Leningrad Cowboys: Those Were the Days

The words "Greatest Finnish filmmaker" apply to Aki Kaurismaki for many reasons, besides my ignorance of Finnish film and the fact that he's the only remotely famous Finnish director. This little short film (5 minutes on video) displays his minimalist style well: no dialogue, only a song and images to illuminate the action. Less typical are the black and white images. Otherwise, this is a charming introduction to his work. The Leningrad Cowboys, a Finnish band Kaurismaki's worked with multiple times, provide the music for this, essentially a music video. The tune is an old Russian folk song, reworked into a rock song. While they perform in a Paris cafe, a man with a donkey walks in and starts steaming hay for the donkey. There actually is a thread of coherent story here, but the bizarre seriousness with which the whole thing is done really makes this a charming short. The band performs while staring forth absolutely expressionless. Everybody's hair and shoes are bizarre. All kinds of little elements make this a charming little bizarre joke - kind of like David Lynch without any underlying morality or violence. Very fun.