Stockholm Film Festival

Aki Kaurismäki is back. After a few less successful productions and big headlines saying that he will stop making movies, we are now looking at a Kaurismäki that is confident and more brilliant than ever. Drifting Clouds is a work by a mature director in which he deals with problems more tangible than in his previous films. As far as style is concerned, the film is a mixture of the news pictures in a sixties issue of ''Life'' and a somewhat minimalistic animated film for adults. At the beginning everything is fine with the middle aged couple that the film is about. Kati Outinen plays a thin, worn-out woman in her forties who work as a head waitress at one of the better restaurants in town and Kari Vaananen is a potbellied, taciturn tramcar driver. As a symbol of the couple's economic well-being we are shown how proud he is when he one evening comes home with a brand new TV: ''And in eight years time when the TV is paid off we can by bookshelves'' he says happily. However, one morning when he arrives at work the manager is waiting for his employees with a deck of cards in his hand. The company is cutting costs and people will have to leave. Our hero picks a poor card and is thereby forced to quit. Shortly after, the restaurant is shut down as well and she too is out of work.As a counterbalance to this gloomy scenario Kaurismäki illustrates a couple and their unconditional love for each other: how they support each other in every situation. Their relationship seems almost like a fairy tale in its naivety and unreality. At a press conference in Turku someone was sceptical to the couple in the film and claimed that such a relationship could hardly exist in reality. Aki Kaurismäki answered rather confused that his marriage is like that... It sounds like a tear-jerker but it is not - the typical Kaurismäki humour is still there. The leading part was originally written for the actor Matti Pellonpää. After his decease the director considered giving up the project; however, he then reasoned that such a decision would probably have made Pellonpää bloody angry. Instead he rewrote the part as a woman: Kati Outinen. This might be one reason why the laconic Drifting Clouds feels slightly different from Aki's earlier films. It is necessary to add that even though the film is spiced with tango in the minor key it is characterized by major third above the keynote. SK 

Premiärstatus

Svensk premiär

Orig. titel

Kauas pilvet karkaavat

Medverkande

Kati Outinen, Kari Väänänen, Elina Salo

Producent

Aki Kaurismäki

Manus

Aki Kaurismäki

Foto

Timo Salminen

Musik

Various

Talat språk

Finnish

 

Andra filmer från sektionen Northern Lights

Se alla festivalfilmer från 1996