At the Cannes Film Festival, directors Jessica Hausner of Austria and Aki Kaurismaki of Finland demonstrated their ability to make effective films without the need for great technical showmanship, tackling profound problems that affect Western society.
Jessica Hausner’s “Club Zero” presents the story of a teacher, Miss Novak (played by Mia Wasikowska), hired at an elite school to teach healthy eating habits to students. Soon, the teacher becomes the leader of a select group called “Club Zero” and takes them to the extreme of their reasoning.
For his part, Aki Kaurismaki narrates the odyssey of a man with alcohol problems and a depressed woman (Jussi Vatanen and Alma Pöysti) in their quest to really know each other.
Both directors take great care in the mise-en-scène of their films. In Hausner’s “Club Zero,” the school and most of the families belong to the upper class, but the director manages to convey to the viewer that wealth is not synonymous with happiness. The atmosphere is cold; the characters rarely touch and maintain their composure, but their anguish is profound.
Hausner’s style resembles that of Ruben Stlund, who has twice won the Palme d’Or at Cannes with his incisive satires. However, Hausner opts for a drier humor in this second film in competition, after “Little Joe” in 2019. The young people in “Club Zero” diet to feel special or to save the planet, but their eagerness for change masks serious problems, while parents are helpless or absent.
Kaurismaki, meanwhile, has competed four times for the Palme d’Or. With “Fallen Leaves,” his refined style is combined with endearing characters, poor and lost in the loneliness of the big city. The short, hilarious dialogues, as in “Club Zero,” create an immediate bond between the characters and the viewer. Isolated in their homes, the soundtrack of their lives is composed of kitschy Finnish songs or the grim news of the war in Ukraine.
Despite the bad luck that accompanies them, both protagonists are determined to meet again. It is worth noting that Finland is considered the happiest country in the world, according to an annual UN index, for the sixth consecutive year.