Here’s a pro-tip for directors: don’t announce your retirement or even a plan to chill on filmmaking because you will never hear the end of it. Just ask Steven Soderbergh who took a break from features to focus on television and other projects, or Quentin Tarantino, whose declaration he’ll be done after his tenth film will follow him around forever. Now comes Aki Kaurismaki, the Finnish arthouse filmmaker whose latest, “The Other Side Of Hope,” just premiered in Berlin, and he says he’s probably finished while also making plans for this next movie. Confusing, I know.
“I’ve said this before, but this time it’s really ‘adios’. We’re close to this remaining my last film,” he told The Straits Times, adding that essentially, he wants to carve out time for himself away from making movies. And yet, the filmmaker seems undecided, because he’s already thinking about his next movie in his port city trilogy, that started with 2011’s “Le Havre.”
“Basically, [the trilogy] happened automatically because I am absolutely lazy. I always have to make a trilogy so that I actually do something, that’s all. I couldn’t cut wood. But it is not a harbor trilogy any more; it has become a trilogy about refugees. I hope that the third part will be a happy comedy,” he told Cineuropa.
Well, either “The Other Side Of Hope” is the last we’ll hear from Kaurismaki, or as per usual, he’ll disappear for a while, and then re-emerge with another movie to cherish. We really hope its the latter.
No word yet on a U.S. release date for “The Other Side Of Hope” but we’ll keep our eyes out.