Ariel

A new trend has emerged in world cinema which consists of portraying marginal characters from small towns who are unable to make better lives for themselves.It has been appreciated both by critics as well as ordinary film lovers as they are fed up of imaginary tales about urban centers which are nothing but an eyewash.Many filmmakers from Europe have explored this trend in their films in order to give audiences worldwide a realistic dose of humanity coupled with realism.Ariel is one such film directed by maverick Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki whose films have always made a point to portray harsh socio economic realities of Finland.Ariel is a film with universal sense of purpose as by depicting human mobility,a challenging film about a primitive human instinct has been filmed.Aki Kaurismaki shows us how his protagonist Taisto Kasurinen battles all odds to gain love,respect and trust in his difficult life full of unexpected challenges.A curious element that must be noted by an astute viewer about Ariel is that it is not at all a thriller film although rapid succession of events might suggest such a plausibility.There is a place for every possible genre in Ariel.We see comedy,drama and thriller all at the same time interspersed with natural beauty of icy Finnish landscape which has been popularized due to films by Aki Kaurismaki and his equally charismatic filmmaker brother Mika Kaurismaki.

Something of a small masterpiece, Ariel is reminiscent of Robert Bresson's L'Argent and Werner Herzog's Stroszek in its restraint and progressively doleful turn of events. But cheer up! This is not your ordinary mellow harshing Euro fare. Yes, there is unemployment, yes there is suicide, yes there is great injustice and inhumanity. It would be dull to only speak of a film's pleasing, peaceful moments, and they are to be found here too. You get the whole symphony here, handled with a light touch and delivered in a neutral, understated fashion.

This film won't assault your senses, but subtly it will begin to work its charm. This arises through the minimal dialogue, expression, and simplicity of the mis en scene. As with most minimalism, small details and moments accumulate at story's end, which creates a very rewarding effect. Kaurismaki understands the power of evenhandedness and understatement. I hope he charms you as he has charmed me.

This 1988 feature from Finland's answer to Jim Jarmusch is a deadpan shaggy dog comedy charting the downfall and redemption of an unemployed mine worker, over several tentative episodes constructed not unlike a series of false starts. It begins, initially, as something like a road film; begins again as a romance; then begins yet again as an underworld crime drama, before finally ending in what could be just another prologue (which would make the entire film one large, elaborate tease). Kaurismaki's wayward hero is, like the scenario itself, pleasantly reticent; there's something undeniably disarming about the way he simply drifts from one predicament to another, even if the total effect makes each scene difficult to recall in detail afterward. It may not amount to much, but after a summer full of over-hyped, mega-budget, wannabe blockbusters Kaurismaki's economical humor is hard to resist.

Further stabilizing his position among my favorite filmmakers, Aki Kaurismäki has crafted yet another masterpiece with "Ariel", a hilarious and heartbreaking love story that chronicles a life both destroyed and saved by crime.

Like he beautifully accomplishes in most of his films, Kaurismäki mixes dry humor and brooding melancholy in a realistic, natural manner. The atmosphere is layered with realism, but also playfulness. The story is layered with sadness, but also comedy. Kaurismäki masterfully translates all of the comedies and tragedies of life to the screen, populating this interpretation of the human experience with unconventional heroes and some of international cinema's most unexpectedly kind hearted characters. Kaurismäki humanizes those who would often be looked upon as despicable criminals in a way that makes me root for them more than I would for any superhero. This is not your conventional, mainstream Hollywood film, but it still remains entertaining and accessible. It is a quiet character study that blossoms into a love story, a black comedy, and a bleak crime drama all at once.

There's something that seems deeply contradictory to the very nature of Kaurismaki's stuff - cinema which at the same time invites the viewer to pay closer attention while shunning him with his trademark apathy and deadpan humour. His characters appear hard, untearful and unselfpitying, their sentiments hermetically sealed behind glacial walls of Finnish unfeeling, yet behind the expressionless mask burn desire and pathos, the truly human stuff. It is not about negation, though it may seem so at first.

Everything Kaurismaki worked towards in his career up to Ariel is brought to a glorious, brilliant blooming here. Composition, shot selection, framing and lighting, everything clicks together to form a cinematic language that threatens to burst at the seams with meaningful restraint. Restraint in which silence communicates. His mastering of the craft so much perfected that dialogue becomes largely irrelevant. There are few lines and they appear to be utilized as a stylistic manner, short and delivered with deadpan unaffection, more than exposition.

Indeed Ariel is a movie mostly told in a visual manner, built upon scene by scene, in a steady and hypnotic succession not concerned with reaching emotionally draining highs and lows as much as with building an unbreakable rhythm of its own. And so it does, to the point that a 69 minute movie appears to last much longer, without outstaying its welcome.