David Welsh

Comic brilliance from Finland's greatest filmmaker, 2 Nov 2009

These films represent something of a change of pace for Kaurismäki as they are more unambiguously comic than most of the rest of his oeuvre. Most Kaurismäki films strike a fine balance between a dry, sardonic, black Finnish humour and a sense of drama and gravity, but in Leningrad Cowboys Go America we see a more playful - even Pythonesque at times - Kaurismäki, and very enjoyable it is too! We follow the fortunes of the Leningrad Cowboys, a deeply untalanted band from Siberia who are advised to go to America because "they'll put up with anything there." Led by their despotic manager Vladimir, the band take their music, and their distinctive hairstyles, across America -… Read more

Excellent early Kaurismäki, 2 Nov 2009

One of Kaurismäki's early films, Shadows in Paradise centres on the burgeoning love affair between a bin man, Nikander, and a supermarket checkout girl, Ilona. The romantic leads are played by Matti Pellonpää and Kati Outinen, Kaurismäki's favorite actors whom he used consistently since, and are both excellent. The film displays many of the qualities and themes that Kaurismäki has developed throughout his career - a love affair characterised both by tenderness and a shy awkwardness and formality; characters in poverty or otherwise on the edges of society, minimalistic and stylised dialogue and an unmistakable visual aesthetic. This isn't a masterpiece, but is… Read more

Excellent tool for learning Catalan, 18 Oct 2009

I'm learning Catalan as a beginner (without any previous knowledge of Spanish), and have found this dictionary to be an invaluable tool. The fact that it's primarily aimed at Catalan learners of English doesn't diminish its usefulness for English-speakers learning Catalan. The entries in the Catalan-English section indicate the gender of the words, and all the entries are clear and easy to navigate, with good examples of usage and idioms in both the English-Catalan and Catalan-English parts of the dictionary.

The dictionary doesn't include information about Catalan grammar, or pronunciation rules, but that information can quite easily be obtained from other sources. The only… Read more