Kuolleet lehdet (2023)'s comments

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Scheffel

Fallen Leaves is basically the essence of everything that Kaurismäki is about. Two working class people falling in love, awkwardly. A dog. Lots of vodka and beer. Rock'n'roll and chanson. Men in open shirts and leather jackets. And of course, production design and wardrobe in claret red, teal blue and bottle green. To me that's the best kind of Kaurismäki that I can imagine.

6 months 2 weeks ago

johannez1

What a beautiful movie, melancholy, yet in the end still striking a somewhat hopeful tone. Kaurismäki's Finland looks and feels almost more like the 60s/70s than the modern day. You wouldn't think from watching this that the Finns are supposedly the happiest people in the world.

And of course it's an American saying that the war in Ukraine is "wedged in". In Europe, the war is still very much a tangible reality, something ever present, as it is in this film as well. It's easier to forget about in California than it is here.

Finland of course also borders the aggressor in said war. The war isn't something Kaurismäki wedged into the story out of nowhere, it is there because that is the state of the world, even Kaurismäki's slightly off-kilter one.

3 months 3 weeks ago

airi86ja

One of the most lovely films I've seen lately. Scandinavian, slow and so true!

2 months ago

Ebbywebby

Well, that was just wonderful. One of Kaurismaki's best. The only thing I didn't like is how it awkwardly wedged in material about the Ukraine war.

5 months ago

Ebbywebby

What a remarkably dickish post from johannez1. I can assure him that if a Southern California-based romance inserted radio broadcasts every 20 minutes or so about illegal border crossings that weren't part of the story at all otherwise, I'd make the same sort of objection.

If Kaurismaki wanted to make a movie about the Ukraine war, he should have gone straight into that. Rather than just saying "BTW, war is happening" now and then. Ooh, powerful statement. Not to mention the contrivance of scripting a radio station that gives perfectly timed war updates whenever you switch it on. These moments also will date the film, needlessly.

2 months ago