 |
| Turo Pajala in Ariel |
Taisto Kasurinen: Turo Pajala
Irmeli Pihlaja: Susanna Haavisto
Mikkonen: Matti Pellonpää
Riku: Eetu Rikamo
Miner: Erkki Pajala
Mugger: Matti Jaaranen
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Screenplay: Aki Kaurismäki
Cinematography: Timo Salminen
As in
Shadows in Paradise (1986), another of Aki Kaurismäki's impassive, expressionless couples sets sail at the end of
Ariel, this time on the ship that gives the film its title. (If you know Kaurismäki's films, you surely weren't expecting any airy Shakespearean sprites from him?) When the mine at which Taisto and his father work shuts down, the father hands to keys to his Cadillac convertible to Taisto, then goes into the men's room and shoots himself. Taisto stoically gets in the car and drives to Helsinki to look for work, despite the fact that it's winter in Finland and he can't get the top to go up. (This problem persists throughout the film, leading Irmeli's small son to comment, "Nice wind," as they're speeding along the highway. It's resolved only toward the end of the film when Mikkonen asks, at a particularly inappropriate moment, "What's this button for?" and presto!) It's odd to use the word "charming" about a movie so grim in its setting and the plight of its characters, and that involves suicide, murder, various beatings, and prison time, but that's the nature of Kaurismäki's filmmaking: There are moments of dark delight scattered throughout, such as the fact that the fob on which the keys to the Cadillac are hung is the inner workings of a music box, and the tune it plays is the socialist anthem "The Internationale." Music is used wittily throughout the film, including various pop songs, and as the
Ariel sails away to Mexico at the end, we hear "Over the Rainbow," sung in Finnish. There is something Faulknerian about Kaurismäki's determination to inject humor into even the grimmest of situations.
