Shade in paradise

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Movie
German title Shade in paradise
Original title Varjoja paratiisissa
Country of production Finland
original language Finnish
Publishing year 1986
length 70 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Aki Kaurismäki
script Aki Kaurismäki
production Villealfa
camera Timo Salminen
cut Raija Talvio
occupation

Shadows in Paradise (Original title: Varjoja paratiisissa ) is a film by Aki Kaurismäki from 1986. It is the first part of Kaurismäki's so-called proletarian trilogy , which also includes Ariel and The Girl from the Match Factory.

action

Helsinki , mid-1980s. Nikander works in the garbage collection. Ilona is a cashier in a supermarket. The film tells her story of her first meeting at the supermarket checkout, a dreary evening in a bingo room and a night in a hotel in separate single rooms, about Ilona's moving in with Nikander and her moving out with him until the moment she saw her set off on a cruise to Tallinn .

Nikander may be shy of women and unsure of Ilona. But he is very aware of himself. Once, at dinner, Ilona tries to lure him out of the reserve: “What do you actually want from me?” Nikander replies: “I don't want anything, from anyone. I am Nikander. Formerly a butcher, now a garbage collector. Teeth and stomach are screwed, the liver is no better either. It's not for the best in the head either. Don't ask what I want. "

For a while Ilona thinks she deserves a more successful man than Nikander, but when her friend tries to disgrace him, Ilona contradicts her, and you can see from her suddenly confident look that she has decided on Nikander.

And then there is Melartin, Nikander's work colleague. At first you might get the impression that Nikander is having a bad influence on Nikander if he asks him over and over again: "Shall we have another drink?" In fact, he is something of a good spirit of Nikander's relationship with Ilona. A couple of times he helps his colleague out of a tight spot with money (which he “borrows” from his sleeping child's money box), with a clean shirt and with urgent words when Nikander lets himself down again.

Film music

Kaurismäki often uses music as a substitute for dialogue, as it creates the desired mood without unnecessary words.

As an example, the scene in which Ilona Nikander seems to have left for good. The next day Melartin can get him to go to work, but in the evening he is drawn back to town, alone. When he leaves the house, Elmore James can be heard with the Blues Strange kinda feeling, my baby don't love me no more .

criticism

The film service wrote that the film was “staged directly with a meager aesthetic” and “[really] worthwhile”. It is a "sometimes touching melodrama" as well as "a gripping social report."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter von Bagh: Kaurismäki over Kaurismäki. Alexander, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-89581-342-9 . P. 64.
  2. ^ Criticism on filmdienst.de