In modern-day Helsinki, Ansa and Holappa, two lonely souls in search of their first love, meet by chance in a local karaoke bar. However, the pair’s path to happiness is beset by numerous obstacles – from lost phone numbers to mistaken addresses, alcoholism, and a charming stray dog. Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival.
EN
“Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves, winner of the Jury Prize, sees the Finnish filmmaker behind Le Havre and, more recently, The Other Side of Hope suggesting love as the one thing that makes life worth living in our cruel world. Capitalism rules the lives of Ansa (Alma Poysti) and Holappa (Jussi Vatanen), who lose their jobs and try to find new ones while, on the other side of the world, the Ukrainian invasion is raging on. Alcoholism, loneliness, and doubt are the results of this difficult context, but solace can be found in a few places: listening to the radio, going to the karaoke bar (a national sport in Finland), and, of course, going to the cinema. All of those things make each day more tolerable – but so does meeting someone who will do those things with you. Kaurismaki has made more overtly political films, but Fallen Leaves is the distillation of all that makes his work so powerful. Humble but playful with his usual beautifully composed images, acknowledging that answers are hard to come by but offering some respite, the filmmaker offers an optimism grounded in reality – a poetry born out of difficulty.”
Manuela Lazic1
“In keeping with the romantic notion of Fallen Leaves as a late – or, as Kaurismäki has deemed it, ‘lost’ –entry in a beloved series, it’s appropriate that the film it would most resemble is the first in that cycle. Similarly centred on a supermarket clerk and a lowly day labourer (in this case a garbageman), Shadows in Paradise was Kaurismäki’s first openly personal work, applying the postmodern stylings and off-kilter tone of his earlier films to more topical concerns centered on the downtrodden and dispossessed. Fallen Leaves likewise opts for optimism where the trilogy grew increasingly fatalistic (even by Kaurismäki’s standards, the ending of The Match Factory Girl is especially bleak), restoring a bit of light to the project and concluding, like Shadows in Paradise, with a gesture of affection as the characters embark on a new chapter in their lives. Like the best Kaurismäki films, Fallen Leaves is invested with an unerring faith in humanity and a singular attentiveness to the beauty of life’s most unassuming moments. In this context, the name of Ansa’s dog, which she rescues from certain death late in the film, is especially poignant: Charlie Chaplin. Indeed, in few filmographies other than Chaplin’s can one find such comparable tragicomic truths.”
Jordan Cronk2
- 1Manuela Lazic, “The Best Movies From the 2023 Cannes Film Festival,” 31 May 2023 The Ringer.
- 2Jordan Cronk, “TIFF 2023 | Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland/Germany) — Centrepiece,” Cinema Scope 95 (Summer 2023).
FR
« Tous les grands cinéastes sont anachroniques, puisqu’ils tordent, plient, déplient et réinventent du temps, ce qui est la fonction la plus spécifique du cinéma, mais Kaurismäki va plus loin : faisant de l’anachronisme l’essence même de sa poétique, il persiste dans l’idée que dans les domaines esthétique, politique ou sentimental, rien ne change fondamentalement. Il croit toujours à la lutte des classes et la représente frontalement, en s’opposant au refrain contemporain répétant qu’elle aurait pris d’autres formes dans une nouvelle complexité du monde qui l’aurait résorbée. La franchise, la clarté et Ie tranchant de son cinéma consistent à ne pas se laisser gagner par Ie relativisme de l’ambiguïté, Ie floutage du consensus, ou l’illisibilité politique entretenue par Ie néo-libéralisme (tous les « ni-ni » et les « en même temp »). Et, nous démontre ce grand amateur de cinéma muet, il n’y a pas plus de raisons de cesser de croire à la lutte des classes qu’il n’y en a pour ne pas continuer à vouloir filmer les affaires humaines aussi simplement, directement et sentimentalement que Chaplin, Murnau ou Borzage, c’est-à-dire avec la plus cruelle lucidité accordée à l’humanisme Ie plus ingénu. »
Marcos Uzal1
- 1Marcos Uzal, “Les Feuilles mortes d’Aki Kaurismäki. La fortune des démunis,” Cahiers du Cinéma 801 (septembre 2023).
