Le Havre (film)
Encyclopedia
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.
. 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, who needs Marcel's help to hide from the police.
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
.
The budget was 3.8 million euro
and included 750,000 euro in support from the Finnish Film Foundation
. Kaurismäki's company Sputnik was the main producer, with Finnish broadcaster YLE, France's Pyramide Productions and Germany's Pandora Film as co-producers. The local rock singer Little Bob was cast in the film; Kaurismäki said that "Le Havre is the Memphis, Tennessee
of France and Little Bob a.k.a. Roberto Piazza is the Elvis
of this Kingdom as long as Johnny Hallyday
stays in Paris and even then it would be a nice fight." Filming started 23 March and ended 12 May 2010.
. It was the fourth time a film by Kaurismäki competed at the festival, after Drifting Clouds
, The Man Without a Past
and Lights in the Dusk. The Finnish premiere is set to 9 September 2011 through Future Film Distribution. Pyramide Distribution will release it in France on 21 December. Janus Films
acquired the American distribution rights.
: "It's all rather jolly and slight, and certainly doesn't break any new ground for the Finnish auteur, even though it foregrounds more influences than usual from French filmmakers like Marcel Carne
(obvious, given the protagonists' names), Jean-Pierre Melville, Robert Bresson
and others. But on its own terms, Le Havre is a continual pleasure, seamlessly blending morose and merry notes with a deftness that's up there with Kaurismaki's best comic work." Felperin complimented the craft of Kaurismäki's regular cinematographer Timo Salminen
and editor Timo Linnasalo, and wrote: "It's like listening to a band that's been cheerfully churning it out for years, whose members all know each other's timings inside out, not unlike onscreen performers Little Bob and his grizzled, perfectly in-sync crew."
. The dog Laika received a special Jury Prize from the Palm Dog
jury. The film went on to win the top prize for best international film at the 2011 Munich International Film Festival. It was selected as a nominee for the European Parliament
's Lux Prize
. The film has been selected as the Finnish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film
at the 84th Academy Awards
. Le Havre also won the Gold Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival
.
Aki Kaurismäki
-Career:After studying Media Studies at the University of Tampere, Aki Kaurismäki started his career as a co-director in the films of his elder brother Mika Kaurismäki. His debut as an independent director was Crime and Punishment , Dostoyevsky's famous crime story set in modern-day Helsinki...
, starring André Wilms
André Wilms
André Wilms is a French film and television actor who has also appeared in German and Finnish films. Wilms was the winner of the Best Supporting European Actor award at the 1992 European Film Awards for his work in Aki Kaurismäki's La Vie de Bohème.-Partial filmography:* Le tartuffe * Field of...
, Kati Outinen
Kati Outinen
Anna Katriina Outinen is a Finnish actress who has often played leading female roles in Aki Kaurismäki's films.Outinen was born in Helsinki. Having studied under Jouko Turkka during his "reign" of drama studies in Finland, she nevertheless has never been associated with the "turkkalaisuus" school...
, Jean-Pierre Darroussin
Jean-Pierre Darroussin
Jean-Pierre Darroussin is a French film actor. He was born in Courbevoie, France on December 4, 1953. His films include the 2004 thriller Red Lights.-Filmography as actor:* 1979 : Coup de tête, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud...
and Blondin Miguel. It tells the story of a shoeshiner
Shoeshiner
Shoeshiner or boot polisher is a profession in which a person polishes shoes with shoe polish. They are often known as shoeshine boys because the job is traditionally that of a male child. In the leather fetish communities, they are often called bootblacks...
who tries to save an immigrant child in the French port city Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
. 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
La Vie de Bohème (film)
La Vie de Bohème is a 1992 film directed by Aki Kaurismäki and starring Matti Pellonpää, Evelyne Didi and André Wilms. Kaurismäki's screenplay for the film was based on Henri Murger's influential novel Scènes de la Vie de Bohème which has spawned several on-screen adaptations as well as plays and...
from 1992.
The film premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival
2011 Cannes Film Festival
The 64th annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 11 to May 22, 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition...
, 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.
Plot
Marcel Marx, a former bohemian and struggling author, has given up his literary ambitions and relocated to the port city Le HavreLe Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
. 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, who needs Marcel's help to hide from the police.
Cast
- André WilmsAndré WilmsAndré Wilms is a French film and television actor who has also appeared in German and Finnish films. Wilms was the winner of the Best Supporting European Actor award at the 1992 European Film Awards for his work in Aki Kaurismäki's La Vie de Bohème.-Partial filmography:* Le tartuffe * Field of...
as Marcel Marx - Kati OutinenKati OutinenAnna Katriina Outinen is a Finnish actress who has often played leading female roles in Aki Kaurismäki's films.Outinen was born in Helsinki. Having studied under Jouko Turkka during his "reign" of drama studies in Finland, she nevertheless has never been associated with the "turkkalaisuus" school...
as Arletty - Jean-Pierre DarroussinJean-Pierre DarroussinJean-Pierre Darroussin is a French film actor. He was born in Courbevoie, France on December 4, 1953. His films include the 2004 thriller Red Lights.-Filmography as actor:* 1979 : Coup de tête, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud...
as Monet - Blondin Miguel as Idrissa
- Elina SaloElina SaloElina Salo is a Finnish film, theatre and television actress who has also done work in radio as a voice actor in children’s programming. In her career that began in 1956, Salo has appeared in over 50 films and television shows but she is best known for her work in Aki Kaurismäki’s films. She has...
as Claire - Evelyne Didi as Yvette
- Quoc Dung Nguyen as Chang
- Laika as Laika
- François Monniè as Grocer
- Roberto Piazza as Little Bob
- Pierre ÉtaixPierre ÉtaixPierre Étaix is a French clown, comedian and filmmaker. Étaix made a series of acclaimed short- and feature-length films in the 1960s, many of them co-written by influential screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière. He has won an Academy Award. Due to a legal dispute with a distribution company, these...
as Doctor Becker - Jean-Pierre LéaudJean-Pierre Léaud-Early years:Born in Paris, Léaud made his major debut as an actor at the age of 14 as Antoine Doinel, a semi-autobiographical character based on the life events of French film director François Truffaut, in The 400 Blows....
as Denouncer
Production
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 GenoaGenoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
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
Arletty
Arletty was a French actress, singer, and fashion model.-Life and career:Arletty was born Léonie Marie Julie Bathiat in Courbevoie , to a working-class family. Her early career was dominated by the music hall, and she later appeared in plays and cabaret. Arletty was a stage performer for ten years...
and Jacques Becker
Jacques Becker
Jacques Becker was a French screenwriter and film director.Becker was born in Paris, in an upper class background. During the 1930s he worked as an assistant to director Jean Renoir during his peak period, which produced such cinematic masterpieces as Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game...
. The name of the lead character, Marcel Marx, was inspired by Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
. The character had previously appeared in Kaurismäki's 1992 film La Vie de Bohème
La Vie de Bohème (film)
La Vie de Bohème is a 1992 film directed by Aki Kaurismäki and starring Matti Pellonpää, Evelyne Didi and André Wilms. Kaurismäki's screenplay for the film was based on Henri Murger's influential novel Scènes de la Vie de Bohème which has spawned several on-screen adaptations as well as plays and...
, where he also was played by André Wilms
André Wilms
André Wilms is a French film and television actor who has also appeared in German and Finnish films. Wilms was the winner of the Best Supporting European Actor award at the 1992 European Film Awards for his work in Aki Kaurismäki's La Vie de Bohème.-Partial filmography:* Le tartuffe * Field of...
. The character Monet was inspired by Porfiry Petrovich, the detective from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. This is the second of Dostoyevsky's full-length novels following his...
.
The budget was 3.8 million euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
and included 750,000 euro in support from the Finnish Film Foundation
Finnish Film Foundation
The Finnish Film Foundation , is an independent foundation with the task of supporting and developing Finnish film production, distribution and exhibition. It is supervised by the Department for Cultural Policy in the Ministry of Education....
. Kaurismäki's company Sputnik was the main producer, with Finnish broadcaster YLE, France's Pyramide Productions and Germany's Pandora Film as co-producers. The local rock singer Little Bob was cast in the film; Kaurismäki said that "Le Havre is the Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
of France and Little Bob a.k.a. Roberto Piazza is the Elvis
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
of this Kingdom as long as Johnny Hallyday
Johnny Hallyday
Johnny Hallyday is a French singer and actor. An icon in the French-speaking world since the beginning of his career, he was considered by some to have been the French Elvis Presley. He was married for 15 years to one of the most popular French female singers: Sylvie Vartan...
stays in Paris and even then it would be a nice fight." Filming started 23 March and ended 12 May 2010.
Release
Le Havre premiered on 17 May 2011 in competition at the 64th Cannes Film Festival2011 Cannes Film Festival
The 64th annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 11 to May 22, 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition...
. It was the fourth time a film by Kaurismäki competed at the festival, after Drifting Clouds
Drifting Clouds (film)
Drifting Clouds is a 1996 Finnish film directed by Aki Kaurismäki and starring Kati Outinen, Kari Väänänen and Markku Peltola. The film is the first in Kaurismäki's Finland trilogy, the other 2 films being The Man Without a Past and Lights in the Dusk.- Plot :Ilona Koponen , a head waitress at...
, The Man Without a Past
The Man Without a Past
The Man Without a Past is a 2002 Finnish comedy-drama film directed by Aki Kaurismäki and starring Markku Peltola, Kati Outinen and Juhani Niemelä. It is the second installment in Kaurismäki's Finland trilogy, the other two films being Drifting Clouds and Lights in the Dusk...
and Lights in the Dusk. The Finnish premiere is set to 9 September 2011 through Future Film Distribution. Pyramide Distribution will release it in France on 21 December. Janus Films
Janus Films
Janus Films is a film distribution company. It was one of the first distributors to bring what are now regarded as masterpieces of world cinema to the United States...
acquired the American distribution rights.
Critical response
Leslie Felperin wrote in VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
: "It's all rather jolly and slight, and certainly doesn't break any new ground for the Finnish auteur, even though it foregrounds more influences than usual from French filmmakers like Marcel Carne
Marcel Carné
-Biography:Born in Paris, France, the son of a cabinet maker whose wife died when their son was five, Carné began his career as a film critic, becoming editor of the weekly publication, Hebdo-Films, and working for Cinémagazine and Cinémonde between 1929 and 1933. In the same period he worked in...
(obvious, given the protagonists' names), Jean-Pierre Melville, Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson
-Life and career:Bresson was born at Bromont-Lamothe, Puy-de-Dôme, the son of Marie-Élisabeth and Léon Bresson. Little is known of his early life and the year of his birth, 1901 or 1907, varies depending on the source. He was educated at Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, close to Paris, and...
and others. But on its own terms, Le Havre is a continual pleasure, seamlessly blending morose and merry notes with a deftness that's up there with Kaurismaki's best comic work." Felperin complimented the craft of Kaurismäki's regular cinematographer Timo Salminen
Timo Salminen
Timo Salminen is a Finnish cinematographer best known for his artistic work in Aki Kaurismäki's films. Salminen's father Ville Salminen was a famed Finnish film actor, director, writer and producer whose career began in the 1930s and lasted until the 1980s...
and editor Timo Linnasalo, and wrote: "It's like listening to a band that's been cheerfully churning it out for years, whose members all know each other's timings inside out, not unlike onscreen performers Little Bob and his grizzled, perfectly in-sync crew."
Accolades
The film received the FIPRESCI Prize for best film at the Cannes Film Festival. It also received a Special Mention from the Ecumenical JuryPrize of the Ecumenical Jury
The Prize of the Ecumenical Jury is an independent film award for feature films at the Cannes Film Festival since 1974. The Ecumenical Jury is one of three juries at the Cannes Film Festival, along with the official jury and the FIPRESCI jury. The award was created by Christian film makers, film...
. The dog Laika received a special Jury Prize from the Palm Dog
Palm Dog Award
The Palm Dog Award is a yearly alternative award presented by the international film critics during the Cannes Film Festival. Begun in 2001 by Toby Rose, , Ammu Kannampilly, October 22, 2007, retrieved on May 27, 2009 it is awarded to the best performance by a canine or group of canines during...
jury. The film went on to win the top prize for best international film at the 2011 Munich International Film Festival. It was selected as a nominee for the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
's Lux Prize
Lux Prize
The European Parliament LUX Prize, introduced in 2007, is a prize given to a competing film by the European Parliament. It is named after the unit of illuminance, "lux", which is Latin for "light"...
. The film has been selected as the Finnish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
at the 84th Academy Awards
84th Academy Awards
The 84th Academy Awards ceremony will honor the best films of 2011 and will take place on February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. It will be televised in the United States on ABC. The host was originally going to be Eddie Murphy. However, after Brett Ratner resigned as...
. Le Havre also won the Gold Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival
Chicago International Film Festival
The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America....
.