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Film review: Le Havre

If Aki Kaurismäki were a stand-up comic, he would eye the audience disinterestedly and start in on a long story in a deadpan voice, says David Larsen.

By David Larsen In Film

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2nd June, 2012
If Aki Kaurismäki were a stand-up comic, he would eye the audience disinterestedly and start in on a long story in a deadpan voice. The point of the story would be far from obvious, but no one would heckle, because of the slightly alarming glint in his eye. He would give you no cues to suggest any given remark was meant to be amusing. And then a random line would cause the whole audience to erupt into laughter, and you would realise he’d had you in the palm of his hand all along. In Kaurismäki’s Le Havre, an acid-tinged yet strangely gentle comedy-drama named for the French coastal city where ...

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