The Match Factory Girl

The Match Factory Girl (Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö) (1990)

Runtime: 69 minutes, but I won’t make a joke about the runtime here

Directed by: Aki Kaurismaki

Starring: Kati Outinen, Elina Salo, Esko Nikkari, Vesa Vierikko, Reijo Taipale

From: Several different Finnish and Swedish companies

Some will be AGHAST that this is my first Aki Kaurismaki film. In a review I’m posting earlier than usual for a Wednesday due to my schedule, I talk about a movie seen on the Criterion Channel from the famed Finnish director. This was selected as it was one of his most well-known films. The length is only 69 minutes, but this is not the sort of film to make crass jokes about. Among other things, the film is incredibly downbeat.

Beforehand, I heard this compared to Carrie and I was unsure why; now, it made more sense. I’ll just say that our lead Iris is what Wikipedia described as “a plain-looking woman” who leads a lonely life and actually does work in a match factory. Also like in Carrie, her mom and especially the stepfather in this case aren’t great human beings. She meets a bearded dude at a club (playing 80’s Eurodance, which amused me), becomes pregnant, he doesn’t want to become a dad—she doesn’t take that news & other misfortune well…

The most noteworthy aspect of the film is that there isn’t much dialogue throughout. Heck, our lead only says 3 words before about the 25th minute. Yet that wasn’t a detriment to the story and how it was told. Kaurismaki regular Outlinen (or so I hear) was the highlight from the acting she did that didn’t require the power of speech. It was a languid but still enthralling journey for me; besides getting to see the operations at a match factory for a few minutes, plenty of songs are heard throughout. That’s not to mention how darkly delightful the final act was… at times.

Thus, I was happy to have finally seen a film from a famed Finnish director who still practices his craft today. One last thing: holy crap, the mullet that Iris’s brother has! He sports quite the appearance in general, but his hair was a masterpiece.