Finland offers its citizens all the guarantees from cradle to grave, and not only is education free, but university students receive allowances, subsidies and low-interest loans of at least €680 per month. Contrary to the idea of high welfare and lazy people, the unfettered Finns have the courage to take risks and innovate, "high taxes, high welfare" has become the most powerful engine of national competitiveness, and the ability of scientific and technological innovation and the national happiness index are second to none in the world.
Some people joke that being born in Finland, which has superior welfare, picturesque scenery and clean government, is equivalent to winning the lottery jackpot. The great Finnish director Aki Kolysmaki obviously has a different view of this. The welfare system keeps you from starvation, but it doesn't guarantee you dignity and happiness.
Kaurismäki focuses on the shadows of paradise on earth, focusing on those who are unemployed, homeless, lonely, autistic, and losers struggling to survive in slaughterhouses, trash cans, match factories, slums. The audience was surprised to find that there was also discrimination, crime, human indifference and social injustice in Finland.
Since the age of 26, Kaurismäki has established a style of presenting rich content in a dry form, like Bukowski's poems, so that audiences who are fed up with the audiovisual bombardment of sharp cuts, special effects, complex emotional entanglements and so on breathe a sigh of relief, as if drinking a cold beer in the hot desert.
This kind of film that can be shot with a camera, in order to stand out in the sweaty and cattle-filled similar works, to win the art hall, is more difficult than making a "Avatar", because of the low investment, low threshold, and more fierce competition.
The lyricist of "Katyusha" and "Cranberry Blossoms" and the famous Russian poet Isakovsky, the poem "Song" published in Pravda on April 19, 1943, was later composed by an anonymous composer into a melodic, full of vicissitudes and romance" "Lights". "Shadows of Heaven" and "Twilight Light" both use the simple and moving "Light" as an interlude, which complements the film perfectly.
Kaurismäki, who came from the grassroots and was deeply influenced by Russian culture, made his debut novel Crime and Punishment in 1983, which was adapted from Dostoevsky's novel of the same name:
For those who are insulted and damaged, every restrained and concise shot of the director exudes a noble temperament of humanitarianism, and the cold humor that comes and goes is endlessly evocative.
I liked the director's love general Marty Peronpa, liked his talking, walking, silent, sad look, liked his anger, everything:
As the first part of the proletarian trilogy, the plot development, character performances and scenes of "Lonely Shadow in Paradise" (1986) are extremely simple, without half a sentence of nonsense, without any film technique, and the love and friendship of ordinary Finns are presented to the audience together with the hard, dry and cold snow fields of Northern Europe.
In order to make room for the children of leaders, supermarket cashiers were unjustifiably fired (3 times in a year for other people's reasons to lose their jobs); the male and female protagonists were rejected by high-end restaurants because of their shabby clothes, and could only eat fast food on the side of the road; what is genius, this kind of magic is genius: workers come to borrow money, poor fathers, and start the idea of their son's piggy bank.
The Match Factory Woman (1990) is probably the coldest of Kaurismäki's works, where the woman who sits on the cold bench at the ball buys a dress with her salary, and her father slaps him in the face: "Bitch! ”
Against the backdrop of the news of China and Iraq in 1989, female workers who were first toyed with, abandoned, and then abandoned by their families simply bought bags of consumables to repay a society that was colder than the Nordic winter.
Most of the characters in Kaurismäki's shots are introverted and have dull expressions, which makes some viewers who are accustomed to appreciating great joy and great sorrow very uncomfortable and flustered. The audience can only see the small part of the iceberg exposed to the water, and Kaurismäki's iceberg art is to let you feel the iceberg under the sea through cold humor and subtle body language of the characters: strange, magnificent, and beautiful.
Bohemian Life (1992) with the artist of dog snatching food:
The Musicians Who Froze to Death in Leningrad Cowboys (1989) and Leningrad Cowboy Meets Moses (1994):
After the heroine of "Floating Clouds" (1996) was laid off, she was discriminated against by her status and age, and she had no loans or employment, and she was exhausted:
"The Man Without a Past" (2002) Welder is beaten by robbers to lose his memory as soon as he gets off the train, and before he can get better, he is knocked out by the sheriff.
Helsinki's worst and best seem to have gathered in slums, with kind neighbors and charities helping welders start a new life. The welfare system is reflected in the film, but the director emphasizes: self-helpers, god help.
The silent irony is more powerful: the police in "Crime and Punishment" are so stupid that they can't even find the murder weapon under their butts, and the murderer surrenders himself, immediately pounces on the people and knocks people to the ground, and the animals are really fierce.
"Twilight Light" (2006) The reclusive security guard Zhan is unfortunately caught in the beauty plan of the underworld. An inconspicuous detail is meaningful: the proud, the cold, the beauty who is regarded as a treasure and is willing to stay with each other for a lifetime, when the black boss gambles cards with the brothers, he is just a slave who works hard and complains:
It is no problem to knit sweaters for stupid people, and I feel happy in the process of weaving, why should I be embarrassed?
"Lights", with a sentimental taste, more and more sets off the fiery emotions in Zhan's heart, and under this Finnish sky, he has not yet had time to learn to complain:
Looking at the world film world, only Kaurismäki can get Kusturica's praise:
"Kaurismäki's films are completely different from this hysterical era. His humanitarian views are incredible. Outside of the technical, digitally stacked movies, there is indeed a place for those who believe that life is a miracle. ”