One of Kaurismaki's earlier films, deals with many of his later themes, but without many of the later mannerisms that could be sometimes irritating, so what we had is something that is at times more fresh but also less polished than his later movies. As in many of his movies, Shadows in Paradise is an ironic (but ultimately endearing) look at the lives of Finland's working class. The late Matti Pellonpaa is a garbageman who falls in love with a supermarket cashier (a young Kati Outinen, playing a capricious, chain smoking, woman). Despite his outward macho demeanor, he's so painfully shy in front of women that it would take him half of the movie to declare his love for her. And when that happens, she's fired from the supermarket, and finds a new job in a department store. Pellonpaa then has to fight for her affection against the much richer store's owner. Worth seeing.
Review of Shadows in Paradise
