> REVIEW
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Le Havre (2011)
Miracles do happen…
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By Danila Lipatov | April 2012
DIRECTOR: Aki Kaurismäki
WRITER: Aki Kaurismäki
With Le Havre acclaimed Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki (Lights in the Dusk) dispels with his usual bleak vision in favour of fairytale-like settings and a radiant colour palette, which offers his aged characters a little ray of hope.
Old shoe-shiner Marcel Marx (André Wilms) is so accustomed to his cosy routine in the port town of Le Havre that when one of his clients gets shot right in front of him at his usual spot at the train station, he cynically remarks: “Luckily he had time to pay”.
Marcel relies on three things to help him forget the atrocities of life: local bar ‘Le Moderne’, his saintly wife Arletty (Kaurismäki muse Kati Outinen) and his cynicism. But his leisurely lifestyle is abruptly derailed when his wife falls ill and a young, illegal immigrant, Idrissa (Bondin Miguel) silently pleas for his help.
Le Havre never exploits its grim topics for the sake of moving its audience. Kaurismäki deploys innovative approaches to tell his tale; like when Idrissa flees from the police officers, time simply stands still for a beat, allowing the boy enough time to vanish in the density of port containers. Though the scene naturally feels staged, it succeeds in making a strong impact thanks to its somber absurdity and Brechtian distancing effect.
Another source of artificiality is Le Havre itself. Marcel lives in a part cartoon, part film noir, French universe, which evokes the charms of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie and the theatrical sense of space of Scorsese’s Hugo. In comparison to Kaurismäki’s cheerless vision of France in La Vie de Boheme, Le Havre has a lovingly crafted and somehow archaic feel to it.
It’s easy to notice Kaurismäki’s nods to Robert Bresson in his attention to simple everyday gestures, tiny details and in the way his characters interact. Dialogue is often laconically poetic, like when the local shop attendant, discussing Marcel’s debts, tells him, “Your bill is as long as the Congo river”.
The appearance of young Idrissa not only serves to improve Marcel’s meaningless existence, but also grants Kaurismäk’s dying universe of tired bohemians and drinking intelligentsia a creative jolt and a moral impetus.
The element of political commentary seems so alien to Kaurismäki’s oeuvre, that this friction between the fairytale reality and social manifest is what really makes Le Havre shine. Kaurismäki carefully conceals his usual cynical political undertones and flirts with Chaplin-esque sentimentality.
Even when the whole Proletarian neighbourhood comes together in Idrissa’s moment of need, the seemingly pretentious story is played out with so much understated affection that it transforms into a universal hymn against tyranny and oppression in modern society.
Halfway through the film, Police Inspector Monet (the excellent Jean-Pierre Darroussin) enters Le Moderne; draped in a Bogart-style trench coat and with a pineapple in hand, he embarks on a heartbreaking, intimate conversation with the hostess. Much like Kaurismäki with Le Harve, sometimes miracles do happen.
Script…………………………………………………………………………………………….
Aki Kaurismäki displays a keen and refreshing eye for the absurd in this
beautifully played fable. 5
Direction………………………………………………………………………………………..
Kaurismäki’s naive politics and socially conscientious miracles never turn the
film into farcical nonsense thanks to its intensely humanistic intonation and
slapstick sketches. 4
Verdict…………………………………………………………………………………………..
A cinematic miracle. Welcome back Aki. 4
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