The only names he knew

Aki Kaurismäki (Source for the photo: here)

 

In “Le Havre”, the mobile phone is literally an instrument of the devil, isn’t it?

Yes.

It is a wonderful moment, you recognize Jean-Pierre Léaud, and then …

Yes, I like the idea that he was in Truffaut’s Les quatre cents coups, and he was 12 years old and haunted. I show him 50 years later – and now he’s informer. That’s what society does to you.

I imagine characters names like Arletty and Dr. Becker are not coincidental in their reference to great figures in French cinema.

They are the only names I knew.

 

• Aki Kaurismäki, in an interview with Michael Brooke for Sight & Sound, May 2012