DRIFTING CLOUDS (KAUAS PILVET KARKAAVAT) European Union Film Showcase

There’s something at once familiar and
unconventional about Aki Kaurismaki’s
Drifting Clouds. For those who’ve savored
the flying Finn’s oeuvre-embracing such
films as Ariel, Match Factory Girl and La
Vie de Boheme-the new outing reiterates
a dead pan fatalism that’s oddly compelling
yet essentially unthreatening. In this
film, the good life is ephemeral. Ilona and
Lauri believe there is order in life and that
hard work pays off with dividends. Fate,
however, deals a much stronger hand and
one can barely grasp the complete about
turn in which there’s not a scintilla of good
fortune or a glimmer of hope. The picture
is mesmerizing, not oppressive, despite its
subject matter. Kaurismaki’s vision is so
effortlessly assured, it’s scary. He remains
the most Dickensian of contemporary filmmakers
in his facility to weave rigid, logical
tales that are absorbing entertainments
with a wicked, humorous underbelly. –
Leonard Klady, Variety. Drifting Clouds is
Leonard Klady’s Critics Choice