BACinema to screen charming drama delight ‘Le Havre’
February 22, 2012 4:40PM
Andre Wilms portrays Marcel Marx in "Le Havre," which also stars Jean-Pierre Darroussin as Monet. | Photo courtesy of Sputnik Oy
‘LE HAVRE’
Director: Aki Kaurismaki
Stars: Andre Wilms, Blondin Miguel and Jean-Pierre Darroussin
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rated: No rating
Running time: 1 hour and 33 minutes
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Updated: May 9, 2012 10:17AM
“Le Havre” is a warmhearted portrait of the French harbor city that gives the film its name.
Fate throws young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (Andre Wilms), a well-spoken bohemian who works as a shoeshiner.
With innate optimism and the unwavering support of his community, Marcel stands up to officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation.
A political fairy tale that exists somewhere between the reality of contemporary France and the classic cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville and Marcel Carne, “Le Havre” is a charming, deadpan delight.
“The European cinema has not much addressed the continuously worsening financial, political, and above all, moral crisis that has led to the ever-unsolved question of refugees; refugees trying to find their way into the European Union from abroad, and their irregular, often substandard treatment,” director Aki Kaurismaki said.
“I have no answer to this problem, but I still wanted to deal with this matter in this anyhow unrealistic film.”
The 2011 Chicago International Film Festival awarded Kaurismaki a Gold Hugo for best feature for “Le Havre.”
The film also was named by the National Board of Review as one of the top five foreign language films in 2011.
Kaurismaki, born in 1957, grew up in “the age terrorized by television,” and has tried and managed to stick to the inseparable realities of the real world and the “deep screen” that only 35 mm film — light against electronic machinations, the beauty of artisanal tradition against technological overkill — makes possible.
He never used any other material, least of all video, and said he is proud of having continued the tradition of “real cinema.”
His minimalist style is all his own (and that of the great cinematographer of all his films, Timo Salminen).
Kaurismaki never entered Finnish film school (as he was suspected to be “too cynical”).
At the same time, his films are full of allusions, but always invisible ones, parts of a constant dialogue wherein particles of film culture reveal realities of human environment, society and psyche: as it is now, and as it was during the tender years of his childhood.
As for the cast, from Wilms’ start as a housepainter and stagehand, he has become a distinguished actor in French film, theater and television.
Wilms has appeared in six of Kaurismaki’s films, as well as titles by Agnieszka Holland and Gerard Depardieu.
Wilms was the winner of the best supporting European actor award at the 1992 European Film Awards for his work in Kaurismaki’s “La Vie de Boheme.”
Miguel, a newcomer, holds his own against an experienced adult cast in “Le Havre.”
He was discovered during auditions in the Parisian suburb where he lives with his family and hopes to act again the future.
WHERE TO SEE THIS FILM
The BACinema series will screen “Le Havre” at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 29 at the Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th St., Chicago. Information: (773) 445-3838, beverlyartcenter.org.
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