Cominciare dalla fine
Un finale aperto e bellissimo. Cominciare dalla fine, si può? Sì, se la conclusione chiude e apre allo stesso tempo. L’Orient Express è finalmente arrivato a Istanbul, dove il nostro amico Carleton Myatt, commerciante ebreo in trasferta per firmare un importante contratto, si ritrova felicemente nel suo ambiente. Lo riconoscono tutti all’Hotel, lo coccolano e lui si sente a casa. Il disagio che l’aveva assalito durante il lungo viaggio da Ostenda a Istanbul si è dissipato. Ora può finalmente organizzare la sua vita e i suoi commerci, come vuole lui.
Essere Ebrei: un codice condiviso che porta alla felicità
“And that’s that, Myatt thought, pulling at his black tie, everything is easy now that I know her mother was Jewish. It was easy to talk hard all through dinner and to put his arm round her as they walked from the Pera Palace to the Petits Champs near the British Embassy[…] “Myatt said, ‘Don’t go back to her. Stay with me.’ ‘Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff. The Istanbul train.’ She nodded and their hands moved together. He wondered whether Mr Stein had the contract in his pocket.”
Una storia drammatica tra il giallo e l’avventura umana. I protagonisti
Sul treno si incrociano i destini di alcuni uomini e donne in viaggio verso la città del Bosforo.
Il dottor Czinner è un medico in incognito, comunista da Belgrado, scappato da una sentenza politica.
“He assured her, ‘It’s a mistake. They are frightened. There has been rioting in Belgrade. They want me, that’s all.’ ‘But why? You’re English, aren’t you?’ ‘No, I’m one of them,’ he said with some bitterness. ‘What have you done?’ ‘I’ve tried to make things different.’ He explained with an air of distaste for labels: ‘I am a Communist.’”
Coral Musker è una ballerina di fila Inglese alla ricerca di fama e stabilità: un corpo sottile e consapevole in lotta con una vita che la pone spesso di fronte a vicende inaspettate e dall’esito incerto.
“Go to Constantinople for anyway? Getting married?’ ‘Not that I know of.’ She laughed a little through the melancholy of departure and the fear of strangeness. ‘One can’t tell, can one?’ ‘Work?’ ‘Dancing. Variety[…]Her mackintosh showed the thinness of her body, which even while stumbling between the rails and sleepers retained its self-consciousness”.
Janet Pardoe è una bella e giovane donna, dalla vita sentimentale complessa, che alla fine si rivelerà essere una persona con un’identità diversa da quella mostrata durante il viaggio.
Mabel Warren è una giornalista omosessuale, moderna e determinata. Abbandonata da Janet, Mabel non si rassegna e insegue l’amata sull’Orient Express, Lotta per conciliare i suoi slanci d’amore con la passione per il suo lavoro, mettendo a rischio anche la sua incolumità. Il suo scoop sul caso del dottor Czinner, trasmesso frettolosamente al telefono, le costa una borsa e molto altro. D’altra parte con lui ha fatto uno sporco gioco, ricattandolo.
“This is your bill page lead, and you’ve got to hold it for half an hour. If I don’t ring again shoot it off. The Communist outbreak at Belgrade, which was put down with some loss of life on Wednesday night, as reported in our later editions yesterday, was planned by the notorious agitator, Dr Richard Czinner, who disappeared during the Kamnetz trial (no Kamnetz, K for Kaiser, A for Arse, M for Mule, N for Navel, no not that kind. It doesn’t matter; it’s the same letter. E for Erotic, T for Tart, Z for Zebra. Got it?), Kamnetz trial. Note to sub-editor. See press cuttings, August 1927. He was believed to have been murdered by Government agents, but although a warrant was out for his arrest, he escaped, and in an exclusive interview with our special correspondent described his life as a schoolmaster at Great Birchington-on-Sea.”
Mr Savory è un noto scrittore, egocentrico e borioso. Il suo comportamento è sempre orientato alla affermazione di sé e al riconoscimento da parte della gente. Janet Pardoe si prende una bella cotta per lui. Insieme formano una coppia molto affiatata.
Grünlich è un delinquente che si trova casualmente coinvolto nelle vicende dei passeggeri protagonisti della storia e da scaltro malfattore quale è riesce a sfruttare le occasioni che gli si offrono, riuscendo sempre a farla franca in barba alla legge.
Stamboul Train (1931) è una sorta di giallo alla Agatha Christie (1934), dove il gioco delle parti assume una connotazione drammatica e ricca di tensione narrativa. Il viaggio è un luogo fantastico dove molti di noi sperimentano un piacevole senso di sospensione, dove, abitanti di una terra provvisoria e affascinante, ci piace vivere una condizione che sappiamo bene non appartenerci, ma che ci cattura e ci illude, E tutti siamo consapevoli del fatto che, alla stazione di arrivo, il gioco termina e torneremo irrimediabilmente alla realtà di sempre.
Noise is silence silence is noise- “In the train, however fast it travelled, the passengers were compulsorily at rest; useless between the walls of glass to feel emotion, useless to try to follow any activity except of the mind; and that activity could be followed without fear of interruption[…]But in the rushing reverberating express, noise was so regular that it was the equivalent of silence, movement was so continuous that after a while the mind accepted it as stillness.”
Il treno favorisce anche la nascita di nuovi amori. Coral e Carleton si avvicinano l’uno all’altra spinti da un bisogno di supporto, di confidenza e di complicità. Sono entrambi oggetto di diffidenza e discriminazione, ma insieme stanno bene. Fanno l’amore in treno e pianificano il futuro. Come finirà?
Con grande maestria letteraria Greene ci fa diventare passeggeri di quel treno, ci coinvolge in un crescendo narrativo i cui toni diventano sempre più acuti, città dopo città, paese dopo paese, fino al climax, fino a Istanbul.
Stamboul Train è il perfetto copione di un film che contiene tutti gli ingredienti necessari per destare curiosità e interesse: spie, commercianti ebrei dai tratti sospetti; ballerine di fila, delinquenti in fuga, agitatori politici delusi, processi sommari, vittime incolpevoli di omicidi efferati, stereotipi tanto banali quanto efficaci. E meravigliose città Europee dense di storia e intrighi. Purtroppo il film non ebbe molto successo, ma in compenso il romanzo è diventato uno dei più apprezzati della produzione letteraria di Graham Greene, a cui molti altri scrittori si sono ispirati.
Assaggi
Istanbul e il Corno d’Oro-“Pera fell steeply away below them, the lights of fishing boats in the Golden Horn flashed like pocket torches, and the waiters went round serving coffee.”
Neve complice, soffice, coperta che protegge e frena la corsa verso la libertà di Coral e di Czinner-“For the last few hours the sun had been obscured, but its presence had been shown in the glitter of the falling snow, in the whiteness of the drifts; now it was sinking and the snow was absorbing the greyness of the sky; he would not get back to the train before dark.”
Nello scompartimento il Dottor Czinner parla dei “borghesi”-‘They are always the same, the bourgeois,’ he said. ‘The proletariat have their virtues, and the gentleman is often good, just, and brave. He is paid for something useful, for governing or teaching or healing, or his money is his father’s. He does not deserve it perhaps, but he has done no one harm to get it. But the bourgeois—he buys cheap and sells dear. He buys from the worker and sells back to the worker. He is useless.’”
Il medico Czinner non puo cambiare il mondo, il socialista sì?– “His parents had starved themselves that he might be a doctor, he himself had gone hungry and endangered his health that he might be a doctor, and it was only when he had practised for several years that he realized the uselessness of his skill. He could do nothing for his own people; he could not recommend rest to the worn-out or prescribe insulin to the diabetic, because they had not the money to pay for either[…]And now there was only one dim candle to light the vast room. I am not a son, he thought, nor a doctor, nor a believer, I am a Socialist;”
La lettera di Mabel Warren alla cugina introduce alcuni dei passeggeri con cui entra direttamente in contatto. E ci aiuta a mettere a fuoco il suo personaggio-“”Dear Cousin Con [she wrote] I’m writing to you because I’ve nothing better to do. This is the Orient Express, but I’m not going on to Constantinople. I’m getting out at Vienna. But that’s another story. Could you get me five yards of ring velvet? Pink. I’m having my flat done up again, while Janet’s away. She’s on the same train, but I’m leaving her at Vienna. A job of work really, chasing a hateful old man half across Europe ‘The Great Gay Round’ is on board, but of course you don’t read books.
And a rather charming little dancer called Coral, whom I think I shall take as my companion. I can’t make up my mind whether to have my flat re-decorated. Janet says she’ll only be away a week. You mustn’t on any account pay more than eight-and-eleven a yard. Blue, I think, would suit me, but of course not navy. This man I was telling you about [wrote Miss Warren, following Janet Pardoe with her eyes, digging the pen into the paper] thinks himself too clever for me, but you know as well as I do, don’t you, Con, that I can play hell with anyone who thinks that. Janet is a bitch.
I’m thinking of getting a new companion. There’s a little actress on this train who would suit me. You should see her, the loveliest figure, Con. You’d admire her as much as I do. Not very pretty, but with lovely legs. I really think I must get my flat done up. Which reminds me. You can go up to ten-and-eleven with that ring velvet. I may be going on to Belgrade, so wait till you hear from me again. Janet seems to be getting a pash for this Savory man. But I can play hell with him too if I want to.
Good-bye. Look after yourself. Give my love to Elsie. I hope she looks after you better than Janet does me. You’ve always been luckier, but wait till you see Coral. For God’s sake don’t forget that ring velvet. Much love. Mabel. P.S.”
L’autore ce lo racconta così
“That year, 1931, for the first and last time in my life I deliberately set out to write a book to please, one which with luck might be made into a film.” “The devil looks after his own and in [Stamboul Train] I succeeded in both aims, though the film rights seemed at the time an unlikely dream, for before I had completed the book, Marlene Dietrich had appeared in Shanghai Express, the English had made Rome Express, and even the Russians had produced their railway film, Turksib. The film manufactured from my book by Twentieth Century-Fox came last and was far and away the worst, though not so bad as a later television production by the BBC.” Graham Greene
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