A new movie theater is always a good idea, but irrefutably so when the great Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki builds one from an abandoned foundry in a forest-ensconced village he fondly describes as a hellhole, which has also never seemed to need a movie theater before. Kaurismäki has had two dogs named Laika, and now he has a cinema with the same name too, in addition to Veljko Vidak’s admiring and low-key charming debut documentary about the creation of the latter. So well established is Kaurismäki’s minimal deadpan style that it sets the only feasible tone for Vidak’s chronicle as well, prompting a dignified retro-rock-infused mosaic of unhurried hangouts with reticently reminiscing old Finns. A movie theater, we’re gently reminded, is itself a foundry of companionship.
Of course, Vidak’s film sparkles most in its privileged moments with Kaurismäki himself—even if, and probably because, he seems more at home changing light bulbs than making press statements. On one occasion, we find him recounting the fate of a related earlier venture with a so-it-goes shrug: “Our previous cinema was taken over by I can’t remember which hotel. Some international conglomerate bought the building. We had to evacuate, and move the bar elsewhere. Karkkila felt like a good choice for the cinema, because a gym and a library just aren’t enough in the winter.” In another snippet, his face lights up—albeit in a dusky Nordic sort of way—at an early moviegoing memory. He recalls that seeing Nanook of the North (1922) and L’Age d’Or (1930) on the same day “exploded my head, totally,” and suggested a vast spectrum of cinematic possibilities.
Most stirring, in its simplicity, is a sequence of Kaurismäki driving his convertible Cadillac so deep into the woods that there’s barely even a road in front of him, then swiftly emerging into what we discover is his building’s parking lot. It helps to know, as Vidak allows, that this same Cadillac has figured into several of the director’s films. It’s also the same car in which he picked up fellow poker-faced filmmaker Jim Jarmusch at the Helsinki airport years ago, during a blizzard, with the top stuck down. At which time, Kaurismäki unflappably handed over one Laika the dog to Jarmusch to hold in his lap for warmth.
Cinema Laika runs June 13-16 at Anthology Film Archives as part of the series “5 by Aki Kaurismäki. Veljko Vidak will be in attendance for post-screening discussions following select screenings.
