Drifting Clouds (rewatch)

Ilona (Kati Outinen) is the head waiter at the Dubrovnik, a once-prosperous restaurant with an aging clientele.  Her husband Lauri (Kari Väänänen) is a streetcar driver.  They’re barely getting by as it is, with many of their belongings bought on layaway.  Then Lauri gets laid off.  Then Dubrovnik goes under.  The unemployed couple will experience several more setbacks as they try to get back on their feet.

Kaurismäki’s films are generally pretty consistent.  Although he has taken some diversions — the silliness of the Leningrad Cowboys movies, the bizarre Calamari Union, the noir spoof Hamlet Goes Business — when it comes to his working-class tragicomedies, they do feel very much of a piece.  But Drifting Clouds seems to get just about everything right.  It feels like life distilled to its bare essence, very pure in intention and execution.  It achieves the perfect balance of recession-based cynicism and almost Capra-esque optimism.  These aren’t clouds with silver linings, but the clouds do drift away, if you just stick it out.  And having a loving partner (in typical Kaurismäki fashion, the love is displayed in minute but gloriously effective gestures) makes the perseverance easier, and worth the hardships.

Outinen is so wonderfully captivating.  Few can hold your attention so much and make it look like so little.  When it comes to bringing Kaurismäki’s deadpan sensibility to life, she’s one of the best.  Another one of the best was Matti Pellonpää, for whom the male lead was intended.  Sadly, he died at age 44.  It is said that he drank himself to death, a sorrowful end but one you could imagine happening to a Kaurismäki character.  He is represented here in a photograph of him as a boy… presumably the child of Ilona and Lauri, lost to some previous tragedy.  Väänänen is fine, although I can’t help but imagine Pellonpää would have been better.  It’s perhaps telling that Väänänen’s only major roles for Kaurismäki are this and the village idiot in Leningrad Cowboys.  But he does have his moments, and he manages to contribute to the (very very muted) chemistry with Outinen.

When Ilona and Lauri leave the cinema (Lauri complains to the cashier that the movie wasn’t funny and demands his money back… he is reminded by the cashier — who we later find out is his sister — that he didn’t pay for it) we see three movie posters.  The first is Night on Earth, directed by Kaurismäki’s friend Jim Jarmusch, and (in the best segment of that film) stars some of the actors in this one.  The second is L’Argent, and Bresson’s minimalist influence on Kaurismäki is clear… and it’s also another film about the power money has over us.  The third is L’Atalante which seems peculiar at first.  Vigo’s stylistically dazzling cinematography feels little related to the simple camera setups, ultra-clean compositions and muted primary colors we see here.  But it’s another film about a lower-class couple trying to make it work, overcoming adversity.  A stretch, perhaps… maybe Aki just loves the film.  Maybe that’s the film Lauri wasn’t amused by, although I’d prefer to think it was Jarmusch’s.

A charming and funny movie that’s a breeze to sit through.  The only scene that feels a little long is the closing of the Dubrovnik.  I’m not certain why Kaurismäki lingers so long there.  It’s possible he just really enjoys those musicians… his love of music is one of the constants that makes his cinematic voice so distinctive, and endearing.  Rating: Very Good (88)

IMDb