Leningrad Cowboys Go America
June 5th, 2007
Aki Kaursmäki’s Leningrad Cowboys Go America is the reason that for the last 18 years, I have not been able to buy a bag of onions without smiling. The mock heroic road movie was a formative film for me, but it’s not available on DVD in the U.S. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I was finally able to revisit the story of the exuberantly coiffed band “from the tundra” and their tyrannical manager (Matti Pellonpää). Back in 1989, the combination of absurd sight gags and sparse Down By Law aesthetic was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Come to think of it, there hasn’t been anything quite like it since.
Sent to New York by a communist functionary on the logic that “in America, they like crap,” the Cowboys head off to CBGBs on tractors, pointy shoes gleaming and monstrous duck tails bopping in the breeze. When they get there, it turns out they have never even heard of rock ‘n roll–Madison Square Garden is out, but would they like to play at a wedding in Mexico? Undaunted, the band buys a car from Jim Jarmusch, straps their frozen bass player to the roof, and heads south. Their musical education culminates in a tuba-and-accordion version of “Born to Be Wild” that would make Borat Sagdiyev jump with joy. Marcy’s verdict? “Quite possibly the silliest movie ever made.”
Leningrad Cowboys Go America. Aki Kaurismäki, 1989. ****
- Kaurismäki’s Lights in the Dusk opens in the U.S. next week. The perfect Kaurismäki film is still The Man Without a Past.
After the movie, the Leningrad Cowboys took on a life of their own: I saw them play the KUZ in Mainz, there was a sequel, Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses, and a concert film, Total Balalaika Show. The official site lists 2007 summer dates. There is no shortage of YouTube clips, including “Born to Be Wild” from the movie and “My Way” with the Red Army Ensemble and Ballet:
Lights in the Dusk
June 2nd, 2007
The Finns in Aki Kaurismäki’s movies are a dour lot: they rarely smile, never say more than what’s absolutely necessary, and even when they want to signify agreement, they confine themselves to a single, decisive nod of the head. When heartbroken (and they are usually heartbroken), they sit alone drinking vodka and listen to maudlin folks songs until they pass out with burning cigarettes dangling from their lips. After Drifting Clouds and The Man Without a Past, Lights in the Dusk, an official selection at last year’s Cannes festival, completes the “Loser Trilogy” — but then again, as far back as Ariel (1988) and The Match Factory Girl (1990), Kaurismäki’s films have always been concerned with the unlikely redemption of sad underachievers at the edges of society.
Koistinen (Janne Hyytiäinen) is a typical Kaurismäki hero. A security guard working night shifts in a particularly desolate neighborhood of Helsinki, he is routinely snubbed and ridiculed by his co-workers. The only person who will talk to him is sausage vendor Aila (Maria Heiskanen.) We don’t see him laugh or crack a smile until a solid hour into the movie. Kind Koistinen stoically accepts beatings from neglectful dog owners, and like the nameless Man Without a Past, he becomes the victim of a crime. In that film, a good samaritan helped with his recovery, but here, it is a cold-hearted dame (Maria Järvenhelmi) who gets the lonesome hero into trouble.
With his trademark understatement and a pleasing palette composed of cold blue hues with red highlights, Kaurismäki once again hints at oceans of emotion underneath the minimalist surface. The miracle of his films is that the laconic tone never becomes depressing, and the glimmers of hope and humor found in the misery are all the more radiant for it. The villain of Lights in the Dusk proudly proclaims that he takes everything to its logical conclusion, and so Kaurismäki doesn’t have to. Instead, he ends the film with a lovely image that is reward enough. Lights in the Dusk opens at the IFC Center on June 13; other cities will follow.
Laitakaupungin valot. Aki Kaurismäki, 2006. ****
- By pure coincidence, most of my family is currently in Finland, where my cousin Elina is celebrating her high school graduation. I’m sad I couldn’t be there to pass out with burning cigarettes dangling from my lips, so instead, the Internet will have to do. Congratulations, Elina!
- A scene from Lights in the Dusk:
