I was reminded of Finnish film director Aki Kaurismaki last week. I enjoyed Fallen Leaves a few years ago, but hadn’t followed it up. So last week I signed up for a free, seven day Curzon pass, and watched four more of his films: Le Havre, The Match Factory Girl, Lights in the Dusk and The Man Without a Past. His direction, and the cinematography of Timo Salminen, felt perfect for the current autumnal period and I fell head over heals for each film.
Kaurismaki makes every frame visually stunning, and with very little camera movement, it often feels like we are watching a series of beautifully composed photographs rather than a moving film. He creates stillness: Scenes feel outside of time and space. Characters are deadpan. Locations are stage-set-like. Lighting is hazy and dim. The colour palette is muted, and stories unfold slowly, often with no dialogue.
Kaurismaki’s films tick all the right boxes for me and sit nicely alongside a number of other film makers and artists I admire, so I’ve put together a few images below to draw comparisons with the work of Edward Hopper, Alfred Hitchcock, Gregory Crewdson and Jeff Wall. At the bottom of the page there are also a few links that I have found interesting.
Aki Kaurismaki – The Match Factory Girl
Aki Kaurismaki – Lights in the Dusk
Edward Hopper
Alfred Hitchcock
Gregory Crewdson
Jeff Wall
Read more about Aki Kaurismaki on Little White Lies.
Work by two more artists who have captured a similar sense of stillness, but with an absence of people: George Shaw and Paul Winstanley.
I put together the learning resource, Film Stills, a little while ago for an art lesson earlier in the year.
Many moons ago I put together this Pinterest board of inspiration when I was making paintings of night scenes for my 2017 exhibition, Suburban Nights.
A good interview with Jeff Wall on the A brush with….. podcast.