Jim Jarmusch called "The Man Without a Past," "sad enough to make you laugh and funny enough to make you cry," and with that one of our greatest filmmakers perfectly sums up the latest film from one of Europe's best filmmakers, Finland's Aki Kaurismaki.
A nameless man hops off a train at a Helsinki station at 4 a.m. and plops himself down on a park bench with his suitcase. Soon after, he's attacked by thugs who rob and beat him nearly to death. Declared dead at the hospital, he instead walks out without any memory of who is is.
We don't know who he is, either, or why he's there, which pretty much puts us in his shoes. But we do see him soon embraced (?) by Helsinki's homeless and poor and he slowly begins to put a new life together, despite the occasional hiccup which occurs any time he comes into contact with "official" society.
In these Kafka-esque encounters (the character is even called simply "M." in the film's credits), society wants a name and when it finds he doesn't have one, it turns ugly. But M. still manages to find some goodwill among his peers, who care for him until he is well, help him find a place to live, take him to the soup kitchen and set him up with electricity. What do they want in return? His electrician friend says only, "when you see me lying face down in the gutter turn me over on my back."
{INSERT_RELATED}Sure, he encounters some resistance even there among the downcast. One man steals his shoes while he sleeps. The man who rents him his humble abode acts the tough, but is a softie deep down.
Despite his lack of a name or of a past, our unnamed man even manages to find love and a nascent career as a rock and roll manager!
Like Antonioni's "Deserto Rosso," the film -- whose 1999 silent film "Juha" was received with acclaim -- is stunningly beautiful despite its setting in an industrial and social wasteland.
The deadpan humor and wittily staged scenes -- to say nothing of the eclectic performances of the entire cast -- will make you laugh, even when the story is melancholy or downright depressing. Kaurismaki knows that even when viewers are laughing, they're feeling and they're thinking and "The Man Without a Past" is wonderful because it will make you do all of those.
"The Man Without a Past" opens Fri., May 30 at Landmark's Downer Theatre.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
