Movies at Home: Fallen Leaves, Revenge of the Pink Panther and The Burnt Orange Heresy

 

It's just one of those very small films when you wonder why am I watching this? And then it turns out to be absolutely amazing. Fallen Leaves starts when two lost souls meet at a karaoke bar in Helsinki.  Ansa (Alma Poysti) and Hollapa (Jussi Vatanen) are both lonely and the latter is a drunk. So much so he keeps losing jobs. Despite their maturity, they are painfully shy, although Ansa has a determination that a relationship might develop. She is the stronger of the two, despite Hollapa losing her phone number and waiting outside the cinema every night until she turns up. 

Their first meetings are not easy, a visit to the cinema is awful but outside there is a poster for .... Brief Encounter. Maybe that's all it will be as Ansa cannot tolerate Hollapa's drinking and ends it. She cannot stand a drunk as all her family were lost to drink. It is such a melancholy film, but actually gripping in it's portrayal of ordinary people. The film won the Prix de Jury at Cannes in 2023. Aki Koarismaki writes and directs with sensitivity and humour.

Peter Sellers is reunited with director Blake Edwards for what we thought was the best of the Pink Panther movies. Former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (the excellent Herbert Lom) leaves an asylum after his last encounter with Jacques Clouseau. The latter is now a Chief Inspector of the Surete and under threat of assassination from the New York mafia. There ia lots of mistaken identity and mayhem ensues. There is a major role for Dyan Cannon who turns sides. Fairly good fun. 

I cannot remember this film ever having a cinema release in this country. The distribution by Sony Pictures Classics was interrupted by Covid and rereleased in 2020. The Burnt Orange Heresy was based on the book by Charles Willeford. It has a fine cast that includes Claes Bang, a far far too thin Elizabeth Debicki, Donald Sutherland and, unbelievably, Mick Jagger. Although I have to say he does a reasonable job as extremely rich art collector Joseph Cassidy. The first two begin an affair and are enrolled by Cassidy to acquire a  painting from the reclusive genius Jerome Debney (Sutherland). It does not go well.

The best thing for me were the exterior shots of Lake Como where Cassidy has his mansion with Debney's not far away. There is a scene late on when James Figueres twice shows his vile personality and proves that this is just one nasty film. One critic called it "dull, briefly brutal and uneven adaptation of the novel". I could not agree more. But the scenery was fantastic.