All Stories
Dec 09, 2011
Out of Frame: Le Havre
A detective walks into a bar wearing a black suit, hat, tie, and trenchcoat, carrying nothing but a pineapple. No, that’s not the setup for a joke. Rather, that is the joke, or at least the source of laughs in once scene from Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre. It’s a deadpan and strange little sight-gag, and typifies the kind of offbeat humor the Finnish director is known for. Showing the absurd in a stripped-down, matter-of-fact fashion is how Kaurismäki gets his laughs, even as he tells a story with serious themes.