Karaoke blues

Euroepan film

director by Aki Kaurismäki, Finsko-Německo 2023, 81 min.

The central couple is Ansa and Hollap. Ansa changes jobs more often than Hollapa changes pubs. He faces extreme poverty. He thinks before investing his last change, turns off all appliances after reading a letter from the energy company, steals expired food that would otherwise be thrown away while working at the supermarket. Hollap's demon is alcoholism. In his story we notice a hint of the proverbial paradox from The Little Prince: "I drink to forget that I am ashamed because I drink."
The couple meet at a bar during a karaoke night and it takes a while for them to get together, hindered not by an evil dragon or deep adversity but by their own personal problems.But the story is not the main thing you will notice about the entire film. First of all, you will be attracted by the kind and non-violent cool humor. In the second row, arrangements with which Kaurismäky sometimes mocks the viewer. The visuals of the film are aesthetically "timeless" (the most comparable to the 60s of the last century), including the furnishings of apartments, buildings, characters' clothing, and the appearance of means of transport.However, the director puts these "retro" elements in a deliberate contrast to the time in which the film takes place. We see a retro wall calendar with the year 2023, an old radio on the table describes the bloodshed in Ukraine, retro signs on shops and cafes that clearly refer to the present (for example, the Internet cafe sign) have a fun effect.

"One time when they wanted me to list my ten favorite movies again, I sent them the list - and then Aki Kaurismäki and I laughed that he had seven of the ten movies on his list. We both gravitate towards Bresson and Dreyer, i.e. towards a certain purism. Aki often tells me the end of a movie and I have to guess which movie it is. We can also argue endlessly about whether Robert Bresson's best film is 'The Fly' or 'Probably the Devil'. Aki loves dogs and his female Lajka always appeared in his first films. He once came to pick me up at the Helsinki airport in his old Cadillac from 1964. He lived an hour away from the airport and was miserable because the heat in his convertible didn't work and the doors wouldn't close, in the middle of winter. He told me to put Laika on my lap to warm up. So it's snowing heavily and I'm sitting in an open convertible with the dog on my lap. A picture truly in the spirit of Kaurismäki!” – Jim Jarmusch