--- product_id: 94684673 title: "I Hired A Contract Killer ( 1990 ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Finland ]" brand: "jean-pierre léaudmargi clarkeaki kaurismaki" price: "$59.00" currency: USD in_stock: true reviews_count: 7 url: https://www.desertcart.us/products/94684673-i-hired-a-contract-killer-1990-non-usa-format-pal store_origin: US region: United States of America --- # I Hired A Contract Killer ( 1990 ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Finland ] **Brand:** jean-pierre léaudmargi clarkeaki kaurismaki **Price:** $59.00 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** I Hired A Contract Killer ( 1990 ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Finland ] by jean-pierre léaudmargi clarkeaki kaurismaki - **How much does it cost?** $59.00 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.us](https://www.desertcart.us/products/94684673-i-hired-a-contract-killer-1990-non-usa-format-pal) ## Best For - jean-pierre léaudmargi clarkeaki kaurismaki enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted jean-pierre léaudmargi clarkeaki kaurismaki brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Finland released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), Danish ( Subtitles ), Finnish ( Subtitles ), Norwegian ( Subtitles ), Swedish ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: After fifteen years' service, Henri Boulanger is made redundant from his job. Shocked, he attempts suicide, but can't go through with it, so he hires a contract killer in a seedy bar to murder him at some unspecified time in the future. But almost immediately he meets and falls in love with Margaret, a flower-seller, which makes Henri realise that his life has some meaning after all. But when he goes back to the bar to cancel the contract, he finds it has been demolished - and there's no way he can get in touch with the killer... SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Venice Film Festival, ...I Hired A Contract Killer ( 1990 ) ## Images ![I Hired A Contract Killer ( 1990 ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Finland ] - Image 1](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NnVkB6wuL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A movie with heart *by T***D on Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2008* Aki Kaurismäki, like all true film auteurs, creates worlds. Not in the sci-fi fantasy sense -- though, I am not excluding sci-fi, merely broadening the concept -- but in the subjective sense. Like Jarmusch, Fassbinder and Lynch, you get a feeling while watching a Kaurismäki movie that you are watching something highly personal. And so it goes with his odd and amusing love story, I Hired a Contract Killer, about a man who wants to kill himself but reconsiders after falling in love.Roll your eyes and say you've seen that kind of movie before, but with Kaurismäki at the helm you get something genuinely touching, without forced pathos, incidental-music, or faux-inspirational endings. Starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, the French nouvelle vague star of such movies as American Night and 400 blows, IHCK moves us from Kaurismäki's usual film location in Helsinki to London. Like the down-and-out squalor of Kaurismäki's working class neighborhoods in Helsinki, the London depicted here isn't the refined upper-class cosmopolis depicted in Woody Allen's latest movies, rather it's a drab, trash-strewn working class London full of thugs and hard-drinking wage slaves.Jean-Pierre is plays a Frenchman named Henri, who was spent the las 15 years of his life working for the same boring English company. Because of financial difficulties, his job has become redundant, and "foreigners" are the first ones to get the ax. Distraught -- for his rote day job was the only thing that kept him from self-reflection -- Henri decides to kill himself. He attempts to hang himself, fails when the rope snaps; so he tries to gas himself, but a gas strike that day leaves him without gas. The next day he reads an article about hitmen operating in the city, and decides to hire a hitman to do the job.He finds a lowdown bar in the roughest part of London and ridiculously goes to the bar and orders a ginger ale, much to the derision of the roughnecks around him. He announces, in his strong French accent, that "where I come from, veee eeet people like you for breakfast". This seems to calm suspicions. He finally meets the underworld boss and hires a contract killer.He spends the next hours anticipating his imminent death by constantly looking over his shoulder and providing clues for the hitman to find him. One such clue is a note on his front door, indicating that he has gone out for a pint in the bar across the street. The very night that the hitman is about to finish his job, he meets Margaret, a young women selling roses, and -- in typically quirky Kaurismäki fashion -- immediately falls in love. After barely evading the hitman that night, he decides to call off the job. So he goes back to the bar from where he hired him, and, rather hilariously, it has burned down.This is probably the most Hitchcockian Kaurismäki has ever gotten, but it's an amusing and suspenseful plot device. Henri and Margaret spend the rest of the movie one step ahead of the hitman, moving from her small apartment to a hotel, and finally with Henri going on the lamb when he finds himself unfairly implicated in a neighborhood hold up. Much like the characters in Jarmush's Down by Law, Henri becomes an innocent man with just about everybody against him -- and, like Jarmush, Kaurismäki manages to make all his characters endearing and subtly humorous. This great mashup of an absurd, Kafka-esque world, nearly-Hitchcockian suspense, and gentle humor, make this a not just a gangster movie parody, or a run-of-the mill love story, but truly, a movie with heart. ### ⭐⭐⭐ THE BEGINNINGS OF A FUTURE MASTER *by D***. on Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2007* 1990. Written and directed by Aki Kaurismäki. Another early work of the Finnish master. Jean-Pierre Léaud, Truffaut's fetish actor, loses his job and, desperate, hires a contract killer to kill him. Cat and mouse chase in the London of the poor people. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Hommage an den "film noir" *by F***R on Reviewed in Germany on March 15, 2013* Im Zuge einer Privatisierung seines Betriebs wird der in London lebende französische Staatsbürger Henri Boulanger nach 15 Jahren Dienst entlassen. Er kündigt seine Wohnung und beschließt sich umzubringen. Seine Versuche scheitern jedoch kläglich. Henri sucht daraufhin ein Lokal in der Unterwelt auf und engagiert einen Auftragskiller, der den Job für ihn erledigen soll. Als er anschließend in ein Pub geht, trinkt er zum ersten Mal in seinem Leben einen Whiskey. Henri verliebt sich prompt in eine Blumenverkäuferin namens Margaret. Seine Lebensfreude erwacht von Neuem. Doch der Auftragskiller ist bereits hinter ihm her... Henri zieht bei Margaret ein und geht zu der Bar, um den Auftrag wieder rückgängig zu machen. Die Spelunke liegt allerdings inzwischen in Schutt und Asche. Sie wurde abgerissen. Henri befindet sich fortan auf der Flucht vor dem Killer, der selbst dem Tod ins Auge blickt. Der Fortgang der Geschichte ist skurril und amüsant.Die Hauptfigur Henri Boulanger ist ein lustiger, schräger Vogel, eine typische Kaurismäki-Figur.Die Dialoge sind sparsam und wunderbar. Bei einigen habe ich herzhaft schmunzeln müssen. Beispiele: "Warum willst du dich umbringen, Henri?" "Aus persönlichen Gründen" - "Warum bist du weg aus Frankreich, Henri?" "Die wollten mich nicht...dort". Auch ein bemerkenswerter und einprägsamer Satz, der zum Ende des Films von Margaret gesprochen wird: "Die Arbeiterklasse hat kein Vaterland".Joe Strummer von "The Clash" (Gott habe ihn selig) ist mit "Burning Lights" in einer Nebenrolle zu sehen.Der Film lohnt sich!! --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.us/products/94684673-i-hired-a-contract-killer-1990-non-usa-format-pal](https://www.desertcart.us/products/94684673-i-hired-a-contract-killer-1990-non-usa-format-pal) --- *Product available on Desertcart United States of America* *Store origin: US* *Last updated: 2026-05-20*