/Ashheap South
Le Havre is a port city in northern France. The name of the film comes from the fact that Finnish director Aki Kaurismaeki was about to shoot the series of his "Port Cities Trilogy", "Le Havre" being the first of the trilogy Department. Prior to this, Aki had been rumored to have died after filming "The Light of Twilight", the final piece of the "Contemporary Finnish Trilogy". And now, this trilogy has just begun, and it seems that this master-level director with a remarkable personal style will also direct the tube again. In this regard, Akey told us humorously, "If I don't tell everyone that I am preparing a trilogy movie, then I will definitely not make a movie if I am lazy, but play poker at home."
Sometimes, you We must not admire Master Aki's vision for the location of the film. The Le Havre under the movie lens is clean and simple, a little old but not lacking in warmth. The city and the style of the film complement each other. But when I think about it, I find it funny again, will the director's so-called "port city trilogy" be just a gimmick. Why a port, and nowhere else. Could it be that Aki Kaurismaki is looking for a charming harbour city to enjoy life, and then make a warm little movie casually, and then think about retirement.
Maybe the director wants to reminisce about his frustrated writer dream in this self-written and directed film. The protagonist of the film, Marcel Marx, was once a writer living in Paris in the film "Life in Bohemia", but now he works as a shoe shiner in the small town of Le Havre. He was walking around the bustling wharf station with a suitcase on his back, occasionally showing a frustrated artist temperament between his eyebrows. While working at a shoe-shining booth for a small salary, Marcel enjoys the joy of meeting people and the simple life that comes with it. He traveled to and from shoe shine booths, homes and taverns. For Marcel, such a life may seem like a disappointment, but it is not a loss.
The film does not entangle with Marcel's past and present, but leads the plot to the simple and warm story that the film wants to express. The appearance of the black boy Idrissa was an accident in Marcel's life. The illegal immigrant, who had been mistaken for his destination, ran into Marcel unexpectedly after escaping from a police roundup. But what can an old shoe shiner who is struggling with his own life help this child. Unexpectedly, Marcel not only solved the boy's temporary room and board problem, but also did good things to the end, and sent Idrissa to where he should have gone - London across the channel, by his mother's side. . At this time, Marcel had to face his wife who was seriously ill and was hospitalized, but he still found the address of the boy's mother in London, contacted the smuggled cargo ship, and passed a wonderful charity concert. The necessary expenses were raised and finally helped the boy to leave Le Havre smoothly. But all this, Marcel is not fighting alone. In the film, except for the shoe store clerk and the informant neighbor, almost everyone is full of goodwill, and even Detective Monet, who was in charge of arresting the boy, joined the collective rescue.
The simple plot and simple picture continue the simple style of Aki Kaurismaki's works. But this simple story covers sincere and ordinary love, friendship with others, these warm emotions in human nature. At the same time, behind Marcel Marx's choice to reach out to people and stay away from the "Sermon on the Mount", it is not the lack of belief and the lack of motivation in behavior, but the fact that there is a hard core in his heart, and it is respectable values. At the end of the movie, his wife Arrieti's hopeless serious illness actually recovered miraculously, which not only surprised people, but also gave the movie a warm and happy ending.
The film "Le Havre" was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Cannes Film Festival last year. Although it did not win the award in the end, it received unanimous praise from the outside world. Because the film not only reinterprets the concise dialogue, slow narrative rhythm, stagnant character expressions, etc., the minimalist style of Aki Kaurismaki's works, but also makes people feel his description of the little people at the bottom of the society. The rare warmth.
Published in "100 Days of Holiday"
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