In Aki Kaurismäki's films, similar stories are repeated over and over again.
Although the Russian-Ukrainian war is broadcast on the radio in real time, "Dead Leaves" still feels like an old movie from decades ago, except for the addition of some young faces, it is no different from many of the director's previous works, and even Alma Posti is like Katy Otinning's **person, which makes people feel familiar.
The floor lamp next to Katy Otinning in "The Other Side of Hope" appears in Alma Posti's home in "Dead Leaves".
Also reused in the new film "Dead Leaves" is this painting.
Kaurismäki's films don't replicate the real human world, and most of the decorations, visual styles, and soundtracks are a hodgepodge of multiple generations.
He once said that he wanted to make a film that could be understood by people from different cultures without subtitles, and that his loyal audience did come from all over the world, and that his work was regarded as an irreplaceable spiritual utopia.
The two stars in "Withered Leaves" are not amateurs, with Alma Posti starring in the biopic "Tove" and Jussi Vatanen in "The Polar Odyssey", and from day one, Kaurismäki has been working with professionally trained actors and guiding them out of the past with a unique filming process.
The space is simple, the background is simple, the props are economical, and the characters behave similarly, often a character, sitting in a corner drinking a cup of beer or coffee, eating small pieces of cake one bite after another, and there are no lines.
As we all know, Aki's films have a short average duration, almost no complex scenes or expensive productions, often omit key events favored by mainstream films, and restrain the desire to snoop the camera, and he is good at permutating and combining small and regular expressive elements extracted from the real world, and because of this easily recognizable and reproducible visual style, "minimalism" has become a widely accepted label for Korysmaki.
Although there are long-term collaborators with photographers, the composition of the picture is personally handled by Kaurismäki.
He would move chairs and fiddle with various objects on set. As a director who doesn't believe in storyboards, his shots are shot one after another, paying great attention to the logic and order of the story itself, coupled with the cherishing of 35mm film, each shot is shot as much as possible. In addition, he refuses to rehearse in advance, and the short script contains only some descriptions of the characters, their shapes, and their behaviors, all of which come from his strict requirements to avoid the loss of freshness caused by repetition and the excessive commitment of the actors to the performance.
The current vintage jukebox is a classic Kaurismaki element.
Because there are no superfluous shots, there is no room for editing, and the rhythm of the film has long been determined by the set scenes, patterned camera movements and actors' performance styles, but the director likes to bring a bunch of records into the editing room and choose ** materials as the background music for some scenes, so ** style and lyrics have the effect of directly conveying the director's point of view, and at the same time, jukeboxes, portable radios and vintage record players have an important place in many of Kaurismäki's films.
In addition, close-ups are ubiquitous, but they do not convey the emotions that are emphasized or amplified, and all the actors in the film share similar expressions, he agrees with Brecht's method of distancing, which limits the audience's contact with the thoughts and emotions of the characters, and never shies away from being deeply influenced by Bresson, in addition to the frequent use of space and sound outside the screen, so that the actors' faces are like masks, and he is more obsessed with the expressiveness of the characters' hands, extracting the ultimate drama from ordinary events, often only a small hint, The audience will be able to understand what is happening and have a premonition of the consequences.
The faces of the watcher and the watched.
The movie ends in "Dead Leaves", and the poster of Bresson's "Money" appears in the picture.
Expressive" hands are often used to show the characters' discoveries, reactions, plans, and intentions, and are especially evident in Twilight.
After the violent conflict, the characters are presented in a state of extreme physical vulnerability.
The long shots shot by Kaurismäki are usually static and do not reveal much visual information, the characters are just performing simple actions or not doing anything at all, and the camera does not peek into the inner eighteen martial arts of the characters, so we as viewers are in the same space as the camera and the characters, and we have to pay attention to what is happening for a long time, but keep a distance from it.
The audience understands the plot from the perspective of the camera, and the characters in the movie are supposed to simulate the state of the characters in a certain situation, and the camera imitates the characters and behavioral habits of the characters. In an interview, Alma Posti mentions a Finnish silence that seeks to be silent with someone, who does not speak, but who trusts each other. She considers Kaurismäki to be a master at portraying this trait of the Finns.
However, Kaurismäki's films never leave characters with distinct personalities, but more of a mold for the audience, and we always see vulnerable people and unlucky people who are implicated in irrelevant matters, who lose everything in an instant, but have little action.
I Hired a Professional Killer" uses a shot of moving a desk to exaggerate and accurately convey the cruelty and humiliation of "unemployment".
Just like the violence in "The Man Without a Past" and "The Liftoff" is fast and ugly, the sacking of a drunk man in "Dead Leaves" is also a common scene, and men always fall into an unconscious state because of external factors.
The temporary residence of the male protagonist in "The Man Without a Past" and "Dead Leaves" is a container-like place.
The women in "Floating Clouds" and "Dead Leaves" both experience a second ridiculous job loss, run into unreliable bosses, do exploitative jobs and close their shops.
Just like the coffee man in "Sit Down, Takhina", even when he returns to the sewing machine, the male character is suspended above life.
The male characters are usually outcasts and exiles, who have experienced unemployment, beatings, crimes, and become real proletarians, compared to women, who are always more awake, whose disappointments are not revealed in addictions, and who have more rational needs for a quality of life.
In Kaurismäki's films, a disappointed man and a disappointed woman are always different, and one of the differences between the men and women who fall in love in "Dead Leaves" comes from the difference in sensitivity to material needs, which was clearly expressed in "Bohemian Life".
Kaurismäki's insight into the situation of women is not without reason. They don't squander and live in the moment like men, but this is also the conservative perspective that continues to "Dead Leaves", where lonely female characters are discovered by male characters, who work hard and wait for men at the same time, and then are forgotten in the mundane routine because the male characters are trapped.
Sit firmly in the car, the two men in "Taxina", one is addicted to alcohol, the other is addicted to coffee, and it is normal for the male protagonist in "Dead Leaves" to have an addiction to alcohol.
The story of "Dead Leaves" has especially the shadow of "Floating Clouds" and "The Man Without a Past", the tension between the characters and society comes from whether to accept "forced change", and the tension with love lies in whether to decide "active change".
These are two valves, two forces, pulling a person's "hope" balance, when a person loses hope in life, but can not completely despair, how much hope to maintain in the depression has become a great trouble.
In "Withered Leaves", the background of the two is the poster of David Lean's "Seeing Each Other and Hate the Night", and its story is intertextual with "Withered Leaves".
But as an audience who loves his cinematic style, I'm even more fascinated by the recurring symbols of safety in his films, which I see as a tool for Aki Kaurismäki to re-quantify the perception of life.
Slaughterhouses, coal mines, factories, supermarkets are all places of exploitation stuffed with repetitive labor, living conditions reveal class differences and power relations, and when they flee from the oppressed and humiliated places to safety, they establish life and emotional order in new places, including cinemas, bars, restaurants, and ports that symbolize a new beginning, and the more unusual is the existence of prisons, where characters meet, and it is ironic that Kaurismäki makes prisons more secure than outside.
The assembly line of the cashier counter of "The Match Factory" and "Dead Leaves".
The cinema isn't a place to deliver happiness, but at least it makes people feel safe.
At the same time, the audience can't stop the many "objects" with unique temperaments: cutlery, cups, tea bags, cigarette cases, clothes, shipping containers, vinyl records, second-hand cars — and dogs that Mrs. Kaurismäki has asked to be included in every film.
Of course, it also includes the way in which the characters in the movies touch or replace all of this, such as the frequent car selling plots and rough bargaining, counting coins to buy beer and coffee, used tea bags, and installment loans to buy televisions. Kaurismäki creatively uses readymade products to construct his own films, always presenting new character relationships and character states.
I Hired a Professional Killer", a job was changed for a gold watch, which cost five pounds, and an assassination list was a thousand pounds, and the bill was placed next to the ** and a pistol.
I ordered a complimentary cup of water and secretly took out the brewed tea bag.
Dead Leaves" and "Twilight Light".
In "Withered Leaves", the heroine just lost her job, her salary was empty, she was hungry, but the next second she sat in the restaurant with the male protagonist, had a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll, and went to watch a movie after a full stomach, the occurrence of these events was calm and average, and there was no explanation for "happening", perhaps because the pain of the characters is always deeper than the happiness ravine, and there is a sense of miracle when simple good things come.
The dating scene in "Withered Leaves", "buy an extra plate" and "the details of pouring sparkling wine" are expressed, illustrating the heroine's importance of dating and her decision to change her personal life.
In "Bohemian Life", a penniless man snatches the dog's snacks and throws them into the pot in order to cook a pot of soup for the woman he likes.
Kaurismäki's films have always distanced themselves from realism, and it is difficult to write in the face of real cruelty.
As in "Le Havre", he is aware of the deaths of many immigrants, but does not go in this direction. In recent years, Kaurismäki's films have slipped more and more into fairy-tale naivety, he processes a lot of information, and even does a lot of research, but he still makes a time capsule for the world, giving the impression of an old man who likes to cut newspapers and takes the trouble to save humanity, and his desire to express politics is piled up and exploded into a strange soft heart.
The constant news on the radio was just a cacophony of anxious characters, and she was always switching channels.
Not only to avoid facing naked cruelty, but also to stubbornly create a decent ending, this is a dream, but also a fairy tale, watching Kaurismäki's film, like waking up and glad that I had a nightmare that not so bad, he is to let the audience see the extreme humanity inspired by the crisis, there is the ultimate despicability is the greatness of human nature, and he is happy to see the beautiful qualities being displayed, because these qualities are not common.
Kaurismäki's attitude towards love stories is the same, if "Dead Leaves" does not have a love story, it has to be supported by a strong critical perspective, and he does not want a film to be so cruel.
The dogs in the movie are very well-behaved, you don't know how many owners they have had, but they are friendly to strangers and will always be left by their kind owners in the end.
Kaurismäki once said, "When all hope is lost, there is no reason to be pessimistic." ”
The background color of the characters in "Withered Leaves" is kind, and we who have witnessed such characters struggling in a cruel life and gradually rising their moral hearts are kind for the time being, and a lonely and tired heart has a home.
the end