Ystävykset

Guy de Maupassantin Ystävykset [title on film] / [Deux amis]. FI 1969. PC: FJ Filmi. P+D+SC: Anssi Mänttäri - based on the short story "Deux amis" by Guy de Maupassant (1883). DP: Heikki Katajisto - colour. M: Asko Mänttäri. S: Erkki Seiro. ED: Taina Kanth. CAST: Jukka Sipilä and Olavi Ahonen (the two friends), Jaakko Pakkasvirta, Matti Oravisto. 16 min. A KAVA print viewed at Cinema Orion, 15 May 2009. - The colour was somewhat red-brownish, but AM told me that it was already a bit like that when the print arrived from the Gevaert lab in the Netherlands in 1969. - In the presence of Anssi Mänttäri and Heikki Katajisto, interviewed by Markku Varjola. - AM: "As a young man I thought I was a gifted actor. Then I participated in Sissit [Guerrilla Patrol, 1963] as an actor, and started to think that I would want to become a director, instead. Aito Mäkinen and Juho Gartz urged me to apply for a grant for young artists. As I was leafing through books at the Academic Bookstore, I stumbled upon Guy de Maupassant short story 'Deux amis', read it then and there and decided to film it. There was never a script. On location we had the short story itself in hand. The DP was Heikki Katajisto, we shot in Kirkkonummi and Sipoo. As our crew asked for permission, the land-owner complained that there was still a hole in his boat since the last film crew was there. He never learned that I was to blame since I had been the propman in Hopeaa rajan takaa [Silver Beyond the Border, 1963]. " - Heikki Katajisto has photographed all Anssi Mänttäri's films during 40 years. "Like a ram by the rope", no. They have basically agreed on things, and sometimes quarrelled. - It is war. Two friends want to go fishing. "How stupid men are".