Wednesday, March 21, 2012

LIGHTS IN THE DUSK (2006)


This is so far the most tragic Kaurismaki melodrama that I ended up watching. His common traits of the irreverent humor, sublime relations, a certain timelessness are absolutely absent in this film. We meet a typical working class protagonist working as a security guard and desiring for a company of dame in a bar. A femme fatale enters to his innocent world and uses him and soon dumps him with a plot of jewelry larceny that leads him towards one tragedy to another. The man is a sentimental fool who even though knowing the truth about her true face at later stage, keeps protecting her with accepting even the theft that hadn’t committed. What is more tragic is that even after serving a sentence in prison, he bears the bitter fruits from the sight of same dame.

Unlike his other films this is out and out melodrama that leads towards tragedy. Compared to his other films, so far this is the only film which fails to appeal or move me.  I find it too weak in many forms- its stretching melodrama that doesn’t make its mark like other films, there’re lot of things that remained improbable and it left unexplained for the reasons best known to Kaurismaki; even Kaurismaki’s otherwise wonderful use of  soundtrack seems too average to encapsulate the mood. I would rate it as only Kaurismaki film which either fail to impress me or maybe I fail to appreciate it! 

Ratings- 6/10 

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