Writer-director Aki Kaurismäki’s new deadpan dark dramedy Fallen Leaves (Kuolleet lehdet) delighted the jury at Cannes in May 2023, as well as audiences at London Film Festival in October.
The Finnish filmmaker’s candid expertise at understanding emotional complexity is unrivalled in this tender, enchanting and romantic tale of love between two lonely singletons in Helsinki.
Ansa (Alma Pöysti) works in a local supermarket then goes home to her small inherited apartment, before repeating her daily grind the following day. Laborer Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) has a similar existence, minus a home to call home, with his only passion coming from a cigarette and a drink with work colleague and friend Huotari (Janne Hyytiäinen) at the end of the day.
All three characters have a chance meeting at a local karaoke bar, with Ansa, accompanied by best friend Tonja (Alina Tomnikov), making a lasting impression on Holappa, without a single word uttered between them. What stalls at the start after Holappa loses Ansa’s phone number on a piece of paper outside a local cinema, eventually gathers pace and hope.
To try and describe the impact of watching Kaurismäki’s minimalist approach would do it an injustice. It is a collective, sensory experience. Combined with rich cinematography and austere settings, he simply allows his characters’ inner thoughts and feelings to shine through during often mundane dialogue and small gestures, while bathing his subjects in halos of theatrical ‘film noir’ lighting to depict a rising yearning or passion at a play.
Vatanen as pained, leather-clad Holappa casually smoking as he observes is reminiscent of a by-gone era of Hollywood. Pöysti’s subtle facial expressions disrupt her pensive mood, playfully showing her thoughts at any given instance. Both wait for that moment to truly come alive, watching each other, while the radio reports on the Ukraine war, perhaps to show time is precious. Melancholy is never far from the darkest comedic moments in this, as the relationship relies heavily on fate.
Fallen Leaves is a gentle and philosophical gem, both effortless and universal in meaning. Like Kaurismäki’s Proletariat Trilogy that explores the space between comedy and tragedy, it is perhaps another example of masterful and poignant filmmaking.
