Sibelius

Available on DVD

Finland 2003 colour/B/W 116min Artista Filmi Oy

***½

Drama

cast: Martti Suosalo (Jean Sibelius), Miina Turunen (Aino), Heikki Nousiainen (elder Sibelius), Seela Sella (elder Aino), Vesa Vierikko (Kajanus), Raimo Grönberg (Wegelius), Jarmo Mäkinen (Gallen-Kallela), Rea Mauranen, Eija Nousiainen, Tapani Kalliomäki (Armas Järnefelt)
credits: dir. & script & prod. Timo Koivusalo, music by Jean Sibelius and Osmo Vänskä, costumes Marjaana Mutanen, edit. Timo Koivusalo and Jyrki Luukko

Jean Sibelius, a famous Finnish composer, is definitely one of those persons, who will be always remembered as one of great Finns. This movie is his biography. It shows the tragic childhood of the genius, his wild years with heavy drinking and all which comes with it and the ageing maestro with his loyal wife and charming daughters.

Mr. Koivusalo isn’t a great director. He isn’t also a great writer but he has done his best for this movie. It’s powerful drama, because of the music which is composed - of course - by Jean Sibelius. Martti Suosalo plays young Sibelius well, as usual, and Heikki Nousiainen is also quite good as the ageing maestro. Although Mr. Koivusalo has used some clichés (he seems to not get rid of those), this is a good film. After all, it’s not easy to make a movie about somebody, who has so big role in Finnish history.

---