CURZON ARTIFICIAL EYE PRESENTS: LE HAVRE. (2011) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

Roberto Benigni To Star in Aki Kaurismaki's Next Project Set In Italy?

The last time we read about Aki Kaurismäki was last year when his fantastic Le Havre was released. For his next project he's heading to Italy and he wants Oscar winning Roberto Benigni to star in it.

What the film will be about and the intentions of having Benigini are unclear at this moment but what we can gather the film will be inspired by 'the tasty wines of Salento'. This is a rather vague description however  Salento is part of the Apulia region of Southern Italy which happened to be where the 14th European film festival was hosted which the Finnish Auteur was a guest at. It seems the region has inspired the director which I totally appreciate (I lived nearly 2 years in Campania the neighboring region) but his grasp of the Italian language is only 'tourist' level so for this project to succeed he needs to learn the language better.

Originally Kaurismaki wanted Italian veteran Nanni Morretti (We Have A Pope) who unfortunately did not respond and now all eyes are on Benigni  who he described  who describes as a career like 'John Wayne  with a little Cary Grant'. If this project kicks off which we hope it does it's hard to see what direction the film will go, a film on wines may sound bland however with Life is Beautiful star Benigni onboard you can expect the film will be a mix of drama and crazy comedy.

source: THR

Le Havre DVD Review

★★★★1/2

Le Havre is the latest film by prolific Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki and was a big success at Cannes (winning 2 awards). It is also one of only 3 films of 2011 to be inducted into the Criterion collection so far.

Le Havre tells the story of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), an old shoe shiner in the title’s town who finds a young black boy Idrissa who is an illegal immigrate. He is hiding form the cops and takes him in. His wife is terminally ill but she won’t admit it to Marcel. They cops are after the boy to deport him and the rest of the film consists of Marcel trying to sort out a boat to get him to London.

The film is a really lovely low-key film. The film is called a “comedy-drama” but it’s not particularly laugh out funny but just gives you a smile throughout the film. The performances are all really wonderful all done very deadpan as expected in Kaurismäki’s films. The film’s look is very influenced of many French filmmakers such as Robert Bresson, Marcel Carné, Jean Pierre-Melville which is expected because of it’s setting and also in Bresson’s minimalism which is evident in many of Kaurismäki’s films.

The film overall is a wonderfully offbeat as expected with Kaurismäki and it interesting themed dramedy. It’s also to see a film that is deliciously old fashioned it’s a film that could have easily been made over 50 years ago and wouldn’t be much different. It’s highly recommended 90 minutes.

Ian Schultz

Rating: PG
DVD/BD Release Date: 06 August 2012
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Cast: André Wilms, Blondin Miguel , Jean-Pierre Darroussin

Review: Le Havre