"Ariel" is the story of a Finnish minor who has just lost his job. In the canteen, his father tells him that he, too, is fed up with this industry, all you can - says he - is boozing your brains away, but this is of no use. However, there is another way, the father continues, takes out his gun, says, but it is not a solution either, yet, I will do it anyway, takes the gun with him in the restroom. One hears a shot, then the collapse of a body. The son still drinks beer, it takes him a while to realize what happens. He stands up, goes to a bank, withdraws all his money, takes fathers car out of a garage and drives to Hamburger place. There, two men see the money in his pocket, knock him down, steal the money. When he awakes, he drives to a shipyard, engages as a laborer, sleeps in the night in a Christian charity place. The next day, he gets a ticket, tells the woman that she is no good cop but attractive, she answers he is right, but she is divorced and has a child, he responds, that's good, then we do not have anymore to build up a family.
Aki Kaurismäki, "the Finnish Fassbinder" (although he does not need this comparison), is a master of minimalism. Not only are the dialogs absolutely minimal, but one really wonders who his movies are understandable through the fragments of reality he gives and from which the audience must build up his recognition of what the movie wants to communicate. Then the music. I am really convinced that nobody else than Fassbinder and Kaurismäki have the talent to bring the exactly fitting movie to the exactly right situation in the precisely correct moment. Kaurismäki's movies "blow you away", because in their minimal-"invasive" metaphysics, they can be cathartic.
Aki Kaurismäki, "the Finnish Fassbinder" (although he does not need this comparison), is a master of minimalism. Not only are the dialogs absolutely minimal, but one really wonders who his movies are understandable through the fragments of reality he gives and from which the audience must build up his recognition of what the movie wants to communicate. Then the music. I am really convinced that nobody else than Fassbinder and Kaurismäki have the talent to bring the exactly fitting movie to the exactly right situation in the precisely correct moment. Kaurismäki's movies "blow you away", because in their minimal-"invasive" metaphysics, they can be cathartic.