Le Havre (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

I highly recommend this movie which is in French. A poor man whose wife is in the hospital in Le Havre, France, takes in an African illegal alien boy whose only hope is to get to London and be reunited with his relatives. At first the neighbors are hostile to the boy and his keeper, but in time they rally around them. His wife is sensitively played by Finnish movie star Kati Outinen. This movie is classified as a comedy, but it is light years away from being funny. It does have a happy ending but be preparedto have your tissues handy. It's the kind of movie you can see more than once. I bought it when I was enchanted with Kati Outinen in A Man With No Past as a Salvation Army inner-city missionary. I went to high school with A Salvation Army girl and Kati Outinen captures the role with very realistic sweetness, warmth and modesty.The local bar-fly characters, dour French neighbors, and the helpful cop play their roles to perfection.The star of the movie who earns a meagre living shining shoes is played by Andre Wilms whose acting is above and beyond any expectations of a great performance. Academy Award material.There is some music added to this movie and the additional material on the DVD is also worth viewing.

It takes alot these days for me to fall in love with a film but that is just what I did with the French film Le Havre (2011). The film was directed by Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki who also directed The Man Without a Past (2002). It is a story, or possibly a fable, about an immigrant African boy who becomes stranded in the French shipping port of Havre on the coast where the Seine river meets the English Channel. He was on his way to London, hiding in a cargo container, when the police opened it up and he ran away. The whole story then becomes about an eldery man, Marcel Marx, played by Andre Wilms, who, once was a Bohemian writer, possibly in Paris, now works as a shoe shiner around the train station. He befriends the boy, named Idrissa, and he, along with his neighborhood friends, make it their purpose to get this boy to London anyway they can. Meanwhile, Marcel's wife Arletty has become critically ill and is in the hospital for treatments. It is a simple yet poignant story of what can get accomplished when people work together for a common good. The highlight for me was when the neighborhood puts on a benefit concert starring a man named Little Bob who comes out of retirement to rock and roll. It is a beautiful and funny scene. The cinematography is somewhat muted and we see the pale rainbow colors of the homes and the slow and steady lifestyle of the people in neighborhood each one accepting each others talents, faults and idiosyncracies. I usually prefer films with quick and original dialogue but with Le Havre I just sat back and relaxed and wished I lived in one of the tiny homes while enjoying the little things that life has to offer.

Back in 1938 Marcel Carne's Port of Shadows w/Jean Gabin, Michel Simon, and Michele Morgan did what could be considered the 1st waterfront film noir. This was a fantastic film about lives on the edge and the extremes that would toss about like roll of dice just for a smile, a warm embrace, enchanting engagement set for later rendezvous, and anything that resembled real love on the eve of a German disregard of all human necessities. This was a great black and white romantic film shot in the port of La Harve. I cannot and will not say more about this timeless classic here and now.Some near 75 years later Aki Kaurismaki uses the port of Le Havre once again front and center to tell a tale of romance tripled into fairy tale of sorts as diverse characters ban together for no reason what-so-ever to rescue a black immigrant boy of near teenage youth just because. Charm, wit, cunning, deft planning, and risk of life are all combined and pushed to edge - sacrifice the all for the good of the one story. This film is a love letter to the heart of anyone whom ever cared because a rally for one is action for compassion for all. Savor a good crime haunt and lines of colored disregard to witness the better half of human nature in modern day action once again in the port of Le Harve.

Charming movie! Dark comedy if you look for it. And heart-warming too.

You keep expecting everything to fall through; but miraculously, things work out. Amusing but also serious, and well-played by the excellent cast, cinematographer, and of course the director.

Nothing profound here and pretty predictable but I enjoyed it. Nice, sweet feel good movie that highlights the good in human nature - a nice movie to watch with kids. And a pleasant way to practice listening to French.

If you haven't seen this, see it. It's beautiful.

We love Kurismaki films, and this is probably at the top of the list. Droll slice of life, with suspense. The cinematography plays like a series of paintings. The colors and lighting are incredible. The use of flowers throughout, particularly the cherry tree in blossom at the end smacks of Japanese cinema, particularly the director Ozu.

This is the first film I've seen by this director, and I love it. Most of all, the uniquely quirky style of the whole thing, such as the weird mixture of present-day events with cars, buses and clothing from an earlier era. The cinematography is superb, painting the daytime scenes with bright pastel colours and the nights with dramatic, shadow-filled menace. As for the story, ostensibly it's about a young immigrant in need of help but at root it's a simple fable about human kindness, a fantasy you choose to believe, heartwarming and sometimes amusing - although calling this a comedy does it a disservice, that's not what it sets out to be.The extra material on the DVD is unusually interesting, particularly the interviews with two of the actors (André Wilms and Jean-Pierre Darroussin) who provide thoughtful and intelligent comments on the director and the way he works. This was all new stuff to me and it helped me greatly to understand the delightful oddities of the film.

Human kindness is not yet extinct. Or so thinks Aki Kaurismäki.Marcel is an ageing pensioner in the French city of Le Havre. He shines shoes on the street to keep body and soul together. His wife Arletty is a homemaker. Their longstanding relationship is loving, expressed more by small acts of consideration than by the content of spoken language. A gesture or glance is enough to speak to the heart. Their eyes shine in the presence of one another.Le Havre, Calais and other port cities along the coast of Normandy are stepping stones to Britain for refugees. Though many of them come from the warm tropical sun of Africa, Britain for them is the land of milk and honey, a sort of Shangri-La. This thought may make us smile a little, but then we’ve never had to stand inside their shoes. Comfort has insulated us from the world.Idrissa is a boy of about 12 or 13. He arrived in Le Havre by ship in a large metal shipping container. Inside it with him were several African families, including his own.The cops and port authorities are tipped off. They raid the container when it is placed dockside by a large, monstrous mechanical crane. Darkness is transformed to light as the doors open, the light touching the black faces within — worried, frightened, anxious faces, the camera lingering on these. Where are they? The people don’t know but they hear French spoken, so this can’t be England.The fashion statement made by the assault team is one of intimidation and overkill, the cops dressed in Darth Vader black body armour, helmets, boots, gloves. The refugees are the opposite: wide-eyed, unprotected, vulnerable lambs.Idrissa stands near the open doors. His grandfather nods to him, the message clear: jump and run for it when you can. He does. An automatic weapon is raised to shoot him dead. But the officer in charge (an artistically named detective called Monet) pulls the barrel of the weapon down and shouts:“Are you crazy? He’s a child.”Monet is fed up with lousy assignments, this being one of them. He loves busting real criminals, not incarcerating poor refugees condemned by governmental policy. If the refugees are a social and political problem for the nation, the government can solve it without him. Thus rebellious, he lets Idrissa slip away.Marcel sees the local newspaper the next day. A front-page story says a manhunt is being mounted to catch the miscreant. From the sensational nature of the story you would think France’s security has been compromised by the boy. A new Dreyfus threatens to betray the nation.Marcel wanders down to the wharves of Le Havre. This is where the boy disappeared. Marcel carries his shoeshine kit, as well as a baguette and some bottled water in a paper bag. He also slips in a few euros. The boy is frightened and timid, soaked to his skin in the waters of the harbour. But he appreciates the gifts and manages to follow Marcel home, eluding the cops en route. So begins the adventure of Marcel and Idrissa, Marcel hiding, sheltering and protecting the boy as they try to stay a step ahead of the cops.Why should Marcel care? Why take the risks? At one point he describes to Idrissa the life he once led in Paris as an artist. Back then he was a bohemian who lived by his own rules, or a lack of them. He did what he felt like in the moment. All was intuition and inspiration. And passion. The passionate are the risk takers. What’s to lose if the feeling is right? In this case Idrissa feels right to Marcel. France is an abstraction, just an idea compared to Idrissa. The boy is in danger and need. How sublime then to subvert the system to help someone truly in need.Arletty needs Marcel too. She is suffering. The pain in her stomach is acute now. Doctors at the local hospital give her little chance. Cancer, the dreaded modern disease, is spreading. She pleads with the doctors to deceive Marcel. It isn’t as bad as it seems, she tells him, saving him from the anguish of knowing the physical pain she’s in. ‘Benign’ becomes his favourite new word even though Arletty and the doctors know it’s a lie.The game between Marcel and the authorities becomes cat and mouse. The cops are the cat and Idrissa the mouse. Idrissa scurries from place to place, staying first with Marcel, then with several neighbours. People come to love Idrissa for his disarming innocence and helplessness. They might wish to have sons like him, sons so different from all the French boys these days who lack modesty and manners.What will happen to Idrissa? Will his dream to live in the land of milk and honey come to pass? His mother is there now — in London. His father tried to get there as well but didn’t make it. We hear he died, presumably en route. Idrissa has been travelling from Africa with his grandparents, not parents.Salvation, it turns out, is expensive. Idrissa’s passage to Britain, if it is to happen, will not come cheaply. Shining shoes in Le Havre won’t cut it. Instead, Marcel needs an elaborate scheme. This will be connected to music.The music, as always in a Kaurismäki film, is fabulous. In this case French rock ’n’ roll modelled on the American original. Rock is rebellious. Rock sneers at authority. Or the best early rock did. One group on stage in the film is led by Little Bob. He and his band are tremendous.Little Bob provides indirect spiritual commentary on the act of escape. Bold persons are the ones who want to be free, and if travelling to Europe from Africa by ship in a metal shipping container isn’t bold, few things are.Some critics love to label Kaurismäki a pessimist. But most artists examining the state of the world might fall into that category, as it’s where their honesty leads them. They aren’t likely to sugarcoat reality. As it happens, some things fall through the cracks, and human kindness and common decency can be two of them. They’re just as real as all the corruption, greed and selfishness in the world. Aki knows this and wants to remind us of it.The film therefore isn’t dark. Only its humour is. What stays with us is the love of Marcel and Arletty for one another, the kindness and generosity of ordinary French people toward Idrissa, and the feeling of what it means to be free. Monet the detective dwells on the idea of freedom. He’s not just a cop; he’s a moral thinker as well. How does he pursue the case of the missing boy? Very eccentrically, the presiding spirit laissez-faire.The film is a fable, a fairy tale, a moral allegory. Some of the greatest art amounts to this. There’s no doubt Aki Kaurismäki put his heart into this film, commenting as he does on the power of love and the beauty of human kindness.

This is such a good film for me, I love the look of it, the colour of the film puts me in mind of “Umbrellas Of Cherbourg” though I don’t know if that was the directors intention or if it is just something that I am reminded of. I love the simplicity of it – it is basically a fable, I love the music in “Le Havre" with everything from Johann Sebastian Bach, to Blind Willie McTell, to Little Bob and with more besides. I love the characters in the film and not just the main one’s, but for example customers in the bar with their conversations and with their very characterful looks. I love the comedy – it is subtle and wonderful.I absolutely love this magical film. That being said, I have some empathy for those who find negative things about the film. For example the style or quality of the acting which some have seen as being poor, but I would say that it is stylised and has a deliberate look about it, and after all, the cast of “Le Havre” has some excellent actors in it who I would say know what they are doing.The one star reviewers aren’t wrong though, no more than I could be right in giving the film five stars, but I would say to have an open mind about “Le Havre” even if you might still end up disliking it, but for me – I love it!I'd say that the “interview” with André Wilms and Jean-Pierre Darroussin is well worth looking at for anyone interested in the film or interested in cinema generally.On the DVD (ASIN: B007QVCK72) you get:“Le Havre” (1 hour 29 minutes)Scene SelectionSet Up:2.0 Stereo, 5.1 Dolby DigitalOptional English SubtitlesSpecial Features:Interview with André Wilms and Jean-Pierre Darroussin (21 minutes)Little Bob’s Music Videos (“Libero” and “Sheila 'N' Willy”)Trailer

This film is a delight and was rewarded as such with an award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Set in the French port city of Le Havre it tells the story of Marcel Marx, a dropout Bohemian/author, now a shoeshiner, who comes across, befriends, protects and 'liberates' a boy, an illegal immigrant from Africa while we viewers join them in their escapades. Marx and his wife Arletty live in a poor district of the port and are surrounded by neighbours, friends who are as compassionate as they. In these days of epic refugee/asylum seeker movements this film should be revived again - and again. It is a very French film (as only French and Italians can make them) - it pays homage to French icons such as Arletty and Marcel - and it comes as a surprise and delight to discover it was written, produced and directed by Aki Kaurismaki and his Finnish company with international co-producers in France and Germany. Kaurismaki has said he intends Le Havre to be the first of a trilogy - I an hardly wait.

Master of black comedy and the absurd, Aki Kaurismäki delivers again. As usual the story is quite improbable, absurd even in its detail, but heart warming in its concept. Kaurismäki does not even speak French yet produces this delightful film in partnership with several outstanding French actors. The police inspector is classic Kaurismäki, with his straight face and sinister appearance. Most Kaurismäki films have an element of loss, despair and tragedy but not this one. Yes, it addresses the refugee issue but only as background, the nasty informer is a role we have all come across but the main players are all a delight. I have just about all of Kaurismäki's films on Finnish DVDs and every one is a gem. This joins the list. Do not hesitate if you enjoy this type of comedy. I loved it.