Le Havre (2011 Aki Kaurismäki & scr)

He has a most interesting way of framing shots, Mr. Kaurismäki (the ä is Alt+0228 for the purists amongst us), a simplicity (the camera doesn't move much) and a sort of close-but-not-too-closeness - for want of a better vocabulary. (The screenplay is also beautifully concise.) André Wilms is the colourful hero - most people have a way of pausing or thinking but he just gets right to it in a courteous and funny manner. His unwell wife is Kati Outinen, and how do we know right from the off that inspector Jean-Pierre Darroussin is going to turn out OK? Great performances. Blondin Miguel is the boy and he is aided by Wilms' friends Elina Salo, Evelyne Didi, Quoc Dung Nguyen and François Mennier. And with Jean-Pierre Léaud as the informant.

Q thinks it looks like it's set in the past - maybe it is done so deliberately - I just assumed it was a poor part of town 'where miracles don't happen'. It's a very funny and sweet film and makes me want to watch more Kaurismäki.

Cameraman Timo Salminen has shot several of the director's pics including The Other Side of Hope (2017), Lights in the Dusk (2006), The Man Without a Past (2002), The Match Factory Girl (1996), Juha (1999), Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses ('94) / Go America ('89), Drifting Clouds (1996), La Vie de Bohème (1992, also with Wilms about refugees struggling to get on in Paris), Hamlet Goes Business (1987), Shadows in Paradise (1986), Calamari Union (1985), Crime and Punishment (1983), phew ... in fact flicking through this photographer's CV is like looking at a list of rare foreign films of interest you never knew existed - including some by Aki's brother Mika.

In fact this is also the complete Kaurismäki filmography with the exceptions of I Hired a Contract Killer (1990 with Jean-Pierre Léaud) and Ariel (1988)!