by James Mottram
“It is a love story,” says Finnish actress Alma Pöysti, talking about Aki Kaurismäki’s latest minimalist masterpiece, Fallen Leaves. Which may account for why the film is being released on Valentine’s Day in Australia. “Very much from our point of view, love is a key element in this movie,” adds her male opposite number, Jussi Vatanen. “These characters… maybe they weren’t waiting for love anymore in their life. But there’s a chance of falling in love.”
This being an Aki Kaurismäki movie, means that you shouldn’t exactly expect hearts and flowers. “I guess humanism is all we’ve got,” adds Pöysti, sitting alongside her co-star. “And we shouldn’t give up on it even when the times are very painful and cruel. That’s why it’s a love story… because that’s what we need more than ever. Perhaps not ever, but we need right now, in these really cruel times. Or a dog! Or both! There’s always room for a dog in a Kaurismäki [below] movie!”
Certainly, Fallen Leaves makes for one of the more charming date movies you can see this February in cinemas. A story of two lost Helsinki souls, boozy construction worker Holappa (Vatanen) and shy supermarket cashier Ansa (Pöysti), they meet in a karaoke bar. Eventually, after fate almost cruelly intervenes, they go to the cinema on a date, to watch Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die. “Holappa wants to test Ansa,” reveals Vatanen. “Is she a suitable girlfriend? Does she enjoy zombie movies?”
When we meet both actors during the Cannes Film Festival, it’s evident how delighted they are to take the leads in a Kaurismäki movie, the famed miserabilist behind films like The Man Without a Past and Le Havre. “Aki has been around since the early ’80s,” says Vatanen. “And growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, you are influenced by Kaurismäki very much. Maybe as a youngster you don’t see his movies, but he’s always been this household name. And his reputation is well known in Finland.”
Given Kaurismäki announced his retirement after 2017’s The Other Side of Hope, do they know why the 66-year-old filmmaker decided to reverse his decision? “He didn’t say why, but he was apparently very inspired and enthusiastic to make this movie,” says Pöysti. “I think he had enough of the break and then he started to feel like he might have a movie in him still. He said that it’s his subconscious, that’s where the movie came from. He wrote the script in thirty hours and said, ‘I was just watching my fingers on the keyboard, and this is what came out’.”
Unsurprisingly for a Kaurismäki confection, the humour is dialled right down to deadpan. It’s typical of his films, of course, right back to the days of Hamlet Goes Business and Leningrad Cowboys Go America. “Aki has been around for so long, and his movies have surely influenced us as actors, even before we got a chance to be in his movie,” says Vatanen. “So, somehow, it’s in our Finnish blood, this Kaurismäki style. But, of course, it’s not as easy as one might think, to be in a Kaurismäki scene.”
As Pöysti explains, working for Kaurismäki means that you need to fully concentrate. “Less is more,” she says. Quite often, the scenes are shot in one take. “In rare cases, you have two or even three takes of something,” she adds. Living on their wits like that means that the emotional charge of the scene always comes through. “It’s heightened concentration that comes from the room. I mean, from the whole team, because everybody’s working towards getting that image right.”
When it comes to their characters, they both have unique takes. That Holappa is a functioning alcoholic seems not to matter to Vatanen. “I didn’t think about it too much. I guess as a Finn, I’ve had my share of alcoholic beverages. So, I thought that I have experience enough for this role. And it’s really not the core of that role. I think the main issue in Holappa is that nobody knows his first name. Not even his best and only friend knows what is. So, he’s a loner.”
He also calls Holappa a very proud individual. “Proud of his world, which he has created, his solitary world. Just him, his thoughts and his comic books.”
As for Ansa, why is this sweet girl, who stands up for her colleagues, so lonely? “I don’t know the apparent reason,” shrugs Pöysti. “People end up alone for no reason at all. She’s one of those. That’s how I feel about her.”
Yet beneath this delicate character study, Kaurismäki explores deeper themes, including issues around employment. “The working conditions of these people aren’t great,” says Pöysti. “And that’s also something that doesn’t come from the ’60s. It’s from present day Finland, these kind of contracts and how vulnerable people are. And of course, the Russian war hasn’t made things easier. I mean, we have inflation, and we have high electricity bills, and this was something actually in the movie when Ansa gets this bill.”
With Finland sharing a border with Russia, the ongoing conflict that saw their neighbours invade the Ukraine is also featured in the film – with news reports frequently heard on the radio. “Of course, we care a lot about it,” says Pöysti. “It’s very present in our history as well [with the 1939 Soviet invasion of Finland]. I mean, my grandparents were in the war. And it’s been there since the ’40s. And Aki said as well, it’s his responsibility as an artist to take a stand. He couldn’t make this movie without taking a stand to what’s going on right now.”
She continues: “It’s so sad, and so depressing, and so devastating that we actually have to deal with this. And also, to become a part of NATO, it gives us a sense of security. But I never thought that this would happen during my lifetime. I thought we would have learned something from history. And still, as Aki says, humanity and hope is all we’ve got. We have to take care of each other and do what we can. And that is, I guess, his way of doing that. And still to find love in a world like this.”
Fallen Leaves is in cinemas 14 February 2024
