619 Le Havre

[MichaelB]

Le Havre



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 bohemian who shines shoes for a living, in the French harbor city Le Havre. With inborn optimism and the support of most 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, especially the poetic realist works of Jean Duvivier and Marcel Carné, Le Havre is a charming, deadpan delight and one of the Finnish director’s finest films.

Disc Features

- New high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Aki Kaurismäki, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Cannes Film Festival press conference from 2011, featuring cast and crew
- French television interview with Kaurismäki, Wilms, and actors Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Kati Outinen
- Concert footage of Little Bob, the rock group featured in the film
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Michael Sicinski

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Given the acclaim this is getting at Cannes, it's probably worth starting its own thread, so here goes.

English-subtitled clips
Introductions
Pineapple

Reactions
Peter Bradshaw (Guardian);
Eric Kohn (Indiewire);
Liam Lacey (Globe and Mail - includes interview);
Nick James (Sight & Sound);
...though Glenn Heath, Jr (Slant) is less keen.

Another clip

[Len]

Saw this at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä, but I was way too drunk and way too tired to really form an opinion of it. It's certainly very funny while being really obviously political in a way that I don't think Aki's films have been in the past. Apart from that my recollections of the film are more than a bit hazy, so I'll have to see this again when it gets out in september.

[JPJ]

In Cannes 2011 while promoting Le Havre ,Kaurismäki spoke to the finnish press for the first time in several years,and right away he was accussed of being a "hater of mankind".In one interview he said(rough translation)"the opportunity for mankind was over 30 years ago,its time to go now.The sooner the end comes the better.As far as I`m concerned everything can go.The situation is its either the planet or us and the way we are behaving right now soon there wont be nothing left anyway".These are pretty extreme words but they were clearly meant to be his usual ultra sarcastic "humor".Some writers crusified him for making disgusting and irresponsible comments.Disgusting or not,would a hater put something like the very last shot of Lights in the dusk in his movie?

[knives]

I've always taken him to be a hopeful cynic and while I actually am positive that he was honestly speaking his mind there I'm also sure the at least in the back of his head he thinks things could be turned around, hence the shot you speak of.

[MichaelB]

Or indeed the last scene of Drifting Clouds, one of the most radiantly happy endings in all cinema.

It sounds to me as though he was essentially riffing on Jonathan Swift's famous quip "Principally I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth."

[JPJ]

Knives,that's exactly how I feel too.By the way,I would recommend Peter von Bagh's excellent interview book with him,but unfortunately at the moment it's only available in finnish and french as far as I know.

[JabbaTheSlut]

Kaurismäki, a man of many paradoxes. Fiercely anti-Nato, but lives in Portugal (Nato-country), preaches about the mankind ruining the nature and ending itselself and at the same time owns and drives old american gasslurping cadillacs, pretends to be a friend of the working man but pays badly his crew and heads of departments (a businessman he is).

[JPJ]

And to Guardian newspaper he said:I am a lousy filmmaker...

[MichaelB]

And to Guardian newspaper he said:I am a lousy filmmaker...

He tells everyone that he's a lousy filmmaker. I worked for Kaurismäki's main UK distributor in the late 80s/early 90s, and this was standard operating procedure.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

And to Guardian newspaper he said:I am a lousy filmmaker...

He tells everyone that he's a lousy filmmaker. I worked for Kaurismäki's main UK distributor in the late 80s/early 90s, and this was standard operating procedure.

It's also his opening gambit in the Ozu tribute film on Criterion's Tokyo Story - Talking with Ozu

[colinr0380]

[Jeff]

For those who missed Ian's news in the Forthcoming Criterion thread, Janus Films has picked up the U.S. rights. Le Havre will be released theatrically this fall.

[marnum]

I met Aki in Karkkila (his hometown) when he was 30something. He was drunkard number one. But you should not blame him - Karkkila is in the arse of the World.

[zedz]

Le Havre is certainly charming, but there are no surprises (even the various twists you can see coming miles ahead): it's exactly how you'd expect this material to play and look in a Kaurismaki film (you can even predict the lighting from shot to shot). The contemporary immigration issue was nicely integrated into his old-world vision, however. I can understand people liking the film a lot, but I don't get the Cannes raves: is it just that genuinely nice films are so hard to come by at the moment?

I suppose you could accuse Kaurismaki of working and re-working such a highly specific aesthetic niche that surprises aren't really reasonable to expect, but the films of his I like the best are the ones that have unexpectedly gone darker (The Match Factory Girl) or deeper (Drifting Clouds) than usual.

[JPJ]

It was reported last week that as there is now a democratic president in the White House, Aki Kaurismäki has decided to end his personal "cultural boycott" against the Usa.This boycott started early 2003( when Man without the past was supposed to be a nominee for best foreign film) and was against the actions of Mr. Bush.This means that Le Havre might be(there are other films,like Rare exports on the list)Finland's nominee for 2012 Oscars.Personally I was under the impression that film must be in Finnish to be a contender?

[MichaelB]

This boycott started early 2003( when Man without the past was supposed to be a nominee for best foreign film) and was against the actions of Mr. Bush.

Wasn't the specific action to do with the Bush administration refusing a visa to Abbas Kiarostami? If I remember rightly, Kaurismäki said something like "If he doesn't want an Iranian, he certainly won't want a Finn".

This means that Le Havre might be(there are other films,like Rare exports on the list)Finland's nominee for 2012 Oscars.Personally I was under the impression that film must be in Finnish to be a contender?

I think it just has to be in primarily a foreign language. Danis Tanovic's No Man's Land won the Best Foreign Film Oscar, and a fairly hefty chunk of that is in French and indeed English. More recently, Mongol got to the last five as the official Kazakhstan nominee, even though the film was primarily Russian in terms of financing and crewing, and presented entirely in Mongolian.

[JPJ]

You are right Michael,I forgot that Kiarostami and Kaurismäki were both going to the NY film festival and when they refused to let Kiarostami to the country,Kaurismäki didn't wanna go either.

[eerik]

Estonian poster

[marnum]

Estonian poster

Kati Autinen... should be Kati Outinen.

[eerik]

Estonian poster

Kati Autinen... should be Kati Outinen.

Thanks, I'll contact the local distributor so they can fix it.

[eerik]

Looks like they still haven't fixed that typo. And ironically, Outinen will attend the Estonian premiere of Le Havre...

[andri]

Correct Estonian poster

[swo17]

Janus poster

[Jeff]

Must be some sort of contractual requirement that they use that tacky title treatment. It's on the French, Estonian, and U.S. posters, and it looks like the art on the Janus poster was designed around it.