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The Man Without a Past/Mies vailla menneisyyttä (2002), Finland, is as far as I can remember the first film by Aki Kaurismäki that I've seen. It has won a lot of prizes, including the Grand Prize of the Jury in Cannes, as well as being nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film of the Year category.
It is an amazing litte remarkable film. I say "little" because not only does Kaurismäki believe that a film should not be longer than 90 minutes (70 mins are ideal), but it is also a film that does not bother with spectacular scenery or effects, glossy cinematography or moviestars. The actors are filmed while speaking their lines in a very harsh environment while the camera is doing not much more than register the dialogue. The editing is very effective since there are just a few more cuts than there are scenes. The first reference that comes to mind is the swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson, whose films often look like filmed paintings. But The Man Without a Past never quite get that extreme.
The film is about a man who gets badly beaten and ends up in a coma. When he wakes up he has lost his memory and does not know who he is or where he comes from. He has to start his life over again without nothing; no money, no home and not even an identity. Depicting how the man deals with this situation Kaurismäki manages to criticize today's (capitalistic) society beautifully.
Imagine how easy it would be to get a job, a home, applying for welfare, or starting a bank account without knowing your own name. We get to follow the main character, "The Man Without a Past", while dealing with all these things. The difficulties leads to a lot of absurd situations that are very humorous but at the same time very tragic.
The finnish characters are harsh but with a lot of warmth inside at the same time, and how they deal with emotions and the tests that life brings with it is amazing to watch. Most of the characters in the movie are very poor and live in different kinds of containers, but the film never gets sentimental. The focus is never explicitly on the social injustices but instead, believe it or not, on the love story between the main character and a woman who works with helping homeless people. But the misery and the criticism lie in the background all the time.
The minimalistic filmmaking that goes through everything from acting to editing in this film doesn't feel forced or awkward. Maybe it is because I so stereotypically think it suits the finnish temperament. (Those of you who has ever met someone from Finland perhaps know what I mean). The way that Kaurismäki gets to the point instantly without any unnecessary digressions is very refreshing and the sparse but effective dialougue (the sparse everything, really) results in a lot of smiles and a few "laughing out louds". At the same time you can't help to feel the seriousness and the sincerity in the social criticism that Kaurismäki delivers. It is a warm, funny and tragic film - [spoiler]
.... but with a happy ending.
I recommend it to all of you.
It is an amazing litte remarkable film. I say "little" because not only does Kaurismäki believe that a film should not be longer than 90 minutes (70 mins are ideal), but it is also a film that does not bother with spectacular scenery or effects, glossy cinematography or moviestars. The actors are filmed while speaking their lines in a very harsh environment while the camera is doing not much more than register the dialogue. The editing is very effective since there are just a few more cuts than there are scenes. The first reference that comes to mind is the swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson, whose films often look like filmed paintings. But The Man Without a Past never quite get that extreme.
The film is about a man who gets badly beaten and ends up in a coma. When he wakes up he has lost his memory and does not know who he is or where he comes from. He has to start his life over again without nothing; no money, no home and not even an identity. Depicting how the man deals with this situation Kaurismäki manages to criticize today's (capitalistic) society beautifully.
Imagine how easy it would be to get a job, a home, applying for welfare, or starting a bank account without knowing your own name. We get to follow the main character, "The Man Without a Past", while dealing with all these things. The difficulties leads to a lot of absurd situations that are very humorous but at the same time very tragic.
The finnish characters are harsh but with a lot of warmth inside at the same time, and how they deal with emotions and the tests that life brings with it is amazing to watch. Most of the characters in the movie are very poor and live in different kinds of containers, but the film never gets sentimental. The focus is never explicitly on the social injustices but instead, believe it or not, on the love story between the main character and a woman who works with helping homeless people. But the misery and the criticism lie in the background all the time.
The minimalistic filmmaking that goes through everything from acting to editing in this film doesn't feel forced or awkward. Maybe it is because I so stereotypically think it suits the finnish temperament. (Those of you who has ever met someone from Finland perhaps know what I mean). The way that Kaurismäki gets to the point instantly without any unnecessary digressions is very refreshing and the sparse but effective dialougue (the sparse everything, really) results in a lot of smiles and a few "laughing out louds". At the same time you can't help to feel the seriousness and the sincerity in the social criticism that Kaurismäki delivers. It is a warm, funny and tragic film - [spoiler]
.... but with a happy ending.
I recommend it to all of you.
From The Man Without a Past
Man: What do I owe you?
Electrician: If you ever find me face down in the gutter, turn me around to my back.
Man: What do I owe you?
Electrician: If you ever find me face down in the gutter, turn me around to my back.
__________________
The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".
--------
They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.
The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".
--------
They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.
