Le Havre

Aki Kaurismaki, born in 1957, grew up in “the age terrorized by television,” and has tried and managed to stick totally to the inseparable realities of the real world and the “deep screen” that only 35mm film – light against the electronic machinations, the beauty of artisan tradition against technological overkill – makes possible. He never used any other material, least of all video, and he is simply very proud for having joined in the continuity and tradition of “real cinema.” His minimalist style is all his own (and that of the great cinematographer of all his films, Timo Salminen); he never entered the Finnish Film School (as he was suspected of being “too cynical”). At the same time his films are full of quotations (he claims Juhamust have more than a hundred), but always invisible, a part of a constant dialogue where particles of film culture reveal realities of the human environment, society and psyche as it is now, and as it was during the tender years of Aki’s childhood; only vaguely known to foreign spectators, there is always an overwhelming presence of Finnish typicalities, “objects of love” and references to well-known sources of Finnish literary evergreens, painting or of course popular music (or our beloved films).

1981 The Saimaa Gesture (co-direction: Mika Kaurismaki)
1983 Rikos Ja Rangaistus / Crime and Punishment /
1985 Calamari Union
1986 Varjoja Paratiisissa / Shadows in Paradise
1986 Rocky VI (short)
1987 Hamlet Liikemaailmassa / Hamlet Goes Business /
1987 Thru the Wire (short)
1987 Rich Little Bitch (short)
1988 Ariel
1988 L.A. Woman (μμ/short)
1989 Leningrad Cowboys Go America /
1989 Dirty Hands (TV)
1989 Tulitikkutehtaan Tytto / The Match Factory Girl
1990 I Hired a Contract Killer
1991 La Vie de Boheme
1991 Those Were the Days (short)
1992 These Boots (short)
1993 Total Balalaika Show (doc)
1993 Pida Huivista Kiinni, Tatjana / Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana
1993 Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses
1996 Kauas Pilvet Karkaavat / Drifting Clouds
1999 Juha
2002 Dogs Have No Hell (short)
2002 Mies Vailla Menneisyytta / The Man without a Past
2004 Bico (short)
2006 Laitakaupungin Valot / Lights in the Dusk
2007 The Foundry (short)
2011 Le Havre
2012 El centro historico (co-direction: Pedro Costa, Victor Erice, Manoel de Oliveira)