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Rating: Upon arriving at the Helsinki station, a man is mugged and beaten by a group of thugs. Considered as good as dead at the hospital, he wakes up and escapes, finding refuge with a community of outcasts living in containers. When he regains consciousness, he discovers he remembers nothing and has to start a new life.
Thus begins the 13th feature film of the reclusive Finnish director who has accustomed journalists to entertaining interviews with a beer in hand and an inevitable cigarette between his lips.
"The Man Without a Past" is permeated with his bewildered humor that counterpoints the humble events of the protagonists and the improbable but sweet love story between the Amnesiac and an inert Salvation Army volunteer. Kaurismaki is traditionally a director with a dry style, who prefers to let the scenes speak rather than the dialogues, and this film is no exception; the words exchanged by the characters do not serve to deepen their personalities... where they come from, what they did before, what they believe in. Even the acting is intentionally restrained in gestures, expressions, and movements. As the director himself says, "in my films no one runs or laughs."
Yet the film in its doleful irony evokes more than one laugh (starting with Hannibal, the "fearsome" guard dog of the container depot) and talks about heavy matters without weighing down the heart; rather than a "happy ending", there is a "happy proceeding", because despite the marginality of the protagonists, nothing shakes their innocence that comes from having committed no wrongs and having nothing to be ashamed of, least of all their poverty. There is something Chaplinesque here, like the idea of saving a tea bag after use for future use.
Great for those who want to approach Kaurismaki.
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