Shadows in Paradise (1986)
(Varjoja paratiisissa)
Country: FIN
Technical: col 74m
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Cast: Matti Pellonpää, Kati Outinen, Sakari Kuosmanen, Esko Nikkari
Synopsis:
A refuse collector loses his workmate and courts a checkout girl who loses her job. But she shuns attachment and he cannot channel his emotions.
Review:
The first in what has come to be known as the master's 'Proletarian Trilogy', this is a disappointing affair. The protagonists are so affectless and inert as to be enigmas, their behaviour at times inexplicable, and certainly unleavened by humour: hardly a great advert for the working classes. The pared down mise-en-scène and simple storytelling techniques are de rigueur, but the escape ending parts company with reality without convincing us to tag along, in contrast with that of Renoir's Les bas-fonds, for example.
(Varjoja paratiisissa)
Country: FIN
Technical: col 74m
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Cast: Matti Pellonpää, Kati Outinen, Sakari Kuosmanen, Esko Nikkari
Synopsis:
A refuse collector loses his workmate and courts a checkout girl who loses her job. But she shuns attachment and he cannot channel his emotions.
Review:
The first in what has come to be known as the master's 'Proletarian Trilogy', this is a disappointing affair. The protagonists are so affectless and inert as to be enigmas, their behaviour at times inexplicable, and certainly unleavened by humour: hardly a great advert for the working classes. The pared down mise-en-scène and simple storytelling techniques are de rigueur, but the escape ending parts company with reality without convincing us to tag along, in contrast with that of Renoir's Les bas-fonds, for example.
(Varjoja paratiisissa)
Country: FIN
Technical: col 74m
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Cast: Matti Pellonpää, Kati Outinen, Sakari Kuosmanen, Esko Nikkari
Synopsis:
A refuse collector loses his workmate and courts a checkout girl who loses her job. But she shuns attachment and he cannot channel his emotions.
Review:
The first in what has come to be known as the master's 'Proletarian Trilogy', this is a disappointing affair. The protagonists are so affectless and inert as to be enigmas, their behaviour at times inexplicable, and certainly unleavened by humour: hardly a great advert for the working classes. The pared down mise-en-scène and simple storytelling techniques are de rigueur, but the escape ending parts company with reality without convincing us to tag along, in contrast with that of Renoir's Les bas-fonds, for example.