Suuri illusioni

Den stora illusionen / The Grand Illusion. FI (c) 1985 Elokuvatuottajat Oy. P: Claes Olsson, Matti Penttilä. D: Tuija-Maija Niskanen. SC: Anja Kauranen - based on the novel by Mika Waltari (1928). DP: Kari Sohlberg - colour - 1:1,66. AD: Erkki Saarainen. Make-up: Helena Lindgren, Nadja Pyykkö. M: Kaija Saariaho. S: Paul Jyrälä, Kari J. Koski. Starring: Pekka Valkeejärvi (Hart), Stina Ekblad (Caritas), Markku Toikka (Hellas), Rea Mauranen (Madame Spindel), with Jack Helen Brut and Homo $. 95 min. Mostly in Finnish but also in Swedish, German, French, English, and Latin, with Finnish subtitles. Vintage print viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 5 March 2008. The name of the film has nothing to do with Jean Renoir as it is taken from the novel published ten years earlier. The opening of our Centenary tribute to the author Mika Waltari was this film based on his first novel. The author himself was later embarrassed by his superficial and pseudo-decadent work and only grudgingly let it be re-published as he recognized that it was a document of its time, a youthful look at the Roaring Twenties. The young author Anja Kauranen at the start of her career was fascinated by Waltari and wrote the screenplay. Tuija-Maija Niskanen directed the film, and Kaija Saariaho composed for it her only music for a theatrical motion picture so far. A lot of talent combined, but there is a curiously indifferent feeling, although the film is professionally made with a decent budget. The main characters and the actors portraying them fail to move. The film was supposed to make a connection between the superficial 1920s and the superficial 1980s, but it missed. The performance groups Jack Helen Brut and Homo $ play decadent 1920s characters with relish. The print is excellent, paying justice to the superb lensing of Kari Sohlberg. The film is not successful, but there may be interesting deep layers as the result of a long incubation period.