Review of The Match Factory Girl (1990) by Ricardo M — 20 Oct 2010

An awe-inspiring study in minimalism, where cold-blooded murder is rendered a quiet cry of desperation. There are probably fewer than a hundred words of dialogue in the film, and most of the verbal content blares from jukeboxes or news programs; instead, the characters interact in much subtler and more human ways.

The smallest movement of an eyeball or a single tear become actions that speak far louder than words, and if the story had been told in any other way it would be a completely ineffectual narrative. I was compelled by Kaurismäki's brutal and honest visual approach and was left simultaneously hungry for more and quite full, moved and disgusted.