Fallen Leaves (2023): How to not love a man who finds artistic accomplishment in making movies that rarely stretch over ninety minutes? In Fallen Leaves, the minutes are put to work and in typical deadpan fashion, we travel in Kaurismäki -land, a place where social realism and romantic fantasy conjoin in miraculous fashion. It’s a movie that feels like a homage to everything – love, life, cliches, cinema – in which the day to day existence of our characters flows in spite of the wrenches thrown at it, whether its through their own flaws or widespread, cynical…conflagrations. Underpinning it is a suffocating sense of isolation and loneliness, sometimes soothed with alcohol, other times with even more depressing Finnish music. It all rattled me significantly. 8
Anatomy of a Fall (2023): This year’s Palme d’or winner, directed by Justine Triet, is a mischievous crime mystery, that tries to lure you into believing it’s nothing special in the first half hour, only to rattle your brain in most of the remaining two hours of runtime. Yes, it is longer than it could have been, but I find myself thinking of it days after watching it. Plot in short: a husband dies, the wife is suspected, their child and dog are key witnesses. It is this basic “universality of crime” that Triet wants you to expect, only to delve into the unknowable particularity between couples. It clearly plays as a movie questioning the foundations of a shared life, marriage and what not, but also highlighting the edges of hyper intellectualism as a shared language of co-existence. Making the implied explicit, regardless of truth and reality, has that terrible heisenbergian effect of changing the state of things between two people. It’s a movie that should challenge you in the best of ways, but I felt it used artifice to enhance the narrative which lessens its impressive aura. 8
La passion de Dodin Bouffant (2023): This sumptuous and lavish cinematic experience also called The Taste of Things is very much on par with the slow cooking it portrays and the rich tastes and fragrances it references. In the same way our buds need to develop to appreciate some foods, it takes patience and a certain kind of appreciation to enjoy this profoundly romantic and melancholy tale. Part of the “problem” is that there’s very little tale to begin with, with prolonged scenes of cooking and eating in its place. Whereas in many other movies this might be boiled down to food porn, in Dodin it is very much food love-making, taking all its time to tease, tantalize and enrapture before consuming. By the end of it, I felt compelled to go to the nearest fine dining restaurant to challenge my taste buds with something new. Sadly, there was no melancholy romance to go with it. 8
Perfect Days (2023): Probably one of the first things that come to mind when thinking of Japan (jokingly) are their toilets. It’s fascinating, but somehow I think it undermines Wenders somewhat in the telling of this existential story that feels like a fantasy in itself. Is there even such a thing like existential fantasy? Well, Kôji Yakusho plays Hirayama, a mysteriously cultured and detail-oriented toilet cleaner who goes through life with the kind of engagement us non-toilet cleaners can only dream of. I’m not sure about the economics of how this works, but the quiet Hirayama is endearing to watch and Yakusho nuances him with impressive versatility. It’s a contemplative, slow movie that can push your patience at times, but with the right mood, it should please Wenders fans in particular, who are rewarded for sticking with him in spite of a number of disappointing non-documentary features. 7
Jeanne du Barry (2023): This “biopic”, directed by and starring Maïwenn, alongside the (un)disgraced Johnny Depp, tells us about the (in)famous mistress of Louis XV. It all takes place at a fascinating intersection in history, with characters that often make it into their own movies. Under these circumstances, what we are served is a middling cinematic dish. It is beautiful to look at, with Versailles exteriors and interiors matched by lush costumes and solid performances. However, after seeing the likes of Corsage (2022), Spencer (2021) or The Favourite (2018), powerfully irreverent takes on the life of royals of history, JdB felt tame, old-school to a fault. I reckon it’s Maïwenn’s self-confessed fascination and love for the character [which she was inspired to explore after Sofia Copolla’s Marie Antoinette (2006)] that worked against her, as she dialed down the controversy, offering Jeanne a kind of historical impunity. There are scenes that work well, there’s even some voice over narration (#shock), but I doubt much of this will be remembered in weeks and months to come. 6
tributary stu 