CAST
Marcel Marx: André Wilms
Arletty: Kati Outinen
Monet: Jean-Pierre Darroussin
Idrissa: Blondin Miguel
AWARDS
FIPRESCI Prize – Cannes Film Festival (2011). Best Film – Prix Louis Delluc (2011)
GENRE
Drama
DISTRIBUTOR
Janus Films
RUNNING TIME 93’
PRODUCTION Finland, France,
Germany, 2011
RATING Not Rated
GAUGE 35mm, Blu-ray, DVD
“The Finnish writer-director arrives bearing a gift wrapped in a contemporary
immigration fable. Aki Kaurismäki has worked with cinematographer Timo Salminen
throughout their careers. The duo have honed a look that lends an enchanting
strangeness to “Le Havre.” Hues are rich, warm, even painterly. Shadows and halos
hint at a different cinematic era, a number of them, in fact. “Le Havre” feels contemporary
and time-honored at once.”
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post Film Critic.
A wonderful celebration of France’s national motto—liberty, equality,
fraternity—Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre is also something of a paean to
World War II Resistance dramas. Told in Kaurismäki’s signature deadpan
style, Le Havre centers around Marcel Marx, a once-famous Parisian writer
now making his living shining shoes in the northern port town of the title.
Marcel divides his time between drinking with his neighbors at the local
bar and caring for his ill wife, Arletty —her name a tribute to the great
French actress who made her best-known films in the 1930s and ’40s. But
he soon serves a much nobler purpose when he comes to the aid of
Idrissa, a young illegal immigrant from Gabon who is trying to join his
family in England. Aided by his neighbors, Marcel keeps Idrissa safe from
the clutches of the detective who comes looking for him. A film that
reminds us of the importance of unsung heroes, Le Havre also highlights
a most unlikely, and touching, friendship.
The Tournées Festival
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