Le Havre

Author: cultfilmfan from Canada
19 January 2012

Le Havre is a film from Finland in French with English subtitles. The film focuses on a middle aged man named Marcel, who makes a living going around town and working as a shoe shiner.

Business is not always great and at home Marcel lives a very simple life with his much adored wife, Arletty. One day a group of refugees are found in town and one of them, a young boy named, Idrissa escapes and is wanted by the local chief inspector and the police. Marcel one day stumbles across the boy and shows kindness to him and the next thing he knows, Idrissa shows up at his home. The rest of the story is about how out of his way, Marcel will go to hide and protect the boy from the police and to find a way to get him back with his family.

Le Havre is a great film on several different levels. The acting here from the whole cast is all very good here and just their facial expressions and deadpan looks say a lot even when there is nothing in particular to be said. They convey the feelings and thoughts and emotions of their characters perfectly. The direction and writing of this film by Aki Kaurismaki is also a real delight here. He provides us with some very interesting characters and a good story to use and put them to work in. I also found that the film had just the right blend of humour and drama.

Ultimately this is a feel good film and I think almost anybody who watches it will leave feeling very happy and joyful. The story and events in the film are simple enough and nothing is done to extravagance, but I think what really got me about the whole thing was the kindness not only Marcel, but his friends and neighbours, show to Idrissa, knowing that if they are caught, they too could be in a lot of trouble. It was really refreshing to see these characters live their simple yet happy lives and find happiness in things we take for granted and how when one needs help, they will be the first ones there to lend a hand and offer support.

They work together well as a community and more than that they are great friends and neighbours who look out for each other. That was what I really thought got me about Le Havre, the basic message of the kindness of strangers and being the good Samaritan and helping out your fellow man. The film I might add is also quite a good looking film and I really admired it's cinematography. At one time it shows buildings and homes in bright primary colours and then goes to show us bleak and older homes that are a bit run down and much more simple.

The colour scheme and the effect of this further added to my appreciation of the film and how these characters live. The cinematography actually reminded me of the works of French cinematographer Raoul Coutard, whose work I came to know and love in Jean-Luc Godard's films such as Contempt (which looks absolutely exquisite on it's Blu Ray release), but now back to Le Havre. This is a film where much joy and laughter can be had, but also gives us hope for each other and the human race.

The film may be a little unrealistic in that regard of showing the goodness in people, but any film that has that as it's central message and gives us something to not only think about, but to feel good about after is a winner in my books. It may even get you to re-evaluate your own attitudes and perspectives on things, so keep an open mind while watching. This is one of the most entertaining and inspiring films of 2011 and also one of the best.

A fairy tale Kaurismäki-style

Author: saschakrieger from Germany
24 October 2011

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

It's all so familiar: The shabby, old worn interiors, the far from picturesque scenery, those slightly patina-covers images with their dirty soft colors, the slowness, those long shots which are hardly more than stills, even the hairdos. Not only do Aki Kaurismäki's films have a very distinctive look and feel, they all have this quality of watching something that is not quite there. Nostalgia is the wrong word, but his films and more so his characters have fallen out of time.

They are creatures of the past, but the present they end up in is not quite the present we know either. There is a timeless quality or rather a different sense of time in the slow movements, the museum-like atmosphere, the silence. More often than not Kaurismäki's characters are not exactly talkers. So it is no surprise that Le Havre looks a lot like Helsinki but there sure is a lot more talking going on.

At the end of the day, Le Havre both is and is not a typical Kaurismäki. It is his most upbeat and optimistic film to date. Gone is most of his trademark melancholia, the despair many of his protagonists have to fight and sometimes succumb to. On the other hand, his films have never been as cynical, hopeless or pessimistic as the occasional viewer may think. On the contrary, underlying his work has always been a basic belief in the goodness of humankind - at least the underprivileged part of it, those on the outskirts of society.

And there always has been a fairy-tale quality in many of his films. Le Havre can be regarded as the culmination of both: a truly optimistic fairy-tale, a story about goodness which well may be too good to be true. But maybe it is not.André Wilms reprises his role from Kaurismäki's 1992 film La Vie de Bohème, however, Marcel, the unsuccessful writer, has turned into a shoe cleaner - a profession that belongs to a different time, too.

One day he finds an African boy who escaped when the police found the container in which he and dozens of others tried to get to London. He takes him in and eventually gets him to London. Meanwhile, Marcel's wife (the wonderfully dignified sad angel Kati Outinen) is diagnosed with a fatal sickness which she refuses to tell Marcel about. Don't be surprised though, if a miracle is in the making here, too.This may be a run-down, shabby world but it is inhabited by the best kind of people one could imagine.

And they're not flat characters, but full-blooded sinners with exceptionally good hearts. This is, after all, a fairy tale with a fairy tale ending but it is also more - a celebration of the human spirit, of goodness in the face of adversity, a beautiful vision of what the world could be if we all tried a little harder to do the right thing.At the same time, Kaurismäki never loses sight of the evil humans do to each other. TV excerpts and a relentless police hunt highlight the plights of immigrants in today's France and elsewhere.

If there is a message here it is that each of us must start in their own lives to do good, only then do we have a chance to make this place we call earth a little better. It is a simple message but told like this it is hard to escape its grip. And who ever said that answers cannot be simple sometimes?Kaurismäki creates beautiful as well as memorable images, mostly stills such as the one in the harbour with the boy in the front and Marcel in the background. An image of longing and also of togetherness.

The most intense scene occurs when the container is opened and the camera goes from face to face. All turns quiet, a choking silence that is hardly bearable. And eyes who tell stories that could fill books.Not all is dead serious though, there is a playful element to this film. Kaurismäki starts it with a wonderfully cliché noir scene and ends it in n equally cheesy melodrama. Don't take me too seriously, we might hear him say, I'm just throwing some ideas at you. Catch them if you like.

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Akï Kaurismäki /Tournage