****
Kaurismäki the director, working a certain kind of magic, creates a compelling film from a plain woman, very little dialogue, and lots of shots of match-making machinery. Kaurismäki the writer cleverly selects exactly the right scenes to tell his story about lonliness, despair, and the death by rote repetition of imagination. Kati Outinen is terrific (though that word suggests an energy her character doesn't possess) as a woman with no life and no skills for dealing with one. It all sounds very depressing when in fact it's nearly hypnotic. A standalone film, but the last in Kaurismäki's Proletariat Trilogy, preceded by Shadows in Paradise and Ariel. Finnish, with English subtitles.
Kaurismäki the director, working a certain kind of magic, creates a compelling film from a plain woman, very little dialogue, and lots of shots of match-making machinery. Kaurismäki the writer cleverly selects exactly the right scenes to tell his story about lonliness, despair, and the death by rote repetition of imagination. Kati Outinen is terrific (though that word suggests an energy her character doesn't possess) as a woman with no life and no skills for dealing with one. It all sounds very depressing when in fact it's nearly hypnotic. A standalone film, but the last in Kaurismäki's Proletariat Trilogy, preceded by Shadows in Paradise and Ariel. Finnish, with English subtitles.
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