Kış Uykusu (Winter Sleep) (2014)

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Writers:  Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan
Cast:       Haluk Bilginer, Meliza Sozen, Demet Akbag
Language: Turkish

Aydin, a former actor, runs a small hotel in central Anatolia with his young wife Nihal with whom he has a stormy relationship and his sister Necla who is suffering from her recent divorce. In winter as the snow begins to fall, the hotel turns into a shelter but also an inescapable place that fuels their animosities...

Fuck me, that was an intense watch! Even though Aydin is only an actor by trade, he carries himself like an intellectual writing essays for the local newspaper on diverse range of topics. The name Aydin in Turkish means intellectual. He has got a sidekick, Hidayet, to take care of his hotel business as well as collecting rents from his tenants. Nihal is sort of a trophy wife for him and she spends her time organizing philanthropic activities. According to her, Aydin is a selfish and cynical hypocrite.Necla is a slacker kind of person who is of the opinion that hard thinking is an activity in itself. When she complains about getting bored in rural Anatolia, Aydin quips that boredom is a luxury. I can relate a lot to the siblings in the film and Nihal is the sort of person whom I despise. I have almost always found charity to be a selfish act that people indulge in to feel better about themselves and that is exactly what Nihal is doing. All three characters at various points in the film get brutally honest about each other and these are played out in a set-piece fashion with long verbal back and forth. Film is about 195 minutes long but the original cut ran for 270 minutes. 

I am a big fan of Nuri Bilge Ceylan and his earlier works had much in common with Michelangelo Antonioni's films. His last film 'Once upon a time in Anatolia' was a departure from that but with Winter Sleep he is coming back to familiar territory. That said this film is a bit dialog heavy whereas Antonioni relied more on gestures than speech. Ceylan's 'Climates' also dealt with marital crisis and Winter Sleep could be seen as a progression from there. It also featured some scenes from winter Anatolia. Overall it is a great watch despite the run time of more than three hours.  Each frame is picture perfect and interior scenes with kindling fire and lights are exquisitely done. In the closing credits there was a dedication to Anton Chekhov, whose work inspired Ceylan for making this film. Haluk Bilginer expertly plays the character of Aydin whom unravels over the course of the film. The power relation between him and his wife is not too dissimilar from the one between him and his tenants.  I was also reminded of Richard Linklater's 'Before Midnight' while watching this. 

Winter Sleep won Palme d'Or at Cannes but was excluded by the Academy awards from its final five in the foreign films category. Similarity in theme with last year's winner 'La grande belleza' might have worked against it. No genuine film fans should give a fuck about Oscars anyway. It will certainly be up there in my top films from 2014, but Boyhood still occupies the top spot. Yet to watch 'Leviathan' and 'Birdman'.

Rating: 5/5 

Üç Maymun (Three Monkeys) (2008)

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Writers:  Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan, Ercan Kesal
Cast:       Yavuz Bingol, Hatice Aslan, Ahmet Rifat Sungar, Ercan Kesal
Language: Turkish

A politician gearing up for election kills someone in a car accident. He persuades his driver to take the blame for it in return for a lump-sum amount of money when he gets released apart from his regular salary that will go to his family which consists of his wife and a jobless son. When he is in the jail, communication breaks down between the members of the family.

The title of the film is based on 'Gandhi's Three monkeys'-which is depicted usually by the sculpture of three monkeys conveying- "See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil".  

It actually originated in Japan in the seventeenth century but became famous as a visual metaphor for Gandhi's non-violent fight against colonialism, oppression and injustice. The other side of this tolerant and peaceful society is one which chooses a head in the sand approach and this is what Nuri Bilge Ceylan explores in the this film. Even as driver's wife enters into an adulterous relationship with the politician, the members of the family chooses to bury their heads in the sand since they can tolerate the disturbing status-quo and is quite happy with the monetary reward. Out of all the Ceylan films I have seen, 'Three Monkeys' is the most plot driven one and it works out as a noir genre piece. It is also the only one in which Ceyan has got writing partners which might explain the tonal difference when compared with his other films. 

I don't know whether the print I got was bad because there wasn't much color in the film and it looked like a grim greyish hell. It could be intentional as well considering the subject matter. Overall the film is a great watch but I think the story is much more relatable for people from the developing world because of the power distance between the characters which the Western audience might find unusual. I didn't particularly like the ending bit where the driver is seen persuading a poor acquaintance to take the blame for a crime that his family committed. Thought it was a half-arsed attempt by the director to shoe-horn a message that people from all classes behave in similar manner when they are in a position of relative power. It is definitely the weakest Ceylan film I have seen but still a very good one.

 Rating: 3.5/5

İklimler (Climates) (2006)

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Writer:    Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Cast:       Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan, Nazan Kesal
Language: Turkish

A dowdy university professor Isa is an inattentive husband to his younger, TV-business wife Bahar. Self-absorbed and selfish, Isa only communicates in the most rudimentary way, while she, similarly, detaches into crying jags and juvenile behavior.

The real life couple of the director and his wife plays the roles of Isa and Bahar in the film. It starts off when they are on vacation in a beach-town during the summer. The break-up happens over there with Isa returning to Istanbul and Bahar moving to Eastern Turkey for her TV project. Lonely Isa gets into a relationship with Serap, who seems to have more in common with him than Bahar, and we are led to believe that their relationship have a prior history. Isa then goes back to Eastern Turkey during the winter in order to make a final attempt to get back with Bahar and it seems both of them are still not sure about what they want.

Out of the three films of Ceylan that I have watched so far, Climates is the one that makes you reminisce most about Antonioni films. Like L'Avventura, it begins with a couple on a vacation over the course of which they get separated. Film is shot exquisitely and much of it is conveyed by expressions and subtle gestures. There are many instances where audience is deceived by the imagery and scene edits. There is one long continuous shot of a sex scene which begins as a rape that reminded me of 'A History of Violence'. 

Like Antonioni films, it might not be suitable to everyone's taste but I loved it. Antonioni leaves the audience to figure out everything by pure observation whereas Ceylan uses dialog also to convey what is going on through the actors' minds. Having said that, I found that some of what they were saying were not exactly what I was figuring out based on the gestures. I don't know whether this is intentional from the director, but the deceptions based on mirrors, edits etc would suggest that. Ceylan's films are highly recommended for fans of Michelangelo Antonioni. 

Rating: 5/5  

Uzak (Distant) (2002)

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Writer:    Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Cast:       Muzaffer Ozdemir, Emin Toprak
Language: Turkish

After his wife leaves him, a photographer has an existential crisis and tries to cope with his cousin's visit, who comes to Istanbul in search for a job.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan has cited Michelangelo Antonioni as one of his biggest influences and it is pretty much evident in his films. He recently won Palme d'Or for his most recent release, Winter Sleep, and I I had only seen the magnificent 'Once Upon a Time in Anatolia' from his filmography before this. Whilst OPaTiA was set in rural Turkey, Uzak is set in Istanbul where two characters-one veteran migrant from a village and a recent migrant are contrasted even though both of them are going through alienation. The former, Mahmut, is an intellectual photographer while the latter, Yusuf, is uneducated and unsophisticated. Both of them are not capable of engaging in a healthy romantic relationship and are summed up in an earlier scene in the film- Mahmut is watching Tarkovsky's Stalker on TV and Yusuf gets bored and leaves for bed. As soon as he goes, Mahumt switches to watch a porn film, not that there is anything with it. The story of the film is told visually as we go through Istanbul's winter season (I didn't know that it snowed in Istanbul). 

Having unwanted guests who are not at all compatible with you and invade your privacy is something that we have all faced some point of time. That arc is very well captured in the film with the initial accomodative stance moving towards, annoyance and finally resentment. Films ends with Yusuf leaving without notice and Mahmut contemplating by staring at a ship that has sailed. It is much more accessible film than OPaTiA and is something we, in the developing world, can relate to very well. It is really a pleasure to watch a contemplative film that tells its story through relatively small things that we encounter in life.

Film might not be as visually ambitious as OPaTiA was but it is still fantastic to watch. Emin Toprak, who played Yusuf, died tragically in a car crash at the age of 28 immediately after the filming was completed.

Rating: 5/5

Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) (2011)

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Writers:  Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bige Ceylan, Ercan Kesal

Cast:      Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel

Language: Turkish

A group of men set out in search of a dead body in the Anatolian steppes.

The film at two and half hours is a slow burner but it is a very rewarding experience. It is a masterpiece. It won the Grand Prix at Cannes. Back story is not given but a general picture of each of the character's inner turmoil is formed by the end. There are a couple of standout sequences, especially the one where the Mayor's daughter serves all of them tea, I guess.

Rating: 5/5