Mika Kaurismäki

Quote:
Acclaimed Finnish director Mika Kaurismaki helms this deadpan, oddball road movie. Jack Bogart (Kai Wiesinger) is a dodgy car mechanic living in the backwaters of Germany. His motto is “Live for the moment; that’s all that counts,” and, indeed, for a moment he hooked up with an older Korean woman (Francisca Tu), until a couple of thugs he had previously swindled, Bruno (Hannes Hellmann) and doltish Popo, pay him a visit. Jack promptly hits the road along with bitchy Verena (Michaela Rosen) and her saucy spoiled daughter Elisabeth (Marie Zielcke). The latter falls for Jack, much to his consternation, and soon she is tagging along all the way to Finland.Read More »

One man’s quest for revenge in a post-apocalyptic worldRead More »

Another good movie from the first period of Mika, with some funny moments and great cameos like Nino Manfredi, Samuel Fuller, Jim Jarmusch, Wim Wenders, Eddie Constantine.

Quote:
Alex (Kari Vaananen) is a Finnish cabbie working in Berlin with plenty of problems in this comedy with film noir touches. With two dead men and a suitcase filled with hundred dollar bills, he has difficulty disposing of the bodies. He is chased by the top crime boss (Samuel Fuller) and his crony (Eddie Constantine). Alex’s wife is allergic to the money, so the cabbie endures more than he can handle trying to rid himself of the cash and the corpses.Read More »

Arvottomat (1982)

A criminal, his friend and his former girlfriend find their lives intertwining with each other.Read More »

plot outline: After a chance meeting in a Bradford cemetery with Barbara, a young American actress, aspiring writer Richard Tennant breaks off his engagement, quits the undertaking business and heads off to LA to find true love with Barbara. But once there, Richard finds he has a rival in Patterson, a rising film director, who promises to take Barbara away from her job waitressing and make a star of her.Read More »

from cinematik
Saimaa-ilmiö is probably the first properly made rock film made in Finland. Such basics as including the songs in their entirety, shooting with multiple cameras, reducing interviews to a minimum and using them to express the atmosphere, not as compulsory fillers-in, were unheard of in Finland at the time. Concentrating on the music, not everything around it, Saimaa-ilmiö captures much of the leisurely feel of the lake tour.Read More »

Quote:
Three young people, two boys and a girl, meet on a Friday evening in an urban post-disaster setting which has brought Helsinki to ruins. The boys’ sole purpose of life is to play a Flip-Flop pinball machine.Read More »

Talkative, hyperactive young drifter Ville Alfa goes around Helsinki, basically trying to borrow money from friends and strangers by means of an incessant delivery of quirky and snappy quasi-intellectual lines and fabricated excuses.Read More »

Quote:
A lawyer pays a visit to Matti Ojanperä (Matti Pellonpää), a bum living under a bridge in the Helsinki harbour, to inform him that he is about to inherit an American aunt of his. The sum 1,000,000 Fmk would be his, if only he meets the qualifications set by his aunt.

He must show that he is capable of ‘living properly’ and possessing a ‘respectable occupation and a family he can support’. Otherwise the money would go to a foundation the chairman of which the lawyer himself happens to be!Read More »