The House of Branching Love (2009)

A sort of "Divorce Finnish Style," Mika Kaurismäki's rambunctious comedy, The House of Branching Love , recounts the breakup of a thirty-something professional couple - Juhani, a family ... See full summary »

Director:

Mika Kaurismäki

Writers:

Petri Karra (novel), Mika Kaurismäki (screenplay)

Stars:

Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Elina Knihtilä, Kati Outinen

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hannu-Pekka Björkman	...	Juhani Helin
Elina Knihtilä	...	Tuula Helin
Kati Outinen	...	Yrsa
Antti Reini	...	Wolffi
Tommi Eronen	...	Pekka
Irina Björklund	...	Marjut
Maria Järvenhelmi	...	Kitty
Kari Väänänen	...	Niilo
Anna Easteden	...	Nina
Ilkka Villi	...	Marco
Antti Virmavirta	...	Timo
Mari Perankoski	...	Tiina
Timo Torikka	...	P.K.
Jevgeni Haukka	...	Vidar
Wanda Dubiel	...	Sanna

Storyline

A sort of "Divorce Finnish Style," Mika Kaurismäki's rambunctious comedy, The House of Branching Love , recounts the breakup of a thirty-something professional couple - Juhani, a family therapist, and his wife, Tuula, a successful business trainer.

---

Plot Keywords:

divorce | shower | male female relationship | male nudity | male frontal nudity | 

---

Genres:

Comedy | Drama

---

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Shakespearean quote used by Pekka in the garden is from "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare. "Macbeth: Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no more: it is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing." - Macbeth: Act V, Scene 5.

---

Connections

Featured in Mika Kaurismäki, elokuvaohjaaja (2015)

---

Soundtracks

Avanto
Written by T. Salesvuo, Jarmo Saari (as J. Saari) and Arttu Takalo (as A. Takalo)
Performed by XL

User Reviews

Great Quirky, Finnish Comedy!

I saw this film directed by Mika Kaurismaki (one of the famous Kaurismaki brothers) at the 2010 Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, and I can say that the entire theater was cracking up laughing at this film. It doesn't pretend to be anything but great comedy - actually black comedy, given that the topic is the break-up of a marriage - and it succeeds very well.

Tuula, the wife, and Juhani, the husband, are a nice couple living in a nice house. He is a family therapist and she conducts motivational business seminars. Both are successful professionals, and both expect to have an amicable separation and divorce once they made the decision to break up the marriage. They start with Juhani moving his bed into another room and the two setting up rules to manage living in the same house until the divorce finalizes.

When one of them breaks an important rule, it starts the roller-coaster ride of hurts and retribution going, all handled in a very funny comedic way! Things are not the same after that.

This film pulls out all the stops showing normal human reactions to separation and divorce with a lot of humor and craziness thrown in. Since it could be described as "divorce, Finnish-style," there certainly are some cringe-worthy moments as well. Relationships gone bad are not pretty.

The craziness gets almost over-the-top when some criminal characters enter the picture, as relatives of our couple! As unlikely as that may be, it adds to the funny situations that occur, so, as far as I'm concerned, all is forgiven! Don't expect anything too deep here, just enjoy the laughs!

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Finland] Official site [France]

Country:

Finland

Language:

Finnish

Release Date:

21 August 2009 (Finland)

Also Known As:

Divorcio a la finlandesa

Filming Locations:

Helsinki, Finland

Box Office

Budget:

EUR1,370,398 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,846,748

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mainostelevisio (MTV3), Marianna Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1