I've been thinking a bit more about Universal Language, which was the Canadian film where almost all the dialogue was in Farsi or (to my mind) very strangled French. I suppose this was partly to foreground the strangeness of the world of the film but mostly as a nod to the Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami. I've actually seen very few of Kiarostami's films. I'm fairly sure I will not really care for his work, but I'll try to watch a few of the more central films, like Taste of Cherry and perhaps Certified Copy. I did watch The Traveler, which is about a selfish boy trying to see a soccer match, at TIFF, but I didn't enjoy it at all. It reminded me too much of Narayan's Swami and Friends.
Here's a shortened list of Kiarostami films that are generally available in North America:
The Koker trilogy - Where Is the Friend's Home? (1987)
And Life Goes On aka Life and Nothing More (1992)
Through the Olive Trees (1994)
Close-Up (1990) - not part of the Koker trilogy
Taste of Cherry (1997)
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
Ten (2002)
Tickets (2005) with additional sections directed by Ken Loach and Ermanno Olmi
Certified Copy (2010)
Like Someone in Love (2012)
24 Frames (2017) - Posthumously released
I don't think I've seen any of these, though it is possible I watched Like Someone in Love at TIFF.
Kiarostami also was the story writer on Jafar Panahi's The White Balloon, which I'll probably get around to one of these days. It's not really all that many films, and nearly all are still available through Criterion (though the DVD of Taste of Cherry is no longer available, as they put out a Blu-Ray instead).
While there are not great similarities between Kiarostami and Aki Kaurismäki, I usually think of them together, though I would say Kaurismäki films are definitely more plot-driven.
Here are Kaurismäki's main films:
O Crime and Punishment (1983)
O Calamari Union (1985)
Shadows in Paradise (1986)
O Hamlet Goes Business (1987)
Ariel (1988)
Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989)
The Match Factory Girl (1990)
Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (1994)
Total Balalaika Show (1994)
O Drifting Clouds (1996)
The Man Without a Past (2002)
Lights in the Dusk (2006)
Le Havre (2011)
The Other Side of Hope (2017)
Fallen Leaves (2023)
I actually own a couple of DVD sets by Kaurismäki, though they are mostly gathering dust. I did watch Hamlet Goes Business, which is certainly quirky. I did see Fallen Leaves at TIFF back when it came out. I thought I had seen The Other Side of Hope at Facets in Chicago, but given the timing, that's not possible.
Fairly recently, a new Blu-ray set came out, covering essentially everything Kaurismäki did through The Other Side of Hope. It's a tough call, given there is a fair bit of duplication with what I have. Also, I'm fairly sure I'm not going to really be into the Leningrad Cowboys. The middle ones in the Proletariat Trilogy (Ariel and Match Factory Girl) and late films are covered pretty well by Criterion and are easy to rent through the library. I would definitely have gotten the set had Fallen Leaves been in there, but it stops just short. I will probably think about it for a while (and watch a couple other of his films) and then most likely get it anyway given all the shorts and bonus features in the set, but I'm a little annoyed.
The last film-maker in today's post moves us from Finland to Sweden. Roy Andersson is another quirky director. Apparently, he has retired from film-making, but one never knows. I've certainly seen a higher proportion of his films, as I definitely saw You, the Living (perhaps at Facets) and I'm almost certain I also saw A Pigeon... I thought that the scene with the house moving on tram tracks (from You, the Living) was similar in spirit to some of the more absurd sections of Universal Language.
Andersson's main films
A Swedish Love Story (1970)
Giliap (1975)
Songs from the Second Floor (2000)
You, the Living (2007)
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014)
About Endlessness (2019)
A Blu-Ray set came out from BFI with all of these films, aside from Giliap, and adds a documentary, Being a Human Person. I went ahead and ordered this and am just waiting for it to turn up. So that's the round-up for today.
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