• Drifting Clouds

9/23/23 (Sat)

The title of Aki Kaurismäki’s 1996 feature, the first in his so-called Finland (or Loser) Trilogy, has the whiff of Naruse’s Floating Clouds and even the same Japanese title (浮き雲 here vs. Naruse’s浮雲). However, the bleakness of the Japanese film is nowhere evident in Kaurismäki, whose dry presentation and pokerfaced characters deliver a black comedy with an unexpectedly upbeat ending.

A tram-driving husband and his waitress wife experience one misfortunate after another: both lose their long-standing jobs and can’t find another, their furniture and pride-and-joy color TV are repossessed, the man is rejected from a near-certain position after failing a medical exam that costs him his license, the woman joins a slimy diner run by a crooked operator, the couple receive an eviction notice from their home, the husband gets beat up, the wife gets ripped off, and on and on. The embarrassed husband hides the fact that he lost his first job, staying away for a week after getting beat up to let the wounds heal before returning to his wife. The woman, who is proud of having worked her way from dishwasher to chief waitress before being fired, jumps at a dishwasher job in desperation to do anything. Yet the blank expressions of all actors and droll dialogue keep this from slipping into depression. It’s like a drama where everyone is Buster Keaton.

The bright primary colors of the rooms contrast with the colorless expressions. I assume the deadpan style is the director’s way of making fun of a Finnish reserve, like Woody Allen exaggerating Jewish stereotypes. Overt action is hidden away: in scene where a crazy man is wielding a knife, we see one man walk off screen to confront him, then return with a bloody hand; the head waitress subsequently walks off screen, we hear a slap and silence, and she returns with the knife and a no-nonsense look.

There’s a great opening with American pianist Shelley Fisher singing a jazz tune, “Lonesome Traveler”. The dialogue sparkles – “I’m on a journey to the end of vodka” – and the droll but hopeful ending, when the restaurant is saved by a reservation for 30 wrestlers, feels well earned.

Great performances by Kati Outinen as the wife along with Elina Salo as her ex-boss and ultimately her savior. The flatness of the dialogue and facial expressions are odd at first, making emotions indistinguishable from one another. But it highlights the absurdity of it all and keeps things from getting too serious. The clouds in the title eventually drift on, letting the sun shine in. A fun film.