Customer Reviews:
Quiet, quirky and a little sly.......2007-08-15
This Finnish film may not be for everyone. Though nominated in 2002 for an Oscar for best foreign film, I don't think it got much play here. It's a quiet movie about a guy who is beaten in a park in Helsinki right after getting off a train. The hospital thinks he's dead, but he staggers out, gradually recovers, and can't remember a thing. He meets a number of people, most of whom help him in some way or another. He meets a Salvation Army woman and a relationship developes.
It's hard to describe this movie. The dialoque is often funny, but delivered absolutely deadpan. There is no excitement, but a rich development of story and relationships through incidents that happen to the lead character or that he causes to happen. The two leads, Markku Peltoa and Kati Outinen, are adults and look it. There's no Hollywood handsomeness about either of them. The structure of the movie is a gem of economy. One scene ends and the film moves briskly on to the next scene. No extended, unnecessary character development. No superfluous dialoque. It may sound pompous, but this movie creates at the end a nice feeling of mature contentment.
The DVD of the film is crisp and strong; an excellent transfer. There are no significant extras.
Classic Kaurismäki.......2006-04-17
The second film in Kaurismäki's "Finland Trilogy", The Man Without a Past examines the theme of homelessness. A man recently arrived in Helsinki is attacked and hit over the head - resulting in almost total amnesia. He has nothing, and has to try to build a life for himself in a strange city. Through the people he meets and befriends he is able to do this - until his past catches up with him... This film is set very much in the same world as the first part of the trilogy, Drifting Clouds. It has the same feel, the same warmth and magic, the same humour - and largely the same cast. It is, though, definitely a cut above Drifting Clouds, and was deservedly awarded the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 2002, with Kati Outinen hailed as Best Actress. This is probably Kaurismäki's best film to date and brought him some (very!) long-overdue international recognition - let's hope there's more of the same to come!
Don't Bother.......2006-03-14
Not quirky enough to be 'quirky', and too generally too slow.
I imagined a lot more from reading the outline and other reviews.
Disappointing.
TIMELESS FILM OF OUR TIME.......2005-03-16
A rough hewn, not quite middle aged man arrives by train in Helsinki, Finland, and while resting on a lonely public bench three street thugs intent on beating him to death steal his belongings. The man is left for dead by the gang who cover his face with a welder's mask, a clue to the victim's identity. In the hospital, an unsympathetic doctor and assistant try to revive the badly beaten man. But as the heart monitor flatlines (perhaps the only weak moment in the entire film), the doctor comments to his assistant before rushing off, "He's better off that way rather than living like a vegetable." The assistant dutifully covers up the "dead" man and she leaves.
Like the classic horror movie character the Mummy, his head and arm swaddled in bandages, the man suddenly rises from the "dead," and escapes to the desolate waterfront where he collapses next to the harbor. The man is rescued and taken in by the floatsam and jetsam of Finnish society who live in discarded steel cargo containers strewn along the waterfront. Thus begins this film by one of Finland's most distinguished producer-director Aki Kaurismaki. This is a poor but strangely light hearted world where a dinner invitation to "eat out" means standing in the Salvation Army soup line. It's a place where a local residentwho lives in a dumpster complains, "If the garbage strike continues, I'll have to go on a diet, or move."
The hero's Salvation Army love interest Irma, as played by Kati Outinen, is especially good. She portrays a repressed worker who falls in love with the amnesiac. Outinen won the Grand Jury Prize as Best Actress at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for her stellar performance.
All of the funny scenes are done deadpan, melting together the comic and melancholic into a big hobo's stew that could puzzle some viewers. But if you can get used to the low-affect approach, you'll be charmed by the film's gentle, affectionate portrayals. There are many hugely funny scenes, such as the one in which the Man teaches the staid and joyless Salvation Army quartet to play rhythm 'n blues and rock-and-roll, complete with a huge, aging female singer. There are poignant scenes as well, treated with gentle whimsy by Kaurismäki.
In THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST, Kaurismaki has created for us a simple, mesmerizing story of a working stiff who stoically engages life's abrasions without complaint after having suffered total amnesia. The movie had won a best actress Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes film festival and was nominated for but did not win a 2003 Academy Award. It should have won an Oscar.
See this film with the original Finnish sound track and English subtitles (which sometimes get illegibly washed out). The sounds and innuendoes are important. No doubt Kaurismaki's masterpiece will go on to become a classic much like those of Luis Bunuel, Ingemar Bergmann, and Akira Kurosawa.
wacky.......2005-01-31
Nicely paced, subtly funny film with a distinctly Finnish perspective.
Customer Reviews:
Quiet, quirky and a little sly.......2007-08-15
This Finnish film may not be for everyone. Though nominated in 2002 for an Oscar for best foreign film, I don't think it got much play here. It's a quiet movie about a guy who is beaten in a park in Helsinki right after getting off a train. The hospital thinks he's dead, but he staggers out, gradually recovers, and can't remember a thing. He meets a number of people, most of whom help him in some way or another. He meets a Salvation Army woman and a relationship developes.
It's hard to describe this movie. The dialoque is often funny, but delivered absolutely deadpan. There is no excitement, but a rich development of story and relationships through incidents that happen to the lead character or that he causes to happen. The two leads, Markku Peltoa and Kati Outinen, are adults and look it. There's no Hollywood handsomeness about either of them. The structure of the movie is a gem of economy. One scene ends and the film moves briskly on to the next scene. No extended, unnecessary character development. No superfluous dialoque. It may sound pompous, but this movie creates at the end a nice feeling of mature contentment.
The DVD of the film is crisp and strong; an excellent transfer. There are no significant extras.
Classic Kaurismäki.......2006-04-17
The second film in Kaurismäki's "Finland Trilogy", The Man Without a Past examines the theme of homelessness. A man recently arrived in Helsinki is attacked and hit over the head - resulting in almost total amnesia. He has nothing, and has to try to build a life for himself in a strange city. Through the people he meets and befriends he is able to do this - until his past catches up with him... This film is set very much in the same world as the first part of the trilogy, Drifting Clouds. It has the same feel, the same warmth and magic, the same humour - and largely the same cast. It is, though, definitely a cut above Drifting Clouds, and was deservedly awarded the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 2002, with Kati Outinen hailed as Best Actress. This is probably Kaurismäki's best film to date and brought him some (very!) long-overdue international recognition - let's hope there's more of the same to come!
Don't Bother.......2006-03-14
Not quirky enough to be 'quirky', and too generally too slow.
I imagined a lot more from reading the outline and other reviews.
Disappointing.
TIMELESS FILM OF OUR TIME.......2005-03-16
A rough hewn, not quite middle aged man arrives by train in Helsinki, Finland, and while resting on a lonely public bench three street thugs intent on beating him to death steal his belongings. The man is left for dead by the gang who cover his face with a welder's mask, a clue to the victim's identity. In the hospital, an unsympathetic doctor and assistant try to revive the badly beaten man. But as the heart monitor flatlines (perhaps the only weak moment in the entire film), the doctor comments to his assistant before rushing off, "He's better off that way rather than living like a vegetable." The assistant dutifully covers up the "dead" man and she leaves.
Like the classic horror movie character the Mummy, his head and arm swaddled in bandages, the man suddenly rises from the "dead," and escapes to the desolate waterfront where he collapses next to the harbor. The man is rescued and taken in by the floatsam and jetsam of Finnish society who live in discarded steel cargo containers strewn along the waterfront. Thus begins this film by one of Finland's most distinguished producer-director Aki Kaurismaki. This is a poor but strangely light hearted world where a dinner invitation to "eat out" means standing in the Salvation Army soup line. It's a place where a local residentwho lives in a dumpster complains, "If the garbage strike continues, I'll have to go on a diet, or move."
The hero's Salvation Army love interest Irma, as played by Kati Outinen, is especially good. She portrays a repressed worker who falls in love with the amnesiac. Outinen won the Grand Jury Prize as Best Actress at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for her stellar performance.
All of the funny scenes are done deadpan, melting together the comic and melancholic into a big hobo's stew that could puzzle some viewers. But if you can get used to the low-affect approach, you'll be charmed by the film's gentle, affectionate portrayals. There are many hugely funny scenes, such as the one in which the Man teaches the staid and joyless Salvation Army quartet to play rhythm 'n blues and rock-and-roll, complete with a huge, aging female singer. There are poignant scenes as well, treated with gentle whimsy by Kaurismäki.
In THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST, Kaurismaki has created for us a simple, mesmerizing story of a working stiff who stoically engages life's abrasions without complaint after having suffered total amnesia. The movie had won a best actress Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes film festival and was nominated for but did not win a 2003 Academy Award. It should have won an Oscar.
See this film with the original Finnish sound track and English subtitles (which sometimes get illegibly washed out). The sounds and innuendoes are important. No doubt Kaurismaki's masterpiece will go on to become a classic much like those of Luis Bunuel, Ingemar Bergmann, and Akira Kurosawa.
wacky.......2005-01-31
Nicely paced, subtly funny film with a distinctly Finnish perspective.
Customer Reviews:
Quiet, quirky and a little sly.......2007-08-15
This Finnish film may not be for everyone. Though nominated in 2002 for an Oscar for best foreign film, I don't think it got much play here. It's a quiet movie about a guy who is beaten in a park in Helsinki right after getting off a train. The hospital thinks he's dead, but he staggers out, gradually recovers, and can't remember a thing. He meets a number of people, most of whom help him in some way or another. He meets a Salvation Army woman and a relationship developes.
It's hard to describe this movie. The dialoque is often funny, but delivered absolutely deadpan. There is no excitement, but a rich development of story and relationships through incidents that happen to the lead character or that he causes to happen. The two leads, Markku Peltoa and Kati Outinen, are adults and look it. There's no Hollywood handsomeness about either of them. The structure of the movie is a gem of economy. One scene ends and the film moves briskly on to the next scene. No extended, unnecessary character development. No superfluous dialoque. It may sound pompous, but this movie creates at the end a nice feeling of mature contentment.
The DVD of the film is crisp and strong; an excellent transfer. There are no significant extras.
Classic Kaurismäki.......2006-04-17
The second film in Kaurismäki's "Finland Trilogy", The Man Without a Past examines the theme of homelessness. A man recently arrived in Helsinki is attacked and hit over the head - resulting in almost total amnesia. He has nothing, and has to try to build a life for himself in a strange city. Through the people he meets and befriends he is able to do this - until his past catches up with him... This film is set very much in the same world as the first part of the trilogy, Drifting Clouds. It has the same feel, the same warmth and magic, the same humour - and largely the same cast. It is, though, definitely a cut above Drifting Clouds, and was deservedly awarded the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 2002, with Kati Outinen hailed as Best Actress. This is probably Kaurismäki's best film to date and brought him some (very!) long-overdue international recognition - let's hope there's more of the same to come!
Don't Bother.......2006-03-14
Not quirky enough to be 'quirky', and too generally too slow.
I imagined a lot more from reading the outline and other reviews.
Disappointing.
TIMELESS FILM OF OUR TIME.......2005-03-16
A rough hewn, not quite middle aged man arrives by train in Helsinki, Finland, and while resting on a lonely public bench three street thugs intent on beating him to death steal his belongings. The man is left for dead by the gang who cover his face with a welder's mask, a clue to the victim's identity. In the hospital, an unsympathetic doctor and assistant try to revive the badly beaten man. But as the heart monitor flatlines (perhaps the only weak moment in the entire film), the doctor comments to his assistant before rushing off, "He's better off that way rather than living like a vegetable." The assistant dutifully covers up the "dead" man and she leaves.
Like the classic horror movie character the Mummy, his head and arm swaddled in bandages, the man suddenly rises from the "dead," and escapes to the desolate waterfront where he collapses next to the harbor. The man is rescued and taken in by the floatsam and jetsam of Finnish society who live in discarded steel cargo containers strewn along the waterfront. Thus begins this film by one of Finland's most distinguished producer-director Aki Kaurismaki. This is a poor but strangely light hearted world where a dinner invitation to "eat out" means standing in the Salvation Army soup line. It's a place where a local residentwho lives in a dumpster complains, "If the garbage strike continues, I'll have to go on a diet, or move."
The hero's Salvation Army love interest Irma, as played by Kati Outinen, is especially good. She portrays a repressed worker who falls in love with the amnesiac. Outinen won the Grand Jury Prize as Best Actress at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for her stellar performance.
All of the funny scenes are done deadpan, melting together the comic and melancholic into a big hobo's stew that could puzzle some viewers. But if you can get used to the low-affect approach, you'll be charmed by the film's gentle, affectionate portrayals. There are many hugely funny scenes, such as the one in which the Man teaches the staid and joyless Salvation Army quartet to play rhythm 'n blues and rock-and-roll, complete with a huge, aging female singer. There are poignant scenes as well, treated with gentle whimsy by Kaurismäki.
In THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST, Kaurismaki has created for us a simple, mesmerizing story of a working stiff who stoically engages life's abrasions without complaint after having suffered total amnesia. The movie had won a best actress Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes film festival and was nominated for but did not win a 2003 Academy Award. It should have won an Oscar.
See this film with the original Finnish sound track and English subtitles (which sometimes get illegibly washed out). The sounds and innuendoes are important. No doubt Kaurismaki's masterpiece will go on to become a classic much like those of Luis Bunuel, Ingemar Bergmann, and Akira Kurosawa.
wacky.......2005-01-31
Nicely paced, subtly funny film with a distinctly Finnish perspective.
UK DVD:
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- The Ref
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UK DVD List
UK DVD
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The Aki Kaurismaki Collection Vol.2 [1994]
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Lights In The Dusk [2007]
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Aki Kaurismaki Collection Vol.1 [1986]
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