Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (1994) User Reviews (16)

Happiness can be found in unhappiness

[tomgillespie2002 · 8/10 · 17 December 2018]

Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki is up to his usual deadpan business with one of his most enigmatically-titled features, Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana, a title which remains a mystery, to me at least, long after the credits have rolled. Shot in black-and-white, the film appears to be Kaurismaki's version of a road movie, often resembling the early films of Wim Wenders, such as Alice in the Cities and The American Friend, although the influence of Jim Jarmusch can also be felt throughout. As is often the case with Kaurismaki, dialogue is delivered with little emotion and passion, story is an afterthought, and the main characters are what many people would refer to as losers. Still, even with all the restraint on show and a running time that that barely touches the hour mark, this is one of the director's funniest features, and certainly one of his most relatable.

We open with Valto (Mato Valtonen), a huge doorstop of a man who resembles Eugene from The Walking Dead with an even more ridiculous haircut. He seems to run a clothing business with his mother, and when parent and son have a tiff over the lack of coffee (he has a serious coffee addiction), Valto locks her away in the cupboard and heads for the auto garage. Here he hooks up with his vodka-swigging friend Reino (Matti Pellonpaa), who has just finished work on Valto's car, and the odd couple head out on a road trip with seemingly no destination in mind. They stop at a bar and are spotted by Russian Klavdia (Kirsi Tykkylainen) and Estonian Tatjana (Kati Outinen), who see these two miserable-looking Finns as their free ride to the harbour for their journey home. And so begins one of the cinema's strangest road-trips, which mainly consists Valto and Reino sulking and ignoring their guests, even when they are forced to sleep in the same room.

Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana may frequently surprise those not accustomed to Kaurismaki's distinct auteur style. Not in a dramatic sense of course, but in the way it refuses to veer off into more comfortable genre territory. You keep expecting Valto and Reino to break their silence and start a romance with their new lady friends, but despite the presence of some romantic undercurrents, these men remain a mystery. This doesn't mean that they're unrelatable however, as anybody with the slightest social anxiety will recognise the awkwardness of their interactions, and get a good laugh from it. There's actually more going on here than I realised before reading up about the film after it had finished. Kaurismaki layers this incredibly slight tale with satire and social commentary, but this will fly over the head of most non-Finns such as myself. However, this doesn't dilute the sheer joy to be had with Tatiana. If the characters in Alexander Payne's Sideways were introverted and shy, it may have come out something like this. This is a low-key pleasure and surprisingly upbeat for Kaurismaki, and proves that happiness can be found in unhappiness.

Small and good

[zetes · 7/10 · 13 November 2014]

A very typical Kaurismaki film, very short (only an hour long) and in black and white. At first it seemed a bit slight to me, but as it neared the end it kind of clicked for me and I found it quite touching. Matti Pellonpää and Mato Valtonen star as two Finnish losers who meet up with a couple of female tourists from Estonia and Russia (Kirsi Tykkyläinen and Kati Outinen). Their bus has broken down, and they ask if the men would be willing to escort them to their ferry, which departs from the coast in a couple of days. The two women are clearly interested in romance, but the two men are alternately too thick-skulled and too shy to do anything about it. Man, Outinen is a fantastic actress. There's not much dialogue in the film, but she expresses so much with her face. Pellonpää and Valtonen aren't far behind her (no offense to Tykkyläinen, who is fine).

Moody foreign film which virtually falls asleep standing up.

[Wilbur-10 · 6/10 · 20 November 2000]

Short, low-key, black & white film about two male losers. The first we meet at his sewing machine being brow-beaten by his mother. After locking her in a cupboard (!), he meets his friend who's a mechanic - the two go for a drive picking up two young girls who need a lift to a ferry.

The girls are outgoing and friendly, but the men are unable to break out of their closeted world. The car journey turns into a long, awkward situation with little conversation and no warmth of emotion.

There are many things to appreciate here if you are a fan of muted, minimalist foreign films. That said this is more like an impressive show-film of a directorial talent rather than a full-scale release.

The long periods where nothing happens are strong emotionally, but they do drag and don't make for exhilirating viewing. The film realises this and has a very short running time and in its understated way has much to say about the human condition.

Probably only of interest to Film Studies students.

a tale of two societies

[nh-2 · 10/10 · 30 November 2000]

After seeing this movie I wondered how foreigners would experience it. Without knowledge of the social history of Finland in last century this movie must seem very strange. And if you know nothing about our civil war and the division of society these characters are devoid of meaning. Just two avoidant personalities, maybe? However from a Finnish perspective this is the perfect description of the outsiders of our society. The fellows who are left behind, but don´t agree with that viewpoint themselves. Who are stranded in the no-man´s-land between urban success and country desolation. They try to get along somehow and when they meet two Russian girls it´s the irony of fate staring them in the eye. The Russians are able to surpass social barriers without flinching, they just go on and talk, but these two Fenno-ugrian oedipal conflict prototypes can´t seem to find some meaning in this. Instead they resort to sulking, one of the basic Finnish social coping skills. What else can you do when you´ve got nothing in an otherwise expansive society, when there´s this huge discrepancy between your own success expectancies and reality, and when you watch the grandchildren of the victorious side in the Civil War pass you by. Not much, according to Kaurismäki who manages to make movies about that part of Finland that never goes to movies. For a Finn, the music is lovely as usual, the kind of music we grew up to after the war.

Kaurismäki's funniest film: a subtle, gripping, far from ordinary comedy

[MaxBorg89 · 10/10 · 11 July 2007]

Even though there tend to be some incredibly funny scenes in his films, Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki has only done three proper comedies in his career thus far: the hilarious Leningrad Cowboys Go America, the less inspired, but still watchable sequel Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses and Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana. It is the last of these that stands out as the funniest (read: best), largely because it doesn't try to be openly amusing most of the time.

At first it looks like a road movie, since we've got two average Finnish blokes going on a trip together: one of them, the coffee-addicted Valto (Mato Valtonen), is trying to escape from his boring daily routine (he lives with his mother, whom he locks up in a closet at the beginning of the movie); his pal, Reino (Matti Pellonpää), a mechanic with a soft spot for Koskenkorva (the Finns' favorite booze), comes along just for the fun. The two don't do much aside from driving and drinking, that is until they run into Klavdia (Kirsi Tykkyläinen) and Tatjana (Kati Outinen), two women from the former Soviet Union who ask if they can join the odd couple.

This is where the film really comes to life, as Kaurismäki sets to emphasize, and thus subsequently erase, the difference between two cultures: Klavdia and Tatjana enjoy chatting and dancing, whereas Reino and Valto prefer to shut up and keep drinking (the longest either of them ever speaks is when the former brags about breaking some guy's teeth). And yet their silence says more than all the dialogue Kaurismäki has ever written (which, Bohemian Life notwithstanding, isn't that much), and through that non-communication something deeper starts to take shape between the otherwise rude Reino and the sweet Tatjana, leading to a beautiful shot (also used as the film's poster) where the two of them are shown sitting together on a bench. This stunning image (which is quite similar to a shot in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation), relying solely on the actors' faces and (minimal) gestures, not words, is one of the most touching the Finnish master has ever filmed, and invites obvious comparisons with Shadows in Paradise, also featuring Outinen and Pellonpää. The latter, in particular, gave his best performances on those occasions, being to Kaurismäki what Robert De Niro used to be to Martin Scorsese, and his premature death at age 41, which occurred a year after this film was completed, adds an extra emotional punch to the movie, especially the aforementioned scene and the oddly (for the director, that is) optimistic, heartfelt epilogue.

Kaurismäki's films are, admittedly, a bit of an acquired taste, something not everyone might enjoy (I wasn't actually that big a fan either at first, before I understood how captivating his works can be), though Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana, is the kind of movie non-fans could give a try, its magic lying in the director's trademark minimalistic approach: things are kept real and simple, meaning that the movie may be very short (59 minutes), yes, but also that every single one of those minutes is unmissable.

Coffee, cigarettes and rock'n'roll minimalism

[chaos-rampant · 21 December 2008]

The Finnish infant terrible returns to the monochromatic rock'n'roll vibes of his earlier CALAMARI UNION, only this time he substitutes the avant-garde surrealism with the silent, deadpan minimalism he meticulously cultivated for most of his career. Two thirty-something rockers working menial jobs and leading dead-end lives embark on an impromptu journey in their cool car, along with a coffee-car mixer and a portable record player. Along the way they meet two Russian women who are looking for a lift.

TATJANA is part road movie, part romance, both done in Kaurismaki's distinct, ever so enjoyable and relaxed, quiet way. The black and white cinematography is absolutely fantastic, the soundtrack as usually an eclectic mix of rock'n'roll, jazz and folk and the mood of the same deadpan unaffection that permeates the rest of his work. His characters cold and detached on the outside, yet they miraculously emote better than the best overacting could afford you.

Clocking at only 59 minutes, TATJANA doesn't so much feel as a fully-fledged movie as a broad stroke. Seen independent it's one thing; seen as part of Kaurismaki's broader universe, like another vignette of gloomy but not miserable Finnish life, it takes its proper place. See it in a double-bill with CALAMARI UNION or ARIEL.

this movie celebrates the will to survive

[mingus_x · 10/10 · 10 January 2002]

i really love this movie. it has so many unique and wonderful characters. every one celebrates his individuality. so many bizzare gadgets: a built in vinyl record player for cars, a coffee machine also in the car to ease one of the main characters need for the black drink (when there is no vodka around). a finnish road movie. slow pace, but lovely mood and the will to survive through the darkest night. very recommended. enjoy your life as long as you can and try to watch this movie before it ends ...

A lesser effort from Kaurismäki in the 1990s with its b/w photography, short running time, and sparse plot

[crculver · 4/10 · 11 December 2016]

Shot in 1993, TAKE CARE OF YOUR SCARF, TATJANA! is one of Aki Kaurismäki's lesser-known films from this highly productive period in the Finnish auteur's career. Coffee addict Valto (Mato Valtonen) and vodka-guzzler Reino (Matti Pellonpää) go for a test drive through the Finnish countryside in Valto's newly-repaired sedan. They meet two tourists from the former USSR, Tatjana (Kati Outinen) and Klavdia (Kirsi Tykkyläinen) who are stranded along a rural road after their tour bus has broken down. The women convince Valto and Reino to drive them to the port in Helsinki so they can get the ferry home, and the film tracks their adventures together – or rather the lack thereof: even as Tatjana and Klavdia try to chat and even flirt, the taciturn Finns just swill their coffee or vodka and ignore them. The film features well-known themes in Kaurismäki's work: shy people unable to express emotion, a love for early rock 'n' roll with a period band performing on a stage at some point, and a minimum of dialogue.

With its running time of less than an hour, its black-and-white photography and its spare, sketch-like plot, this even feels like the quintessential minor effort or short in an art-house director's filmography. (Kind of like some of the "Coffee and Cigarettes" shorts in Jim Jarmusch's output.) It also feels unsatisfying. There's some enjoyable comedy here, but to get the jokes TAKE CARE OF YOUR SCARF, TATJANA assumes a knowledge of Finnish culture even more than Kaurismäki's other work. Some of the tension between the men and the people they encounter is based on the subtle divide between Helsinki and rural Finland -- this is an unusual film for Kaurismäki in eschewing a Helsinki setting for the backwoods. Valto and Reino's respective beverage addictions are the usual ones of this Nordic country, just exaggerated to a risible degree. The way that the Estonian and Russian women fall for these boring losers, mocks the early 1990s phenomenon of even an ugly country bumpkin being able to get himself a glamorous wife from the former USSR just because Finland was seen as comparatively rich.

Now, I've lived in Finland and could pick up all the jokes, and I laughed out loud at a couple of points, but I found this a middling effort, and because most readers of this review probably won't have the necessary background, I've rated it even lower than average.

Punchy, subtle humor and gaping beauty

[nicholaszacherl · 30 March 2005]

I have not seen a film like this one ever. While it doesn't stand out, Kaurismaeki's impressive tact kept my heart and funnybone peaked and suspended for the duration of the film with his classic understated, wry charm. Surf rock has, incidentally, never looked so good on a rocky northern coast.

To say the least, the film piqued an interest in Kaurismaeki that has led to my heart-melting and guffawing appreciation of others like the matchstick factory girl and (although to a bit lesser extent) The Man Without a Past.

While I could drop 50-cent movie reviews, chiches, and plot synopses here, I'll get to the point instead: Kaurismaki is intelligent, and seems to have no need for pretense. He has digested American images and music, and given us his own irresistible story of Finland in this dynamic. His aesthetic tact, pacing, use of light, and soundtracking are all par excellence.

This film is his best, in my opinion, and I hold him next to Julio Medem as the winner of this century's title for the most consistently gorgeous film-making.

Pidä Huivista Kiinni, Tatjana is an important film by Aki Kaurismaki which looks at male-female relationships.

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 10/10 · 18 October 2015]

Although Finnish film 'Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana' is a short film but the manner in which it has been directed by Aki Kaurismaki, it can be stated that it beats many a feature film both in content as well as style. This has a lot to do with its exclusive focus on some unusual male-female relationships which have been shown to be successful even in the absence of a common idiom. Alcohol and Coffee play an important role in Aki Kaurismaki's films and this film is a perfect example of the extent to which people would go in order to get hold of these beverages. For a road movie shot in black and white, this Aki Kaurismaki film has challenging roles for Finnish actors Matti Pellonpää and Kati Outinen. It is with utmost sincerity that they demonstrate that language is not a barrier for two people to communicate their feelings as gestures can also be used to express feelings of mutual appreciation.

Worth to watch

[olegau · 10/10 · 22 June 2021]

This is a great movie. I watched it twice! This movie reminds me other great movie Coffee and Cigarettes.

Weak Kaurismaki

[Andy-296 · 5/10 · 15 December 2007]

This black and white road movie by Aki Kaurismaki (about an hour long) is about two loser guys from Finland traveling by road through Finland with two women (a Russian and an Estonian, don't these two people hate each other?). The results are very uneven. Filmed in the early 90s, it is among Kaurismaki's weakest work, showing a lot of his peculiar obsessions (vintage cars, rock music, cigarettes, smoky bars) but without much of any payoff for the viewer. Nothing much happens and nothing seems to matter much. However, it's good to see two of Kaurismaki's regulars: the late great Matti Pellonpaa as well as a younger Kati Outinen.

Not quite as good as before

[Teach-7 · 26 November 1998]

Finland circa 1965: Two greasy rockers on a joy(less?)ride in a souped-up Pobeda pick up two Russian girls on a bus stop. They make tentative efforts to get to know each other. And....

That's it, really!

Aki Kaurismäki is a master of minimalism. He uses ever so slight, naive gestures to depict vacuous people living empty lives. His men are always Brylcreemed, chain-smoking Vodka-drinking losers, his women are quaint, awkward little creatures starving for attention, which the men never grants them. All this, and some truly horrid vintage Finnish rock and tango-music.

Yet, "Tatiana" isn't up to his usual standards. The rock and tango is there, likewise the usual bleak landscapes and battered Eastern-European cars, but this time the plot is so vague as to be almost absent, and the comic relief is too thinly spread. It amounts to a retread of themes and scenes from earlier, better movies. It's almost a parody of a parody.

Kati Outinen certainly looks fitter and healthier than before, and she is the sole reason for watching the film. Matti Pellonpäa's character is never resolved, the man's lack of motivation and drive is painfully obvious. Why does he succumb to love at the end? It's never made clear. I have always wondered whether Kaurismäki makes films about Finns as he sees them, or rather as foreign prejudices will have them. In "Tatiana" I never bothered to ponder this question. The film is just light-hearted, plotless nostalgia, and doesn't merit any deeper analysis. Fortunately Kaurismäki has gone on to make better films than this.

Outdated - nice for getting you back in time

[stef-142-270647 · 5/10 · 10 May 2012]

The movie is in black and white. Which makes it easy to find yourself going back in time and feel the slower pace of life. The storyline is very poor. There isn't really happening anything. One character is drinking coffee at each opportunity, the other is drinking that much vodka, that a normal person would die instantly (he drinks it as a bottle of water). There are almost no dialogs as the two men are constantly drinking and the two women can't really speak the same language. The on board car-coffee maker and car vinyl LP-player are a very nice touch. I wonder what has happened with the mother that was locked into a cupboard at the start of the movie.

Minimal

[analoguebubblebath · 4 May 2001]

Caught this on Moviedrome a couple of years back and watched it again recently. Kaurismäki's direction is ahem, directionless and very minimal. The two males are boorish; the two Russian girls more expressive and fun-loving. Coffee and vodka are two addictions 'suffered' by Tatjana and Valto.

There is love of sorts found at the end for Tatjana and Reino. Whether or not this savage plot twist will surprise us viewers or not matters little. Beautiful and bleak with a fantastic soundtrack, "Take Care..." is a film that says absolutely nothing but does so with style.

5/10