Le Havre (film)
| Le Havre | |
|---|---|
Festival poster
|
|
| Directed by | Aki Kaurismäki |
| Produced by | Aki Kaurismäki |
| Written by | Aki Kaurismäki |
| Starring |
André Wilms Kati Outinen Jean-Pierre Darroussin Blondin Miguel |
| Cinematography | Timo Salminen |
| Edited by | Timo Linnasalo |
|
Production
company |
Sputnik
Pyramide Productions Pandora Film |
| Distributed by | Future Film Distribution |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
93 minutes |
| Country | Finland France Germany |
| Language | French |
| Budget | € 3.8 million |
| Box office | $12,944,958 |
Le Havre is a 2011 comedy-drama film written and directed by Aki Kaurismäki, starring André Wilms, Kati Outinen, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Blondin Miguel. It tells the story of a shoeshiner who tries to save an immigrant child in the French port city Le Havre. The film was produced by Kaurismäki's Finnish company Sputnik with international co-producers in France and Germany. It is Kaurismäki's second French-language film, after La Vie de Bohème from 1992.
The film premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it received the FIPRESCI Prize. Kaurismäki envisions it as the first installment in a trilogy about life in port cities. His ambition is to make follow-ups set in Spain and Germany, shot in the local languages.
Marcel Marx, a former bohemian and struggling author, has given up his literary ambitions and relocated to the port city Le Havre. He leads a simple life based around his wife Arletty, his favourite bar and his not too profitable profession as a shoeshiner. As Arletty suddenly becomes seriously ill, Marcel's path crosses with an underage illegal immigrant from Africa. Marcel and friendly neighbors and other townspeople help to hide him from the police. The police inspector may, or may not, be hot on their heels.
Kaurismäki had the idea of a film about an African child who arrives in Europe three years before the production started. His original intention was to set the story on the Mediterranean coast, preferably in Italy or Spain, but he had difficulties finding a suitable city. According to Kaurismäki, he "drove through the whole seafront from Genoa to Holland", and eventually settled on Le Havre in northern France, which attracted him with its atmosphere and music scene.
The script was written in the summer 2009. The names of several characters were chosen as homages to French film icons, such as Arletty and Jacques Becker. The name of the lead character, Marcel Marx, was inspired by Karl Marx. The character had previously appeared in Kaurismäki's 1992 film La Vie de Bohème, where he also was played by André Wilms. The character Monet was inspired by Porfiry Petrovich, the detective from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.
...
Wikipedia