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Film/Video BITTERSWEET TWIST: THE FILMS OF AKI KAURISMÄKI JANUARY 8-30, 2004 All films directed by Aki Kaurismäki. Unless otherwise noted, screenings are $7 ($5 Walker members) and are in the Auditorium. 
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The wonderfully wry and droll films of Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki are being celebrated with a 14-city North American tour organized by BAM Cinématek, Brooklyn. With new prints struck for the tour, this selected retrospective gives a rare chance to view the wide range of this accomplished and celebrated director.
Kaurismäki transformed his passion for film into a profession, first as a critic and later writing screenplays for his brother Mika. Following training at the Munich Film School, he codirected a rock-and-roll documentary with Mika and finished his first solo film, an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. His next film, Calamari Union, established his signature style with deadpan humor, irony, and outrageous situations with a twist of frosty existentialism. While the dark irony, simplicity, and amazingly eclectic scores of Kaurismäki's films are reminiscent of work by American Jim Jarmusch, a more apt comparison might be with German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Both were inspired by the melodramas of the 1950s and classic gangster films. Both worked with a small troupe of actors and crew and dealt with working-class subjects. Kaurismäki's characters are marked by their humanistic trials. They struggle for survival and love with quiet resignation and a drink to dull the pain.
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THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN MADE POSSIBLE BY THE FINNISH FILM
FOUNDATION WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO JAANA PUSKALA, ARETTA VÄHÄLÄ,
MARI PELTONEN, AKI KAURISMÄKI, HAIJE TULOKAS, ILKKA MERTSOLA (SPUTNIK
OY), THORSTEN SCHAUMANN (BAVARIA FILM), GARY PALMUCCI (KINO INTERNATIONAL),
AND BAM CINÉMATEK FOR ORGANIZING THE TRAVELING RETROSPECTIVE. PETER
VON BAGH AND ROGER CONNAH APPEAR COURTESY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF FINLAND/DAVID
AND NANCY SPEER PROFESSORSHIP IN FINNISH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA.
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY THE FINISH FILM FOUNDATION