I finally caught up with Aki Kaurismaki’s “Le Havre” at Telluride two weeks ago. “I don’t count myself as the biggest Kaurismäki fan,” I wrote at the time, “but it’s very difficult to argue with the heart in this film. It should melt you a bit, if you have warm blood pumping through your veins.” I should also note, though, that André Wilms’s performance is sensational, and much of the film’s emotional undercurrent is owed to his work.
According to Variety, the film has now been chosen by Finland to represent the country in the best Foreign Language Film race:
“Le Havre,” directed, written and produced by Aki Kaurismaki, will rep Finland in the foreign-language film Oscar race…The pic was selected by a jury supervised by the Finnish Film Chamber. Jury members included actress, singer-songwriter Kaija Karkinen, director Aku Louhimies, producer Liisa Penttila and director-scriptwriter Ville Suhonen…The film had its world preem in the official selection of Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded with the Fipresci prize and the special mention of the Ecumenical Jury. It also won best international film at the Munich Film Festival.
Onto the on-going list of titles it goes.
[Photo: Pandora Filmproduktion/Pyramide Productions/Sputnik/Yleisradio]
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6 responses to “‘Le Havre’ tapped to represent Finland in foreign film race”
Spain has revealed the 3 contenders: The skin I live in (Pedro Almodóvar), Black bread (Agustí Villaronga) and La voz dormida (Benito Zambrano). I guess they will choose either Villaronga or Zambrano because are more baity films than Almodóvar’s.
Yeah, and they so rarely spring for Almodovar anyway.
Any idea what Almodovar did to piss off the committee? If anything.
that’s happened to him for a while now, hasn’t it? I, too, am curious if there was some inside drama that went down to cause that to happend. In the end, I guess no one is really that upset about it b/c Almodovar himself won an Oscar for Best Screenplay – that is better than the best foreign film that technically goes to the country and not the individual filmmaker, so he kinda got the last laugh in that regard.
I’m loath to assume Almodovar deserves to be picked any more than the other two films simply because he’s a name. The Skin I Live In isn’t one of his finest hours.
Lorako mou, megalourgisses kai bravo sou! Poly oraia ansyasli kai se vathos! San tavros pou eimai me oroskopo partheno, perimeno, perimeno, perimeno …narthei!! Eleos pia, varethika na perimeno! Sto epomeno arthro sou, grapse ligo perissotera gia ta aisthimatika ton tavron , an ginetai…!I am the godess Diana…pou milissame prin ligo…