ByTowne ByTowne Cinema
ByTowne Cinema
325 Rideau St. Ottawa K1N 5Y4
Info Line: (613) 789-FILM
Le Havre
Print this pageFIPRESCI prize (International Critics Award) ~ Cannes Film Festival 2011
Showtimes:
No screenings currently scheduled.
In his own very special way, which combines wry deadpan comedy, a playful respect for the conventions of classical genre and an inimitably exquisite blend of delicate absurdism and tender lyricism, Aki Kaurismäki has dealt with some of the pressing issues of our times: unemployment, homelessness, solitude, and callous exploitation. This time around he tackles the phenomenon of migration, but once again with a gentle sensibility all too rarely found in today’s cinema.
André Wilms, so wonderful in Kaurismäki’s La Vie de Bohème, is likewise superb as Marcel, a Parisian artist-turned-Le Havre-shoeshine whose nightly visits to the local bar are both funded and monitored by his wife Arletty (Kaurismäki regular Kati Outinen). Their life together with Laïka (the latest in the auteur’s veritable dynasty of starring dogs) is suddenly shaken not only by her having to undergo some tests in hospital but by Marcel’s discovery of an African boy sought by the authorities after he fled from a container full of illegal immigrants. Poor he may be, but Marcel, like his friends in the neighborhood, is determined to help the lad out, notwithstanding the investigations of Inspector Monet (Jean-Pierre Darroussin)…
The story, with its migrant camps and surly police, is certainly contemporary but few cinematographers shoot in colour as marvellously as Kaurismäki’s regular DP Timo Salminen, and his lighting here is evocative – as those characters’ names might suggest – of the ‘poetic realist’ classics of Carné and others. Neither that nor the many wonderful gags detract from the film’s relevance and power (the ending is surprisingly moving), but they do ensure that this is a movie no one else could have made. Every frame, every line of dialogue (‘L’argent se roule dans le crépuscule’ – ‘Money walks in the shadows’ – opines the epigrammaically inclined Marcel), every bit of casting (Pierre Étaix as a doctor, Jean-Pierre Léaud as a bigoted neighbour) is pure Kaurismäki.
Only the use of the music of octogenarian Finn Einojuhani Rautavaara on the soundtrack – rather than the expected Tchaikovsky – comes as a surprise; but even that is an inspired choice, and like everything else in this lovely movie, something to savour.
– Geoff Andrews, Time Out London
Marcel Marx, ex-écrivain et bohème renommé, s’est exilé volontairement dans la ville portuaire du Havre où son métier honorable mais non rémunérateur de cireur de chaussures lui donne le sentiment d’être plus proche du peuple en le servant. Il a fait le deuil de son ambition littéraire et mène une vie satisfaisante dans le triangle constitué par le bistrot du coin, son travail et sa femme Arletty, quand le destin met brusquement sur son chemin un enfant immigré originaire d’Afrique noire.
Quand au même moment, Arletty tombe gravement malade et doit s’aliter, Marcel doit à nouveau combattre le mur froid de l’indifférence humaine avec pour seules armes, son optimisme inné et la solidarité têtue des habitants de son quartier. Il affronte la mécanique aveugle d’un État de droit occidental, représenté par l’étau de la police qui se resserre de plus en plus sur le jeune garçon réfugié.
Il est temps pour Marcel de cirer ses chaussures et de montrer les dents.
– Le Festival de Cannes
The ByTowne doesn't have a parking lot of its own, but denizens of downtown can usually find street parking close by fairly easily.
This web site is very useful, but the hard copy of the ByTowne guide still has its merits. People rely on it and love it. Plus, its calendar pages can be pulled out and posted on your fridge door, something that we still can't achieve with the web site. Get your copy today at many local stores, coffee shops and info centres around town! 