Library Aki Kaurismäki

Aki Kaurismäki by Peter van Bagh

The vision of Aki Kaurismäki is always two-fold. Both time and places - Ariel was "dedicated to the memory of Finnish reality" - are dreamlike, dense cityscapes that Aki Kaurismäki manages to create in his films and that basically do not have an equivalent in "real life". This basic fact goes through all his films that can be roughly divided into three or four genres ...

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Biography

Aki Kaurismäki, born in 1957, grew up into "the age terrorized by the television", and has tried and managed to stick totally to the inseparable realities of the real world and the "deep screen" that only the 35 mm film - light against the electronic machinations, the beauty of artisan tradition against technological overkill - makes possible ...

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Calamari Union

Calamari Union

by Aki Kaurismäki

This so-called "film" is a rather manic story of seventeen young braves who, spitting in the face of all kind of dangers, don their dark glasses and set off on a desperate trek from the working-class quarter of town to the Eldorado of the fashionable waterfront.

Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishment

by Aki Kaurismäki

»Crime and Punishment« is a modern adaptation of the classical crime story by F.M. Dostoevsky - but faithful in its spirit to the original.

Fallen Leaves

Fallen Leaves

by Aki Kaurismäki

FALLEN LEAVES tells the story of two lonely people who meet each other by chance in the Helsinki night and try to find the first, only, and ultimate love of their lives.

Hamlet goes Business

Hamlet goes Business

by Aki Kaurismäki

A bloody power-struggle has taken place at the top of a large company. Who murdered the general director? Will the mills be sold in exchange for the world-monopoly in rubber-ducks? Where is the driver's cap?

I hired a Contract Killer

I hired a Contract Killer

by Aki Kaurismäki

Henri Boulanger wants to die, for reasons too personal to be explained here. Since his helpless attempts to end his days go down the drain, he ends up hiring a contract killer to send him to happier rubber-stamping grounds.

Juha

Juha

by Aki Kaurismäki

I had planned to film »Juha« almost as long as we had planned to make a silent movie with composer Anssi Tikanmäki. One day we were clever enough to put the ideas together and the catastrophe was ready.

L.A. Woman

L.A. Woman

by Aki Kaurismäki

The Leningrad Cowboys perform a cover of the famous song by The Doors.

La Vie de Bohème

La Vie de Bohème

by Aki Kaurismäki

Rodolfo, a refugee from Albania and a great painter, Marcel, a great French poet, and Schaunard, a great Irish composer, become acquainted by chance while chasing each on the same battlefield, by every imaginable means, a beast called the fivefranc coin.

Le Havre

Le Havre

by Aki Kaurismäki

The story of a shoeshiner, who tries to save a refugee child.

Leningrad Cowboys Go America

Leningrad Cowboys Go America

by Aki Kaurismäki

Somewhere in the tundra, in no-man's land, lives the worst rock'n'roll band in the world, an outfit with no audience and absolutely no commercial potential. And so they decide to bury their national sentiments and go to the United States ...

Leningrad Cowboys meet Moses

Leningrad Cowboys meet Moses

by Aki Kaurismäki

After years of fame and misfortune in Mexico, the members of the worst rock'n'roll band in the world set off back home, to their native village in Siberia. They are guided by Vladimir, their former manager, who now calls himself Moses.

Rich Little Bitch

Rich Little Bitch

by Aki Kaurismäki

"Melrose" performing their song "Rich Little Bitch", filmed during the shoot of »Hamlet goes business«.

Rocky VI

Rocky VI

by Aki Kaurismäki

Rocky defends the Free World, fights against the Siberian boxer Igor - and loses.

Take Care of your Scarf, Tatjana

Take Care of your Scarf, Tatjana

by Aki Kaurismäki

»Take Care of your Scarf« - Tatjana« is a road-movie about the unbelievable adventures of two Finnish men, driving a black Volga station wagon through Southern Finland some time in the mid-sixties.

The Foundry

The Foundry

by Aki Kaurismäki

The men work in the foundry day and night. Finally they get hungry.

The Looser Trilogy: Drifting Clouds

The Looser Trilogy: Drifting Clouds

by Aki Kaurismäki

»Drifting Clouds« is a film about unemployment with a happy ending.

The Looser Trilogy: Lights in the Dusk

The Looser Trilogy: Lights in the Dusk

by Aki Kaurismäki

»Lights in the dusk« concludes the trilogy began by the »Drifting Clouds« and the »The Man Without a Past«. Where the trilogy's first film was about unemployment and the second about homelessness, the theme of »Lights in the dusk« is loneliness.

The Looser Trilogy: The Man without a Past

The Looser Trilogy: The Man without a Past

by Aki Kaurismäki

»The Man without a Past« delivers a new edge to the story that stirred viewers all around the world in »Drifting Clouds«.

The Other Side of Hope

The Other Side of Hope

by Aki Kaurismäki

The paths of a Syrian refugee and a Finnish travelling salesman cross in the asphalt jungle called Helsinki.

The Working Class Trilogy: Ariel

The Working Class Trilogy: Ariel

by Aki Kaurismäki

»Ariel« is dedicated to the memory of Finnish reality. The film begins as an unemployment story, picking up romantic overtones before turning into a description of prison life completed with a break-out, and finally becoming a crime tale.

The Working Class Trilogy: Shadows in Paradise

The Working Class Trilogy: Shadows in Paradise

by Aki Kaurismäki

The terrifying mouth of a garbage crusher, the sea crushing upon the shore, a few kisses and the tragicomic life in a metropolis. »Shadows in Paradise« tells the love story of a garbage truck driver and a supermarket cashier.

The Working Class Trilogy: The Match Factory Girl

The Working Class Trilogy: The Match Factory Girl

by Aki Kaurismäki

Suddenly, last spring, I was running aimlessly round the city, talking too much and twisting and shaking my head in the most ridiculous way. The next day I spent lying silently under my bed and hated myself bitterly. In revenge I decided to make a film that will make Robert Bresson seem like a director of epic action pictures.

These Boots

These Boots

by Aki Kaurismäki

The history of Finland 1950-69 seen through the eyes of a Leningrad Cowboy as a child. The Leningrad Cowboys version of "These Boots are made for walking" by Nancy Sinatra.

Those were the Days

Those were the Days

by Aki Kaurismäki

Set in Paris, The Leningrad Cowboys perfom their version of the known song: A solitary man leading a donkey is turned away at a restaurant door, he and the beast walk down to "La Maison du Vin" where, despite a "no donkeys" sign, they enter and the man proceeds to feed the donkey.

Thru the Wire

Thru the Wire

by Aki Kaurismäki

Nicky escapes from a prison somewhere between Alabama and Utah - sometime in the future. He looks for his girl in various bars and hotels, but all that he sees in his new freedom is that no one cares for the future of human culture.

Total Balalaika Show

Total Balalaika Show

by Aki Kaurismäki

»Total Balalaika Show« is a documentary on the concert of the "Leningrad Cowboys" and the "Alexandrov Red Army Ensemble", an extraordinary, unforgettable encounter of the old and the new, of East and West.