‘Drifting Clouds’ or — Kaurismäki Does Ozu?
‘Drifting Clouds’ (1996)? Even the title sounds like an Ozu film. This is fitting as this is the movie where the influence of the Japanese director on Aki Kaurismäki is most evident. It’s a story of city domesticity told in an understated manner yet capable of delivering an emotional knock-out punch that’ll floor you.
Ilona and Laurie Koponen are a married couple living in Helsinki. Both are unexpectedly made unemployed — she is a head waitress and he drives a tram — at a time when the country is undergoing a recession. Work is almost impossible to find and they can see how easy it is to slip through the net of society with their own eyes.
They apply for jobs and unemployment benefit but a combination of exploitation and pride mean their time is running out. The rent is due, down-payments on their furniture need to be made and it seems every move they make is doomed to end in failure. At least they still have each other… for now. And what is that unspoken pain Ilona is carrying?
‘Drifting Clouds’ might sound utterly miserable as we follow this couple go from bad to worse, yet what stops this from becoming so is Kaurismäki’s typical understated sense of humour along with his refusal to engage is easy drama. Indeed, the drama is often not just underplayed but, at times, completely ripped out saving the film from lapsing into emotional histrionics but also providing a real sense of believability (how often do our deepest feelings go unspoken?).
This is most effective when we discover, around half an hour in, just why Ilona carries so much grief and it is heartbreaking. It is done with silence, simply by a look executed with some tender and sensitive acting. When the reason for her pain is touched on later we aren’t privy to what Ilona is seeing but we know what it is and why she hurts, Kaurismäki denying us clichéd, emotional voyeurism.
Yet this restraint meant it took me almost an hour to really click with ‘Drifting Clouds’. Although it’s Kaurismäki through and through the comedy is dialed right back, only raising its head intermittently, and his use of music is sparse, wistful and nostalgic (all societies in recession look to the past) as opposed to the bursts of rockabilly or punk that usually pepper his movies. This gives ‘Drifting Clouds’ a languid vibe, which is in keeping with the title, along with the vague feeling that this all might not be going anywhere, other than inescapably downhill.
When the film’s destination becomes apparent it is thrilling yet terrifying as, by this point, we are desperate for the Koponen’s to not only get a break but we’re also highly aware of the consequences if they fail, something that is written all over Ilona’s face. By now Kaurismäki’s reining in of the emotions means that the tension is almost unbearable, all that bottling up needing, seeking, some form of release.
I won’t spoil what happens but by the end I was in absolute bits, having been subjected to an intense surprise attack from emotional catharsis and unconditional humanity. I think I’m just going to have to accept that Kaurismäki’s film, much like Ozu’s, are always destined to leave me in floods. ‘Drifting Clouds’ allows us to shed the tears that are constantly quivering behind Ilona’s eyes.
