As we get deeper into the fall season, the award-winning films of the festival circuit stake out their territory. Debuting at Cannes where it competed for the Palme d’Or and won the Jury Prize, Aki Kaurismäki’s dramedy Fallen Leaves is set to arrive this November after appearing at NYFF and AFI Fest.
The tragic dramedy, Finland’s Official Selection for the Oscars, Fallen Leaves centers on two lonely people who embark on an unexpected romance, in hopes of finally finding the love of their lives.
The film is led by Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen as the central couple.
Kaurismäki wrote and directed the film, the fourth in his working-class Proletariat series along with Shadows in Paradise (1986), Ariel (1988), and The Match Factory Girl (1990). His style is to have the actors follow a very loose structure with very little rehearsing, and much of the filming done in a single take.
Here’s the synopsis: Fallen Leaves tells the story of two lonely people (Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen) who meet each other by chance in the Helsinki night and try to find the first, only, and ultimate love of their lives. Their path towards this honourable goal is clouded by the man’s alcoholism, lost phone numbers, not knowing each other’s names or addresses, and life’s general tendency to place obstacles in the way of those seeking their happiness. This gentle tragicomedy, previously thought to be lost, is the fourth part of Aki Kaurismäki’s working-class trilogy (“Shadows in Paradise,” “Ariel,” and “The Match Factory Girl“).
Fallen Leaves opens in the U.S. on November 17th.