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The Cinema of Aki Kaurismäki: Contrarian Stories

Online ISBN:
9780231850414
Print ISBN:
9780231165594
Publisher:
Columbia University Press
Book

The Cinema of Aki Kaurismäki: Contrarian Stories

Published:
25 June 2013
Online ISBN:
9780231850414
Print ISBN:
9780231165594
Publisher:
Columbia University Press

Abstract

Aki Kaurismäki is an enigma, an eminent auteur who claims his films are a joke. Since 1983, Kaurismäki has produced classically styled films filled with cinephilic references to film history. He has earned an international art-house audience and many prizes, influencing such directors as Jim Jarmusch, Quentin Tarantino, and Wes Anderson. Yet Kaurismäki is often depicted as the loneliest, most nostalgic of Finns (except when he promotes his films, makes political statements, and runs his many businesses). He is also depicted as a bohemian known for outlandish actions and statements. This book is a first English-language study of this eccentric director. Drawing on revisionist approaches to film authorship, the text links the filmmaker and his films to the stories and issues animating film aesthetics and history, nostalgia, late modernity, politics, commerce, film festivals, and national cinema.

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