जीवनी

Aki Kaurismäki

When winning the Grand Prix price in Cannes for his film Mies vailla menneisyyttä (2002), he first thanked himself and then the judges, then he walked off.
Although Laitakaupungin valot (2006) was chosen to be Finland's nominee at the The 78th Annual Academy Awards (2006), he decided to boycott the ceremony again and refused the nomination as a protest against the US foreign policy.
Although being nominated for Mies vailla menneisyyttä (2002), he refused to attend the The 75th Annual Academy Awards (2003), noting he didn't feel like partying in a nation that is currently in a state of war (2003).
His film Rikos ja rangaistus (1983) is based on Dostoyevsky's famous novel. Kaurismäki decided to make the film after he had read a book about Alfred Hitchcock written by François Truffaut where Hitchcock said he would never touch that book to make a film of it because it was too difficult. Kaurismäki admitted it was too difficult, but still the film was well received and now remains as a classic Finnish motion picture.
Moved to Portugal to live there with his wife Paula Oinonen, a painter.

When I was young, I would sit in the bath and ideas would come to me. But I'm not young any more, so now I just sit in the bath.
Cinema is dead. It died 1962, I think it was in October!
I like dogs, mankind I don't care for too much. You're supposed to like mankind because you're part of it, but I prefer dogs. They are honest and they don't lie.
Maybe my films are not masterpieces, but they are documents of their time. That's enough for me. Masterpieces I can't do - even though I try.
The problem is, I have seen all the other films. All the serious films ever made I have seen, more or less. They are so good... and I am so bad. Very early in my so-called career, I knew I would never make a masterpiece. So I decided to make lots of decent films.