NELJÄ PÄIVÄNLASKUA (a novel by Mika Waltari)

Mika Waltari: Neljä päivänlaskua [Four Sunsets] / [Fyra solnedgånger]. Helsinki: WSOY 1949. A novel about a novel. A fictive account on the writing of the novel Sinuhe the Egyptian (1945), with magical, fairy-tale aspects. The author reports that he has worked profitably for years as a nail merchant but is now inspired again to write, which he enjoys immensely, haunted by Sinuhe and the other ancient Egyptians. His heart exists separately from his body, taken care of by his wife, then lost and found at the home of a former sweetheart. The main writing takes place in the country, in deep forest, in the care of grandmother. The writer observes the coming of the spring, the summer, and the autumn. He is tempted by alcohol and experiments with the powerful drugs of the fly-agarik mushroom and the thorn-apple, mixed with brandy. He is fascinated by a huge flock of bream spawning in the shallow bay. He enjoys pike prepared in the oven with a filling of plum, eggs and barley. He talks with animals. A deeply neurotic novel which aspires hard to be light and spirited. A main stylistic device is repetition, which feels annoying. The magic spells are meant to banish madness. The silence on the world-historical moment is absolute.

The Egyptian (2008 print 20th Century Fox)

Michael Curtiz: The Egyptian (US 1954). Edmund Purdom as Sinuhe.

Sinuhe, egyptiläinen / Sinuhe, egyptiern. 

    US © 1954 Twentieth Century Fox. P: Darryl F. Zanuck. 

    D: Michael Curtiz. SC: Philip Dunne, Casey Robinson – based on the novel by Mika Waltari (1946). DP: Leon Shamroy – DeLuxe – CinemaScope 1:2,55. M: Alfred Newman, Bernard Herrmann. 

    Starring: Edmund Purdom (Sinuhe), Jean Simmons (Merit), Peter Ustinov (Kaptah), Michael Wilding (Akhenaten), Bella Darvi (Nefer), Victor Mature (Horemheb), Gene Tierney (Baketamon), Anitra Stevens (Nefertiti). 

    139 min

    New 1:2,35 print (not full 1:2,55) from 20th Century Fox: "We recently made new separation masters and fully retimed this new print" (Kevin Barrett).

    35 mm print screened at Suomen elokuva-arkisto, Orion, Helsinki, 6 March 2008. 

Curtiz wanted Brando to star as Sinuhe but got Edmund Purdom instead, and the picture lost the electricity typical of Curtiz when he had a star like Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart or Elvis Presley.

Jean Simmons, Gene Tierney, Peter Ustinov, Michael Wilding and Victor Mature are fine, the production values are superb, the cinematography is wonderful, the score majestic. But the picture lacks depth and urgency. 

The novel by Mika Waltari is an allegory of disillusion after WWII. Waltari had already written the play Akhnaton, auringosta syntynyt [Akhenaten, Born of the Sun, 1937]. The novel has deep links to the Akhenaten speculations of the previous decade by James Henry Breasted (The Dawn of Conscience, 1933), Thomas Mann (Joseph und seine Brüder, 1933–1943) and Sigmund Freud (Der Mann Moses, 1939). 

In contrast to them Waltari bypasses Judaism and invents a direct link from Akhenaten's Monoteism to Christianity. However, the philosophical wisdom attributed to Egyptians by Waltari is based on the Torah, passages such as The Ecclesiastes and Solomon's Proverbs, and already presented by Waltari in his first published work, the collection of poems Sinun ristisi juureen [Beneath Thy Cross, 1927], in the poem "Salomon saarnaaja" ["Solomon the Ecclesiast"]. There are no Jews in Waltari's novel, but he gives a clue that they are referred to as the Khabir people. 

Before Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, The Egyptian was the best-sold foreign-language novel in the US according to Wikipedia. 

The new Fox print is brilliant.

SUURI ILLUSIONI (a novel by Mika Waltari)

Suuri illusioni (The Grand Illusion). A novel by Mika Waltari, originally published in 1928. Reprint (Porvoo: WSOY 1968) with a new foreword by the author, acknowledging the inspiration of Michael Arlen's The Green Hat (1924), filmed as A Woman of Affairs (1928, with Greta Garbo). Michael Arlen was the model of the author Michaelis, the first, not sufficiently satisfying lover (skilful but not orgasmic) for Connie Chatterley in Lady Chatterley's Lover (also 1928). I had never read Waltari's first novel before, but now I enjoyed the urban poetry, the passion for modernity, the love of Paris and the Jazz Age romanticism of the 20-year-old author. The deadly earnest flirting with decadence sounds amusing from a latterday perspective. This must have been hard to swallow for the adult Waltari, but his first novel is a vital testimony of its age.

Suuri illusioni / The Grand Illusion

Tuija-Maija Niskanen: Suuri illusioni  / The Grand Illusion (FIU 1985). Pekka Valkeejärvi (Hart), Stina Ekblad (Caritas), Markku Toikka (Hellas).

Den stora illusionen. FI © 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 (later known as Anja Snellman) 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.

Nuoria ihmisiä

A-001770 / 16 / FI 1943 / Elstelä, Ossi / comedy
Nuoria ihmisiä / Young People. PC: Suomen Filmiteollisuus. P: T.J. Särkkä. D: Ossi Elstelä, Toivo Särkkä. SC: Mika Waltari. CAST: Hannes Häyrinen, Mervi Järventaus, Laila Jokimo, Kyllikki Forssell. 74’. B&w. Viewed at SEA, Cinema Orion, Helsinki, on Wednesday, 10 September 1997. Brilliant safety print. BOMB. The daffy Hannes Häyrinen vehicle was written for him by the great Mika Waltari, who was not above hack work for the cinema. The comedian plays a lunatic inventor who keeps falling in love at first sight. Among the performers of the rapidly changing episodes we meet the Tango King of Finland, Olavi Virta, who sings a song written by Waltari. He is not at his best, nor anyone else of the talent involved. The film gets annoying, but the cast and the photography are enjoyable.