Synopsis
Kaurismäki took his penchant for despairing character studies to unspeakably grim depths in the shockingly entertaining The Match Factory Girl. Kati Outinen is memorably impenetrable as Iris, whose grinding days as a cog in a factory wheel, and nights as a neglected daughter living with her parents, ultimately send her over the edge. Yet despite her transgressions, Kaurismäki makes Iris a compelling, even sympathetic figure. Bleak yet suffused with comic irony, The Match Factory Girl closes out the “Proletariat Trilogy” with a bang—and a whimper.
Cast
| Iris | Kati Outinen |
| Mother | Elina Salo |
| Stepfather | Esko Nikkari |
| Aarne | Vesa Vierikko |
| Singer | Reijo Taipale |
| Brother | Silu Seppälä |
Credits
| Director | Aki Kaurismäki |
| Producer | Aki Kaurismäki, Katinka Farago and Klas Olofsson |
| Screenplay | Aki Kaurismäki |
| Cinematography | Timo Salminen |
| Art direction | Risto Karhula |
| Editing | Aki Kaurismäki |
| Sound | Jouko Lumme |
From the Current
Eclipse Series 12:
Aki Kaurismäki’s Proletariat Trilogy
by
Sep 22, 2008
The cinema of Aki Kaurismäki has been tickling viewers for more than two decades without so much as cracking a smile. With their rotating casts of sourpuss Finns and their stringent, often immobile compositions, his films would seem the least likely candidates for laughs, yet by some cinematic . . .
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