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Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

In all honesty, the films of 2023 should take a backseat to the images we are seeing every day in Gaza, where journalists and average citizens have been recording and documenting a daily assault on their homes and livelihoods by the Idf. Whatever fakery we watched and enjoyed in the cinema this year should always be kept in perspective in importance with images that are real and actually happening right now. The Palestinians who have documented these important images have been targeted and killed with intent and purpose to silence what their photos and videos are showing and saying.

List of journalists who have been killed.

The below is of lesser note:

Best First Watches:

Angel’s Egg La belle noiseuse Centipede Horror Charley Varrick Coffy Crimson Gold...

Welcome to Kino Laika: Aki Kaurismäki and Mika Lätti’s cinema in Karkkila, an hour away from Helsinki. A place where love for movies – and dogs – meets ghosts of cinema’s past.

“One time, I had a 35mm copy of the Lumière brothers’ film ‘Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat.’ I lent it to some cinema and it never came back. And now, I have forgotten which cinema it was,” recalls Kaurismäki, who, like Lätti, has been a resident of Karkkila, a modest town of 9,000, for decades now.

“I have lived here for 38 years and I like it a lot, but we never had a cinema here before. To see movies, local people had to travel to the next town or even Helsinki. Not anymore. It’s wonderful to offer them this chance,” he adds.

“Karkkila has been a good place for us both and we wanted to give something back to this town.

Kaurismäki was previously nominated in 2002 for The Man Without A Past.

Finland has selected Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves as its official entry for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

The comedy drama world premiered at Cannes where it topped Screen’s jury grid and picked up the festival’s jury prize.

It recently won the 2023 Grand Prix, voted on by members of the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci), and will screen at San Sebastian International Film Festival where it receives the award.

Fallen Leaves is produced by Sputnik Oy and Bufo and co-produced by Pandora Film.

Nobody can see everything that screens in competition at the Cannes Film Festival — there were 21 titles in the mix this year — and I certainly didn’t. So, without passing judgment on all of the titles that were recognized with prizes on Saturday, I must say that I am struck by the fact that all five of the eligible English-language titles — Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s Black Flies, Karim Aïnouz’s Firebrand, Todd Haynes’s May December and Ken Loach’s The Old Oak — were completely passed over by the jury.

Needless to say, it is not the mandate of the Cannes jury — which this year included the likes of Paul Dano, Brie Larson and recent Palme d’Or winners Ruben Östlund (2017’s The Square and 2022’s Triangle of Sadness) and 2021’s Julia Ducournau (Titane) — to try to presage the Oscar race. But it is still noteworthy, to me,...

Following Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a Past (2002), Lights in the Dusk (2006), and 2011’s Le Havre, Finland’s favorite auteur Aki Kaurismäki returns to Cannes comp section with his fifth feature Fallen Leaves.

Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen topline a film that includes some old retro movie posters, booze, karaoke and essentially are two lonely people who meet each other by chance in the Helsinki night and try to find the first love of their lives.

Current temp: An apple pie type of film – always filling, you know what you get and zero complaints, the press screening for the Fallen Leaves put a lot of smiles on people’s faces and generous laughs from most.…...

For those that are not already familiar with Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki's films, I will say that they are an acquired taste. His dry wit and minimalistic dead pan style definitely won't work for everyone, and some viewers will be left wanting. I will admit that I'm not a fan of all of his films either - some of them I like much more than others. However, if there's a particular story or something appealing about one of them that interests you - it's worth watching just to enjoy some international cinema that is unique. His latest film is called Fallen Leaves (originally Kuolleet Lehdet in Finnish) and it just premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where Kaurismäki is a regular. He's been attending Cannes (and tons of other festivals) since 1996 with Drifting Clouds. After so many heavy, dark, deep dramas, it's a joy to watch & enjoy something so upbeat and fresh and light.

The lineup for the 76th installment of the Cannes Film Festival has finally been announced. Nineteen films will be competing to take home the prestigious Palme d’Or, including a record six films helmed by women. The festival will be taking place in the French Riviera from May 16 to May 27. This year’s jury will be headed by Ruben Östlund, who won his second Palme d’Or last year for “Triangle of Sadness.”

Knowing a filmmaker’s previous track record at Cannes can sometimes help give an idea as to who might be in the best position to claim the Palme. For instance, five of this year’s entries come from directors who have previously won the Palme. Another five are from auteurs who have had previous films win a prize in the main competition other than the Palme. Another five are from directors having their first film screen in the main competition.

Next month’s Criterion Channel selection is here, and as 2021 winds down further cements their status as our single greatest streaming service. Off the top I took note of their eight-film Jia Zhangke retro as well as the streaming premieres of Center Stage and Malni. And, yes, Margaret has been on HBO Max for a while, but we can hope Criterion Channel’s addition—as part of the 63(!)-film “New York Stories”—opens doors to a more deserving home-video treatment.

Aki Kaurismäki’s Finland Trilogy, Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc duology, and Criterion’s editions of Irma Vep and Flowers of Shanghai also mark major inclusions—just a few years ago the thought of Hou’s masterpiece streaming in HD was absurd.

I could implore you not to sleep on The Hottest August and Point Blank and Variety and In the Cut or, look, so many Ernst Lubitsch movies,...

Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of visionary filmmakers? As part of our monthly Ioncinephile profile this June, we ask the filmmaker (this month: Lila Avilés) to identify their all time top ten favorite films. Aviles’ The Chambermaid is receiving its release on Friday, June 26th at the Film Forum in New York City via the Kino Lorber folks. We have a list that exceeds the ten mark, so in no particular order, here are top fourteen films of all time as of June 2019.

Au Hasard Balthazar – Robert Bresson (1966)

Barry Lyndon – Stanley Kubrick (1975)

Drifting Clouds – Aki Kaurismäki (1996) / The Man Without a Past (2002)

Fanny and Alexander – Ingmar Bergman (1982)

Fitzcarraldo – Werner Herzog (1982)

In The Mood For Love – Wong Kar Wai (2000) / Days of Being Wild (1990)

La Ciénaga – Lucrecia Martel (2001)

Love Streams – John Cassavetes (1984)

Nostalgia – Andrei Tarkovsky (1983)

The Salt of the Earth – Wim Wenders (2014)

Songs from the...

It’s time for last orders at Corona, Dubrovnik and Kafe Mockba, as the legendary Helsinki complex, co-owned by Finland’s best known directors, will close down for good in June. After undergoing complete renovation, the building on Eerikinkatu will then be turned into a hotel.

The decision to serve eviction notices to one of Helsinki’s most beloved spots provoked a general outcry. Sadly, it is now final, with Andorra Culture and Entertainment Center – consisting of Corona Bar, Dubrovnik and Kafe Mockba, as well as movie theatre Kino Andorra – shutting down its long-serving doors already in June. “There was nothing to be done” – explains Nuppu Koivu, who has been working there for 17 years. Scoring a part of a waitress in Aki Kaurismäki Berlin Silver Bear-winner “The Other Side of Hope” somewhere along the way. “The owners of the building decided not to renew our contract, there will be a...

Conventional wisdom suggests that 35mm film is going the way of the dodo, but Aki Kaurismäki has never been conventional. Long a favorite among arthouse audiences, the Finnish filmmaker has made an unsurprising — though not unwelcome — pledge: never to make a digital film.

“I will die with my boots on. I won’t make a digital film in this life,” he tells the Sydney Morning Herald in a wide-ranging interview. “Cinema is made from light. I am a filmmaker, not a pixel-maker.”

He doesn’t plan on making a movie about the wealthy anytime soon, either. “Of course, the working class is not such a sexy and commercial subject, I understand from the popcorn audience,”Kaurismäki continues. “But I couldn’t write dialogue for upper-class people because I wouldn’t know what they say. I don’t know if they talk at all. Maybe they are just shopping. And selling and buying stocks.

Any list of the greatest foreign directors currently working today has to include Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The directors first rose to prominence in the mid 1990s with efforts like “The Promise” and “Rosetta,” and they’ve continued to excel in the 21st century with titles such as “The Kid With A Bike” and “Two Days One Night,” which earned Marion Cotillard a Best Actress Oscar nomination.

Read MoreThe Dardenne Brothers’ Next Film Will Be a Terrorism Drama

The directors will be back in U.S. theaters with the release of “The Unknown Girl” on September 8, which is a long time coming considering the film first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. While you continue to wait for their new movie, the brothers have provided their definitive list of 79 movies from the 20th century that you must see. La Cinetek published the list in full and is hosting many...

The Other Side of Hope. Malla Hukkanen © Sputnik OyLaughter is a rare gift at film festivals, which so often feel like relentless gloom and doom contests. In this year’s Berlinale Competition, at least thus far, good films have been in even shorter supply than funny ones. I’m really glad to report there’s been improvement on both fronts—after a truly lamentable first few days, laughs as well as quality started trickling into the festival’s main slate.It was a pretty safe bet that Aki Kaurismäki’s new film, The Other Side of Hope, would be a stand-out. The high expectations were surpassed: this may very well be the great Finn’s best outing since his 1996 masterpiece Drifting Clouds. The second part of a planned trilogy addressing the current refugee crisis in Europe, The Other Side of Hope bears strong narrative similarities to its predecessor Le Havre...

It was announced in December that Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki would be embarking on production for his next picture, which would be the second chapter in his "port city trilogy" that was kicked off with 2011's charming "Le Havre." The working title for the flick had been "Refugee," which as you might guess is informed by the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe.  Read More: Cannes Review: 'Le Havre,' Another Hilarious, Humane & Moving Film From Aki Kaurismäki   The Finnish Film Foundation has announced that it's granting production funding to Kaurismaki's new project, which now is now evidently called "The Other Side Of Hope." No official details have been released, but last year it was said that Kaurismäki regular Sakari Kuosmanen ("The Man Without A Past," "Drifting Clouds," "Leningrad Cowboys Go America," "Shadows In...

The films of Aki Kaurismäki tend to focus on outsiders, those on the fringes of mainstream society, though any politics have been suggested rather than explicitly stated. However, for his next feature, the title alone won't make any mistake about what it's about. The director behind "The Man Without A Past," "The Match Factory Girl," and "Drifting Clouds," among others, will next get behind the camera for "Refugee." It's a working title for now, but it will mark second chapter in the filmmaker's "port city trilogy," following 2011's lovely and hilarious "Le Havre." And the picture will draw on the current refugee crisis for inspiration. Read More: New Films From James Franco, Paul Verhoeven, And Aki Kaurismäki Added To Rome Film Festival “The situation in Tornio – a border town in north-eastern Finland – roused something in me. I developed the project just last week,” the director told TV-Maailma...

Now, in the final lap of the Cannes Film Festival, is the time when we critics begin comparing notes and conjecturing meaninglessly on possible prize winners. (Analyze this: What will jury president Robert De Niro like? And have Lars von Trier’s thoughtless comments, reported at face value by disingenuous journalists with no time for context, ruined the chances for von Trier’s great movie Melancholia?) Meanwhile, as we shmooze and quantify, here’s a quiet headline: There’s not a critic I know, including me, who doesn’t put Le Havre, by the sometimes imitated but essentially inimitable Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki,...

The team of Nippon Connection has announced the full program for the 11th edition of the Japanese film festival. Despite the current events in Japan, the festival will take place in Frankfurt from April 27th to Mai 1st.

Currently the program isn’t available on the festival’s website, so here’s a quick peek taken from the press release:

A Night in Nude: Salvation (Nudo no yoru: Ai wa oshiminaku ubau), R: Takashi Ishii, J 2010

Abraxas (Aburakusasu no matsuri), R: Naoki Kato, J 2010

Anpo, R: Linda Hoaglund, J 2010

Arrietty (Karigurashi no Arrietty), R: Hiromasa Yonebayashi, J 2010

Beautiful Method (Utsukushii sube), R: Takamasa Ooe, J 2009

Cage, R: Shinsuke Kurimoto, J 2010

Cold Fish (Tsumetai nettaigyo), R: Sion Sono, J 2010

Colorful, R: Keiichi Hara, J 2010

Coming Future (Sinka), R: Kyuya Nakagawa, J 2010

Devil Has Come (Akuma ga kita), R: Shun Sakaida, J 2010

Doman Seman (Horikawa nakatachiuri), R: Go Shibata, J 2010

Door to...

The team of Nippon Connection has announced the full program for the 11th edition of the Japanese film festival. Despite the current events in Japan, the festival will take place in Frankfurt from April 27th to Mai 1st.

Currently the program isn’t available on the festival’s website, so here’s a quick peek taken from the press release:

A Night in Nude: Salvation (Nudo no yoru: Ai wa oshiminaku ubau), R: Takashi Ishii, J 2010

Abraxas (Aburakusasu no matsuri), R: Naoki Kato, J 2010

Anpo, R: Linda Hoaglund, J 2010

Arrietty (Karigurashi no Arrietty), R: Hiromasa Yonebayashi, J 2010

Beautiful Method (Utsukushii sube), R: Takamasa Ooe, J 2009

Cage, R: Shinsuke Kurimoto, J 2010

Cold Fish (Tsumetai nettaigyo), R: Sion Sono, J 2010

Colorful, R: Keiichi Hara, J 2010

Coming Future (Sinka), R: Kyuya Nakagawa, J 2010

Devil Has Come (Akuma ga kita), R: Shun Sakaida, J 2010

Doman Seman (Horikawa nakatachiuri), R: Go Shibata, J 2010

Door to...

Utv World Movies has signed an in-flight entertainment deal with Kingfisher Airlines to showcase nine movies in the next three months starting October 2009. The movies to be showcased are - Ariel, Match factory Girl, The Man without a Past, Drifting Clouds, The Wyvern Mystery, Twin Sisters, The River Chao Phraya, Lights in the Dusk and The Last Butterfly.In addition to this, Utv World Movies in association with Kingfisher Airlines also launch a contest, which began from 1 October and ends on 31 October. The airline has tied up with Utv World Movies to promote ...

• 10. Sicko Release date: June.29 Wide ReleaseDistributor: Lionsgate Films Ioncinema Preview : View hereThe Gist: This looks at the medical establishment and the U.S. healthcare system and sees how patients are not saved because insurance companies choose not to incur the costs. Fact: Moore brought American patients down to Cuba for some healing. Major faux-pas in the eyes of the government.See It: Moore once again shows why the U.S and A is hemorrhaging internally. 9. Severance Release date: May.18 Limited ReleaseDistributor: Magnolia Pictures Ioncinema Preview : View hereThe Gist: Working nine to five is a real killer, but teambuilding holidays can sometimes be even worse. A coach lurches out of the hustle and bustle of Budapest and heads towards the mountainous border. Fact: Christopher Smith last directed Creep.See It: Ioncinema’s horror aficionado Jameson Kowalczyk says if you are into blood , this is the must see of the summer.

...

CANNES -- Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismaki is known for his wry, deadpan humor, off-center characters and absurdist tone. In Lights in the Dusk, the concluding film of his "loser trilogy" -- following Drifting Clouds and The Man Without a Past -- he has challenged himself and viewers anew. A lonely man's downward spiral of travails, for which he is blameless, is stripped to a minimalist emotional core: There are only a handful of locations and sets, few characters and even less extras. Plot mechanics are as rudimentary as a 1930s Hollywood backlot programmer. Characters are obvious, lacking in duplicity even when they aim to deceive.

Alas, Kaurismaki, who wrote, produced, directed and edited the film, also has stripped away any sense of purpose. Not that viewers won't "get" the film by the final scene; indeed those viewers got it by, perhaps, the third or fourth scene. Lights will put in more appearances at festivals before achieving a brief theatrical window for Kaurismaki devotees to gaze through. Most will do so with discouragement.

Kaurismaki compares his protagonist Koistinen, played with brave rectitude by Janne Hyytiainen, to Chaplin's Little Tramp. But the Little Tramp could be a cunning devil, never completely lacking in resources. Koistinen is nearly inert, letting evil events sweep him up without offering any resistance.

Koistinen is lonely. Every image screams this fact to you. His job as a security guard leaves him by himself for much of his work. He lives alone in a crummy flat, suffers ridicule with stoic forbearance and can't connect with anyone save for an empathetic mobile grill-stand lady, Aila (Maria Heiskanen), from whom he buys sodas and frankfurters.

A clumsy attempt to strike up a conversation in a bar with pretty blonde, Mirja (Maria Jarvenhelmi), gets her older "businessman" boyfriend (Ilkka Koivula) to thinking: Here is the perfect patsy to help him rob the shopping galleria Koistinen patrols. Mirja will be the lure to which he tumbles without a moment's thought.

With distressing ease, Mirja entices him to his doom, a couple of dates being all it takes for the crooks to rob the place and pin the blame on the guard. He even allows Mirja to plant evidence on him, leading to a prison sentence, since his sense of morality won't allow him to betray "his" girl. Don't you just want to kick the guy?

Scattered applause at the end of a Palais screening indicates some will indeed respond to this minimalist tale. But where Man Without a Past had deep reservoirs of feeling and an uncanny sense of humor, Lights just lays there, an object of puzzlement.

Timo Salminen's crisp, unblinking cinematography and the measured rhythms of Kaurismaki's own editing make the 78-minute Lights resemble a short story impressively told but essentially punchless in its emotional impact. The film's soundtrack is enlivened with songs by Finnish guitarist-songwriter Antero Jakoila, tango masters Ensemble Mastango and Carlos Gardel.

LIGHTS IN THE DUSK

Sputnik Oy/Pandora Films/Pyramide Prods.

Credits: Writer-director-producer-editor: Aki Kaurismaki; Director of photography: Timo Salminen; Production designer: Markku Patila; Costumes: Outi Harjupatana. Cast: Koistinen: Janne Hyytiainen; Mirja: Maria Jarvenhelmi; Aila: Maria Heiskanen; Lindholm: Ilkka Koivula.

No MPAA rating, running time 78 minutes.