FALLEN LEAVES/ Kuolleet lehdet

Finland, 2023, 81 minutes, Colour.

Alma Poysti, Jussi Vatanen, Janna Hyytiainen, Nuppu Koivu.

Directed by Aki Kaurismaki.

Technically, the title should be translated: Dead Leaves. And, as so many songs are played throughout the film, a range of popular and familiar songs, local Finnish songs, with lyrics which correspond to the characters and action, audiences might have been expecting the 1950s song, in English Autumn Leaves (and memories of Nat King Cole, with Edith Piaf singing it in French). In fact, this is sung during the final credits and the information given that it is originally a French song – and Dead Leaves.

But, Fallen Leaves does justice to the two central characters and their relationship.

This brief film, just 80 minutes, comes from celebrated Finnish director, Aki Kauarismaki, a dominant figure in the cinema from Finland, along with his brother, Mika, ensuring that world cinema was aware of Finland from the 1990s to the present. At first, especially with his eccentrically titled films and videos, Leningrad Cowboys, he communicated a wry Scandinavian sense of humour and irony. But, as the years passed, he started to embrace more serious themes, films in competition in festivals like Cannes, winning the Grand Jury Prize and the Ecumenical Award in 2002, for The Man Without a Past.

While the director kept his wry tone, he moved into more serious films over the last 20 years, social concern films, with the influx of refugees from the Middle East into Europe in the mid-2010s, his 2017 Other Side of Hope, and Finland’s response to these refugees was irrelevant and telling drama.

Compared with these films, Fallen Leaves is much smaller, more straightforward, minimalist in its cinematic style. It introduces us to two lonely people, Ansa working at the supermarket, checkout, shelf-checking, going home alone at night. And there is Holappa, construction worker, depressed, a drinker. While the screenplay shows details of each of their lives, it gradually brings them together, at a karaoke bar, at a cinema (where we see posters of films that the director obviously admires, their watching Jim Jarmusch’s, The Dead Don’t Die, discussions under a prominent poster of David lean’s version of Noel coward’s Brief Encounter).

There are some sad moments, searching, new discoveries, hopes, falling out, new resolutions. The leaves might have fallen but, here, they are not dead.

1. The work of the writer-director, for more than 40 years? Emblem of Finnish cinema? The initial ride comedies, observations on Finland, the change to more serious themes?
2. The title, the song, Autumn leaves, made during the final credits? The tone?
3. Finland in the early 2020s, Helsinki, apartments, workplaces, supermarkets, building sites, the British cinema, diners, hospitals? Authentic feel?
4. The range of music, the range of songs, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Rock, contemporary songs, mambo Italiano…? Placement throughout the film, setting a tone? And lyrics, especially the said once, illustrating the feelings of the two?
5. The director, love cinema, going to see the vampire film, Only The Dead I, the comments about breasts on and got it, the range of characters in the background, especially Brief Encounter?
6. The introduction to And the, at the checkout counter, her friend and the change when, at home, alone, the meal, the radio, commentary on Ukraine, music? Going out to the karaoke with her friend, noticing Holappa, not talking? Throwing used by goods into the rubbish, the security guard, her being held up, the baggage, the answers to the supervisor, is strictness, the other women, taking goods, their solidarity, walk out? The computer and €10? Going to the pub, employment, hard work, washing up, seeing the money deal, the owner being arrested, no pay? Her getting job in the building site, hard work? Alone?
7. Holappa, on the building site, sharing the building, is continued drinking, depression, his friend, their interchanges, persuaded to go to the karaoke, noticing Ansa, not speaking? The later encounter, going to the film, no names, giving her phone number, her sitting on the phone, waiting? His searching for the number, going back to the cinema, waiting, the number of rats, noticing? Eventually meeting, the invitation to dinner, her buying the actual plates and cutlery, preparing the meal, his arrival, bringing the flowers, the sparkling wine, the meal, his comment about the drinking, the clash about the drinking, his leaving, not taking orders, her not wanting an alcoholic – memories of her father and brother, the death of her mother?
8. The Gap, her disappointment, talking with her friend? Holappa and his drinking on the job, the mistakes, followed, moving out, talking with his friend?
9. Langley, by itself, the decision to stop drinking, pouring out the alcohol, earning Ansa, her accepting him, his getting the code looking the part, hit by the train? The answer and her looking out the window, forlorn?
10. A meeting the friend, giving him the contact for her friend? The news of Holappa in hospital? Her going to visit, the coma, reading, speaking, friendly with a nurse is coming out of coma, the clothes from the nurse, her meeting him, his crutches, and walking away – to a future?