Andre Wilms and Blondin Miguel in "Le Havre"
“LE HAVRE” My rating: B (Opens Jan. 30 at the Tivoli)
93 sminutes | No MPAA rating
I’ve never known quite what to make of Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki. I guess you could say he makes dour comedies (“Leningrad Cowboys Go America,” “Man Without a Past”), though in truth it’s sometimes hard to know if we’re supposed to laugh or not.
But there’s no missing the intentions of “Le Havre,” which might be described as a Communist fairy tale. However you describe it, it is the most audience friendly film Kaurismaki has yet produced.
In the French port city of Le Havre the graying shoeshine man Marcel Marx (Andre Wilms) plies his trade, even though he’s frequently hassled by the police and pompous merchants who don’t want him conducting business outside their swank shops.
In the nearby dockyards authorities hear noises coming from one of those big steel shipping containers. Inside are a dozen illegal immigrants from Gabon who have been locked inside and forgotten for several weeks.
Butler's Cinema Scene 