Memorable, crazy movie

Excellent adaptation.

Boring

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The director Aki Kaurismäki's films are so dry that I may only describe the characters and their situations if I try to talk about his movies in my writing – and I might get away with my delinquency. His deadpan approach is so simple that you probably do not understand why it is funny until you see it for yourself. For instance, one character in his new film "Le Havre" buys a certain fruit in the middle of the story, and then he walks into the bar to have some conversation with a bar owner. The camera does nothing except simply observes the man sitting on one of the tables and the fruit placed on the table right next to him, but it somehow made me smile.Kaurismäki's films are usually set in the urban area of Finland, and his unhappy characters are stuck in hard time while yearning for the escape from the ennui and dreariness of their daily life, as shown in "Shadows in Paradise"(1986) and "Ariel"(1988). But this time, it is a little different. Set in Le Havre, a French port city in Normandy, he presents us a middle-aged couple content with their poor lifestyle and happy to be together – and he makes a movie warmer and more accessible than before.Marcel(André Wilms) is a shoeshine living in Le Havre(I am curious – how many cities in the world are called "The Harbor"?). He moves around the different places in the city for earning money, but it is not so easy for him to work on these days(the opening scene made me to be conscious about what I was wearing on my feet). While watching him working, I thought he would envy the shoeshines I saw in Seoul, who usually occupy the booths on the streets as their workplace for doing other things besides polishing the shoes. I remember that I once needed my shoes to be polished as soon as possible when I was about to attend the lab colleague's wedding; I went into one of those booths, and the guy did a marvelous job with my old shoes I seldom wore.Anyway, let's get back to the film itself. Marcel does not earn money much, but there is always the place waiting for him whenever the day is over. There are his good working-class neighbours, including the bakery owner who demands Marcel to pay off his accumulating bill while well aware of that he will probably never do that. He tells her he will pay it all when a good chance comes(he mentions about "the inheritance" of his wife), but it is a lie, and both know that. The grocery shop owner across the alley chooses a more direct way – he shuts down the store instantly when Marcel walks to the store, though, as we learn later, he is a nice man, after all.Marcel was once a free-living bohemian who wanted to be a writer when he was young, but now he is settled with his wife Arletty(Kati Outinen – do you remember her far younger self in "Shadows in Paradise" and "The Match Factory Girl"(1990)?) and their dog Laika in their shabby house. We do not know much about how they met in the past(I guess they started as "the best roommates"), but the low-key performances of Wilms and Outinen succinctly conveys us a dry but loving relationship between them.Meanwhile, a group of illegal immigrants from Gabon, who tried to go to London, are found by the police at one of those huge containers at the port after locked in there for days due to their bad luck. One of them, a boy named Idrissa(Blondin Miguel), manages to escape. When he goes to the riverside to have a lunch, Marcel comes across him hiding from the police. He gives Idrissa the food later, and Marcel soon finds himself taking care of him at his house while the newspapers make a big fuss about this shy, quiet, and nice boy.Marcel does more than that to help Idrissa. He goes to Calais to find and meet Idrissa's grandfather who was with him in that container. He even concocts a secret plan to send Idrissa to London where Idrissa's mother lives. While Marcel is absent, Idrissa can take care of himself well, and Laika, who deserves to appear with others in the movie poster, is always near him.Marcel's neighbours also help him, too. Except one petty guy(Jean- Pierre Léaud – remember Antoine Doinel in "400 Blows"(1959)?), his neighbours do not tell anything to the police. Captain Monet(Jean-Pierre Darroussin, very serious with a black suit, a black coat, black shoes, black gloves, and a black hat) seems to be determined to do his job, but Darroussin gives us a subtle hint that Monet does not like what he has to do. Monet can be flexible, and the loose suspense of the film depends on how much flexible he can be.While Marcel is busy with helping Idrissa, Arletty is in the hospital. She knows she has been ill, and she hides that from her husband, but she can't hide it from him any more now, except that her days can be counted. She is sent to the hospital early in the film, so she does not know much about what is going around her husband, but, when Idrissa comes to her at the hospital to deliver the message from her husband, she accepts the message from the boy she barely knows. Outinen expresses little in the face, but this scene is one of the warmest spots in the film along with its charming soundtrack. Later in the story, there is an illegal concert promoted by Marcel and his Vietnamese colleague(Quoc Dung Nguyen) to gather the money for helping Idrissa, and a singer named Little Bob(Roberto Piazza) gets a little showstopper moment with his live performance.

It would not be an understatement to suggest that in today's hostile, inhuman world where human sentiments have been replaced by deeper technological penetration, more and more films are needed to soothe world's sorrows and troubles. One way of doing it is to create films with a good combination of entertainment with a serious message. Aki Kaurismaki's "Le Havre" is one such film which has managed to please both critics as well as general public with its effective depiction of the plight of illegal immigrants who need to be dealt with in a more humane manner. An astute viewer can guess that the making of "Le Havre" should be construed as a kind of serious artistic challenge for Aki Kaurismaki as most of his films have portrayed Finnish realities in Finland. It is nice to learn that he has successfully scored good marks in this test as "Le Havre" has all the amazing qualities of a Finnish film which has been made in a different setting. Although it is shot by Aki Kaurismaki in Le Havre, a famous French port city,there is absolutely no change of style on his part. Aki Kausrismaki is as much concerned about the plight of his protagonists as he was in his Finnish films. He has kept his ubiquitous formula intact which concerns a problem that needs to be solved regardless of innumerable obstacles. However, this film succeeds to a double degree as there are two problems in hand which have been justly resolved namely the plight of an immigrant black boy and ill health of the protagonist's wife. Lastly,French actor Jean Pierre Darroussin shines as he continually reminds viewers of Inspecteur Javert.

Le Havre was a joy to watch for me. When I thought about why I liked it so much, I concluded that it returned me to so many of the joyful moments of pictures of the past, riding the cliché's but at the same time hiding them. As a homage to films past, the film maker never is obvious, but builds his film as if all of the happy moments of past films, never happened. A child being pursued by evil forces. A grandpa like figure coming to the rescue. A medical miracle. A show put on to raise needed funds with an incomprehensible rock star, not a Mickey Rooney to produce a barn raising musical. A neighborhood coming together to help save a child from deportation. The film maker gives it all to a jaundiced post modern idea of what film making should be, and people who never want to go home. The movie is technically brilliant, color and photography that show a shabby French port as the land of Oz. Actors who know how to make you love their characters. A delight. See it.

Protagonist is Marcel Marx, A Shoeshiner, who makes a peaceful living with his wife Arletty and a dog Laika in city of Le Havre. He incidentally meets an African boy, Idrissa, who is being sought by French authorities as illegal immigrant. Marcel opens his doors to the boy and helps him make his way to join his mother across the water in London.Despite the complication of Arletty's terminal illness, about which Marcel is not aware, the snooping of grim-faced inspector Monet, and the machinations of the neighborhood snitch, with the help of neighbors and friends that Marcel was deeply in debt to forgive everything for Idrissa, Marcel tries to help the boy.Kudos to Aki Kaurismäki, the director of Le Havre, for his directorial talent he has exhibited in this movie. No loose ends, characterization and usage of every character is excellent and has kept it very simple by all means.Once in while you get to watch such an optimistic film that shows love, respect and tolerance for one another in a very simple and practical manner.Follow Us @ : https://www.facebook.com/theworldmoviejournalReviews @ : http://theworldmoviejournal.wordpress.com/