Hamlet Goes Business I Hired a Contract Killer

Kaurismaki applies his inimitable touch to Shakespeare and film noir. Kaurismaki liberally updates Shakespeare to the money-hungry Helsinki of the late 1980s for Hamlet Goes Business (1987; 86 mins.), where the young prince must foil his uncle's plans to monopolize the world's rubber duck market.

I Hired a Contract Killer (1990; 80 mins.), Kaurismaki's only English-language film, takes place in a noirish, stylized London, stars Jean-Pierre Leaud, and pays tribute to Michael Powell, Ealing comedies, The Clash, Jean-Pierre Melville, and Carl Theodor Dreyer, among others.