Calamari Union - **
Now Playing: (1984, Aki Kaurismaki) [seen in theatre]
This one is kind of interesting as an early example of Kaurismaki's work, but much like last month's THE AMERICAN SOLDIER it feels like a young filmmaker aping Godard until he can find his own groove. The Godard film this one sort of reminded me of was BAND OF OUTSIDERS, since both that masterpiece and this non-masterpiece devote a great deal of time to characters play-acting and just hanging out. But while Godard made his characters interesting (using such techniques as the uncharacteristically poetic voice-over and the casting of the luminous Anna Karina) here there are simply too many of them for any of them to be dwelt upon for very long. A friend compared this to THE WARRIORS, but I actually saw it more as Kaurismaki's response to then-hip films like THE BIG CHILL, since this one begins with a group of idealists and then shows them either selling out to the system or dying off. There is some good stuff here, like a scene where two of the Franks (there are 17 in all, plus one Pekka) ride a stolen moped into a bar accompanied by "Maybelline", but the film goes on forever and doesn't really take us anywhere interesting. Strangely enough, Kaurismaki considers this one his favorite, for reasons I really can't understand. Then again, I'm not Kaurismaki- if I was, I'd be drunk right now.