Fallen Leaves

AroView: Director Aki Kaurismaki applies his signature deadpan style to the romantic comedy genre in which two lost souls navigate a bumpy road to finding each other.

It’s the 18th feature film from the Finnish auteur and he still hasn’t lost his touch - in fact he seems to have refined it. The movie posters in the backdrop include “Brief Encounter”, and the spirit of that 1946 romantic classic is shot through this frequently funny portrait of an awkward courtship. Through the glum faces and working-class Helsinki drab, this warms the heart when you see one of his characters smile, even if it’s only out of the corner of their mouths.

“Fallen Leaves is consistently funny, but its laughs arrive without fanfare. They slide in calmly, at times obliquely in eccentric details, offbeat juxtapositions, taciturn exchanges, long pauses and amiably barbed insults.” ~Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“An 81-minute film that’s as crisp and bittersweet as a late autumn breeze.” ~David Ehrlich, IndieWire