Aki Kaurismäki's Fallen Leaves is screening exclusively on Mubi in many countries.Fallen Leaves.There’s a moment early in Aki Kaurismäki’s latest film, Fallen Leaves (2023), that will surely tug at the heartstrings of shy lovers everywhere. A man, Holappa (played by Jussi Vatanen), and a woman, Ansa (Alma Pöysti), sit across from each other in a bar. Between them, his friend tries vainly to flirt with hers, getting nowhere, but Holappa and Ansa themselves do not speak, and instead merely stare meekly into their drinks, the gap of a few meters opening up like a yawning chasm. Then, for just a moment, Holappa looks up from his beer and their eyes meet. And as they do, the first cascading piano chords of Franz Schubert’s “Serenade” are heard and a besuited man takes the karaoke stage to start singing: “Softly my songs plead / through the night for...
- 2/4/2024
- MUBI
While watching Fallen Leaves, I realized that most romantic movies don’t really bother about the world, society, and everything that’s happening other than the central romance. Not that they have to, and it’s not at all mandatory. However, Fallen Leaves is helmed by the legendary Aki Kaurismäki, who has been making a very particular kind of film where you get to see the struggle that the working class of Helsinki goes through in a very minimalistic, deadpan style. In Kaurismäki’s films, the camera doesn’t usually move. The people move away from the screen, and sometimes you only get to hear the consequences. The stories are told in a very casual, absolutely non-blockbuster fashion. Yet, the impact is felt throughout, and more often than not, these films are very relatable. Like most Kaurismäki films, the characters in Fallen Leaves are also the kind of people you...
- 1/5/2024
- by Rohitavra Majumdar
- Film Fugitives
Alma Pöysti agreed to star in Fallen Leaves, Finland’s Oscar entry, before there was a script. It was enough to know that local directing legend Aki Kaurismäki (The Man Without a Past) wanted her for his latest working-class love story, playing Ansa, a shy and lonely supermarket shelf stocker who falls for Holappa, a construction worker, played by Jussi Vatanen.
How were you cast for this film?
I got a phone call that Aki wanted to meet for lunch. We met, and Jussi Vatanen, my co-star, was there as well. Aki presented this idea of the movie. There wasn’t a script yet, but he mumbled something about a love story. Then he wanted to talk about the forest and about growing vegetables and politics. All he said about my character was she worked in a store and the two of them would fall in love. We got the script a year later.
How were you cast for this film?
I got a phone call that Aki wanted to meet for lunch. We met, and Jussi Vatanen, my co-star, was there as well. Aki presented this idea of the movie. There wasn’t a script yet, but he mumbled something about a love story. Then he wanted to talk about the forest and about growing vegetables and politics. All he said about my character was she worked in a store and the two of them would fall in love. We got the script a year later.
- 1/4/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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