The Aki Kaurismäki Collection [Blu-ray]

I have now received a complete version of this collection and I have to reconsider my initial review. The films are beautifully restored and they look so amazing, better even than I had hoped for! While I still think there should be more quality control regarding the actual production of the box set (see my original review below), I recommend this amazing collection of films to everyone with an interest in European Film. Original review: 1 star, Contains the first five discs twice There seems to be a production error and my set contains the same first five discs twice. Now I have to wait for a replacement set and return the box at my own expense, with the replacement coming in no sooner than two weeks from now. This is very disappointing and I think it shows a severe lack of care on the side of the manufacturer. I hope this is not a general problem with this product as I love Kaurismäki's movies and was looking forward to watching them in high definition.

Kaurismäki seems to be making the same exact movie all over again, yet you never get tired of his warm, humanistic approach.

I admit I hesitated to buy this box as I Hired a Contract Killer is missing, but offered at half the price I must admit it's a no brainer. The transfers are from the finnish edition and impressive, the festures accompanied by 9 shorts and a 100 page booklet. Match Factory Girl looked and sounded terrific. Night scenes are grainy as it's shot at night. Hopefully Kaurismäki will make the third film to the Le Havre & The Other Side of Hope trilogy.

The best films let the pictures do the talking, instead of big-mouthed brash gabble and stupid comedy. (I like a lot of Western-culture films but I hate many more). Aki Kaurismäki makes the kind of film that amuses, saddens and sometimes shocks. It touches the emotions. Minimal dialogue and glamour, high on atmosphere and humanity. It surprises me that at 77 years I have only recently found his work. How many other greats are out there that I don't know because they are not in the trivial modern style, or perhaps merely despised for not being spoken in English?

Great collection of Aki Kaurismaki films. Includes a very interesting small paperback book about Aki, his films and his regular actors. Very well packaged, excellent quality and very good value.

Just a fast and short work-in-progress pseudo-'review' for people ordering this newly released title. I haven't watched all movies yet - but I've skipped through them to try and get a quick sense of the transfers. On the whole these seem like very good well defined and colorful transfers. The visuals and colors are very important in these movies, so this is good news. I DID, however, notice some excessive noise during some night scenes in "The Match Factory Girl", the rest of the scenes in this movie seemed okay, so I don't know what went wrong here. I'm no expert. The night scenes I saw in the other movies in the set seemed okay. I'm certainly happy with the purchase. If only "I Hired a Contract Killer" had been included, so the box had been complete. And then there's that noise I mentioned. Oh well, few ten disc blu-ray boxes are absolutely perfect. I will probably be back with a few more details at some point. Let me end by posting THIS basic info, which was really what I came here to post: DISC 1 CRIME AND PUNISHMENT CALAMARI UNION DISC 2 SHADOWS IN PARADISE DRIFTING CLOUDS OO AINA IHMINEN (short film) DISC 3 HAMLET GOES BUSINESS LA VIE BOHEME DISC 4 ARIEL MATCH FACTORY GIRL VALIMO DISC 5 LENINGRAD COWBOYS LENINGRAD COWBOYS GO AMERICA DISC 6 TOTAL BALALAIKA SHOW THESE BOOTS (short film) THOSE WERE THE DAYS (short film) THRU THE WIRE (short film) ROCKY IV (short film) RICH LITTLE BITCH (short film) DOGS HAVE NO HELL (short film) DISC 7 TAKE CARE OF YOU SCARF, TATJANA JUHA DISC 8 THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST LIGHTS IN THE DUSK DISC 9 LE HAVRE DISC 10 THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE

Will probably be the best box set purchase of 2020 for me, and the last order from Amazon.uk for me for awhile as i reside in Canada and it doesn't appear to be possible now. Le Havre seems to have special features, and maybe also the last film too, will edit in more info perhaps. There should be more sets like this, that give a comprehensive overview of a director's work. Well done Curzon Artifial Eye, thank you Aki, feel free to make more films.

Comprehensive collection.

Tutto perfetto

The Amazon warning says this package is "Region 0" (which isn't a region), but it's not! The discs are Region B only! (I still gave the product 5 stars so as not to hurt the overall rating - this package seems to be a good value if you are interested in this director's films, and you have a compatible player).

I liked everything about it.

Grosse Arnaque , il n'y aucun sous-titres en Français. Pourtant c'est préciser dans la page de vente de ce coffret. Je vais essayer de me faire rembourser.

The enclosed book is very interesting BUT the pages fall out after 2 or 3 reads. And it's not very easy to repair.