Film Forum

(1990) “A masterwork” (Los Angeles Times). In this icily funny revenge tale, Kati Outinen (THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST) is memorably opaque as Iris, whose grinding days as a drone at a matchstick factory, and nights as a neglected single daughter living with her parents, ultimately send her over the edge. Kaurismäki: “I decided to make a film that would make Robert Bresson seem like a director of epic action pictures.” Preceded by a music video for “Those Were the Days,” featuring the pointy-booted, pompadoured Leningrad Cowboys (“the world’s worst rock and roll band”). 35mm print courtesy of Janus Films. Total running time: approx. 74 mins.

Reviews

“Magnificent. Taut brilliance. This virtuosic work is heartbreaking until it turns outrageously funny.”
– Caryn James, The New York Times

“Few films are ever this unremittingly unyielding. I found myself as tightly gripped as with a good thriller.”
– Roger Ebert

“It has the sure touch, inexorable flow and after-effect of a masterpiece. A weirdo masterpiece, to be sure: funky and minimalist, caustic and heartfelt, puckishly wry and despairingly dark. (It) is shot so simply and starkly, with such apparent affectlessness that it becomes hypnotic. Kaurismaki has been the darling of urban American and international film critics for several years… The Match Factory Girl is clearly the masterwork of his 10-year career. It catches our eyes, burns its images into our mind.”
– Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times