FILM : Winter Sleep (Kis Uykusu) winner of Palm Dor, highest honor at Cannes 2014 LANGUAGE : Turkish COUNTRY : Turkey Link to trailer : https://vimeo/94646085 COMMENTS: Ever since watching this film, I am reading all about it as much as I can, hooked on interviews of Nuri Bilge Ceylan I am ever more curious to know how he works as a director. For me, watching a film is surrender, it’s giving up everything in my thoughts, making room for a new world and letting it take you where ever it wants. I had been looking forward to Winter Sleep all year. As the movie opens you are taken by the beauty of its setting, Cappadocia, a landscape of caves frequented by tourists and there lies our protagonist, Aydin. A retired actor, running a hotel with no spine to confront his tenants who have failed at paying rent. With him live his young wife Nihal and his recently divorced sister, Necla. Each relationship is deeply explored in this film. Though the listed characters hold the main narrative, each story line has such nuances that one is left thinking about all the characters and the actors that have portrayed them. This is the film that restores my faith, that good dialogue can carry a film further than stylized antics. The beauty of Cappadocia is always outside the window of the room where Aydin and Nihal are watching their marriage disintegrate. I was afraid of shooting in Cappadocia because it might have been too beautiful, too interesting. But I didnt show it too much, I hope. says Nuri Bilge Ceylan, I believe this contrast of a breathtaking environment, not a newfound idea I’m sure, heightens every conflicted emotion conveyed in a scene. Lonliness of Suavi is established when you see his vast farm for the first time only to visit an old man keeping warm in his cottage, pondering where all the people who made his life disappeared, his wife is gone, his daughter lives too far. I liked the actors who played the supporting roles, and much of my comments are about them. Aydin, Nihal and Necla have done their due diligence. The scenes between Aydin and Necla spoke for me in terms of good writing. In one of his interviews Nuri Bilge Ceylan says he likes when him and his wife, who is also his co-writer fight because then the dialogue is really good, I think the scenes between Aydin and Necla must have been a product of one or many such occasions. Back to the supporting actors, each of their motivations came through, whether it was Hidayet, a loyal employee of Aydin, who watches for him and often a comic relief but never too far fetched in it. In fact I really want to see Ayberk Pekcan, who plays Hidayet in more films. His concerns are sincere, or Hamdi who you see as someone sleazy, but as you are in this journey you find yourself sympathizing with him later, and that is why Winter Sleep is emotionally charged. I felt Nejat Isler’s was well invested as Ismail, as soon as he enters the scene where Nihal and Hamdi are present, you know nothing good is going to come out of it. It’s a very edge-of-the-seat kind of scene.. and as soon as Ismail steps in you know things will change in a way they cannot be altered (not gonna give it away). There is so much to write about each relationship, in fact this is no where near even summarizing the main conflicts between the main characters, I am not going into detail about what conflicts Aydin himself feels, how his attempts to be generous are only suffocating and unhelpful to those around him. His attempt to change or perhaps his attempt at holding on to youth , whether it be in reconciling with his young wife or taming a young wild horse, there are just layers and layers of character development that has gone into making each story rich.. You could sit and excavate .. This is just a recollection of what stood out for me. Amusing fact : I have never seen a film alone, in the theater that is. I prefer having company when watching films in the theater. This was going to be the first time I was going to go solo. Out of nowhere I was surprised by seeing Niloufar Nourbakhsh.. it was a sweet surprise.. and the row I was sitting in was all of her friends :) Thank you for the company Niloufer :)
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 23:53:15 +0000
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