by Vadim Rizov
Criterion's DVD box-set release (on their Eclipse label) of Aki Kaurismäki's loose-knit Leningrad Cowboys trilogy chronicles eight years in the group's history, from their ramshackle fictional roots to becoming a bona fide crowd-pleaser for 70,000 real Finns. A fake Siberian cover band that rarely performs original material, they're actually versatile performers. And aside from their idiosyncratic attire (lengthy pompadours extend and hang like diving boards from their foreheads, mirrored by outrageously long and pointy elf shoes), they're typical Kaurismäki characters who enjoy diligent beer drinking whenever possible, staring to deadpan effect—and furthermore, showing no visible facial reactions to anything. The members of Sleepy Sleepers first teamed up with Kaurismäki for 1986’s eight-minute, faux-mtv epic "Rocky VI," a fictional rock pastiche that rewrites Rocky IV’s triumphant ending, an early sign of Kaurismäki’s interest in toying with Cold War imagery.
Continued reading DVD Of The Week: Aki Kaurismäki's Leningrad Cowboys.
Criterion's DVD box-set release (on their Eclipse label) of Aki Kaurismäki's loose-knit Leningrad Cowboys trilogy chronicles eight years in the group's history, from their ramshackle fictional roots to becoming a bona fide crowd-pleaser for 70,000 real Finns. A fake Siberian cover band that rarely performs original material, they're actually versatile performers. And aside from their idiosyncratic attire (lengthy pompadours extend and hang like diving boards from their foreheads, mirrored by outrageously long and pointy elf shoes), they're typical Kaurismäki characters who enjoy diligent beer drinking whenever possible, staring to deadpan effect—and furthermore, showing no visible facial reactions to anything. The members of Sleepy Sleepers first teamed up with Kaurismäki for 1986’s eight-minute, faux-mtv epic "Rocky VI," a fictional rock pastiche that rewrites Rocky IV’s triumphant ending, an early sign of Kaurismäki’s interest in toying with Cold War imagery.
Continued reading DVD Of The Week: Aki Kaurismäki's Leningrad Cowboys.
- 10/18/2011
- GreenCine Daily
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