The Man Without The Past ( Mies vailla menneisyyttä )

The Man Without The Past (DVD) (*)

~~$20.99~~ $14.97

Original Title: Mies vailla menneisyyttä
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Camerimage Awards
Cannes Film Festival
Ceasar Awards
Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain
European Film Awards
Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards
Oscar Academy Awards
San Sebastian International Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Danish ( Subtitles )
English ( Subtitles )
Finnish ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
Finnish ( Subtitles )
Norwegian ( Subtitles )
Swedish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Finland ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
93 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 2002 and produced in:
Finland ( Scandinavia, Iceland )
France ( France, Benelux )
Germany ( Germany, Central Europe )

Directed By:
Aki Kaurismaki

Written By:
Aki Kaurismäki

Actors:
Markku Peltola ..... M
Kati Outinen ..... Irma
Juhani Niemelä ..... Nieminen
Kaija Pakarinen ..... Kaisa Nieminen
Sakari Kuosmanen ..... Anttila
Annikki Tähti ..... Kirpputorin johtajatar
Anneli Sauli ..... Baarin omistajatar
Elina Salo ..... Telakan konttoristi
Outi Mäenpää ..... Pankkivirkailija
Esko Nikkari ..... Pankkiryöstäjä
Pertti Sveholm ..... Rikospoliisi
Matti Wuori ..... Lakimies
Aino Seppo ..... Entinen vaimo
Janne Hyytiäinen ..... Ovaskainen
Antti Reini ..... Sähkömies

Synopsis:

The second part of Aki Kaurismäki's "Finland" trilogy, the film follows a man who arrives in Helsinki and gets beaten up so severely he develops amnesia. Unable to remember his name or anything from his past life, he cannot get a job or an apartment, so he starts living on the outskirts of the city and slowly starts putting his life back on track.

Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without a Past opens with the title character (Markku Peltola) being savagely beaten. At the hospital he is declared dead, but he sits up and walks out on his own power. He is taken in by a mother and her two sons, discovers an old jukebox that inspires local musicians, and discovers he has skills as a welder. When he becomes unwittingly involved in a bank robbery, and the man is unable to give the police his name, the cops send out feelers trying to figure out the man's identity. Soon his wife appears. The Man Without a Past was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival where it was awarded the Grand Prix, the most storied prize after the Palme D'Or. -The Man Without a Past tackles many of the same themes as earlier films by Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki, and does so with the same understated dark humor, but this film finds the Finn at his sunniest and most accessible. It follows the same pattern as Ariel, the film that first brought Kaurismaki to international attention, wherein a man loses everything, meets a woman who restores his sense of hope, and then has it all threatened again as he inadvertently plunges into a criminal enterprise. With Ariel, Kaurismaki plumbed the depths of dark humor, getting laughs from the offhand way he presented a suicide early in the film. While there's an underlying despair to Man Without a Past as well, it never descends into hopelessness. These characters don't need so much to be content, and one believes they might be able to find a little happiness and hold onto it, whether it's derived from having a sparkling jukebox in the middle of one's sparsely furnished hovel, or from believing that your sweet female puppy dog is a vicious beast named 'Hannibal,' capable of tearing the nose off a man's face. Kaurismaki uses a much brighter palette than he has in the past (and that glowing orange jukebox is a good example). The cast, including Kaurismaki stalwart Kati Outinen do right by the director with their understated performances. The title character's (Markku Peltola) 'life after death' experience may be some kind of a dream, but it offers an amusing and extremely satisfying view of humanity.

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 14 September, 2006.

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