Le Havre

Pleasantly surprised by my first Aki Kaurismaki film. It's almost like a mashup of Kieslowski, Wenders, Fassbinder with a bit of Jean Pierre Jeunet and Jacques Demy chucked in. All of those influences are clear. The movie essentially explores compassion / morality, styled in 1970s but set in modern day. The currency is Euros, the conversation is immigration and Al Quaeda - but the set design is from a few decades ago. This is obviously deliberate - is it to play on Kaurismaki's exasperation on the lack of progress in recent times? Despite this, and the film having a few sombre subplots, it is very optimistic and explores the true value of community / love they neighbour ethic. Really impressed by Kaurismaki and can't wait to explore more of his movies to find out if they are as good as 'Le Havre'

This is kind of a soft sequel to Kaurismäki's excellent 1992 movie *La Vie de Bohème*, revolving around the same main protagonist Marcel Marx, featuring the same brand of witty dialogue and human warmth emanating from all sorts of quirky characters. The subject and concern with the fate of refugees - which was also touched upon in *La Vie de Bohème* and would be at the core of his next and most recent Film, *The Other Side of Hope* - takes center stage here for the first time. *Le Havre* is another instance of must-watch Kaurismäki.