Kaurismäki's underdog tragicomedy is an elegant piece of modern urban noir.
Comment
06/13/07
Lights In The Dusk (2007)
68 %
Reviews Counted: 37 Fresh: 25 Rotten:12 Average Rating: 6.4/10
Consensus:
From its brilliant cinematography to its compassionate characters, Lights in the Dusk is another successful exercise in deadpan minimalist comedy from Aki Kaurismäki.
Rated: PG
Runtime: 80 mins
Theatrical Release: 06-04-2007
Synopsis: This bleak feature from Finland concerns Koiskinen, a night watchman in Helsinki. With no social life, this solitary figure becomes instantly smitten when a stunning blonde agrees to go a date with him. Little does he know, she's connected to a conman looking for someone to frame. Koiskinen... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Janne Hyytiainen, Maria Heiskanen, Maria Jarvenhelmi, Ilkka Koivula
Reviews
Top Critic
It all sounds brutally miserable, but a spry comic flicker, and Koistinen's dim but undying hope keep things surprisingly light, while brilliantly efficient storytelling gives the human tale almost all of the short 77 minutes to unfurl.
04/10/07
Top Critic
If you're a fan of Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki's deadpan comedy world, then his latest piece of controlled, semi-stylised whimsy will be right up your alley.
04/07/07
Top Critic
Ignore accusations that this is sluggish and inconsequential. This is textbook Kaurismäki, from its drolly laconic style to its delicious cinematic nostalgia.
04/06/07
Top Critic
Kaurismäki’s delightfully delicate cautionary fable charts his unassuming hero’s descent into an unforeseen nightmare of deceit and violence with a characteristically low-key blend of humane compassion and deadpan mordant humour.
10/30/06
Top Critic
Un relato crudo, probablemente desconcertante y extrañamente tragicómico, sólo para seguidores incondicionales del director, que repite su estilo sin sorpresas.
01/22/08
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10/18/07
Kaurismaki creates some beautiful frames, carefully composing his affectless characters against the rooms' colors, but there's something wrong with your story when people are upstaged by the decor.
10/16/07
It's a deceptively satisfying, almost magical achievement, like being stranded in a desert yet never going thirsty.
09/21/07
It's exactly the picture he wanted to make; that's for sure. But in this case that's not quite enough.
09/07/07
Kaurismäki’s spare style and economical storytelling are well-suited to this particular story about loneliness, as the director never muddies the frame with sentimental dross or lugubrious inclinations.
08/25/07
Kaurismäki is self-consciously tapping into the raw pathos of an earlier time in cinema (the pain and loss that often accompanied Charles Chaplin's Little Tramp, for example). The idea works, though it is finally wearing.
08/03/07
Aki Kaurismaki's gloomy take on film noir... is pure Kaurismaki, done in the director's inimitable deadpan and surreally dispassionate style and grim sensibility.
08/02/07
Top Critic
There is an admirable rigor here and even a brief touch of sunshine, but almost none of the humor that marks [Kaurismaki's] best work.
07/15/07
So dry it's parched, this study of a passive loser whose life just keeps getting worse is basically a series of noir cliches clothed in arthouse anomie.
07/13/07
The distance Kaurismäki creates belies his deeply humanistic streak. He engages characters in the direst of situations not to see them suffer but to search for hope.
07/12/07
Top Critic
The downbeat tone of Lights in the Dusk just escapes offense and self-parody due to Kaurismäki’s careful, subtle craftsmanship.
07/11/07
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(Oscar Watch)-Aki Kaurismaki's LIGHTS IN THE DUSK reps Finland for Foreign race!!!
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(Oscar Watch)-Aki Kaurismaki's LIGHTS IN THE DUSK reps Finland for Foreign race!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 10/20/06
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