Friends by default, two a-holes, who just happen to be quadriplegic, hit the highway in "Aaltra", a road movie that subtly recalls David Lynch's "The Straight Story", since the journey is accomplished with a slow-moving vehicle, in which its occupants have opportune encounters with heretofore strangers. Neighbors at war before the accident, the neighbors bury the hatchet and join forces in a common cause; to sue the manufacturer of the agricultural tractor that left them in suspended animation from the waist down. For "Aaltra" to function as a comedy, the filmmaker needs to distance the audience from the pathetic condition of L'employe(Benoit Delepine) and L'ouvrier agricole(Gustave Kervern). The filmmaker has to erase the chair. Since both men lack any semblance of having scruples about other people's property and hospitality, this isn't hard. We soon forget about their inability to walk, as both men exhibit a negligence to be grateful for the kindness that strangers make the mistake of displaying towards these misanthropic "cripples"(crippled in the humanistic sense). L'employe and L'ouvrier are like that guy from "Murderball", whose friends testify to having the same type-A personality, before the accident that sentenced him to the chair. When L'employe and L'ouvrier were laid up in hospital beds, nobody came to visit them. As Paul the Beatle once sang, "the long you take is equal to the love you make."
To further minimize our sympathies towards L'employe and L'ouvrier, the filmmaker employs formal elements to make their handicap more abstract. Chiaroscuro deemphasizes the immediacy of both men's conditions. The black and white photography blanches out the flesh tones from people, which makes the subject more like an inanimate object than a repository for memories and dreams. If blood is shed, the blood is black. Less visceral. Without realizing it, the viewer becomes more objective. In black and white, you look less human.
Since "Aaltra" frees the viewer from the requisite compassion one contemplates towards people with disabilities, the film's success hinges on how, not if, these two disgruntled travelers avenge their gripe against the tractor company. It's not a tragi-comedy, it's a deadpan one. The manufacturer is Finnish-based. Filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki is from Finland.
Fin.
To further minimize our sympathies towards L'employe and L'ouvrier, the filmmaker employs formal elements to make their handicap more abstract. Chiaroscuro deemphasizes the immediacy of both men's conditions. The black and white photography blanches out the flesh tones from people, which makes the subject more like an inanimate object than a repository for memories and dreams. If blood is shed, the blood is black. Less visceral. Without realizing it, the viewer becomes more objective. In black and white, you look less human.
Since "Aaltra" frees the viewer from the requisite compassion one contemplates towards people with disabilities, the film's success hinges on how, not if, these two disgruntled travelers avenge their gripe against the tractor company. It's not a tragi-comedy, it's a deadpan one. The manufacturer is Finnish-based. Filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki is from Finland.
Fin.