AKİ & KATİ December 3–18, 2011

Aki Kaurismäki-Kati Outinen Films

İstanbul Modern Cinema is screening nine films in which Aki Kaurismäki, one of the most powerful directors of Finnish cinema, has worked with actress Kati Outinen. Their collaboration started in 1986 with Shadows in Paradise, and continued with, among others, The Man without a Past which earned Outinen the "Best Actress" award in Cannes. This collaboration still continues today the latest being Le Havre, the Finnish entry for the 2012 Academy Awards.

Ranging from a Shakespeare adaptation to portraits of the proletariat, the film selection probes deeply into the cinema of Kaurismäki; while displaying his love for American film noir and the French New Wave, the selection takes a closer look at his nihilistic stance, the "melancholy of cafeterias," his fairytale-like tones, and his loser and immature protagonists.

Kati Outinen will attend the screening of Le Havre on Saturday, December 3.

Shadows in Paradise (Varjoja paratiisissa), 1986
35mm, Color, 76’
The first installment in Kaurismäki’s Working Class Trilogy is set in Helsinki’s working-class neighborhood. It tells the love story of a garbage truck driver and a supermarket check-out girl and through a typical "loser" character reflects the tragedy of those who try to earn money honestly under depressed economic conditions. However, in this modern social critique Kaurismäki does not lose his ironic touch. With its realistic story, its unique and touching tempo and colors Shadows in Paradise is a truly moving love story.

Hamlet Goes Business (Hamlet liikemaailmassa), 1987
35mm, Black & White, 86’
Hamlet Goes Business transposes Shakespeare’s Hamlet into Helsinki’s industrial district. The film is about the characters’ struggle for corporate power and proceeds like an ironic game of chess. In interpreting the play Kaurismäki adds a dose of the absurd and, most importantly, some rock’n roll, while Timo Salminen’s black-and-white cinematography spices it up with a little film noir. Another feature that sets the play and the film apart is that in the latter Hamlet is not a prisoner of fate but an active shareholder fighting against his stepfather for corporate power.