Aki Kaurismäki is the most famous Finnish director out there today, he is also a filmmakers with the most international production in the history of Finland. When he made Kauas pilvet karkaavat (Drifting Clouds) he wanted to find the optimism without forgetting the reality; to make neo-realism in color. "When I started working on Drifting Clouds I located Frank Capra's emotional story of salvation, It's a Wonderful Life on one fringe, Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves on other and the Finnish reality somewhere in between." One who watches the films by Kaurismäki will see his love towards real cinema. He's like one of the French new wave filmmakers who loved cinema. His unique style has a lot of influences from neo-realism, poetic realism, Jean-Luc Godard and Robert Bresson. Even in the scene where the main characters go to Bio Rex (an old movie theater in Helsinki) there are posters from masterpieces such as Jean Vigo's L'Atalante and Robert Bresson's L'Argent. In Drifting Clouds Kaurismäki wanted to continue his stories about "losers with high morality.": Ilona and Lauri are two lovers living in Helsinki. Suddenly recession hits them and both of them lose their jobs. The desperate search for work starts when neither of them wants to take welfare from the state. The film portrays the recession in Finland in early 1990's: it was a desperate time in Finland, unemployment and inflation was up to the roof but it also portrays the "old" Finland, Finland before it joined the European Union.The story of Drifting Clouds might sound conventional or a bit pretentious to some and that's what it could easily have been, if it wasn't directed by Aki Kaurismäki. The reason why the film doesn't feel pretentious and conventional is the honesty and sincerity of Kaurismäki, but also the severe Bressonian aesthetics. The core of Kaurismäki's art is perhaps turning insignificant to meaningful which is the beauty of minimalism. The aesthetics in all of his film is Bressonian: minimalist, geographically perfect - not a single useless image; there's nothing insignificant in 'mise-en-scene'.Drifting Clouds tries to find optimism in recession. The twists of the storyline partly reminded me of Julien Duvivier's masterful film of French poetic realism: La belle équipe (1936) which portrays a group of five penniless workers who suddenly won the lottery and decide to start an outdoor restaurant of their own. The similarities don't just stop at the storyline: there is something similar in the narrative as well, and even that Kaurismäki isn't often considered as a cinematic poet, I think his naturalistic realism has something poetic in it at times.Aki Kaurismäki's films are satires, tragicomedies and many may find them dull and weird. But in the end I think his films appeal to most of the people: they aren't really challenging or mysterious. But they achieve to build pure emotional experiences. They are brilliant portrayals of the Finnish society; his films exhale the Finnish agony and reality. Drifting Clouds is a smart satire about dreams passing by and the optimism which is everywhere - it just needs to be found.

absolutely flabbergasted !!! that's about sums up my feeling when I first saw this. This was probably the turning point movie for me in dwelling into Nordic films - and what a start.I had to see it again. The blank expressions initially was distracting but in fact there's a lot of expression. The little waiting moments too and so is the dog!!! Now I'm writing from recollection from more than 10 years ago, so maybe somethings maybe amissed. But the feeling (especially of fleeting hope - the ending- in tough times) imprinted by tone and images are that strong!!! Then I started to try Icelandic film - first one was Cold Fever. Also Bent Hammer's films, and the likes of Green Butchers, the Bothersome Man... these are films of a different world almost. But somehow they speak much about loneliness, in a surreal realistic way.Later on Aki came out with the 2nd and 3rd installments too in which there's another unforgettable funny scene in the Man Without a Past that is just as indelible.This is not a real review but a more a look back to the stick in the sand marker on my starting point toward Nordic Cinema.

Aside from Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses, Aki Kaurismäki has never done any real sequels to his films (even though Shadows in Paradise featured one of the minor characters from Crime and Punishment). Drifting Clouds, the first entry in the acclaimed "losers" trilogy, was meant to be an exception, the script having been written specifically as a follow-up to Shadows. Sadly, Matti Pellonpää, who was eager to reprise his role as Nikander, died shortly before filming began, thus abruptly ending a working relationship with the director which had lasted 11 years and 8 movies (The Match Factory Girl and I Hired a Contract Killer were the only ones in which he did not appear prior to his death), prompting Kaurismäki to change the screenplay.Nonetheless, there are still traces of the original project in the finished film, namely the characters played by Kati Outinen (who became the new protagonist of the story) and Sakari Kuosmanen, who retain the names they had in Shadows: Ilona and Melartin. They both work at a restaurant called Dubrovnik (as maitre d' and waiter respectively), under the supervision of Mrs. Sjöholm (Elina Salo). There are no major problems in the workplace, the only occasional disturbance being the alcohol-induced antics of the cook Lajunen (Markku Peltola, who later played the lead in the trilogy's second act, The Man Without a Past). Then one day Mrs. Sjöholm announces the restaurant is being handed over to a new proprietor, meaning the old staff's services are no longer required. Everyone faces unemployment their own way: Lajunen buries himself in booze ("Where are you going?" he gets asked one evening; "As far as the Kossu lasts" he replies, referring to Finland's most popular drink) and Melartin starts looking for another job, while Ilona is confident her husband's income will be enough for the two to lead a decent life. Unfortunately, Lauri (Kari Väänänen) loses his job as well, causing despair and frustration as his wife tries to come up with a solution that could satisfy everybody.As usual, Kaurismäki depicts contemporary Finnish society with a very pessimistic eye, never once flinching away from the sadness of the situation. The high point of this is reached in Esko Nikkari's cameo, a scene drenched in cynicism and cruelly black humor where the great character actor tells Outinen (always at her best in these pictures) that once you're past the age of 30, you're completely worthless in the business world. "You're 56" she reminds him; "Yes, but I have connections" comes the painfully dry answer. It's a dramatic sequence which reflects what really goes on in the world every day, albeit filtered through Kaurismäki's peculiar view on life.And yet, for all the misery that permeates the picture, Drifting Clouds is actually the most optimistic of the "losers" films: perhaps remembering what the movie was originally meant to be, the director fills almost every frame (minus the Nikkari scene) with gags, in order to lighten the mood. And the conclusion stands out as one of the most cheerful Kaurismäki has ever shot, maybe because that is the kind of ending in which Pellonpää, to whom the film is dedicated, would have given another of his understated, hugely affecting, unforgettable performances.

I particularly liked Man Without A Past, by the same director, and this is much in the same vein. A couple having financial difficulties tries to make their way. Sounds like all of us. Only this couple delivers delicious witty dialogue in a deadpan style that cracks me up every time. Even their fights and make ups are so understated that it's a style all it's own. Don't look for the obvious here, it's hidden under a layer of Finnish humor so opaque that you have to watch very closely to see even a glimmer of laughter in anyone's eye.The film is gloomy, depressing, bleak, but somehow it does your heart good. Even when things seem to be at their worst, you can't help but feel that the hardworking and honest couple will manage to somehow get back on solid ground and right with the world. You want them to. You need them to. They simply must, or your poor little heart will break.It's hard to describe this film because nothing much seems to happen, there are only the normal setbacks of life in the low income zone, but by the end you realize that you've seen a great movie and are happy with it. What helps keep you interested are the dialogue and the understated style. For example, why do all the men wear their hair the same way? Does anyone own clothes that aren't drab? Why does all the furniture look like it's from the 1950's? All these questions and more will occur to you while watching the film and wondering if anyone will ever crack a smile.