Oh I’m gonna love this trilogy, at least if this film is any indication. This is exactly up my alley. Like, I already have a second home in this alley.

finland, 1986, finnish

AKI KAURISMÄKI


Shadows in Paradise

This type of existentialist semi-romantic semi-comedy is clearly not for everyone, but it’s most definitely for me. I absolutely love this type of story, one full of odd details and lots of ennui. In a sense this is Wes Anderson territory, only darker and less twee.

I don’t know that I understand why I enjoy it so much, but it has something to do with an acknowledgment of the absurdity of everyday life.

This particular film, which follows an odd love story between a trash collector and a supermarket checkout woman, has an additional interesting detail. Neither of the lovers is anything like conventionally attractive. If anything the man is better looking than the woman, but the film makes no attempt to pretty them up in really any way. This is especially noticeable for the woman, because that’s exactly what I would expect a film like this to do.

In Hollywood, even when a woman is supposedly plain looking, the actress is most certainly not. It’s almost revelatory to see an ordinary person get the same screen treatment that beautiful people usually do.