The Man Without a Past
Directed by Aki Kaurismaki
Starring Markku Peltola, Kati Outinen, Juhani Niemelä, Kaija Pakarinen and Sakari Kuosmanen
Rated PG-13 for some violence.

I can’t really tell how great a filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki is. He makes great movies without a doubt. They’re funny and quirky and, despite their penchant for nonsense, you really get the feeling they mean something. But I have a terribly difficult time separating Kaurismaki the writer and Kaurismaki the filmmaker. His direction certainly has some identifying characteristics: the use of long takes, the reluctance to cut within scenes, close-ups of funny faces, and a slow, deliberate pace. But the unifying force in his filmography seems to be a screenwriting voice marked by the constant return to various themes, character types and situations. Theres always a loner set off in a world that seems just a bit off. Its a cruel world but somehow you don’t hate it, a world view that may well be Kaurismakis own. Sometimes the loner is an individual such as in Ariel and The Match Stick Factory Girl and sometimes a group (The Bohemian Life and the must-see for so many reasons, Leningrad Cowboys Go America). There is always a rock and roll band and always a scene of the main characters reacting to how bizarre they are. There is normally a dog. And most of the screenplays always drip with irony, never making fun of anything outright, but never taking anything seriously either.

The Man Without a Past fits this recipe to a tee, most recalling Ariel, Kaurismaki’s first international success, but also invoking, and even outright referencing his previous films. It is the story of a man who is mugged and beaten, losing his memory in the process. He roams around Helsinki, eventually finding a comically tragic home in a storage container. He starts to rebuild his life in a ridiculously impoverished, yet somehow attractive fashion. He acquires quirky neighbors and coworkers, with one of them emerging as a love interest. He finds a cute killer dog and starts managing the Salvation Army’s Christian hymn band. It is all wonderfully inventive and extremely hard to pin down. Nothing is serious and nothing is a joke, its all just a certain view of the world which Kaurismaki asks you to take or leave for the short duration of his film.

This movie does feature bright, colorful cinematography, something Kaurismaki doesn’t seem to demand always, although its tough to tell from the VHS copies of his films that I’ve seen. The performances are a lesson in dead-pan across the board with star Marrku Peltola providing the deadest-pan of the bunch. Most of this film provides the viewer with an outlook on both cinema and life that he or she is not likely to have been presented with previously. And as with any new perspective, there is a great opportunity to learn something about your old one. Personally I love Kaurismaki’s films, perhaps more for their writing than their cinematic presentations, although they’re starting to grow on me. They’re fun and they challenge the way we look at things. But be warned, this isn’t American humor and sometimes being challenged can cause odd reactions. Still, see it if you can.

Rating 84%