#619: KAURISMÄKI, Aki: Le Havre (2011)

KAURISMÄKI, Aki (Finland)
Le Havre [2011]
Spine #619
Blu-ray

In this warmhearted comic yarn from Aki Kaurismäki, fate throws the young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a kindly old bohemian who shines shoes for a living in the French harbor city Le Havre. With inborn optimism and the support of his tight-knit community, Marcel stands up to the officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation. A political fairy tale that exists somewhere between the reality of contemporary France and the classic French cinema of the past, "Le Havre" is a charming, deadpan delight and one of the Finnish director's finest films.

93 minutes
Color

5.1 Surround

in French

1:85:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2012

Director/Writer

Aki Kaurismäki was 54 when he wrote and directed Le Havre.

Other Kaurismäki films in the Collection:

Eclipse Series 12: Shadows In Paradise (1986)
Eclipse Series 12: Ariel (1988)
Eclipse Series 29: Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989)
Eclipse Series 12: The Match Factory Girl (1990)
#693: La Vie De Bohème (1992)
Eclipse Series 29: Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (1994)
Eclipse Series 29: Total Balalaika Show With Five Music Videos (Various)
#922: The Other Side Of Hope (2017)

The Film

A fairy tale about dignity.

Kaurismäki — a Finn — directed his second film in French, a language he does not speak or understand.

Marcel Marx (André Wilms, his fourth film with Kaurismäki) is an elderly gentlemen who shines shoes. (Kaurismäki used the same actor and character name in La Vie De Bohème [1992] {Spine #693}.

His wife (Kati Outinen, 12th Kaurismäki collaboration!) is named Arletty — a nice tribute to the most famous of all French actresses.

The police inspector, Monet (all dressed in black, a sure stand-in for Inspector Javert) (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) is the rogue element in this astonishing fantasy.

Bondin Miguel (sole IMDb credit, to date) is Idrissa, the African immigrant. He is a blank slate, but Kaurismäki invests some of his best humor in his character:

IDRISSA

Oui, monsieur ...

MARCEL

Don’t call me sir!

IDRISSA

Oui, mon générale ...

Chang (Quoc-Dung Nguyen) is the Vietnamese shoe-shine partner of Marcel. He is able to remain legal because he obtained papers from a presumably-dead Chinese man named Chang. “There are more passport papers in the sea than fish,” he acidly remarks.

And of course, Jean-Pierre Léaud (The 400 Blows [1959] {Spine #5}) — look into his darting eyes! — still looks like the same 14-year-old kid! Here, he plays the only true evil character in the film.

Kaurismäki cleverly fits a benefit concert into his film, so we get to enjoy the weird, 50s-like rock ‘n roll of Little Bob (aka Roberto Piazza) ...

**

Kaurismäki’s regular Finnish DP is Timo Salminen, who shoots this film with a simplicity worthy of Bresson. The camera is never superfluous; nothing is ever complicated.

This film magically removes one from real life — for example, when the cops discover the hidden immigrants, a silent sign from an old man (we later learn who he is) to Idrissa sends the young boy running. A cop raises his gun to shoot him, but Monet stops him.

“Are you mad? It’s a child!”

If this film had been made in the U.S., the main character would be dead at this point.

Some of the humor/pathos from this masterpiece:

• As the shoeshiners wait for customers, Kaurismäki focuses on all the feet. Nearly everyone is wearing tennis shoes. When he finally does get a customer with black shoes, the man is killed immediately after the shine.
• Marcel: “Luckily he had time to pay.”
• Marcel goes to Calais to locate Idrissa’s relatives. We watch as he saunters through the detention center, the eyes of all the illegal immigrants boring into his soul, it seems — and then he is in the director’s office. The scene is quick and devastating:

DIRECTOR

“His brother? Are you mocking me?”

MARCEL

“I’m the family albino ... and unluckily for you a journalist and a lawyer.”

Marx pulls of this unlikely fantasy, and we accept it, just as we do every other improbable circumstance in this beautiful reverie.

• A scene at a church. Marcel is shining a priest’s shoes.
• The two priests are smoking cigarettes:

PRIEST #1

“But according to Matthew, chapter 12 ... we are no longer in agreement.”

PRIEST #2

“But Luke says the kingdom of heaven is happy, and the gates open for the innocent.”

PRIEST #1

“But Christ returned to Earth.”

The scene then cuts to Monet, who is receiving instructions and a reprimand from an unseen higher-up.

• When Little Bob reunites with his wife in the bar, Kaurismäki brings up the lights suddenly. It is perhaps the only filmic artifice in the picture ...
• The final shot of the film — a flowering cherry tree — is Ozu-like; a pillow shot! A gorgeous wrap-up to a gorgeous film.

Film Rating (0-60)

58

The Extras

The Booklet

Twenty-eight page booklet featuring an essay by film critic Michael Sicinski and a 2011 conversation between Kaurismäki and film historian Peter von Bagh.

Sicinski has a beautiful take on the ending, which cannot be spoiled here:

“[Is it] sappy? I don’t know. Perhaps instead we should call it ‘counterfactual utopianism.’ Kaurismäki uses cinema to envision a world in which the love of humanity overcomes borders even the one between life and death. His film demonstrates the necessary humanist dialectic — that opening to the other, being changed means becoming the other, shifting who our family, the very ‘we,’ is. A guarded boundary is a death sentence, — the barricade of a self that is destined to wither.”

The von Bagh interview is filled with insights (and lots of spoilers). Kaurismäki responds to a question about the final shot, and the filmmakers who influence him, with his typical dry humor:

“It is a perfect Ozu shot, and it’s intended to be ... for instance, blue-gray is my basic set design color, and that is from Melville and then I may add some red because a red teapot looks good in Ozu’s films. I just use a fire extinguisher because our tea ceremony is so underdeveloped.” 

Commentary

None, unfortunately.

Interview 1

With actor Wilms.

Working with Aki; describing his acting methods and how the star treatment ruins Hollywood-type actors. Excellent stuff.

Footage

From the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, including a press conference and a French television interview with cast and crew.

Gotta quote the best line from this amusing press conference.

Aki is being questioned about why there are so many anachronistic cars and telephones, why people are still smoking in bars — from a film which presumably takes place in 2011.

Eventually, Kaurismäki gets around to talking about the ugly modern architecture. My camera cannot film such things, he says — before quoting Frank Zappa with a twist:

“My camera wants to kill your mama ...”

Interview 1 

From Finnish television with actress Outinen from 2011.

In Finnish, 45 minutes, but filled with beautiful insights on her career and what it’s like to work with Kaurismäki.

Concert footage

Of Little Bob, the musician featured in the film.

One song which is in the film, and another which isn’t.

Trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

36

58 + 36 =

94

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