StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Christopher Culver Juhani Aho's 1991 novel JUHA is a classic of Finnish literature, a dismal view of Nordic life over a century ago when life in the country was poor and brutal. Crippled farmer Juha lives with his lovely young wife Marja and the two manage their planted vegetables and livestock. The rich and seductive Shmeikka happens to drop by, and he manages to convince Marja to leave her husband for a better life in the big city. To Marja's horror, Shmeikka proves to be a pimp who imprisons her in a brothel. Meanwhile Juha, feeling humiliated, plans his revenge.Aho's novel had been adapted for stage and film on a few occasions before, but Aki Kaurismäki's 1999 film offers a fresh take. Kaurismäki chose to shoot it in black-and-white as a silent film, with the minimal dialogue necessary to get the plot being shown as intertitles. But Kaurismäki's film is also, like all of his work, a black comedy. Sure, at the climax he depicts the events as a straightforward drama, but elsewhere the shots are imbued with a subtle humour. By this point in his career, Kaurismäki had established a set of stock elements from which he assembled his films: deadpan faces (Kati Outinen as Marja hardly moves the lower portion of her face, doing everything with her eyes), a mismatch between a modern setting and antique appliances or class struggle, and bands on stage performing some antiquated rock or Finnish tango genre. Shmeikka (French actor Andre Wilms, in the third of his collaborations with the Finnish auteur) is such a stock 19th-century villain that his mere presence in this modern-day setting is risible. And the setting that Kaurismäki has chosen for the ending, which I won't spoil here, is a laugh-out-loud example of his depiction of Helsinki.Kaurismäki also likes to play up the features of silent films that nowadays seem silly to us: in an early scene in the village tavern, Juha (Sakari Kuosmanen) laughs wildly and slaps his hands on his knees, the kind of overacting typical of the silent era. Just as silent films had musical accompaniment that seems kind of insubstantial and lightweight, here Kaurismäki has commissioned a score that is pure musak.The humour may be too subtle to get for viewers who aren't already attuned to this director's sui generis style. A film like "Drifting Clouds" or his so-called Proletariat Trilogy might be a better introduction to Kaurismäki. Also, JUHA feels somewhat slight compared to some of his other films, and black-and-white photography has never been his forte. Still, I enjoyed this film as part of a chronological journey through Kaurismäki's output.

jesko but a masterwork in any case! This film is one of the many ones based on the novel "Juha", written by one of the most talented finnish writers ever, Juhani Aho. In my opinion, this is the interpretation to watch, as the clever humor hidden in the scenes is most refreshing. For a Finn even the subtlest jokes in the film become evident!

annonymo I saw this film at the NYC expecting (as billed) "a bold technologically advanced silent film." As a fan of silent cinema, I had great expectations for a re-telling of a classic tale. Sad to say this movie does not live up to the hype. set in modern times this movie tells the very typical silent movie plot of the forlorn women who ends up the prey of a white slaver. There were zillions of silent movies w/ this plot and they all were done better 80 years ago. the 3 leads are miscast, especially the female lead who is too old and not nubile enough. and the silent acting only touches upon the classic style of the genre. Almost becomes camp at points, as the audience giggled at many inappropriate moments. I see no audience for silent films fans, and certainly no audience for others.

moshik The first reaction is: a silent movie? in black & white?? In Finnish??? Have no fear. This is a terrific movie, one of the best of the year, perhaps even Kaurismaki's best. Tremendous soundtrack, equally good acting, beautifully written. Juha brings it all together with rare power. Don't dare miss this one.