Rosso (1985) Poster

(1985)

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6/10
Sicilian hit-man to finish off lost Finnish love
OJT15 October 2016
It's just as implausible and unlikely as the title of this review says. Giancarlo Rosso, a Sicilian hit man, gets a job to kill someone in Finland. His new target is Maria, who'm he have had an affair with a long time ago. Rosso arrives in Helsinki, buys weapons, and finds her apartment empty, except of her brother Martti. Neither speak common language. And there starts the road movie.

This film is very Kaurismäki, which means it's both full of black comedy and an odd look at Italian and Finnish everyday life. Strange as they might be, they are quite normal people. Different as they might be, the hit man and Maria'æs brother, they find each other in a bottle of vodka.

Kaursmäki style the film is not flashy, but slow going noir inspired, held in a bleak Finnish autumn. the film is full of Sicilian orchestral music, as suited any mob movie, and it makes us really wonder how wonderful this both suits the Finnish landscape, and what we sees as Finnish.

Difficult not to like this film, which clocks in on a likable 76 minutes.
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5/10
adrift in Finland
mjneu5931 December 2010
The best way to approach this disarming Finnish import is to imagine a mock existential road movie, set in and around Helsinki, where a burned-out Sicilian gunman is given orders to redeem himself by killing a woman who was once his lover. Of course nothing proceeds as expected, for either the reluctant assassin or for unsuspecting viewers. Against his better judgment, the hapless killer joins forces with his intended target's irrepressible brother, and despite the language barrier between them begins an aimless quest the length and breadth of Scandinavia, at first for the elusive, beautiful Marja, but finally for any way out of his spiritual crisis. In the end he finds neither, and as a result the film is little more than a low-key (if often engaging) shaggy dog story, drawing from both European and American role models, but shaded with a lackadaisical midnight sun mentality.
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Hidden Black Comedy
rstout35268 October 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Forget the plot line. This dark film kept me watching throughout, partly because of the genre and the setting - Finland. The use of American iconography within a dark European film noir style, including the slow plot makes this odd ball flic worth another appraisal. There are elements of black humour as well - particularly when our assassin steals an American open top car in Finland? and travels throughout that cold bleak winter landscape freezing his nuts off - and it is only at the end of the film when he accidentally discovers how to close the roof. I couldn't keep up with the subtitles, so assumed this was comedy. Like so many Scandinavian films are. The film is not available widely on DVD. I saw it on Channel 4 many years ago and then again on Czech TV last year. Worth another look.
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4/10
A Sicilian assassin travels to Finland in search of his lost love.
sharkbytes13 May 2002
Warning: Spoilers
Rosso is the story of a Sicilian assassin named Rosso who is paid a million Lira to kill a person in Finland. Upon arriving in the far away country, this Italian assassin finds out it is his lost love, a woman named Maria.

Rosso spends the movie, which could have been cut even from its 75 minutes, searching for Maria throughout the desolate country of Finland, running into all kinds trouble and mischief such as robbing a store, and eventually robbing a bank, during which he is shot. It is only moments before his death that Rosso winds up in a restaurant named Rosso and meets up with his lost love. He can only get out the words "Ciao Bambino" before dying.

Rosso is a melodramatic and corny movie which leaves much to be desired. There are a few movie-making scenes such as a scene in which Rosso scratches his back and his cigarette falls into his shirt. but it's not enough, and with only one plotline the movie falls short.

The direction has the Kaurismaki signature and if you are a Mika Kaurismaki fan, you may enjoy it. For the rest of you, thank heavens its only 70+ minutes long.

cheers, Timo
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