Notes
on a film: Calamari Union (1985)
Following on from the sombre,
contemporary-set Dostoevsky adaptation, Crime and Punishment (1983), this
second feature-length effort from Aki Kaurismäki already illustrates the
filmmaker's eclectic range and singular ambition, as he graduates from the
deadpan, 'Bressonian' hyper-realism of the previous film to embrace a looser,
semi-improvised narrative, captured in a stark black and white.
Between the very different
approaches of these first two films we begin to see a sort of pattern or template
emerging for the films that would eventually follow. An indicator that Kaurismäki's
subsequent career would alternate the low-key realism of films like Shadows in
Paradise (1986), Ariel (1988) and The Match Factory Girl (1990), with more
stylised, absurdist or even eccentric films, such as Hamlet Goes Business
(1987), Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989) and La Vie de Bohème (1992).
Calamari Union definitely
falls into the latter category, as its absurd, picaresque narrative follows the
misadventures of fifteen men - fourteen of them named Frank, and an idiot
man-child named Pekka - who one day decide to leave behind the hopeless working
class backdrop of Eira and instead quest to the near-fabled district of Kallio (creating
in the process a bizarre passage that turns the suburban boroughs of Helsinki
into an almost mythological terrain).
Calamari Union [Aki
Kaurismäki, 1985]:
It's not necessarily a
film to be taken seriously, as Kaurismäki follows his characters on this
meandering journey - finding strange scenes, slapstick humour and at least one
rock & roll performance - but it's not to say that the film can't be looked
at or appreciated on a deeper, more personal level.
For me, there's a definite
air of Buñuel here - both in terms of the plot and in some of the more satirical
elements (as the characters become a warped prism through which the filmmaker
can exaggerate the various foibles of man) - as well as something reminiscent
of Bertrand Blier's fantastic film, Buffet froid (1979). Like Calamari Union,
Buffet froid - or Cold Cuts - spins an episodic tale of listless, damaged men
caught up in a strange and often benignly surreal adventure, with deeper shades
of bleak existentialism punctuating the surface farce.
Both films have the same
nocturnal quality, making great use of locations that seem empty, or devoid of
life. The sense of the city sleeping becoming like a stage or even a playground
in which these characters can enact their various narratives, both comic and tragic.
Buffet froid [Bertrand
Blier, 1979]:
Calamari Union [Aki
Kaurismäki, 1985]:
Beginning with a
quotation, "Dedicated to those ghosts of Baudelaire, Michaux and Prevert,
who still hover over this Earth...", Calamari Union immediately finds a
tone that's somewhere between parody and sincerity. It's also between the
crushing realities of the 1980s - with its bleak prospects and lack of employment
- and that typically French romanticism of men in long coats meeting in bars and
cafes; attempting, in their own listless and world-weary way, to express the poetry of a different kind of despair.
The black and white
cinematography of Timo Salminen plays into this same kind of language and iconography. It feels especially
reminiscent of the films of the French New Wave, in its observational visual aesthetic,
as well as in the presentation of the characters, their self-awareness and the non-specific
subject matter (see also: Kaurismäki's production company at the time was
called Villealfa; a nod to Jean-Luc Godard's post-modernist new wave classic,
Alphaville, 1965).
Calamari Union [Aki
Kaurismäki, 1985]:
More-so than any of his later films, it's difficult to really assume
what Kaurismäki's intentions were with this strange Calamari Union. Was he simply trying to
produce something that presented a surreal and sardonic experience that could
be enjoyed without having to bring to it the same level of consideration needed
for a film like Crime and Punishment, or is there a hidden depth to the film
just waiting to be rediscovered and interpreted? While some audiences may see
the film as a frivolous or even silly work - especially in light of the filmmaker's
later, more humanist projects, such as his recent films Le Havre (2011) and The
Other Side of Hope (2017) - I still find it somewhat fascinating, compelling and often
bleakly funny.
If you wanted to bring a
literal interpretation to the film, then Calamari Union could be seen as a
representation of the cycle of life. The characters emerge from the womb - or,
in this instance, their local pub - and travel by train through an underground
tunnel into the wider world. Here they begin this strange journey into life (breaking
away from the group - this surrogate family - meeting new people, forming
relationships, making decisions, then eventually dropping dead).
You could also see the
film as a treatise on the notion of individuality, with the earlier scenes
showing the group to be very much a part of this single "union" -
both anonymous to themselves and to the viewing audience - and each with the
same shared goals and ambitions. Eventually, as they continue their odyssey of
self-discovery, they find their own individual interests and directions through
life, free of influence, and now able to form their own unique and distinctive
personalities.
