The Aki Kaurismaki Collection (Vol 2)

Star Review

Artificial Eye's second box set of films by the lugubrious Finnish director arrives hot on the heels of the first. Drifting Clouds (1996) may be Kaurismäki's single most satisfying feature. A married couple find themselves unexpectedly jobless on the same day and have to piece their lives back together in the face of seemingly universal indifference. Told that she's too old to start a new career, Ilona (Kaurismäki regular Kati Outinen) points out that she's just 38, only to hear: ‘Exactly. You could drop dead at any moment.’ The inexplicably hilarious Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana (1993) sees two painfully shy Finnish men accidentally teaming up with two garrulous Russian women for a road movie that consists largely of awkward conversational pauses in a series of run-down bars. It's shot in smoky black-and-white, as is Juha (1999), a remake of a famous 1920s Finnish romantic melodrama that's so faithful to its source that it too is a full-blown silent feature. Which means that it's only slightly less talkative than the rest of Kaurismäki's output.

Michael Brooke on 5th September 2007

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Film Description

Three films from acclaimed Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki. Features Take Care of your Scarf, Tatjana (1994), Drifting Clouds (1996) and Juha (1999).

Take Care of your Scarf, Tatjana sees Valto and Reino take to the road in search of coffee and vodka. They meet Russian Klaudia and Estonian Tatiana who are certainly interested in them, but what kind of reaction can they elicit from men who prefer staring at vodka bottles to talking?

Drifting Clouds is a gloriously deadpan comedy with bright colours, vivid compositions and quirky pop music. The first and most optimistic of Kaurismaki's 'losers' trilogy it features a couple made redundant within a month of each other who try to realise the dream of setting up their own restaurant.

Juha is a silent film in which a farmer's wife is seduced into running away from her cabbage farming husband by a city slicker, who then enslaves her in a brothel.

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Film Details

Cast

Kari Väänänen, Markku Peltola, Kati Outinen, Matti Pellonpaa, Mato Valtonen, Kirsi Tykkyläinen, Sakari Kuosmanen, André Wilms

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