The new film by Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki is full of hope and good feelings. Faithful to his philosophy and the aesthetics of his cinema, the experienced director gives us a masterpiece of perfect balance between drama and comedy, between sadness and joy, tears and laughter. The story presents two lonely characters: Ansa (Alma Pöysti), a supermarket cashier, who is fired and ends up working in a factory; and Holappa (Jussi Vatanen), a worker who drinks too much, even during his working hours, which causes him to be fired frequently. They both meet at karaoke and the spark of love jumps. After a date at the cinema, where they watch Jim Jarmusch's film The Dead Don't Die (2019), Ansa gives her phone to Holappa with the aim of seeing each other again. Unfortunate events and causalities will cause their relationship to be dominated by disagreements that, as usually happens in Kaurismäki's films, will make his characters have difficulty achieving something resembling happiness.
Fallen Leaves is the title of this film, which fits like a glove to the definition of the two protagonists who are like “fallen leaves” of a unpleasant autumn. Kaurismäki's staging, with the help of his frequent collaborator, production director Ville Grönroos, is truly sensational. All scenes contain a special tone that excites even the most incredulous viewer. His trusted director of photography, Timo Salminen, is in charge of creating the chiaroscuro environments so typical of his filmography and on this occasion, more refined if possible. The interpretation of the two main actors turns out to be a delight for the senses, managing to transmit all kinds of emotions, from sadness, loneliness, despair, to tenderness and love. All thanks to a direction of actors based on laconicism and restraint, which also has a wonderful example in the character of Huotari (Janne Hyytiäinen), author of many of the jokes and comic gags that make this film a very particular experience. , in a good way.
As in many works of his cinematographic career, Kaurismäki gives great importance and presence to music. His Leningrad Cowboys films are clear examples of this, in addition to the music documentaries he has directed. In this work at hand, the characters listen to it on the radio, at karaoke, on the old jukebox in a seedy bar, and even attend a live performance by the Finnish duo Maustetytöt, made up of sisters Anna and Kaisa. Karjalainen. Music thus becomes another character in this film.
Many themes are addressed in Fallen Leaves. Some are problematic like unemployment, poverty, alcoholism or loneliness and others are more pleasant like hope and love. The film turns out to be a compendium of how to make good cinema without having to indulge in demonstrations of virtuosity with the camera, elaborate baroque compositions or complicated temporal treatments. Furthermore, the film has a political background because throughout the story while Ansa listens to the radio, the news gives information about the war in Ukraine and the protagonist herself declares at the end that she is fed up with the war. Likewise, alcoholism is openly criticized, personified in the figure of the male protagonist and the cause of most of his problems. Fallen Leaves concentrates in its 81 minutes of footage everything that is good about Kaurismäki's cinema, in what is undoubtedly one of his best films. Wonderful!
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