Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre is a charming and engrossing fable – a sort of Fractured Fairy Tale for adults – that interprets one of today’s most contentious political issues through the director’s distinctly eccentric prism. A strong Palme d’Or contender at Cannes in 2011, Le Havre relocates classic Kaurismäki production elements from Finland to a harbor town in northern France. And, not surprisingly, the veteran director finds this sleepy Britannic burg as rife with idiosyncrasy as any snowbound suburb of Helsinki. Under thick gray clouds, Kaurismäki’s diorama of quirky characters gradually meander their way to moments of epiphany and catharsis, while viewers marvel at the director’s mystical moments of compassionate humanity and playful cinematic homage.
The film takes us through a couple of weeks in the life of Marcel Marx (Andrè Wilms), an unremarkable 60-ish shoe shiner who eeks out a living at the town’s bustling train station.
The film takes us through a couple of weeks in the life of Marcel Marx (Andrè Wilms), an unremarkable 60-ish shoe shiner who eeks out a living at the town’s bustling train station.
- 8/7/2012
- by David Anderson
- IONCINEMA.com
Chicago – It takes a French village in the sweet, optimistic, good-natured “Le Havre,” a film about a kind man who does something to help another and how the community doesn’t just rally around him but the world produces a miracle for him in the end. It is such a kind-hearted film that suggests without cynicism that doing good not only will bring more good but will essentially be supported by the world around you. Incredibly well-made and memorable, “Le Havre” is a stellar modern addition to The Criterion Collection.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Aki Kaurismaki takes his unique eye to the title city in the North of France for this tale of an immigrant boy who is first protected by a kind gentleman and then essentially guarded by the entire community. Sweet, surprising, smart, and very subtle, “Le Havre” is a gentle film that builds its story through character, setting, and humanity...
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Aki Kaurismaki takes his unique eye to the title city in the North of France for this tale of an immigrant boy who is first protected by a kind gentleman and then essentially guarded by the entire community. Sweet, surprising, smart, and very subtle, “Le Havre” is a gentle film that builds its story through character, setting, and humanity...
- 8/6/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Following last week’s release of The Players, with Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin (The Artist) co-starring in the lead, we have a handful of new international films reaching the shelves this week, with three more films from France and two from Asia leading the pack.
We’ve also got a few excellent films to add to Play.com’s exclusive new Blu-ray Steelbook releases, in tandem with Universal’s 100th Anniversary, so with that in mind:
My picks of the week:
Shion Sono’s Himizu & David and Stéphane Foenkinos’ Delicacy
With the Blu-ray Steelbook re-release of Serenity a must-buy for fans/collectors.
Himizu Iframe Embed for Youtube
DVD and Blu-ray
Debuting at the Venice Film Festival last year, where it came away with the Marcello Mastroianni Award, Shion Sono’s Himizu has been receiving critical acclaim ever since in its film festivals tour ever since. The film was given a limited...
We’ve also got a few excellent films to add to Play.com’s exclusive new Blu-ray Steelbook releases, in tandem with Universal’s 100th Anniversary, so with that in mind:
My picks of the week:
Shion Sono’s Himizu & David and Stéphane Foenkinos’ Delicacy
With the Blu-ray Steelbook re-release of Serenity a must-buy for fans/collectors.
Himizu Iframe Embed for Youtube
DVD and Blu-ray
Debuting at the Venice Film Festival last year, where it came away with the Marcello Mastroianni Award, Shion Sono’s Himizu has been receiving critical acclaim ever since in its film festivals tour ever since. The film was given a limited...
- 8/6/2012
- by Kenji Lloyd
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
By Allen Gardner
A Separation (Sony) This drama from Iran won the 2011 Best Foreign Film Oscar, telling the story of a couple who file for a legal separation, with the wife pushing for a divorce. He won’t leave his Alzheimer’s-afflicted father behind, while she is wanting to take their young daughter with her to the United States. After a series of misunderstandings, threats and legal actions, the couple find that there is more than just their marriage that’s on the line. Hyper-realistic to a fault, reminiscent of the neo-realist films that came out of post-ww II Europe, but also repressive and redundant in the extreme, with the characters seeming to throw the same temper tantrum for two hours straight while the story, meanwhile, seems stalled. Wildly overpraised film is a real litmus test, with viewers seeming to be staunch defenders or equally impassioned detractors. It did win an Oscar,...
A Separation (Sony) This drama from Iran won the 2011 Best Foreign Film Oscar, telling the story of a couple who file for a legal separation, with the wife pushing for a divorce. He won’t leave his Alzheimer’s-afflicted father behind, while she is wanting to take their young daughter with her to the United States. After a series of misunderstandings, threats and legal actions, the couple find that there is more than just their marriage that’s on the line. Hyper-realistic to a fault, reminiscent of the neo-realist films that came out of post-ww II Europe, but also repressive and redundant in the extreme, with the characters seeming to throw the same temper tantrum for two hours straight while the story, meanwhile, seems stalled. Wildly overpraised film is a real litmus test, with viewers seeming to be staunch defenders or equally impassioned detractors. It did win an Oscar,...
- 8/1/2012
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
by Vadim Rizov
Fatalist Finn Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre is a comic-strip-colored take on France's inability to find a humane response to an illegal immigrant influx. The story follows the familiar contours of old-man-softened-by-young-boy sagas: shoeshiner Marcel Marx (André Wilms) helps stranded Gabonese youth Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) evade the law and make it to London. Soothing turquoise paint covers the walls, natural light floods the outdoors and Kaurismäki's usual taciturn deadpan comedy is swapped out for brisk dialogue bonding sessions. It's a change of pace for Kaurismäki, who—like the early work of aesthetic fellow traveler/friend Jim Jarmusch—prefers jokes that don't noticeably raise the surface temperature. Having effectively exhausted this mode into self-parody in his last feature (2006's Lights in the Dusk), Le Havre represents a major, much-needed artistic reset.
Marcel was a feckless unpublished writer in Kaurismäki's 1992 travesty of French artistic dissolution La Vie de Boheme.
Fatalist Finn Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre is a comic-strip-colored take on France's inability to find a humane response to an illegal immigrant influx. The story follows the familiar contours of old-man-softened-by-young-boy sagas: shoeshiner Marcel Marx (André Wilms) helps stranded Gabonese youth Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) evade the law and make it to London. Soothing turquoise paint covers the walls, natural light floods the outdoors and Kaurismäki's usual taciturn deadpan comedy is swapped out for brisk dialogue bonding sessions. It's a change of pace for Kaurismäki, who—like the early work of aesthetic fellow traveler/friend Jim Jarmusch—prefers jokes that don't noticeably raise the surface temperature. Having effectively exhausted this mode into self-parody in his last feature (2006's Lights in the Dusk), Le Havre represents a major, much-needed artistic reset.
Marcel was a feckless unpublished writer in Kaurismäki's 1992 travesty of French artistic dissolution La Vie de Boheme.
- 7/31/2012
- GreenCine Daily
Le Havre from internationally acclaimed director Aki Kaurismäki comes to DVD and Blu Ray on 6 August, and to mark the release we’ve got 3 Blu-rays to give away!
Le Havre sees Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki (The Man Without a Past) tackle the subject of Northern Europe’s attitude to refugees from the developing world. His approach is dramatic, funny, heart-warming and, like his other work, beautifully offbeat. Featuring superb performances from its cast that includes André Wilms (La Vie de Bohème), Jean-Pierre Darroussin (Red Lights) and the young Blondin Miguel.
Marcel Marx (Wilms), a former author and a well-known Bohemian, has retreated into a voluntary exile in the port city of Le Havre, where he feels he has reached a closer rapport with the people serving them in the occupation of the honourable, but not too profitable, of a shoe-shiner. He has buried his dreams of a literary breakthrough and...
Le Havre sees Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki (The Man Without a Past) tackle the subject of Northern Europe’s attitude to refugees from the developing world. His approach is dramatic, funny, heart-warming and, like his other work, beautifully offbeat. Featuring superb performances from its cast that includes André Wilms (La Vie de Bohème), Jean-Pierre Darroussin (Red Lights) and the young Blondin Miguel.
Marcel Marx (Wilms), a former author and a well-known Bohemian, has retreated into a voluntary exile in the port city of Le Havre, where he feels he has reached a closer rapport with the people serving them in the occupation of the honourable, but not too profitable, of a shoe-shiner. He has buried his dreams of a literary breakthrough and...
- 7/27/2012
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 31, 2012
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
André Wilms means business in Le Havre.
Le Havre (2011) is a surprisingly warm-hearted comedy film from the usually deadpan Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki (Leningrad Cowboys Go America).
In the French harbor city Le Havre, fate throws the young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms, La vie de bohème), a kindly, aging bohemian who shines shoes for a living. With inborn optimism and the support of most of his tight-knit community, Marcel stands up to the officials doggedly pursuing the African boy for deportation.
Tagged by Criterion as “a political fairy tale that exists somewhere between the reality of contemporary France and the classic French cinema of the past, especially the poetic realist works of Jean Duvivier and Marcel Carné,” the acclaimed Le Havre rang up some $620,000 at the U.S. box office since...
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
André Wilms means business in Le Havre.
Le Havre (2011) is a surprisingly warm-hearted comedy film from the usually deadpan Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki (Leningrad Cowboys Go America).
In the French harbor city Le Havre, fate throws the young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms, La vie de bohème), a kindly, aging bohemian who shines shoes for a living. With inborn optimism and the support of most of his tight-knit community, Marcel stands up to the officials doggedly pursuing the African boy for deportation.
Tagged by Criterion as “a political fairy tale that exists somewhere between the reality of contemporary France and the classic French cinema of the past, especially the poetic realist works of Jean Duvivier and Marcel Carné,” the acclaimed Le Havre rang up some $620,000 at the U.S. box office since...
- 4/25/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Guardian.co.uk/film are co-hosting a stream of Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre, which will screen at the Curzon Soho and be available through Curzon on Demand from 18:40 this evening. Join us as we watch the film and liveblog a Q&A between Curzon's Ian Haydn Smith and evolutionary biologist and author Mark Pagel
9.28pm: Right ... the Q&A's finished. The audience in the Curzon are heading for the door. I can see them streaming through into the foyer and ... Yes! ... people are holding the door for each other. Mark's theory seems to be playing out.
Thanks very much for reading and joining the watch-a-long. Le Havre is available on Curzon on Demand here and via the Watch Now banner.
Keep your comments on the film coming below. You can also get into the debate on Twitter where we'll be under the #GuardianCurzon hashtag. Look out for news...
9.28pm: Right ... the Q&A's finished. The audience in the Curzon are heading for the door. I can see them streaming through into the foyer and ... Yes! ... people are holding the door for each other. Mark's theory seems to be playing out.
Thanks very much for reading and joining the watch-a-long. Le Havre is available on Curzon on Demand here and via the Watch Now banner.
Keep your comments on the film coming below. You can also get into the debate on Twitter where we'll be under the #GuardianCurzon hashtag. Look out for news...
- 4/6/2012
- by Henry Barnes
- The Guardian - Film News
Aki Kaurismaki is as offbeat as always, but this immigration-themed film gives him a new heartfelt urgency
The Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki has come to France for his latest film, making explicit his indebtedness to figures like Tati and Vigo. It is seductively funny, offbeat and warm-hearted, like the rest of his films, but with a new heartfelt urgency on the subject of northern Europe's attitude to desperate refugees from the developing world. The movie is set in the port city of Le Havre, maybe summoning a distant ghost of L'Atalante, and it has a solid, old-fashioned look; but for the contemporary theme, it could have been made at any time in the last 50 years. André Wilms is Marcel, a phlegmatic shoe-shine guy who plies his trade around the streets as best he can. He discovers a young boy called Idrissa (Blondin Miguel), an illegal immigrant on the run, and hides him from the authorities,...
The Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki has come to France for his latest film, making explicit his indebtedness to figures like Tati and Vigo. It is seductively funny, offbeat and warm-hearted, like the rest of his films, but with a new heartfelt urgency on the subject of northern Europe's attitude to desperate refugees from the developing world. The movie is set in the port city of Le Havre, maybe summoning a distant ghost of L'Atalante, and it has a solid, old-fashioned look; but for the contemporary theme, it could have been made at any time in the last 50 years. André Wilms is Marcel, a phlegmatic shoe-shine guy who plies his trade around the streets as best he can. He discovers a young boy called Idrissa (Blondin Miguel), an illegal immigrant on the run, and hides him from the authorities,...
- 4/6/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Written by Lewis Bazley
An African boy finds an unlikely ally in the form of a Bohemian-turned-shoeshine pensioner and a temporary home in the titular Normandy port in Aki Kaurismaki’s frustrating comedy-drama.
Marcel Marx (André Wilms) is an ex-author sleepwalking into old age in Le Havre, filling his days with the passing trade of shining shoes, the camaraderie of his local bar and the devotion of his dutiful but ailing wife Arletty. A chance encounter with Gabonese illegal immigrant Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) disrupts Marcel’s comfortable routine but before long Marcel’s enlisting his neighbours and angering the local gendarmes as he keeps the boy hidden and plans Idrissa’s escape.
It’s a premise full of promise, both dramatic and comic. How will Marcel keep Idrissa safe in such a small community? What kind of scrapes will they get into together? Will the youngster help the old man rediscover his joie de vivre?...
An African boy finds an unlikely ally in the form of a Bohemian-turned-shoeshine pensioner and a temporary home in the titular Normandy port in Aki Kaurismaki’s frustrating comedy-drama.
Marcel Marx (André Wilms) is an ex-author sleepwalking into old age in Le Havre, filling his days with the passing trade of shining shoes, the camaraderie of his local bar and the devotion of his dutiful but ailing wife Arletty. A chance encounter with Gabonese illegal immigrant Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) disrupts Marcel’s comfortable routine but before long Marcel’s enlisting his neighbours and angering the local gendarmes as he keeps the boy hidden and plans Idrissa’s escape.
It’s a premise full of promise, both dramatic and comic. How will Marcel keep Idrissa safe in such a small community? What kind of scrapes will they get into together? Will the youngster help the old man rediscover his joie de vivre?...
- 4/3/2012
- by Guest
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
From April 6, Cannes favourite Le Havre will be in cinemas. But for those who might prefer (and live in the UK or Ireland), you can stream it here via Curzon on Demand. Either way, be sure to tune in for our Q&A with top evolutionary theorist Mark Pagel next Friday night
Cannes 2011, on reflection, looks an absolutely vintage year. Not only did it introduce us to The Artist and Melancholia, The Tree of Life and Take Shelter, it also gave us The Skin I Live In, Footnote, Drive, The Kid on the Bike and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.
And now we're approaching the release one of the films which Peter Bradshaw wrote about most warmly last May: Le Havre.
Reviewing the latest from Aki Kaurismäki – the deadpan Finnish film-maker behind I Hired A Contract Killer, The Match Factory Girl, Leningrad Cowboys Go America and The Man Without...
Cannes 2011, on reflection, looks an absolutely vintage year. Not only did it introduce us to The Artist and Melancholia, The Tree of Life and Take Shelter, it also gave us The Skin I Live In, Footnote, Drive, The Kid on the Bike and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.
And now we're approaching the release one of the films which Peter Bradshaw wrote about most warmly last May: Le Havre.
Reviewing the latest from Aki Kaurismäki – the deadpan Finnish film-maker behind I Hired A Contract Killer, The Match Factory Girl, Leningrad Cowboys Go America and The Man Without...
- 3/29/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
Making lists is not my favorite occupation. They inevitably inspire only reader complaints. Not once have I ever heard from a reader that my list was just fine, and they liked it. Yet an annual Best Ten list is apparently a statutory obligation for movie critics.
My best guess is that between six and ten of these movies won't be familiar. Those are the most useful titles for you, instead of an ordering of movies you already know all about.
One recent year I committed the outrage of listing 20 movies in alphabetical order. What an uproar! Here are my top 20 films, in order of approximate preference.
1. "A Separation"
This Iranian film won't open in Chicago until Jan. 27. It won the Golden Bear at Berlin and was just named the year's best foreign film by the New York Film Critics Circle. It is specifically Iranian, but I believe the more specific...
My best guess is that between six and ten of these movies won't be familiar. Those are the most useful titles for you, instead of an ordering of movies you already know all about.
One recent year I committed the outrage of listing 20 movies in alphabetical order. What an uproar! Here are my top 20 films, in order of approximate preference.
1. "A Separation"
This Iranian film won't open in Chicago until Jan. 27. It won the Golden Bear at Berlin and was just named the year's best foreign film by the New York Film Critics Circle. It is specifically Iranian, but I believe the more specific...
- 12/25/2011
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
In The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, published in 2003, critic and film historian David Thomson ends his favorable entry on Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki by noting that the Helsinki-based auteur might gain some edge if “his sardonic eye turned to politics.” It’s hard to imagine what a political film by Kaurismäki might look like, given how masterfully he has balanced deadpan humor and dour heartbreak in his wry tales of social estrangement among the working classes; films like The Match Factory Girl and Ariel feel more like poetic, strangely poignant chamber works. But now, at least in spirit, we have one. Kaurismäki’s latest comic fable, Le Havre, which won the Fipresci prize at Cannes in May and is Finland’s official Oscar entry, channels some of Europe’s not-so-welcoming attitudes toward newly arrived immigrants and transforms the conflict into an amiably humanistic fairy tale resonating with goodwill.
Septuagenarian...
Septuagenarian...
- 10/19/2011
- by Damon Smith
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
While many films have explored themes of post-9/11 paranoia and its resulting xenophobia, none have dared do so with the unrepentant joie de vivre of Le Havre. Rather than wallowing in overwrought melodrama or reveling in ghoulish horror, Finnish writer/director Aki Kaurismäki takes on these dark themes with a gentle hand and crafts a heartwarming tale in a world driven cold from fear of terrorism and by extension outsiders.
This buoyant comedy follows Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a bohemian-spirited shoe shiner who has grown old, but never grown up. He is in many ways a scamp as he playfully shoplifts from his local baker, teases the grousing green grocer, and indulges in glasses of wine at the local pub before returning home to his cheerful but secretly ailing wife Arletty (Kati Outinen), who dresses like an octogenarian school girl complete with romper and barrettes. Theirs is a charmed life...
This buoyant comedy follows Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a bohemian-spirited shoe shiner who has grown old, but never grown up. He is in many ways a scamp as he playfully shoplifts from his local baker, teases the grousing green grocer, and indulges in glasses of wine at the local pub before returning home to his cheerful but secretly ailing wife Arletty (Kati Outinen), who dresses like an octogenarian school girl complete with romper and barrettes. Theirs is a charmed life...
- 10/19/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
The New Yorker's Richard Brody sets up Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre, "set in the port city in the present day, where Marcel Marx (André Wilms) — a former writer, now an itinerant shoe-shine man — provides refuge for Idrissa Saleh (Blondin Miguel), a boy from Gabon who arrived clandestinely in a ship container and is being hotly pursued by the authorities. The probings of the black-clad police inspector Henri Monet (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) recall the sinister ways of the Vichy regime, as the hunted boy evokes Jewish wartime refugees, and the solidarity of the shopkeepers and laborers who protect him reflects a bygone but heartwarming class unity (as well as the comforting myth of a nation of resisters)."
"What is truly remarkable about Le Havre," finds Michael Sicinski, dispatching from Toronto to Cargo, "is Kaurismäki's clear, unfussy depiction of a bedrock of humanist decency within French society, wherein people don't think twice about helping the immigrant,...
"What is truly remarkable about Le Havre," finds Michael Sicinski, dispatching from Toronto to Cargo, "is Kaurismäki's clear, unfussy depiction of a bedrock of humanist decency within French society, wherein people don't think twice about helping the immigrant,...
- 10/5/2011
- MUBI
One of the best films we've seen so far this year--that is generating the least amount buzz (yet)--is "Le Havre" the latest from Finnish master of deadpan comedy, Aki Kaurismäki. Premiering at Cannes this spring to near unanimous praise--we called it "a political crowdpleaser, a film that’s broadly appealing with an undercurrent of seriousness"--the film centers on a retired Parisian bohemian, Marcel Marx (Andre Wilms), who takes in a young illegal immigrant (Blondin Miguel) who has managed to evade the authorities after they seize the cargo container he was transported in from Africa. But the film puts the political issue…...
- 9/19/2011
- The Playlist
According to André Wilms—the star of Le Havre—during his hilarious stream of consciousness Q&A at a screening for the Toronto International Film Festival, director Aki Kaurismäki decided it was time to make a comedy/fairy tale. The Finn had created so many “desperate” films that a change was needed. And what better setting than France to bring it to life, a country who’s film history is held dear and apparently seen as dead by the director, (sentiments Wilms agreed with only half-jokingly). You’ll notice subtle nods to an older style with a lingering camera, exaggerated acting, and theatrical vibe, but that’s not to say the film itself is old fashioned. No, the color is vibrant, the characters humorous—if not overtly so—and the hard-boiled noir is subverted just enough to keep the whole light and airy.
It is Wilms’ Marcel Marx who we meet in the beginning.
It is Wilms’ Marcel Marx who we meet in the beginning.
- 9/10/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Telluride 2011, Day 3
After being a no-show yesterday, Wim Wenders graciously made up for his trespass by coming in at 7am for the regularly scheduled student meetup in order to give the Q&A he was originally on the books for. I had a question about Pina‘s ediitng which was to open with an admission that I strongly disliked the film at first thanks to its unusual juxtaposition of performance footage with testimonials – but I never got the chance; after an initial question about the creation of Pina, Wenders went on to describe the film’s origins and conceptual shifts in painstaking detail – taking up virtually all of his time with us. Still, there was something deeply inspiring about Wenders and Pina Bausch’s decades-long friendship, and his moment of revelation when he realized that 3D technology would allow him to do her work justice – though bringing about that vision...
After being a no-show yesterday, Wim Wenders graciously made up for his trespass by coming in at 7am for the regularly scheduled student meetup in order to give the Q&A he was originally on the books for. I had a question about Pina‘s ediitng which was to open with an admission that I strongly disliked the film at first thanks to its unusual juxtaposition of performance footage with testimonials – but I never got the chance; after an initial question about the creation of Pina, Wenders went on to describe the film’s origins and conceptual shifts in painstaking detail – taking up virtually all of his time with us. Still, there was something deeply inspiring about Wenders and Pina Bausch’s decades-long friendship, and his moment of revelation when he realized that 3D technology would allow him to do her work justice – though bringing about that vision...
- 9/5/2011
- by Simon Howell
- SoundOnSight
A last minute addition to the incredible slate of films at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Le Havre is the latest comedy-drama written and directed by Finland’s Aki Kaurismäki, starring André Wilms, Kati Outinen, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Blondin Miguel. It tells the story of a shoeshiner who tries to save an immigrant child in the French port city Le Havre.
The film premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it received the Fipresci Prize. Kaurismäki envisions it as the first instalment in a trilogy about life in port cities. His ambition is to make follow-ups set in Spain and Germany, shot in the local languages.
I’m a big fan of Kaurismäki’s style, clearly influenced by some of my favourite French directors Jean-Pierre Melville and Robert Bresson, as he relies on low-key acting and simple storytelling to get his point across. Two clips and...
The film premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it received the Fipresci Prize. Kaurismäki envisions it as the first instalment in a trilogy about life in port cities. His ambition is to make follow-ups set in Spain and Germany, shot in the local languages.
I’m a big fan of Kaurismäki’s style, clearly influenced by some of my favourite French directors Jean-Pierre Melville and Robert Bresson, as he relies on low-key acting and simple storytelling to get his point across. Two clips and...
- 8/24/2011
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Le Havre was one of the more acclaimed films to come out of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, with Raffi praising it as “an example of a director in top form,” later putting it as an honorable mention in his roundup. That director is Aki Kaurismäki, who’s crafted a comedy centered on a shoeshiner that discovers and takes in a homeless African boy, and how the boy is pursued by a detective. The movie was picked up by Janus films almost a month ago, with a Criterion release looking very likely for the future.
And even though there are certainly moments of comedy in this trailer — particularly the opening scene — some of it also carried a certain sense of somberness to me. The plot isn’t the lightest of comedic material, after all, but I prefer that movies of this kind carry truth in them over silly gags...
And even though there are certainly moments of comedy in this trailer — particularly the opening scene — some of it also carried a certain sense of somberness to me. The plot isn’t the lightest of comedic material, after all, but I prefer that movies of this kind carry truth in them over silly gags...
- 8/23/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
For those familiar with the oeuvre of Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki, you'll know that his deadpan films aren't quite made to be cut into a conventional trailer. We preface this post in such a way because this writer has seen--and adored--"Le Havre" and while this new trailer for the film serves as a pleasant reminder of the film's numerous low key joys, if you don't get the tone of it right away, don't let that put you off seeing the film. Starring Andre Wilms, Blondin Miguel, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Kaurismaki regular Kati Outinen, the film centers on a retired Parisian…...
- 8/23/2011
- The Playlist
A favorite at this year’s Cannes Film Festival was Aki Kaurismaki‘s comedy Le Havre, which Raffi called “moving” and “an example of a director in top form.” Starring Blondin Miguel, Andre Wilms, and Jean-Pierre Darroussin, the comedy has just found a home for itself, with ScreenDaily (via ThePlaylist) learning that Janus Films has picked it up.
Peter Becker, who has the fine distinction of being both the president of Criterion and a partner in Janus, called it a “jewel of a film,” while also lauding the picture as “one of those rare movie experiences so filled with hope, love, compassion, and humour that it will leave audiences glowing.” Being distributed is more than enough for many smaller works, but the combination of the company who’s acquired this and the filmmaker’s history of having movies in The Criterion Collection means that it’s home video destination is almost guaranteed.
Peter Becker, who has the fine distinction of being both the president of Criterion and a partner in Janus, called it a “jewel of a film,” while also lauding the picture as “one of those rare movie experiences so filled with hope, love, compassion, and humour that it will leave audiences glowing.” Being distributed is more than enough for many smaller works, but the combination of the company who’s acquired this and the filmmaker’s history of having movies in The Criterion Collection means that it’s home video destination is almost guaranteed.
- 7/29/2011
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Finally. Perhaps the crowd pleaser of the 2011 Cannes edition has finally found a home - with the provider of retro art-house cinema. Janus Films who make about one theatrical pick-up every 24 months have secured the North American rights to a film that might have gone home empty handed (it was however bestowed with the Fipresci Prize), but essentially slayed the majority of the international press with its slow burn, simplistic charm. Aki Kaurismaki’s Le Havre will be set up for a release in the autumn and will surely premiere at major upcoming North American fests such as Telluride, Tiff and Chicago. Gist: Marcel Marx (noteworthy performance from Andre Wilms), a former bohemian and struggling author, has given up his literary ambitions and relocated to the port city Le Havre. He leads a simple life based around his wife Arletty (Kaurismäki regular Kati Outinen), his favourite bar and his not...
- 7/27/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki (Oscar-nominated Man without a Past) is an acquired taste--he brings a mix of arch humor and warm humanity to the table. He's hip and square at the same time, a bit like David Lynch, or Charlie Chaplin. Some people get him and some people--like this year's Cannes competition jury---do not. While I figured Sony Pictures Classics would snap this one up, the film still awaits a signed U.S. distribution deal. Le Havre, shot in French, is a warm-the-cockles-of-your-heart story about a middle-aged shoeshine man (Andre Wilms), on the edge of grinding poverty in the port city, whose loving, nurturing wife (Kati Outinen) is hiding her illness from him. Along comes a young boy tanker stowaway from Gambia (Blondin Miguel), who runs ...
- 5/25/2011
- Thompson on Hollywood
Deadpan comedies are a trademark of Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki. He specializes in creating atmospheres devoid of overtly acted emotions, opting instead for subdued reactions and simplistic camerawork. These attributes play to his strengths in creating still life portraits of bizarre situations that force his characters to react in a similarly odd and ironic manner. In Le Havre the director returns to France to create a morality fable about the ever increasing problem of immigrants fleeing their home countries in seek of a better life. Set in the fishing town of Le Havre, the film is perhaps Kaurismäki’s most accessible to audiences unfamiliar with his style and a veritable pleasure to experience.
The plot centers around a former author Marcel Marx, played with gentle humor by veteran French actor André Wilms, who has now become complacent with his job as a shoe shiner. Bouncing around town from the local...
The plot centers around a former author Marcel Marx, played with gentle humor by veteran French actor André Wilms, who has now become complacent with his job as a shoe shiner. Bouncing around town from the local...
- 5/21/2011
- by Raffi Asdourian
- The Film Stage
Updated through 5/20.
"Since the early 1980s, Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki has been mining his own peculiar seam and achieving a quiet miracle — making films that gladden the heart the most when they're at their most unflappably lugubrious." Jonathan Romney for Screen: "Le Havre essentially offers us the director's usual menu — poker-faced acting, weather-beaten faces, political compassion, hyper-stylized staging and decrepit barroom interiors lit con amore. But there's something fresh in this new film, which sees the Finn fully venting his Francophilia for the first time since 1991's La Vie de Bohème."
"Le Havre is shot in the French port town, with French actors and dialogue, though Kaurismäki's repertory stalwart player Kati Outinen has a role," notes the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw. "She plays the wife of Marcel (André Wilms), a dignified, stoic man who works as a shoeshiner on the streets. Marcel witnesses an illegal immigrant boy from Gabon, Idrissa (Blondin Miguel...
"Since the early 1980s, Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki has been mining his own peculiar seam and achieving a quiet miracle — making films that gladden the heart the most when they're at their most unflappably lugubrious." Jonathan Romney for Screen: "Le Havre essentially offers us the director's usual menu — poker-faced acting, weather-beaten faces, political compassion, hyper-stylized staging and decrepit barroom interiors lit con amore. But there's something fresh in this new film, which sees the Finn fully venting his Francophilia for the first time since 1991's La Vie de Bohème."
"Le Havre is shot in the French port town, with French actors and dialogue, though Kaurismäki's repertory stalwart player Kati Outinen has a role," notes the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw. "She plays the wife of Marcel (André Wilms), a dignified, stoic man who works as a shoeshiner on the streets. Marcel witnesses an illegal immigrant boy from Gabon, Idrissa (Blondin Miguel...
- 5/20/2011
- MUBI
Now, in the final lap of the Cannes Film Festival, is the time when we critics begin comparing notes and conjecturing meaninglessly on possible prize winners. (Analyze this: What will jury president Robert De Niro like? And have Lars von Trier’s thoughtless comments, reported at face value by disingenuous journalists with no time for context, ruined the chances for von Trier’s great movie Melancholia?) Meanwhile, as we shmooze and quantify, here’s a quiet headline: There’s not a critic I know, including me, who doesn’t put Le Havre, by the sometimes imitated but essentially inimitable Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki,...
- 5/19/2011
- by Lisa Schwarzbaum
- EW - Inside Movies
Aki Kaurismäki proves himself a master of deadpan, while André Téchiné turns in a spectacular belly-flop of a film
Some wonderful, big-hearted comedy was provided at the beginning of Cannes's second week by the Finnish film-maker much loved by the festival directors: Aki Kaurismäki. Le Havre had all the master's trademarked deadpan dialogue and delicious nuggets of bone-dry humour, and his compassion for the marginalised and dispossessed, but with something richer and sweeter than I remember from his previous pictures. His sensibility is closer to that of Chaplin, in this film, than anyone else.
Le Havre is shot in the French port town, with French actors and dialogue, though Kaurismäki's repertory stalwart player Kati Outinen has a role. She plays the wife of Marcel (André Wilms), a dignified, stoic man who works as a shoeshiner on the streets. Marcel witnesses an illegal immigrant boy from Gabon, Idrissa (Blondin Miguel), escape...
Some wonderful, big-hearted comedy was provided at the beginning of Cannes's second week by the Finnish film-maker much loved by the festival directors: Aki Kaurismäki. Le Havre had all the master's trademarked deadpan dialogue and delicious nuggets of bone-dry humour, and his compassion for the marginalised and dispossessed, but with something richer and sweeter than I remember from his previous pictures. His sensibility is closer to that of Chaplin, in this film, than anyone else.
Le Havre is shot in the French port town, with French actors and dialogue, though Kaurismäki's repertory stalwart player Kati Outinen has a role. She plays the wife of Marcel (André Wilms), a dignified, stoic man who works as a shoeshiner on the streets. Marcel witnesses an illegal immigrant boy from Gabon, Idrissa (Blondin Miguel), escape...
- 5/17/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Time to continue our tour de France. Oh, sorry, I meant – tour de Cannes! Next movie we’re going to talk about is a movie titled Le Havre directed by Aki Kaurismaki that is scheduled to premiere In Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
We’re talking about another “dramatic comedy” but who would expect less from Kaurismaki?
At this moment we know that this project tells the story of a shoeshiner who tries to save an immigrant child in the French port city Le Havre.
Director Kaurismaki had the idea of a film about an African child arriving in Europe three years before the production started. He considered setting the story in Marseille and port cities in Spain and Portugal, but found Le Havre to be the ideal location, saying:
“It is a great place to work and Le Havre is a perfect name for the movie.
We’re talking about another “dramatic comedy” but who would expect less from Kaurismaki?
At this moment we know that this project tells the story of a shoeshiner who tries to save an immigrant child in the French port city Le Havre.
Director Kaurismaki had the idea of a film about an African child arriving in Europe three years before the production started. He considered setting the story in Marseille and port cities in Spain and Portugal, but found Le Havre to be the ideal location, saying:
“It is a great place to work and Le Havre is a perfect name for the movie.
- 4/22/2011
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
Updated through 4/20.
Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux announced that, out of 1715 submissions, 49 features from 33 countries have been selected in total for this year's Cannes Film Festival — four of them made by women, a record. 19 titles are lined up for the Competition so far, leaving room for surprise announcements from here on to the Opening Ceremony on May 11.
Competition
Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Inhabit. As noted yesterday, here's what Variety's Justin Chang had heard as of this past weekend: "In late March, it seemed that Almodóvar, a Cannes veteran who won prizes for All About My Mother and Volver, might skip the event altogether this year. Since 2004's Bad Education, the helmer has presented every one of his films in competition at the May fest, usually following a spring local release. The Sept 2 Spanish release date for The Skin That I Inhabit (which Sony Classics will release Stateside in...
Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux announced that, out of 1715 submissions, 49 features from 33 countries have been selected in total for this year's Cannes Film Festival — four of them made by women, a record. 19 titles are lined up for the Competition so far, leaving room for surprise announcements from here on to the Opening Ceremony on May 11.
Competition
Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Inhabit. As noted yesterday, here's what Variety's Justin Chang had heard as of this past weekend: "In late March, it seemed that Almodóvar, a Cannes veteran who won prizes for All About My Mother and Volver, might skip the event altogether this year. Since 2004's Bad Education, the helmer has presented every one of his films in competition at the May fest, usually following a spring local release. The Sept 2 Spanish release date for The Skin That I Inhabit (which Sony Classics will release Stateside in...
- 4/21/2011
- MUBI
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