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The Match Factory Girl

 The Match Factory Girl
type
TVTItem
 The Match Factory Girl
label
The Match Factory Girl
 The Match Factory Girl
page
TheMatchFactoryGirl
 The Match Factory Girl
comment
The Match Factory Girl is a 1990 film from Finland directed by Aki Kaurismäki.Iris is a meek, mousy woman of maybe thirty years of age. She works a boring, mindless job on the assembly line of a match factory. She comes home to her mother and stepfather's shabby little apartment, where she is expected to do the cooking and the dishwashing. She sleeps on a couch, and she pays them rent. When she goes out for a bit of fun, namely to a dance hall, she's the only woman there who isn't asked to dance.Iris treats herself to a pretty floral dress and goes clubbing. She meets a man, Aarne, who takes her home for sex. Iris is infatuated, but what she doesn't know is that Aarne thinks she's a prostitute. Disappointments and trauma pile on top of each other, until finally Iris snaps.
 The Match Factory Girl
fetched
2023-09-27T11:59:57Z
 The Match Factory Girl
parsed
2023-09-27T11:59:57Z
 The Match Factory Girl
isPartOf
DBTropes
 The Match Factory Girl / int_19cc20f3
type
One-Person Birthday Party
 The Match Factory Girl / int_19cc20f3
comment
One-Person Birthday Party: For her birthday, Iris gets one present, a book from her mother. She then goes out and has one piece of cake. Alone.
 The Match Factory Girl / int_19cc20f3
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The Match Factory Girl / int_19cc20f3
 The Match Factory Girl / int_3f267047
type
Voiceover Letter
 The Match Factory Girl / int_3f267047
comment
Voiceover Letter: Probably at least half of Iris's dialogue for the whole movie comes when she writes the Voiceover Letter telling Aarne that she's pregnant, and she hopes he'll help her raise the baby.
 The Match Factory Girl / int_3f267047
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The Match Factory Girl / int_3f267047
 The Match Factory Girl / int_49f20c6a
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Gory Discretion Shot
 The Match Factory Girl / int_49f20c6a
comment
Gory Discretion Shot: We don't see the deaths of any of Iris's victims. The film cuts away as Aarne is drinking his poisoned drink. After Iris serves her mother and stepfather poisoned vodka she goes into the living room and listens to music for a little while. She then goes into the next room to make sure they're dead, but the camera stays on Iris and never shows mom and stepdad. (Rat poison is a bad way to go. Vomiting and blood.)
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 The Match Factory Girl / int_627264e0
type
Death Glare
 The Match Factory Girl / int_627264e0
comment
Death Glare: Iris shoots one at Aarne after he leaves to get ice for her drink. This is followed by her pouring the rat poison in his drink.
 The Match Factory Girl / int_627264e0
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 The Match Factory Girl / int_779009b5
type
Beware the Quiet Ones
 The Match Factory Girl / int_779009b5
comment
Beware the Quiet Ones: Iris. Meek, shy, hardly ever talks, beaten down by life. Until she snaps and murders four people over the course of a single evening, that is.
 The Match Factory Girl / int_779009b5
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 The Match Factory Girl / int_7a97b7f4
type
Morning Sickness
 The Match Factory Girl / int_7a97b7f4
comment
Morning Sickness: How Iris finds out that Aarne knocked her up, by vomiting in the morning.
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 The Match Factory Girl / int_7febc23b
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Establishing Character Moment
 The Match Factory Girl / int_7febc23b
comment
Establishing Character Moment: We learn all we need to know about Iris's mother and stepfather when, upon finding out that Iris bought a party dress, her stepfather slaps her and her mother doesn't raise a peep of protest.
 The Match Factory Girl / int_7febc23b
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 The Match Factory Girl / int_81a1960f
type
Silence Is Golden
 The Match Factory Girl / int_81a1960f
comment
Silence is Golden: Very little dialogue. Iris has two lines of dialogue over the first 25 minutes of the movie. Her stepfather has two lines for the entire film. Long stretches pass in silence. In fact, The Match Factory Girl easily could have been made as a silent movie.
 The Match Factory Girl / int_81a1960f
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 The Match Factory Girl / int_962ffef6
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ISO-Standard Urban Groceries
 The Match Factory Girl / int_962ffef6
comment
ISO-Standard Urban Groceries: When Iris meets her mother at the front door near the end, Mom is carrying a brown bag with some greens sticking up out of it.
 The Match Factory Girl / int_962ffef6
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The Match Factory Girl / int_962ffef6
 The Match Factory Girl / int_b1961af1
type
Offscreen Crash
 The Match Factory Girl / int_b1961af1
comment
Offscreen Crash: Iris walks out of frame. While the camera continues to point at a random building, there's the sound of a crash. The film then cuts to Iris in the hospital, having lost her baby after she was hit by a car.
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 The Match Factory Girl / int_b2af79fb
type
Leave the Camera Running
 The Match Factory Girl / int_b2af79fb
comment
Leave the Camera Running: There is very little camera movement in this movie; most of it is a series of static shots. The last three minutes or so are a single static shot that shows Iris at work, where she's arrested; the camera continues to run for a while after the cops have escorted her out. Really the only camera effect in the film is the zoom in on Iris's face when she finds out she's pregnant. The near-total lack of camera movement in the rest of the movie makes that shot quite dramatic.
 The Match Factory Girl / int_b2af79fb
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 The Match Factory Girl / int_ceec4df5
type
Roaring Rampage of Revenge
 The Match Factory Girl / int_ceec4df5
comment
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Over the last 20 minutes of the movie Iris murders Aarne, her mother, her stepfather, and some total stranger who made a pass at her at the bar. Her mother and stepfather were cruel and abusive towards her, Aarne knocked her up and abandoned her, and the stranger at the bar just pissed her off.
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 The Match Factory Girl / int_dab2f3ee
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Good Smoking, Evil Smoking
 The Match Factory Girl / int_dab2f3ee
comment
Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: About 20 minutes before the end, having had all her dreams shattered, Iris lights up a cigarette for the first time. This is immediately followed by her going on a murder spree.
 The Match Factory Girl / int_dab2f3ee
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The Match Factory Girl / int_dab2f3ee
 The Match Factory Girl / int_e5fd8bc2
type
Hate Sink
 The Match Factory Girl / int_e5fd8bc2
comment
Hate Sink: Iris' stepfather who beats her and calls her a whore for dressing up. Not only that, but he is completely ungrateful to her supporting him and her mother both financially and economically. Aarne, who takes advantage of Iris' kindness towards her and coldly turns down her feelings towards him. He is also completely indifferent about making her pregnant.
 The Match Factory Girl / int_e5fd8bc2
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 The Match Factory Girl / int_efe04722
type
Dances and Balls
 The Match Factory Girl / int_efe04722
comment
Dances and Balls: Iris's depressing life gets even more depressing when she goes to a dance hall and no one asks her to dance. She has enough time to drink five bottles of soda before she gives up and goes home.
 The Match Factory Girl / int_efe04722
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The Match Factory Girl / int_efe04722
 The Match Factory Girl / int_f09e6c1c
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Ironic Juxtaposition
 The Match Factory Girl / int_f09e6c1c
comment
Ironic Juxtaposition: Starts with a long introductory scene showing how a log becomes a bunch of matches, one step at a time, a sequence that could have come from How It's Made. The sequence ends with Iris checking labels on boxes, and then the film follows her home—changing clothes, clocking out, cooking dinner—in a manner that suggests her life is just as rote and machine-like as the machines at the factory.
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 The Match Factory Girl / int_f42f96fa
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Would Hit a Girl
 The Match Factory Girl / int_f42f96fa
comment
Would Hit a Girl: Iris's bastard of a stepfather slaps her and calls her a whore when he and her mother find out that Iris bought a party dress.
 The Match Factory Girl / int_f42f96fa
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The Match Factory Girl

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 The Match Factory Girl
hasFeature
Films of 1990–1994 / int_7bf45c98