1988) was entered
into the 16th Moscow International Film
Festival where it won the Prix FIPRESCI.[12]

Kaurismäki's most acclaimed film has

been The Man Without a Past, which won
the Grand Prix and the Prize of the
Ecumenical Jury at the 2002 Cannes Film
Festival[13] and was nominated for an
Academy Award in the Best Foreign
Language Film category in 2003. However,
Kaurismäki refused to attend the Oscar
ceremony, asserting that he did not feel
like partying in a country that was in a
state of war. Kaurismäki's next film Lights
in the Dusk was also chosen to be
Finland's nominee for best foreign-
language film, but Kaurismäki again
boycotted the awards and refused the
nomination, as a protest against U.S.
President George W. Bush's foreign policy.
In 2002 Kaurismäki also boycotted the
40th New York Film Festival in a show of
solidarity with the Iranian director Abbas
Kiarostami, who was not given a US visa in
time for the festival.[14]

Kaurismäki's 2017 film The Other Side of

Hope won the Silver Bear for Best Director
award at the 67th Berlin International Film
Festival.[15] At the same festival he also
announced that it would be his last film as
a director.[16]

Political views
In December 2019, along with 42 other
leading cultural figures, Kaurismäki signed
a letter endorsing the Labour Party under
Jeremy Corbyn's leadership in the 2019
general election. The letter stated that
"Labour's election manifesto under Jeremy
Corbyn's leadership offers a
transformative plan that prioritises the
needs of people and the planet over
private profit and the vested interests of a
few."[17][18]

Kaurismäki deals with the European

migrant crisis without avoiding difficult
aspects of reality. "I would like to change
the Finns' attitude," said the filmmaker in
Berlin. When 20,000 Iraqis came to
Finland, many people in the country
"perceived that as an attack, like a war." He
was alarmed by their reaction and decided
to make a film dealing with the issue. "I
respect Mrs. Merkel," he also said of the
German chancellor, who was harshly
criticized for her open-door refugee policy,
"She is the only politician who seems to be
at least interested in the problem.[19]

In a 2007 interview with the film scholar

Andrew Nestingen, Kaurismäki said: "The
real disgrace here is Finland’s refugee
policy, which is shameful. We refuse
refugee status on the flimsiest of grounds
and send people back to secure places like
Darfur, Iraq, and Somalia. It’s perfectly
safe, go ahead. Our policy is a stain
among the Nordic nations. Shameful."[20]
The political context of Kaurismäki's work
is very much influenced by his own
attitudes towards Finland's treatment of
the working class. The social and political
ramifications of class structures and lack
of economic parity render lower class
workers as a replaceable cog in an
outdated machine.[21]

Filmography

Feature films E…

Crime and Punishment, 1983

Calamari Union, 1985
Shadows in Paradise, 1986
Hamlet Goes Business, 1987
Ariel, 1988
Likaiset kädet (Les mains sales), 1989
(production for Finnish TV)
Leningrad Cowboys Go America, 1989
The Match Factory Girl, 1990
I Hired a Contract Killer, 1990
La Vie de Bohème, 1992
Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana, 1994
Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses, 1994
Drifting Clouds, 1996
Juha, 1999
The Man Without a Past, 2002
Lights in the Dusk, 2006
 Le Havre, 2011[22]
The Other Side of Hope, 2017[23]

Documentaries E…

The Saimaa Gesture, 1981

Total Balalaika Show, 1994
Juice Leskinen & Grand Slam: Bluesia
Pieksämäen asemalla, 2013 (18 min)

Short films E…

Rocky VI, 1986 (8 min)

Thru the Wire, 1987 (6 min)
Rich Little Bitch, 1987 (6 min)
L.A. Woman, 1987 (5 min)
Those Were The Days, 1991 (5 min)
 These Boots, 1992 (5 min)
Oo aina ihminen, 1995 (5 min)
Välittäjä, 1996 (4 min)
Dogs Have No Hell, 2002 (10 minute
episode in the collaborative film Ten
Minutes Older - The Trumpet)
Bico, 2004 (5 minute episode in the
collaborative film Visions of Europe)
The Foundry, 2006 (3 minute episode in
the collaborative film To Each His Own
Cinema)
Tavern Man, 2012 (14 minute episode in
the collaborative film Centro Histórico)

As an actor E…
The Liar (1981)
The Worthless (1982)
Huhtikuu on kuukausista julmin (1983)
Apinan vuosi (1983)
Viimeiset rotanrahat (1985)
Calamari Union (1985)
Ylösnousemus (1985)
Shadows in Paradise (1986)
Rocky VI (1986)
I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)
Shit Happens (1992)
Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (1994)
Iron Horsemen (1994)
 Mustasilmä-Susanna ja lepakkoluolan
aarre (1996)
Aaltra (2004)
Vandaleyne (2015)

See also
Finnish cinema

References
1. C.G. (11 October 2017). "Explaining
the Finnish love of tango" . The
Economist.
2. Kumar, Arun (December 17, 2019).
"10 Essential Aki Kaurismaki Films" .
3. Ralph Eue and Linda Söffker (eds.):
Aki Kaurismäki (film: 13). Bertz +
Fischer Verlag 2006. Pp. 188-191
(German)
4. "Aki Kaurismäki Finds Laughter in the
Dark" . TIFF.
5. Andrew Nestingen (June 2013). The
Cinema of Aki Kaurismäki: Contrarian
Stories. Columbia University Press.
ISBN 978-0-231-85041-4.
. "FilmGoer - Suomi- ja
suomalaisuudenkuva Kaurismäen
veljesten tuotannossa" .
www.filmgoer.fi.
7. Peter Bradshaw (5 April 2012). "Le
Havre – review" . The Guardian.
. Ebert, Roger, The Man Without A
Past, Chicago Sun-Times, 27.6.2003.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps
/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20030627/REVIEWS/30627030
6/1023
9. "Aki Kaurismäki Crosses the Digital
Rubicon" . Antti Alanen: Film Diary. 28
March 2014. Retrieved 28 March
2014.
10. " "I am a filmmaker not a pixelmaker" -
An interview with Aki Kaurismäki" .
Phil on Film. 2 April 2012. Retrieved
28 March 2014.
11. Gilbey, Ryan (May 26, 2017). "Aki
Kaurismäki: 'I can watch Marvel
movies – if it's Sunday and I'm
hungover' " – via
www.theguardian.com.
12. "16th Moscow International Film
Festival (1989)" . MIFF. Archived
from the original on 2013-03-16.
Retrieved 2013-02-24.
13. "Festival de Cannes: The Man
Without a Past" . festival-
cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
14. Bohlen, Celestine (2002-10-01). "One
Visa Problem Costs a Festival Two
Filmmakers" . The New York Times.
Retrieved 2008-09-05.
15. Roxborough, Scott (18 February
2017). "Berlin: Aki Kaurismaki Wins
Best Director for 'The Other Side of
Hope' " . The Hollywood Reporter.
Retrieved 21 February 2017.
1 . "Legendary filmmaker Aki
Kaurismäki: There will be no more
films" . Yle Uutiset. 16 February 2017.
Retrieved 21 February 2017.
17. "Vote for hope and a decent future" .
The Guardian. 3 December 2019.
Retrieved 4 December 2019.
1 . Proctor, Kate (3 December 2019).
"Coogan and Klein lead cultural
figures backing Corbyn and Labour" .
The Guardian. Retrieved 4 December
2019.
19. "Filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki takes
unusual approach to refugee issue |
DW | 29.03.2017" . DW.COM.
20. Rafferty, Terrence (December 8,
2017). "The Finnish Director Making
the Most Interesting Movies About
Immigration" . The Atlantic.
21. laird, zoë (October 6, 2014). "An Aki
Kaurismaki Film" . Medium.
22. "Match Factory picks up Kaurismäki's
Le Havre" . Cineuropa - the best of
european cinema.
23. " "Aki Kaurismaki's Next Film 'The
Other Side Of Hope' Gearing Up" " .

Sources
Roger Connah K/K: A Couple of Finns
and Some Donald Ducks: Cinema and
 Society. VAPK Pub., Helsinki, 1991
Ródenas, Gabri (2008), "The Poetry of
Silence" in [1] , Orimattila Town Library.
Pilar Carrera: "El cineasta que vino del
frío (Bico-Visión)" ("The moviemaker
who came in from the cold"): [2]

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