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I Hired a Contract Killer - 1990
In this Finnish comedy Henri Boulanger (Jean-Pierre Leaud), is a colorless English civil servant, who was given a speedy retirement when his agency was "privatized," complete with a gold watch. His life is so barren that removing even the empty activities of his job makes it not worth living, so he attempts suicide by sticking his head in a gas oven - just as a gas service strike gets underway. Frustrated, he takes his savings from the bank and heads off to hire a contract killer to take his life from him. Then he really begins to enjoy life - so much so, that now he wants to avoid his imminent demise.
DVD FEATURESAnamorphic (16:9) Widescreen VersionEnglish AudioOptional Danish, Swedish and Norwegian subtitles
Juha - 1999
Aki Kaurismaki's Juha is the fourth adaptation of this love triangle involving a woman and two men. The original story took place in the 18th century and revolved around a former servant girl, Marja, who is married to plain, simple-minded and older Juha, but in love with Russian salesman and 'Casanova' Shemeikka. Kaurismaki's story is set in the late 1970's, shot silent and furnished with captions to disclose the dialogue. Absence of sound (dialogue) is not really new for Kaurismaki, whose 1990 masterpiece Tulitikkutehtaan tytto/The Match Factory Girl took 17 minutes before a word was uttered.
Instead of imitating silent movies, Kaurismaki placed his version of Juha at the moment of the history of silent film when some sound could be used. Acting style and images start somewhere in the late 1920's and towards the end slowly move into the '50's B-movie style. With Timo Salmien behind the lenses, who has been collaborating as cinematographer with Aki and brother Mika Kaurismaki since 1981, and some of the regular cast (such as Andre Wilms, Elina Salo, Sakari Kuosmanen and Kati Outinen), Juha is distinctively a Kaurismaki film.
DVD FEATURESAnamorphic (16:9) Widescreen VersionOptional English, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian subtitles
Hamlet Goes Business (Hamlet Gets Business) - 1998
The plot of William Shakespeare's Hamlet had already been transposed to the modern business world twice before the release of Hamlet Goes Business. These earlier films, Strange Illusion (46) and The Rest is Silence (60), are nearly as dour as the Shakespeare original. Only Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki was able to see the dark humor and satirical implications of such a time-displacement effort: his modernization of Hamlet was set in a rubber duck factory, making all the passions torn to tatters seem slightly ridiculous.
While the film follows the traditional tale of a son seeking revenge for his father's murder, director Kaurismaki never misses an opportunity to skewer the business world, just as he'd been doing in collaboration with his writer/director brother Mika ever since 1982.
DVD FEATURESAnamorphic (16:9) Widescreen VersionFinnish AudioOptional English, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian subtitles
La Vie de bohème (Bohemian Life) - 1992
Like Puccini's great opera, La Bohème, it is based on the novel Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger. Despite their ever-present poverty, which poses a constant threat to their continued existence, the artists and their friends in this movie speak in only the most polite, elegant, and genteel manner, which only serves to underscore their desperate situation.
In the story, the poet Marcel has been unable to come up with the rent for his barely tolerable room and has been evicted from it. While wandering in his neighborhood, he catches the eye of Rodolfo, an Albanian immigrant eating in a small cafe, who waves him over and invites him to share his dinner. Though they have never met, they are soon deeply involved in a discussion about art. They leave the restaurant together and, for want of a better idea, wander back to Marcel's former room.
There the poet and his new friend, the painter Rodolfo, discover an equally congenial companion in the man who just rented his room, Schaumard, an Irish composer. Just one step away from starvation most of the time, these loyal friends share resources to help one another out...
DVD FEATURESAnamorphic (16:9) Widescreen VersionFrench audioOptional English, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian subtitles |
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