Thoughts on Fallen Leaves

     At the Quad Cinema in New York City, I saw Fallen Leaves, written and directed by Aki Kaurismäki, and starring Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen. It's a deadpan romantic comedy about two single people in Helsinki with quiet, solitary lives who try to build a romance, but keep dealing with obstacles like job loss, missed connections, and alcoholism. At just 90 minutes, it's a quiet tragicomedy about two people who would seem like lonely losers, at the bottom of the labor chain, but who want to build a connection to feel less alone. This film is part of Kaurismäki's Proletariat series, which includes Shadows in Paradise (1986), Ariel (1988), and the Match Factory Girl (1990).

Ansa (Pöysti) lives in a tiny apartment she inherited from her godmother, and works at a supermarket, pricing and stocking items. She gets fired for taking expired food home that she was told to throw out, and bounces around odd jobs, like a dishwasher in a bar and a factory worker sorting recyclable plastic. She listens to news updates on her vintage radio about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and meets Holappa (Vatanen) by chance, a construction worker who is a habitual alcoholic, and who keeps sneaking drinks from his flasks on the job, which continually gets him fired. They initially encounter each other at a karaoke bar, but don't really meet each other until later. They're trying to make their budding relationship work, but his drinking gets in the way, they both switch around to different jobs, and the relationship seems dead before it can even get started.

But both of them have this quiet charm about them, as well as a no-bullshit, sarcastic way of delivering lines and being blunt without being hurtful. The film has this feeling of being old-fashioned with the radio and tube trains, but being current with the news, smartphones, and the pair going to see Jim Jarmusch's zombie comedy The Dead Don't Die. There are recurring scenes in a karaoke bar, where patrons sing old mid-20th century pop crooner songs, and largely seem outside of the main metropolis of Helsinki, living more in the working-class outskirts among dive bars, construction sites, and quiet apartment houses.

    This film is shortlisted by the Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film, and won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, so it has been highly acclaimed. I feel like at the Oscars, the more likely winners for International Films would be either Anatomy of a Fall or The Zone of Interest, both much heavier films, but I liked this film as a quiet romantic comedy about two ordinary people dealing with job insecurity and trying to make a romance work against the odds.