Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö / The Match Factory Girl

Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö / The Match Factory Girl. Iris (Kati Outinen) visits her father's grave. Please click on the photos to enlarge them.

Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö / The Match Factory Girl. Iris (Kati Outinen) visits the Queen of the Night at the Botanical Garden.

Flickan från tändsticksfabriken / La Fille aux allumettes / Das Mädchen aus der Streichholzfabrik / La fiammiferaia.
    FI 1990. PC: Villealfa Filmproductions Oy / SFI Svenska Filminstitutet.
    P+D+SC: Aki Kaurismäki. DP: Timo Salminen. AD: Risto Karhula. Cost: Marja-Leena Helin. S: Jouko Lumme. ED: Aki Kaurismäki. Ass D: Pauli Pentti. P (SFI): Klas Olofsson, Katinka Faragó. Photographs: Marja-Leena Helin.
    M selections: Aki Kaurismäki. Original M: Mauri Sumén. "Satumaa" (Unto Mononen), perf. Reijo Taipale. "Sidran" and "Donoussa" (Klaus Treuheit). "Cadillac" (Kim Brown, Denys Gibson, Graham Johnson, Ian Mallett) perf. The Renegades (1964). P. I. Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor "Pathétique" I adagio – allegro non troppo. "Kuinka saatoitkaan" (Kathleen Twomey, Benjamin Weisman, Fred Wise, Finnish lyrics Sauvo Puhtila) perf. Olavi Virta.
    C: Kati Outinen (Iris Rukka), Elina Salo (mother), Esko Nikkari (stepfather), Vesa Vierikko (Aarne), Reijo Taipale (singer), Silu Seppälä (brother), Outi Mäenpää (coworker), Marja Packalén (doctor), Richard Reitinger (man at the bar), Helga Viljanen (clerk), Kurt Siilas (police officer), Ismo Keinänen (police officer), Klaus Heydemann (worker), Erkki Friman (accordionist), Tapani Ikonen (drummer), Jari Lappalainen (violinist), Lasse Luoto (bassist).
    Loc: Helsinki. Toinen linja 11 inner courtyard (Iris's home). Laajasalo VPK hall (dance hall). Hietaniemi graveyard. University of Helsinki Botanical Garden: Kaisaniemi Garden. Eira Hospital. Cinema (Museokatu 44). Handelsgillet (Kasarmikatu 23). Kannas (Eerikinkatu 43). – Finn-Match (Jyväskylä rural commune).
    69 min
    Finnish premiere: 12 Jan 1990, Helsinki: Andorra 1, Diana.
    Festival premiere: 1990 Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin / Forum des jungen Films.
    2014 digital transfer supervised by Aki Kaurismäki.
    2K DCP with English subtitles viewed at Filmmuseum München (Aki Kaurismäki) 31.1.2020.

The Match Factory Girl is Aki Kaurismäki's masterpiece, one of his most highly regarded, popular and lasting achievements. The title refers to a fairy-tale by H. C. Andersen which has been filmed by Jean Renoir, among others. The name of the protagonist is from a popular Finnish novel for girls, Iris rukka ("Poor Iris"). Its talented writer Anni Swan was the founder of Finnish literature for girls. The motto is from the Angélique series of novels by Anne Golon. Iris's mother keeps buying her daughter second-hand copies of Angélique novels as birthday presents. Popular in the 1960s, the novels were romantic historical adventures from the period of the Sun King in France.

Aki Kaurismäki has also mentioned Herttasarjat as a point of reference. Herttasarjat was a popular series of romance comics. Hertta is a woman's name, and it signifies also hearts in playing cards. Herttasarjat comics were often translations of the same American romance comics (such as Secret Hearts) that were the basis of Roy Lichtenstein's pop art paintings (see below).

A direct point of inspiration for Kaurismäki was the novel Se tavallinen tarina [The Usual Story] by Hannu Salama. The usual story is about a girl who has been seduced and abandoned, Sedotta e abbandonata as in the title of Pietro Germi's film. Such a story has been also filmed by Griffith and Mizoguchi, as well as by Paul Fejos (Marie) and Robert Bresson (Mouchette). One can also evoke Teuvo Tulio, the wild bird of Finnish cinema. But when an artist films the usual story the result is unusual.

Aki Kaurismäki creates his unusual mix from fairy-tales, escapism, melodrama and neorealism. Paradoxically, he makes melodrama without exaggeration. His touch is more austere and elliptical than ever. The editing is sharp and merciless like a guillotine. It has been said that in this film Kaurismäki finally achieved a union of the rigour of Bresson and the backwoods melodrama of Tulio.

The Match Factory Girl is the final part and the culmination of Kaurismäki's "trilogy of losers" which started with Shadows in Paradise and Ariel. All films start with montages on processes of labour and production.

Romances, fairy-tales and songs take us into the world of dreams. Television news take us to reality. It was important for Aki Kaurismäki to preserve in this film newscasts from the bloodbath of Tiananmen, the Place of Heavenly Peace.

A strange poetic element is Iris's habit to visit the Botanical Garden at night. She visits a special cactus, the Queen of the Night, which blossoms only once a year.

Iris weeps only once, in the cinema while watching a Marx Brothers film.

Aki Kaurismäki's films are halls of mirrors. Their simplicity is misleading. Power is evoked in stillness. From the collision of dream and reality Kaurismäki creates poetry.

(Based on my introduction at Filmmuseum München).

Roy Lichtenstein: "Drowning Girl". 1963. Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 171.6 cm × 169.5 cm (​67 5⁄8 in × ​66 3⁄4 in). Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Accession 685.1971. The painting derives from the splash page from "Run for Love!" illustrated by Tony Abruzzo and lettered by Ira Schnapp in Secret Hearts #83 (November 1962), DC Comics. Image and data: Wikipedia.