"Actor: Esko Nikkari"

• The Aki Kaurismaki Collection - Vol. 3 | DVD | (22/10/2007) from £79.99   |  Saving you £-50.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Aki Kaurism''ki s deadpan ironic and idiosyncratic films have established him as one of modern European cinema's most accomplished filmmakers. This box set presents three of his remarkable and highly acclaimed features. Crime and Punishment: Kaurism''ki s first feature follows the descent into crime of Rahikainen a slaughterhouse worker and former law student who murders a businessman and then begins a tense game of cat and mouse with the police. Effectively updating Dostoevsky s great novel to 1980s Helsinki this remarkably assured debut offers a sharp critique of Finnish society. Calamari Union: A group of men all bar one called Frank abandon their downtrodden neighbourhood in search of Eira a near mythical district across town that promises a better life. Kaurism''ki s second features details their misadventures along the way with deadpan humour and rock and roll attitude. Hamlet Goes Buisness: In this wicked and hilarious satire of the corporate world Kaurism''ki liberally updates Shakespeare s tragedy as a hard-boiled noir B-movie. Finnish comic Pirkka-Pekka Petelius plays an irresponsible playboy who finds himself involved in a vicious boardroom power struggle with his uncle who plans to sell off his company s assets in order to corner the market on Swedish rubber ducks. La Vie de Boh''me: Freely adapted from Henri Murger s 1851 novel this is Kaurism''ki s highly individual take on the story of three bohemian artists a poet a painter and a composer set in a timeless Paris. Shifting between heartbreaking drama and black humour the fine cast features cameos from Jean-Pierre L''aud Sam Fuller and Louis Malle.

• The Man Without A Past | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A delirious mixture of black comedy film noir and love sory Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki's rapturously received The Man Without A Past triumphed at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival carrying off the Best Actress and Grand Jury Prize. Markku Peltola plays 'M' who arrives in Helsinki only to be viciously set upon by thugs and pronounced dead by medics. By some miracle he revives but with no memory of his past or his identity. Rebuilding his life from scratch 'M' acquires a melanchol