Country: Finland, France, Germany
Year: 2011
Duration: 93'
The writer and bohemian Marcel Marx moves to Le Havre after having abandoned all literary ambitions. He dedicates himself body and soul to his favorite bar, to his beloved wife Arletty, and to his new profession as a shoeshine, which lets him create closer relationships with people. Life flows by peacefully, with neighborhood chats and time-tested habits, until one day his encounter with an African boy who is an illegal alien and his wife’s illness bring him face-to-face with human narrow-mindedness and the blindness of Western bureaucracy. “The European cinema has not much addressed the continuously worsening financial, political, and above all, moral crisis that has lead to the ever-unsolved question of refugees; refugees trying to find their way into the EU from abroad, and their irregular, often substandard treatment. I have no answer to this problem, but I still wanted to deal with the matter in this anyhow unrealistic film.”
Biography
film director
Aki Kaurismäki
Aki Kaurismäki (Orimattila, Finland, 1957), after starting as a film critic, founded Villealfa Filmproductions with his brother Mika, with whom he directed his first film, The Saimaa Gesture (1981). Two years later, he made Crime and Punishment and in 1985, Calamari Union. After the road movie Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989), he directed The Match Factory Girl, which won in Berlin in 1990. Two years later, always in Berlin, he won the Fipresci award for The Bohemien Life, while in 2002 The Man Without a Past won the Jury Prize in Cannes, where he later participated with Lights in the Dusk (2006) and Le Havre (2011).
FILMOGRAFIA
filmografia essenziale/essential filmography
Saimaa-ilmiö (La sindrome del lago Saimaa, coregia/codirector Mika Kaurismäki, doc., 1981), Rikos ja rangaistus (Delitto e castigo, 1983), Calamari Union (1984), Hamlet Iiikemaailmassa (Amleto si mette in affari, 1987), Ariel (1988), Lenigrad Cowboys Go America (1989), Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö (La fiammiferaia, 1990), I Hired a Contract Killer (Ho affittato un killer, 1990), Boheemielämää (Vita da bohème, 1991), Kauas pilvet karkaavat (Nuvole in viaggio, 1996), Juah, (id., 1999), Mies vailla menneisyyttä (L’uomo senza passato, 2002), Laitakaupungin valot (Le luci della sera, 2006), Le Havre (Miracolo a Le Havre, 2011).
Cast
& Credits
regia, sceneggiatura, produttore/director, screenplay, producer
Aki Kaurismäki
fotografia/cinematography
Timo Salminen
montaggio/film editing
Timo Linnasalo
scenografia/production design
Wouter Zoon
costumi/costume design
Fred Cambier
suono/sound
Tero Malmberg
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
André Wilms (Marcel Marx), Kati Outinen (Arletty), Jean-Pierre Darroussin (Monet), Blondin Miguel (Idrissa), Elina Salo (Claire), Evelyne Didi (Yvette), Quoc-Dung Nguyen (Chang), François Monnié (il droghiere/Grocer), Roberto Piazza (Little Bob), Pierre Étaix (il dottor/Dr Becker), Jean-Pierre Léaud (l’informatore/Informer), Laika (se stessa/Herself)
produzione/production
Sputnik, Pyramide Productions, Pandora Film
coproduzione/coproduction
Arte France Cinéma, Arte, Zdf
distribuzione/distribution
Bim
vendita all’estero/world sales
The Match Factory
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