User Reviews

I particularly liked Man Without A Past, by the same director, and this is much in the same vein. A couple having financial difficulties tries to make their way. Sounds like all of us. Only this couple delivers delicious witty dialogue in a deadpan style that cracks me up every time. Even their fights and make ups are so understated that it's a style all it's own. Don't look for the obvious here, it's hidden under a layer of Finnish humor so opaque that you have to watch very closely to see even a glimmer of laughter in anyone's eye.

The film is gloomy, depressing, bleak, but somehow it does your heart good. Even when things seem to be at their worst, you can't help but feel that the hardworking and honest couple will manage to somehow get back on solid ground and right with the world. You want them to. You need them to. They simply must, or your poor little heart will break.

It's hard to describe this film because nothing much seems to happen, there are only the normal setbacks of life in the low income zone, but by the end you realize that you've seen a great movie and are happy with it. What helps keep you interested are the dialogue and the understated style. For example, why do all the men wear their hair the same way? Does anyone own clothes that aren't drab? Why does all the furniture look like it's from the 1950's? All these questions and more will occur to you while watching the film and wondering if anyone will ever crack a smile.

This colorful film from Finland's great director Aki Kaurismäki is a warm and passionate (note that passionate isn't the same in Finland as in Spain)story of two working class heroes, Illona and Lauri, with their dog and square life. They are content with their existence and are investing in new furniture and a big television set, all on a payment plan. Work is hard and they don't get much time for each other, but they have pride. Then both of them loose their jobs and their self respect with that. They're proud people and will not go on well fare. There's a economic crisis in the country and jobs are hard to find. They have to take really crummy jobs to survive but are cheated and also Lauri discovers his health isn't what it used to be. They have a few deep looks into the depth of the bottle and any signs of ever getting back are slim. Then Illona, motivated by an ex fellow worker gets a plan... This film is about survival and loss of self respect and the struggle to regain it. I find it very warm and positive. An exploration into the mind of northern Europe and the old values. A good worker needs no help, he stands tall on his own. Also the tango music in the film is wonderful in it's bittersweetness. It's a story of change, when the old reality has to be updated and the pain that can cause.

I never used to like Kaurismäki films, mainly because I didn't understand them and thought they were boring. I have since then changed my mind. The thing with Kaurismäki films is that you can watch them without understanding them and still like them or you can understand them and not like them etc. each in their own way. However, they are not these artsy-films that only critics love and everyone else hates. Drifting Clouds is Finnish life that has been made a parody but it's not mocking Finnish life. There are people like Lauri and Ilona. Lauri as played by Kari Väänänen is a very typical Finnish male in a way he behaves. He may not say much, but you just know that he really loves Ilona. And no matter how Lauri behaves, Ilona loves Lauri as well. You don't need a million 'I love You's to get the message through, just take a look at his body-language.

In the beginning of the film, Lauri has just bought a new TV (with colours) on part payment. They have a similar plan for the sofa and the bookshelf - as Lauri optimistically puts it: In four years time they can afford to buy books as well. Then they both lose their jobs because of recession. Getting job is difficult, Ilona is being told that she starts to be a bit too old being a waiter,she's 38 (wonderful scene with Esko Nikkari) and Lauri has medical problems. Too proud to go and get unemployment benefit, Lauri says something like I don't beg, I am me... which reminds me of another Kaurismäki film, Calamari Union where one of the characters called Frank as played by Kari Väänänen says something like I don't drive buses, I am me.. Well anyway, back to Drifting clouds.. so yes, they continue their quest for employment. The characters in the film don't talk very much, and at first it really bothered me that they didn't sound natural at all, but I actually know people who speak less than that and it's completely natural! I loved the scene in the breakfast table when Lauri is preparing to take the dog out - he finishes his coffee, says that he's going now, Ilona replies simply 'Good' then Lauri asks whether he should take the rubbish out as well and once again Ilona gives a very minimalistic reply saying 'Take'. It works beautifully and though it might seem funny to foreign ears, it's normal to have such conversations in Finland. The ending gives hope and is very optimistic but not in the Hollywood sense of the word! Great songs throughout the film which really echo the feelings of the characters (too bad the songs have not been subtitled - they could have since in some scenes the characters speaks so little!)

I think this is a fantastic film. Both Kari Väänänen and Kati Outinen are great. The film is dedicated to Matti Pellonpää (little boy in one photo) who was supposed to have starred in the film, but sadly he died before they started to film this...well, he wasn't the first Finnish person to drink himself to death..

watch it on DVD!

Aside from Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses, Aki Kaurismäki has never done any real sequels to his films (even though Shadows in Paradise featured one of the minor characters from Crime and Punishment). Drifting Clouds, the first entry in the acclaimed "losers" trilogy, was meant to be an exception, the script having been written specifically as a follow-up to Shadows. Sadly, Matti Pellonpää, who was eager to reprise his role as Nikander, died shortly before filming began, thus abruptly ending a working relationship with the director which had lasted 11 years and 8 movies (The Match Factory Girl and I Hired a Contract Killer were the only ones in which he did not appear prior to his death), prompting Kaurismäki to change the screenplay.

Nonetheless, there are still traces of the original project in the finished film, namely the characters played by Kati Outinen (who became the new protagonist of the story) and Sakari Kuosmanen, who retain the names they had in Shadows: Ilona and Melartin. They both work at a restaurant called Dubrovnik (as maitre d' and waiter respectively), under the supervision of Mrs. Sjöholm (Elina Salo). There are no major problems in the workplace, the only occasional disturbance being the alcohol-induced antics of the cook Lajunen (Markku Peltola, who later played the lead in the trilogy's second act, The Man Without a Past). Then one day Mrs. Sjöholm announces the restaurant is being handed over to a new proprietor, meaning the old staff's services are no longer required. Everyone faces unemployment their own way: Lajunen buries himself in booze ("Where are you going?" he gets asked one evening; "As far as the Kossu lasts" he replies, referring to Finland's most popular drink) and Melartin starts looking for another job, while Ilona is confident her husband's income will be enough for the two to lead a decent life. Unfortunately, Lauri (Kari Väänänen) loses his job as well, causing despair and frustration as his wife tries to come up with a solution that could satisfy everybody.

As usual, Kaurismäki depicts contemporary Finnish society with a very pessimistic eye, never once flinching away from the sadness of the situation. The high point of this is reached in Esko Nikkari's cameo, a scene drenched in cynicism and cruelly black humor where the great character actor tells Outinen (always at her best in these pictures) that once you're past the age of 30, you're completely worthless in the business world. "You're 56" she reminds him; "Yes, but I have connections" comes the painfully dry answer. It's a dramatic sequence which reflects what really goes on in the world every day, albeit filtered through Kaurismäki's peculiar view on life.

And yet, for all the misery that permeates the picture, Drifting Clouds is actually the most optimistic of the "losers" films: perhaps remembering what the movie was originally meant to be, the director fills almost every frame (minus the Nikkari scene) with gags, in order to lighten the mood. And the conclusion stands out as one of the most cheerful Kaurismäki has ever shot, maybe because that is the kind of ending in which Pellonpää, to whom the film is dedicated, would have given another of his understated, hugely affecting, unforgettable performances.

I saw Drifting Clouds at a film festival, and I was truly blown away by the intense and true-to-life emotions this movie portrayed. Formerly being a Hollywood-action film kind of a guy, seeing Drifting Clouds has made me more open to artistic and especially foreign films. Director Kaurismaki is in my opinion one of the best directors in the world.

What I particularly like about this film are its colourful settings, suggesting a Helsinki less grey and damp as portrayed in other films. The screenplay, the acting and the directing are precise, which is the main reason why this sad story is really a comedy. The story is very clear and therefore not boring - a quality not applicable for every Kaurismäki film. Yet Ilona and Lauri's fate is surely not a classic example for what happens to Finn worker couples today, I think the bizarre surroundings underline the whole film's quirky and slightly absurd mood.

This is the best Kaurismäki film I've seen up to now.

The Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki has made several films about the "little people" in society, hardworking folk who have a spot of bad luck and risk being overlooked by the state bureaucracy and business development schemes that are ostensibly there to help them. KAUAS PILVET KARKAAVAT from 1996 (released as "Drifting Clouds" in English-speaking markets) is one such tale of adversity. Ilona (Kati Outinen) and Lauri (Kari Väänänen) are a happy married couple. One day, Lauri loses his job as a tram driver when the cancellation of some routes makes him redundant. Soon after this Ilona, head water of a fancy restaurant, finds the restaurant bought out by new owners who don't need the old staff. We see Lauri and Ilona turned down from one job after another, facing repo men and shady characters taking advantage of their desperation for work, yet in many respects the film is a comedy. Kaurismäki's humour is extremely deadpan, at some points perhaps too subtle for audiences outside Finland, but it's still generally fun and there are some laugh-out-loud moments.

The film has a strong magical realist feel. Part of this is that the film is ostensibly set during the present day, but the characters and many of the interior sets seem to have stepped out of the 1950s. This is a key feature of Kaurismäki's aesthetic and found throughout his work. But also Ilona and Lauri's insistence on making it on their own, without accepting unemployment money from the state, is plausible but somehow not the expected course of events in 1990s Finland. Kaurismäki was to emphasize distrust of the welfare state in his later film MIES VAILLA MENESYYTTA (Man Without a Past), but there he was too heavy-handed in his criticism, while here there's more a tone of quiet nobility than bitterness.

While the happy ending is too much of a deus ex machina, I greatly enjoyed KAUAS PILVET KARKAAVAT. What really drives the film is the quirky face of Kati Outinen, who in spite of all her defeats rolls with the punches and whose eyes maintain boundless optimism, like an adorable stray puppy. Kaurismäki demands deadpan acting, and Outinen has always acted in his films with a deliberately limited range of expression, but one really appreciates how she discovers subtle degrees of deadpanness: her Ilona is vastly different from, say, her role in Kaurismäki's VARJOJA PARATIIISISSA of a few years before. The performance by Markku Peltola as a drunken cook is also memorable. Finally, the film's colour palette is striking, showing a new maturity in design from the already veteran director.

The movie has a feeling of sinking ship. Yes, you heard right. The setbacks which haunts the maincharacters are so cruel that only real life can do something like this to people. I happen to live quite close to places where this has made, and friend of mine wondered how Kaurismaki had found such a ruined places from Helsinki! This looks like some dirty streets in NY! The actors and actresses are magnificent. And the music has it's melancholic feeling of autumn as ever. Yes, definably this is something you should see.

Well this is neither Italy in the forties or the fifties nor USA after the Great Depression though it could have happened there and then. Nor is this a neo-realistic movie made then by Visconti, Lattuada or De Sica though it sometimes looks like one. This is bright Finland of 1996 showing however its dark side too. Man and wife of a modest couple lose their jobs simultaneously and have to endure a lot of hardship trying to get employment again. Th story develops itself in a simple way without great flashes of style but it's true and human indeed with some touching episodes though not too melodramatic. The acting is not exceptionally good except in what concerns Kati Outinen whose face seems expressionless but whose marvellous eyes tell you everything that has to be said and is in her mind at every moment. Not a brilliant movie but quite an honest one and moving enough.

Celebration for unacting! If you like movies where less is saying more - this is your movie. The wonderful positive attitude of people in difficult situations is something to learn from. Kati Outinen is great - again. She suits this movie perfectly. Kari Väänänen as her husband is the perfect Finnish hard working man whose life isn't a struggle but an art-form it self. Also Markku Peltola as a cook gives once again a memorable performance. The music moves the scenes into another level. Finnish melancholic tango in this environment makes almost a conflict between the things happening in the screen and the music. What a wonderful tribute to Matti Pellonpää.

We watched this movie in class, and our teacher has chosen this movie, because it's "easy to go forward and backwards" from this movie when talking about Finnish movies. I'm assuming it was referring to the time when this movie was made. Also another crucial factor in why we watched this movie is that our school has a permission to show this movie. Also we are supposed to watch Finnish movies because that's what we are going to be making in the future, and sometimes we forget or ignore our own movies.

I have never watched Aki Kaurismäki's films before, but I was already aware of his style. Cast is very stiff and acting is closer to underacting. It's a style, and it works, but it's not extremely realistic, since it sounds like how Finnish people talk in the morning when they're not fully awake yet, or how they talk to strangers. It sounds very reserved. Even though it can be painful to watch, it's very stylish and suits a film like this. And also the only reason why it can be seen as painful is because we're so used to the English way of dialogue and acting in movies.

Another almost painful thing is the cinematography. It's well made, and in theory thing are in the right place, but it doesn't look very pretty. Colours and things in the shot are almost ugly.

The pace of the movie is also very slow. Not much happens, yet it feels long, because it feels just an important to show a band playing than to process with the story. If you find the story boring, the slowness can be almost unbearable.

But all in all Kaurismäki captures everyday life during recession well, and even if the acting can barely be called that, the story isn't emotionless. You feel for the characters and get annoyed by them. The story is almost boring because of the subject and the pace, but it's still easy for you to get into the story, and you can't just ignore what's happening, Maybe it's because the themes are close to many viewers, maybe it's just that well made that you hope for the best and fear for the worst.

To truly understand and appreciate Kauas pilvet karkaavat (Drifting Clouds)you need to understand something of the Finnish mindset, and to understand something of the Finns I would recommend this film. Kaurismaki is able to encapsulate and embody the Finns and Finland in his work. I have lived 10 months of my life in Finland, and I was therefore able to identify immediately with this film through my experiences of Finland and the Finns themselves (my dear friends there). This film captures the sense of space that Finland itself has, the sense of space that the Finns create around themselves (Finns appear to me to be somewhat unseasy with urban and city living, hence everyone's desire to escape to a kesamokki, summer cottages at the earliest possible time) and the understated, no-BS nature of the Finns themselves, it is the only country I know where it is truly possible to have confortable silences when conversing with people.

Silent despair, brought on by the extremes of the climate, Finland's relative isolation, the social problems that DO exist there (despite being a Scandinavian country with all the images of a freedom and social support that that may conjure), the expectation of conformity that exists within such small societies, and yet the strong innate desire of every Finn to truly assert an individual identity over within the framework of this 'organised freedom' are all apparent in this film and are how I observed Finland. The 'national' sport of drinking until one passes out, particularly during the dark days of winter, and when coping with depression or despair. To any Finns out there, this is not meant to cause offense, my apologies if these comments do.

Kaurismaki's use of long shots and one takes for a sequence of action (or non-action), and the sense of time and anticipation that they create, until you realise that the anticiption amounts to nothing, which is so in line with the Finnish sense of humour. It is always difficult to generalise about a particular nation and make sweeping statements that are meant to be applicable to all who live within the confines of those national boundaries. But as a small country (in terms of population) with a closely homogenous people, these traits are quite discernable, especially with the impact that the environment and climate brings...Drifting Clouds and the Leningrad Cowboys are two sides of the same coin...

I make this disclaimer, the film is actually gloomier than life there.

There's a somewhat magical, perversely paradoxical thing that might take hold of a watcher of Kaurismäki films: Which is that one might find oneself so intrinsically entangled in the lives of characters, their trials and tribulations, that it doesn't seem that important anymore whether the story on screen ends with, say, a happily ever after or a joint suicide. Sounds strange? Seems consequential, though...

That's because a film about tragedies that feel real manages to transcend its medium and hit home. It's because the simplicity and directness of the material without embellishments or over-dramatization touches something in us, brings us down to our own existential level. Rather than impose feelings on the characters we can't help but empathize with them, genuinely. And once we are at this point, we're likely to have learned our lesson, dig up some profound truths, long before the credits roll. This is true of a couple of equally absorbing social dramas from Kaurismäki comparable to "Drifting Clouds", ranging from "Shadows in Paradise" over "Ariel" to "The Match Factory Girl". As for "Drifting Clouds": Despite the downward spiral Kaurismäki's ordinary people find themselves trapped in, survival seems to be dependent on primarily one thing: to rely on one another, to give support, faults aside, to pick oneself up, to fight against the odds, to succeed or succumb - together.

That's what Kaurismäki losers do: struggle with determination. They are working class people, who have very small dreams. Like getting themselves a simple TV set (it has colors!), and pay for it later. But when reality hits hard, again and again, their dreams have to focus on other things, and so these dreams become bigger and more and more improbable to realize. Kaurismäki just observes. The acting is understated, the characters humble, words are scarce. Even music and sound are diegetic only (except for one key moment), all we hear is happening on screen, is not suggested from the outside. Humour of course is not to be missed, and dead-pan at that, the directing is precise, economical. Very Finnish, tailored to Finnish lives, and yet it feels universal, because through this lens we become witnesses of something larger.

You might look at clouds as they drift away - castles in the sky, pipe dreams they say. Trying to reach them could be a vain exercise, even tainted by doom. Make sure to fight your fight, though, for you will discover that you are not alone. You will learn to understand others, and others will understand you. If you go under, there's at least a shared journey to remember. Or your fate, masking as coincidence.

Aki Kaurismäki is the most famous Finnish director out there today, he is also a filmmakers with the most international production in the history of Finland. When he made Kauas pilvet karkaavat (Drifting Clouds) he wanted to find the optimism without forgetting the reality; to make neo-realism in color. "When I started working on Drifting Clouds I located Frank Capra's emotional story of salvation, It's a Wonderful Life on one fringe, Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves on other and the Finnish reality somewhere in between." One who watches the films by Kaurismäki will see his love towards real cinema. He's like one of the French new wave filmmakers who loved cinema. His unique style has a lot of influences from neo-realism, poetic realism, Jean-Luc Godard and Robert Bresson. Even in the scene where the main characters go to Bio Rex (an old movie theater in Helsinki) there are posters from masterpieces such as Jean Vigo's L'Atalante and Robert Bresson's L'Argent.

In Drifting Clouds Kaurismäki wanted to continue his stories about "losers with high morality.": Ilona and Lauri are two lovers living in Helsinki. Suddenly recession hits them and both of them lose their jobs. The desperate search for work starts when neither of them wants to take welfare from the state. The film portrays the recession in Finland in early 1990's: it was a desperate time in Finland, unemployment and inflation was up to the roof but it also portrays the "old" Finland, Finland before it joined the European Union.

The story of Drifting Clouds might sound conventional or a bit pretentious to some and that's what it could easily have been, if it wasn't directed by Aki Kaurismäki. The reason why the film doesn't feel pretentious and conventional is the honesty and sincerity of Kaurismäki, but also the severe Bressonian aesthetics. The core of Kaurismäki's art is perhaps turning insignificant to meaningful which is the beauty of minimalism. The aesthetics in all of his film is Bressonian: minimalist, geographically perfect - not a single useless image; there's nothing insignificant in 'mise-en-scene'.

Drifting Clouds tries to find optimism in recession. The twists of the storyline partly reminded me of Julien Duvivier's masterful film of French poetic realism: La belle équipe (1936) which portrays a group of five penniless workers who suddenly won the lottery and decide to start an outdoor restaurant of their own. The similarities don't just stop at the storyline: there is something similar in the narrative as well, and even that Kaurismäki isn't often considered as a cinematic poet, I think his naturalistic realism has something poetic in it at times.

Aki Kaurismäki's films are satires, tragicomedies and many may find them dull and weird. But in the end I think his films appeal to most of the people: they aren't really challenging or mysterious. But they achieve to build pure emotional experiences. They are brilliant portrayals of the Finnish society; his films exhale the Finnish agony and reality. Drifting Clouds is a smart satire about dreams passing by and the optimism which is everywhere - it just needs to be found.

"Life is short and miserable. Be merry while you can."

I hope that every sad loser in life and every person who is kind but is faced with tremendous misfortune has a happy ending.

This film is dedicated to Aki Kaurismäki's most prominent collaborator and friend, Matti Pellonpää, who was supposed to reprise his role in Shadows in Paradise in this film, which was meant to be the sequel.

He died of a heart attack and was only 44. Maybe, after all, Aki Kaurismäki's cinematic lens pale in comparison to real life's tragedy.

This is the first movie of Kaurismäki I saw (I watched it without even knowing who he was) and it was one I particulary liked: this is a character driven, mostly dramatic but at times funny films, which portarys the everyday lives and struggles of the middle-lower class Finnish people in a crisis-struck country. The film's weight is carried by the excellent (and minimalistic) script and direction, but, mainly, by the awesome interpretations of the main actors. Both Kati Outinen and Kari Väänänen give a very convincing portrayal of a loving, yet somewhat reclusive, couple. The director shows off again with is mastery of the visual art of cinema, conveying feelings and plot points with minimal dialogue and a lot of visual cues. In the end, the film ends up being a very pleasant and smooth experience to watch: you will certainly empathize with the characters (including the seconday ones) and you will we really happy with the ending, if you make it there. A calm film you would like to watch alone in a winter evening.

Let Americans be Americans. Let them have their explosions, action, mainstream movie-making. Kaurismäki's film "Kauas pilvet karkaavat" is a slight parody, of course, but it contains a little Finland in it. Feelings are irrelevant, we Finns are more like Borg than "civilized" people, who can discuss about weather in every possible situation. I think everyone who comes to Finland, should see this film. It helps to understand.

This is a very interesting film, the complete opposite of the glamour of hollywood. It is very slow, but I was never bored, and the lack of sentimentality is very refreshing.

If you ever get the opportunity, do sit down and take the time to watch it.

The first part of AKI's "Finland" trilogy may have been used to the cold and gloomy pessimism before, and suddenly turned into a story of some inspirational comeback, which makes people uncomfortable. The film is a good film, especially the songs in the opening minutes are fascinating. I hope there will be surprises in the next few films.

The films of Aki Kaurismäki are always about "losers", but it is a different kinnd of losers as in the films of Ken Loach.

In the films of Ken Loach the main characters are the victim of a specific kind of enemy, being an employer ("Sorry, we missed you", 2019), the government ("I, Daniel Blake", 2016) or a loan shark ("Raining Stones", 1993).

In the films of Aki Kaurismäki the main characters are the victims of a more abstract fate. They have failed to keep pace with their time, and this gives his films also a nostalgic flavor.

Take "Drifting clouds". This film is about a couple of which the man (tram driver Lauri played by Kari Väänänen) loses his job when the public transport system is curtailed and the woman (waitress Ilona played by Kaurismäki regular Kati Outinen) loses her job when her restaurant goes bankrupt.

The last evening of this restaurant is a very poignant scene. We see the advanced age of the clientele, and immediatly understand what has gone wrong with this restaurant.

Music plays a prominent role in the films of Kaurismäki. Most of the time in the form of a rock and roll band of which the members are slightly seedy. Another form frequently used is a folksinger which sings a Finnish variant of the German 'schlager". In "Drifting clouds" Kaurismäki again uses the folk singer. During the last evening of the restaurant he sings about the transiency of life.

Ilona doesn't lose faith and starts her own restaurant. The final scene is the first night of this restaurant. This scene is a beautiful counterpoint to the last evening of the old restaurant. This scene also showed me how much I already cared for the main characters. When it initially remained silent in the restaurant it made me as nervous as the owners.