FILMS… Fallen Leaves / Kuolleet Lehdet (2023)

#2020s #AllPosts

 

An autumnal themed romance has a few false starts, but will always warm your heart…

 

In Helsinki, two painfully shy, lonely middle-aged Finns, Ansa and Holappa fall in love, with a soundtrack that speaks volumes.

 

Holappa and Huotari

Ansa and Liisa

FALLEN LEAVES | Official Trailer | Now Streaming, MUBI

 

I first heard about Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s movie, Kuolleet Lehdet / Fallen Leaves (2023) from Darlin Husband. This was after he saw the trailer for this Finnish language movie at the cinema. It wasn’t recommended to me because I need to practice my Finnish or because I like a quirky romantic movie. But for a completely random reason…

In the trailer, Darlin Husband had spotted two characters in the movie talking next to a film poster of my current movie crush, Alain Delon (and please note that Alain wasn’t the reason I have just written a marathon Romy Schneider review… and in that vein, neither was Helmut Berger). So this fact then naturally got me intrigued.

After seeing (and understanding) the Finnish trailer and scanning it for that poster, I identified with the character of the leading lady, Ansa. Like Ansa, I had a time in my life when I found it nearly impossible to talk with someone who I fancied. Just as I’m sure many men have had a tongued tied moment like the leading man, Hoppola.

So after my Finnish teacher suggested a class trip to watch this movie at the local cinema, I went along… (purely to practice my Finnish, you understand). To my joy, I understood the plot without a subtitle to rely on… as I later had the plot in my head confirmed after seeing this film with English subtitles.

The film is set in downtown Helsinki, and we meet our leading characters. 40-something petite blonde, Ansa (Alma Pöysti) works in a supermarket marking down food past its sell-by date. This is under the watchful eye of a supersuspicious security guard. She catches the bus home and we find out she lives alone. As she listens to the radio, the news tells of the early days of the Ukraine War so she changes the station to happier music. She lives on microwaved ready meals (when they don’t become uneatable), and then it’s bedtime.

Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) works as a sandblaster, is a pessimist and doesn’t care too much about his job. He smokes in non-smoking areas, believes “the black lung” will get him, and takes regular breaks at work usually to smoke and drink vodka straight from the bottle. He sleeps in a single bunk at work and seems a loner.

His colleague and friend Huotari (Janne Hyytiäinen), the slightly more talky one –  the low in mood, Holappa calls his friend a “babbler” – asks this more introverted friend to go with him to the karaoke. This is as it’s Friday night. At first, the unwilling Holappa refuses as he doesn’t sing and likes the “solitude”, but then agrees.

After the men arrive at the bar, they talk a little about their differing singing voice ranges, as several Finns sing for the karaoke. Huotari has dreams, not just of love, but he half-jokes – in a deadpan way – that his singing talents are still to be noticed by the right people in the music business. Huotari sings Autumn Under the Rowan Tree, in this one of a few autumnal themed songs on the soundtrack. Holappa can’t sing and doesn’t try.

Huotari’s talents are recognised by Liisa (Nuppu Koivu), a woman sitting near them with her friend. Liisa tells him she admires his singing. But after he chats her up she tells him he’s too old as boyfriend material, much to his sadness. It is then that Holappa notices Liisa’s friend, Ansa. After their initial eye contact, there’s a clear mutual attraction, but both are too shy to make a move. So it’s quick glances from her and awkwardly meaningful looks from him.

At the supermarket, Ansa gives some food she is throwing out to a homeless person. She is then fired by her manager for taking an out of date sandwich (which was to have been thrown out). As she sticks up for herself explaining her zero-hour contract, Liisa also confesses to stealing food too, by taking a long past its sell-by date yoghurt. As these two jobless women leave this work for the last time, their solidarity and friendship are shown nonverbally.

To pay the bills, Ansa finds and then gets another job – almost immediately  – as a kitchen assistant in a bar. She shows her boss literally (and us figuratively) that she’s a strong woman. She is not as weak as he feared as she carries her body weight in glasses to the kitchen. The bar is in a man’s bar full of silent Finns who don’t offer help or conversation.

Hoppola is in another Helsinki bar with Huotari. He explains to Huotari, that he’s depressed. He says he drinks alcohol to alleviate this feeling, and the alcohol makes him more depressed. The men continue to drink. After she leaves work, Ansa notices Hoppola slumped at a bus stop. After checking he’s okay she goes home. He wakes up after she catches the tram to go home.

Hoppola is secretly drinking at work and has to use unsafe equipment. Ansa’s boss is arrested, as she arrives for work. As she joins a crowd watching this arrest in near silence, she bumps into Hoppola. He invites her to join him for a coffee. After they sit in comfortable silence, he shows his caring side by offering her a pastry, and then they make small talk about the weather. She sees him drinking from a small flask as she goes to collect a pastry, but she doesn’t comment.

They continue their date, as they move on and she goes to the cinema with him. Their cinema date is to Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy film The Dead Don’t Die, at a retro themed cinema. They sit in zombie-like silence with few non-verbal signs apart from checking out the other surreptitiously.

Afterwards, she tells him she enjoyed herself and hasn’t “laughed so much”. She gives him her number on a piece of paper, but not her name or address. She kisses him on the cheek, and after she leaves, he promptly loses her number. He doesn’t notice as this paper falls out of his pocket and it blows away like a leaf in autumn… But what to do?

This film script has few words but the plotlines are also reinforced by the at times autumnal themed but always apt film soundtrack. Kaurismäki tells more about this story, with clues littered in those nonverbal cues, for example, the confliction of dates on calendars and in the news on the radio, one can believe this romance could occur in the modern day.

Kaurismäki paints his sets with pastel colours and crimson red, with his characters wearing these colours. He litters his sets minimally with retro items such as Ansa’s vintage radio and classic film posters. The plot adds more throwbacks to earlier decades such as she writes down her number on paper rather than adding it to a mobile phone.

Interestingly, Ansa is translated from Finnish as “snare”, and it could be that Ansa is literally snaring Hoppola away from his unhappy life. More Finnish translations and situations add nuance and familiarity to the movie from Finn’s perspective, such as the pair meeting at a karaoke bar, as this pastime is still prevalent over here.

We learn more about these mismatched characters with little clues in the cinematography, script and scenes with visual cues. Ansa is a wee bit more optimistic than Hoppola. She has certificates to work in a variety of workplaces and is always seen working soon after she loses a job. Ansa is more proactive as we see her at an Internet cafe to look up job sites in between jobs.

In contrast, Holappa just doesn’t care about work and is seen smoking in non-smoking areas and drinking alcohol at work. His solution to his depression is alcohol, and going to the bar. However, he will use dangerous equipment, which shows their need to work of any kind for enough to pay for their needs.

We learn about their lonely and shy existence as both drink in relative silence with their workmates (and each other). It’s seen as Ansa buys extra cutlery and a plate for her dinner date – it’s quite telling she only has enough for one (and throws it out after the date). We also see her unplug electrical items after reading an electric bill, and this is reinforced as she switches the light off. In contrast, Holappa continues his old habits of drinking at work and spending his money on bar visits despite the high costs of drinking.

Ansa has a lot of loving in her as we see her help a homeless person by giving them out of date food or when she takes in a stray dog. Before he goes to the Karaoke bar, we see Holappa’s broken-up reflection in his shattered mirror. This literally and figuratively mirrors him as a broken man when he first meets Ansa. Huotari fears he’s “missed the train” and has missed out on love as he sings in Karaoke in a soulful performance about lost opportunities. Yet, he has more hope than Holappa, as he half-jokes about a musical career with his voice or chatting up Liisa.

It is important to note that both Holappa and Ansa, are shy. Also, there is a common belief from other countries, that Finland is a country full of introverts as Finland always appears in the top 5 countries that show this trait.. Kaurimäki shows this trait at extremes in many of these characters’ scenes where the main characters have minimal conversation and use small talk. In the many bar scenes such as the karaoke, the Finns sit in silence.

After watching this movie, I believe after living here for over a decade I have a better understanding. Through personal experiences, I know that this fact is more a myth than true. Finns can be both introverts and extroverts and this is pretty much the same for anyone from any nation.

A favourite moment in the film is when the leading pair go to the cinema. Although neither visibly laughs nor smiles, you can tell both are more than attracted to each other. This is seen in the meaningful ways they look at each other during the movie. It’s clear both are attracted to each other and want a second date. As Ansa says she laughed out loud after the film, you know she’s saying that she’s just happy to be with him…

But there’s a subtle film poster foreshadowing hint for what will happen in this scene, as behind her is a poster of Brief Encounter (1945). After this scene, you hope that love will find a way after he hunts for the missing phone number, and as we see her wait for his call… you wonder how and if this star-crossed pair meet again.

Kaurismäki continues to inform plot developments with movie poster plot cues. And here, I believe there is some significance in that Alain Delon film poster. This poster is of Rocco ja hänen veljensä and translated as Rocco and His Brothers (1960)… The poster is seen in a bar scene with Holappa and Huotari, both are talking more at ease and fraternally about their love lives. Holappa is unable to contact his date – a woman who has not shared her name or address – after losing her phone number. This is as they talk about how Holappa can get the girl, little realising he already has.

 

Weeper Rating:  😦 😦 😦 😦 😦 😦  /10

Handsqueeze Rating:  🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂/10

Hulk Rating: 0 /10

 

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Mismatched Couple Blogathon 2024

This post was added to my Mismatched Couple Blogathon with Barry at Cinema Catharsis.

• I have also reviewed Jos Rakastat, a Finnish movie and the Finnish TV Series Sinkkulaiva and Au Pairit. 
• Other foreign language films reviewed here include La Piscine, Incubus, Purple Noon / Plein Soleil / Talented Mr Ripley and Good Bye Lenin!

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