Notes on Kaurismäki's "Drifting clouds" movie
Sep 25th 2009 05:05
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Some time ago I watched a film called "Drifting clouds" by Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki.
Here are some notes on it.
My most remarkable impression:
This feeling of business closely connected to people's life. When an
old lady was forced to sell her restaurant, I almost cried - she spent
all her life managing the place, it looked as if her soul was in it.
The staff also worked there for years, it was the place where no one
is getting fired, ever. I was afraid that the manager would die from
heart attack the day after new owner moved in.
What seemed strange to me:
Relationship between the married couple. They look very unemotional
and almost never talk. It looks like their marriage is very unromantic
- there are no hugs, and even when they kiss it's more like brother
and sister type. But still, they never shout at each other, never
blame each other when the situation is bad, even if there is a reason
for shouting. They understand each other's feelings very good without
words. Their marriage looks very stable and comforting. I am somehow
inclined to think that when people lose sexual drive, they become mad
at each other and their relationship collapses. This movie gives
another view of marriage, more optimistic, and it looks like a relief
for me.
On genre:
It is a realistic movie about losing job and coping with it. It is
gives many details of everyday routines. Although this details are
remarkable, the plot is rather boring. At the end you feel a bit
disappointed by the lack of events. And they are all damn serious, no
sense of humor at all. It is more like a documentary which gives the
view of Helsinki of those years, not a fiction with entertaining plot.
General impression:
Favorable. I voted 8 of 10. I recommend this movie to anyone who likes European non-action slow movies with something to think about.
Here are some notes on it.
My most remarkable impression:
This feeling of business closely connected to people's life. When an
old lady was forced to sell her restaurant, I almost cried - she spent
all her life managing the place, it looked as if her soul was in it.
The staff also worked there for years, it was the place where no one
is getting fired, ever. I was afraid that the manager would die from
heart attack the day after new owner moved in.
What seemed strange to me:
Relationship between the married couple. They look very unemotional
and almost never talk. It looks like their marriage is very unromantic
- there are no hugs, and even when they kiss it's more like brother
and sister type. But still, they never shout at each other, never
blame each other when the situation is bad, even if there is a reason
for shouting. They understand each other's feelings very good without
words. Their marriage looks very stable and comforting. I am somehow
inclined to think that when people lose sexual drive, they become mad
at each other and their relationship collapses. This movie gives
another view of marriage, more optimistic, and it looks like a relief
for me.
On genre:
It is a realistic movie about losing job and coping with it. It is
gives many details of everyday routines. Although this details are
remarkable, the plot is rather boring. At the end you feel a bit
disappointed by the lack of events. And they are all damn serious, no
sense of humor at all. It is more like a documentary which gives the
view of Helsinki of those years, not a fiction with entertaining plot.
General impression:
Favorable. I voted 8 of 10. I recommend this movie to anyone who likes European non-action slow movies with something to think about.
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One of my favourite films along with many other Kaurismäki's films and for example "Kuckoo" (Kukushka) by the Russian film maker Aleksandr Rogozhkin.
Very interesting description about your thoughts on the film and the themes. Though I dare to disagree with you about the genre and other definitions. It should not be taken only as a documentary about Helsinki and the time (beginning/mid of the 1990's when Finland was recovering from a deep economic regression with record unemployment). I can find a lot of humour and emotions in the film. You just need to watch the film with different eyes than you watch typical Hollywood and other productions. Usually in films emotions and all effects are exaggerated - overacted. Kaurismäki does the contrary: he tunes the emotions and all action to minimum, almost makes them invisible but they still are there. They are just told differently, not by face or words but by the feeling that are created by scenes of the film (lights, shadows, objects, music, smoking cigarettes ...). So, I see this film very romantic and beautiful. Many of it's scenes can bring tears in my eyes.
The interpretation "when people lose sexual drive, they become mad at each other and their relationship collapses", no doubt is what we are fed with by all the over-erotic crap all the time and made us believe in it. No, I claim that most of the world's marriages are based on something totally different than a wild sexual drive.
So, thank you Olga, you offered much to think about.
And finally I would like to present the most beautiful scene of the film. As the text copied the text from youtube film says it:
"A scene from Aki Kaurismäki's masterpiece, Drifting Clouds (Kauas pilvet karkaavat), in which Kati Outinen's character Ilona waves her husband off to his new job and takes a moment to, we assume, mourn for her dead son. In reality, this is the great director's tribute to one of his most used and loved character actors, Matti Pellonpää, who sadly died shortly before the filming of this film. The child in the photograph is Pellonpää as a child. A beautiful statement directed at a wonderful actor, and something that anyone who's seen and appreciated the majority of Kaurismäki's, and Pellonpää's, works can appreciate and feel."