Kaurismäki: Today’s Pasolini

This chapter traces similarities in the work of Aki Kaurismäki and Pier Paolo Pasolini. While Kaurismäki’s romanticizing approach to working-class life differs from Pasolini’s take, the playfulness of Hawks and Sparrows resembles the playful, ironic mood of Kaurismäki’s film career. Also, one cannot help but note that Kaurismäki’s poor people seem to share a feature with Pasolini’s wretched ones; their lives are somehow more real than the lives of the rich. There is also something sacral about them. Kaurismäki’s poor people might have a heart, unlike most of Pasolini’s bums, workers and prostitutes, but the experience of a connection has support if one looks closely and comparatively at the work of these artists.