AKI KAURISMÄKI
The Match Factory Girl
There was a moment while watching this film that I suddenly had the thought that the attitudes about life and humor presented here reminded me somewhat of the upper midwest. I quickly searched to learn that, yes, there is a large contingent of folk of Finnish descent living there. It all made so much sense.
It’s something about the cold spare nature of people who live in a cold dark place. This film isn’t just brutal in its story, but the entire thing exists in an almost oppressive well of silence. No one talks to each other. Barely a world is ever spoken, and certainly none that aren’t absolutely needed. It could be overwhelming but luckily for me I find the humor and joy in this style.
I’m not sure why. Probably for a similar reason that sad songs make me happy. Aki Kaurismäki is definitely not a filmmaker for everyone, but he definitely is a filmmaker for me. I loved this entire set of films, each more dark and sour than the previous. But to call them dark, or sour, or brutal, or any of the other words that I and others have used, is to misunderstand them. These are remarkably humanist and uplifting stories.
Where Kaurismäki excels is at stripping down absolutely everything that isn’t needed in a story, leaving just the essentials behind. This is not a long film, but the entire story gets told. There’s nothing else to add so nothing else is added. It is, from what I understand, a particularly Finnish sensibility. No small talk. Nothing extraneous or unneeded. I suspect that I’m far too chatty to fit into that sort of society, but on film I get it.