Once you see it it stays with you forever. You'll want to show it to the people you love.

From my new country Australia but where I have spent nearly two third of my life, I really enjoyed this little trip back in France! Although the topic is not that of a holiday since it's about people looking for a better world and so becoming illegal immigrants. But the story concentrates more on one of them.... It's a charming story where people seem to be themselves, regardless of the circumstances, to remain "human beings" above all. It's sweet at time funny. I'm fond of J P Daroussin but did not know the other actors. So in one way it was refreshing but also rewarding to see someone whose acting I enjoy. I have never been to Le Havre so it was not really a trip down memory lane. And I was a little surprised to feel that the period did not seem to match with the year I expected it to be. I researched a little for my own satisfaction and read a very well written review from the New York Times ..."The film itself seems to belong to another era" It certainly did for me I kept struggling to feel whether I was in the 1930 or 40 years latter. It was a gentle ride and I enjoyed it very much.

From director Aki Kaurismäki (Ariel), this French film was another new addition to the titles listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and when I read the plot line I was very much looking forward to it. Basically former artist and struggling author Marcel Marx (André Wilms) has relocated to the port city Le Havre having given up his literary ambitions, he makes a not too profitable living as a shoe shiner, spends time at his favourite bar and lives with wife Arletty (Kati Outinen). Meanwhile in the docks, inside one of the many containers in the port, arrived from Gabon supposed to be travelling to London, police and French border guards find a group of illegal African immigrants, seeing the elders the young teenage boy of the group manages to escape, news of his getaway makes the news. Arletty is becoming seriously ill, she visits hospital and is given devastating news, but she asks the doctors not to tell her husband about it, she wants them to lie that they are continuing tests for what is a minor illness, he asks questions but gets rather small answers from both the doctors and his wife. Marcel is the first friendly face that the boy, Idrissa (Blondin Miguel), sees when he is hiding under the city pier, the old man helps the young man leaving him some food and money, but soon enough the police led by Inspector Monet (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) are snooping around, and feeling sorry for the boy Marcel takes him home to hide until he can find a way to London. Idrissa tells his story during the time he spends in the old man's house, and he helps out with some small tasks, but ultimately he has to stay inside and not be spotted, and friends of the shoe shiner are happy to help him keep this secret, but Monet is very suspicious of this activity and is getting closer each time to the truth. In the end, having got to know Marcel, having a personal agenda, Inspector Monet does eventually find Idrissa when a boat has been arranged to travel to London to be reunited with his mother, and also feeling sorry the policeman allows him to go free and lies to his colleagues, and Marcel is sad after finding out the truth that his wife is close to death, she dies, but he knows he has friends to help him get by. Also starring Elina Salo as Claire, Evelyne Didi as Yvette, Quoc-Dung Nguyen as Chang, François Monnié as Grocer, Roberto Piazza as Little Bob and Jean-Pierre Léaud as Denouncer. Wilms gives a really charming performance as the elderly man who forms an unlikely friendship with a younger character, Miguel as the young man on the run and trying get away from the authorities is likable, Darroussin as the unavoidable police inspector is interesting, and Outinen as the slowly suffering wife is sympathetic, other supporting cast members are good too. It is two interesting and humanity based stories in one, the old man helping a friend out of trouble, and the woman who lies to her husband to avoid heartbreak and despair, the story is filled thankfully with funny moments as well to keep spirits up, but all in all it has a lot of heart and makes for an enchanting comedy drama. Very good!

dangling between political correct and incorrect. but either way, it's very hard to define and distinguish the correctness and incorrectness. yet first, have to point out that this is a very pretentiously scripted movie by a very pretentious director with horrible performance almost by all the actors cast for this pretentious movie. watching those actors played those roles was like watching some robots in the human forms followed the rigid and hollowed dialog to carry out the contract. the scenario was ridiculous and the scenes settings were also pretentious, trying too hard to make this film look like a 1970s production. the people in the film and their costumes were all like what we saw in the 1970s. the tones of this film also pretentiously used old blueish color tones to make it look like a classic movie but actually not. the screenplay borrowed the hot topic of illegal aliens who smuggled into France seeking better lives but at the same time almost ruined its social structures financially and culturally. illegal immigrant problem now is the hottest topic, headache and disaster to all of the European countries. it almost paralyzed and dismantled those countries' societies. yet this movie tried to use such topic to show its humanity by focusing on an African boy chasing constantly by the french police force. in order to show the viewers with some diminishing french conscience, the director and screenwriters even manipulated us by showing us that french police force was like cold blood killers who even tried to gun down the illegal immigrant kid, if not been stopped by the police chief. the french people are now living between black-gray-white situations, they don't know how to deal with such complicated controversial immigrant problems, because after one generation mixed marriage, their social structure has already been becoming dipped more to the gray area. they don't know how to solve the problem, just like the Americans don't know how to deal with the illegal immigrants from the Latin America. that's why last year, we got a movie titled 'better life' to describe the similar situation in America, before that, there were already hundreds movies in the same topic tried very hard to seek a balance point, exactly similar to the problem now spread out in the European countries like pandemic disease, either you accept it or hate it, you have to face it on a daily 365/24/7 basis. this whole movie didn't even ring a bell to me during the viewing, since all the actors seemed to be suddenly dropped into b-level or c-level actors, their performances were simply pathetic. the awkward dialog affected them greatly.this is a poorly produced awkward and moronic movie with a big heart.