Winter Games (15.)
Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
Starring Haluk Bilginer, Melisa Sozen, Demet Akbag, Ayberk Peckan, Serhat Mustafa Kilic and Nejat Isler. Turkish with subtitles. 195 mins
His previous film Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, a slow, lengthy, contemplative epic, lifted Ceylan into the vanguard of European arthouse directors. His follow up is a slower, lengthier, even more contemplative epic that was awarded the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival. It's a striking work, a rigorous study of a man on the edge of old age with only his delusion for comfort, but I can't help feeling that maybe this is a case of awarding the Palm D'Or after the masterpiece has bolted.
Aydin (Bilginer) is a former actor who is wealthy because is has taken over his father's property empire. His base is the Othello Hotel, a striking collection of converted caves set in a stunning Anatolian location that resembles a lunar landscape. It is the most striking film hotel set since The Shining, but unlike Jack Torrance, Aydin doesn't seek isolation, but is inadvertently bringing it upon himself by patronising his young wife and divorced sister.
The film focuses on Ceylan's recurring theme, how intellectuals deal with uneducated country folk. The first hour is alive with possibilities but in the second hour the film shuts itself away to concentrate on a series of long theatrical dialogue scenes. Aydin expresses his disdain for soap opera but the film has moments of pure soap, especially a melodramatic gesture towards the end that feels entirely bogus. Bilginer, with his stocky frame, snow tinged beard and wavy, receding hair is almost the generic European arthouse leading man – part Klaus Maria Brandhauer, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Bruno Ganz and the film, though impressive, is generic European arthouse.
Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
Starring Haluk Bilginer, Melisa Sozen, Demet Akbag, Ayberk Peckan, Serhat Mustafa Kilic and Nejat Isler. Turkish with subtitles. 195 mins
His previous film Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, a slow, lengthy, contemplative epic, lifted Ceylan into the vanguard of European arthouse directors. His follow up is a slower, lengthier, even more contemplative epic that was awarded the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival. It's a striking work, a rigorous study of a man on the edge of old age with only his delusion for comfort, but I can't help feeling that maybe this is a case of awarding the Palm D'Or after the masterpiece has bolted.
Aydin (Bilginer) is a former actor who is wealthy because is has taken over his father's property empire. His base is the Othello Hotel, a striking collection of converted caves set in a stunning Anatolian location that resembles a lunar landscape. It is the most striking film hotel set since The Shining, but unlike Jack Torrance, Aydin doesn't seek isolation, but is inadvertently bringing it upon himself by patronising his young wife and divorced sister.
The film focuses on Ceylan's recurring theme, how intellectuals deal with uneducated country folk. The first hour is alive with possibilities but in the second hour the film shuts itself away to concentrate on a series of long theatrical dialogue scenes. Aydin expresses his disdain for soap opera but the film has moments of pure soap, especially a melodramatic gesture towards the end that feels entirely bogus. Bilginer, with his stocky frame, snow tinged beard and wavy, receding hair is almost the generic European arthouse leading man – part Klaus Maria Brandhauer, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Bruno Ganz and the film, though impressive, is generic European arthouse.
