A Recommendation August 26, 2006
Posted by filmlover in : Classic Cinema , add a commentI just thought I’d share with you what is one of the best things that I have ever stumbled across on the web: the podcast series ‘Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir’.
Each episode of this series is hosted by the learned Clute and Edwards and features them chatting about a particular example of film noir. With 26 episodes recorded so far, the films discussed have ranged from Double Indemnity to Batman Begins.
I’ve listened to them all and judge the content of all the shows to be superlative - I’m sure, if you haven’t come across them already, you’ll find them one hell of an informative resource.
Anyway, enough of my talk - I figure that you should just head over there and start downloading!
P.S. I’ll be back with a review of the Nuri Bilge Ceylan film The Clouds of May in the next couple of days.
Koza (Cocoon) Review July 26, 2006
Posted by filmlover in : Turkish Film , 3 commentsHere are my thoughts on Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s first filmic effort - Koza (Cocoon) (1995), a short film (18mins) that is included as an extra feature on the Uzak DVD. For those who haven’t already done so, I would recommend that you read my original Uzak review before dipping into what follows.
Koza (Cocoon) Review
Reviewing a short film is fraught with difficulties. They confuse the reviewer (such as myself) who is so unused to films without true narrative or characterisation. Where have the three acts gone?! Why is there so little dialogue?! etc. etc. With this ignorance, negative points, just as much as positives, are hard to identify. However, the deficiency is not only that of the reviewer - filmmakers, too, have neglected the short film as an art form, often regarding it as little more than a calling-card or a stepping-stone. Sadly, too few filmmakers have become specialists in short film and thus I suspect that its potential has yet to be truly fulfilled. Given all of this, we often flounder in platitudes when we talk of short films - a short film is said to merely ‘reveal a adroit visual imagination’ or ‘highlight themes that would appear once again in the director’s later work’.
Whilst these platitudes are certainly true of Koza (Cocoon), it is also true that Koza, being a artwork of a rare power and musicality, stands on its own as a film (short or long). For this reason, we might speak of Koza as being on the utmost tier of short films made thus far; and, therefore, it certainly deserves to be watched.
Shot in stark black-and-white, with an unsettling soundtrack of animal grunts, thunder and rushing wind, Koza begins effectively with a series of still photographs which depict a couple growing older together before jumping to the couple as they are today; withered and wrinkled. This couple are, for want of a better description, the main characters around which is constructed a visual poem which, on my interpretation (and it is the joy of poems that they can be interpreted in so many ways), takes in themes of death, loss, wasted time and heartache.
Indeed, images of death and decomposition abound within the film - from those of a dead cat and a dead bird, to those of grave hidden deep within the forest that provides the film’s setting. But the death on display is not only literal but also a kind of ‘living death’. For example, not one word is spoken in the film - not even between the couple who have spent their lives together; theirs being a relationship that is decomposing before our eyes. In the film’s most striking and poignant scene, the old woman lies in bed silently crying whilst her husband stands across the room, gazing mindlessly out of the window - the couple are in one sense together but they also could not be further apart. Given their age, too, it is not uncharitable to think of the couple as being stalked by Death; living out their last few years in a virtual coma, cut off from each other and unable (unwilling?) to bridge the gap. (On this reading, the ‘cocoon’ of the title becomes apparent - the old couple have retreated into their own shells - much like the tortoise which also makes an appearance in the film). The very palpability of the couple’s mortality makes their inaction seem like the most monumental waste - they should be doing more with what little time they have. The message seems to be that life is too short for us to shy away from the things that matter.
One suspects that the couple’s inability to communicate might be something to do with the young boy, playing with a toy catapult, who makes fleeting appearances throughout the film. The boy is so ephemeral as to be ghostlike and one thus relates him with the grave in the forest. One speculates that he might be the deceased child of the old couple, who now plays freely in the realm of their memories and imagination. If this reading is correct, the inclusion of the boy, whilst touching, is perhaps the one weak note of the film, as it serves to de-universalise what we see before us (the couple‘s way of being is to do with their own personal loss), thus diluting the import of the aforementioned message of the film.
As a portrayal of isolation and as a call to do something worthwhile with our lives, Koza is a perfect companion piece to Uzak (how fortunate then that it is included on the DVD of the latter!). However, I would suggest that, with its additional stress upon death and the inevitable shortness of our lives, Koza would sit more easily with a viewing of Edmund Goulding’s masterful Dark Victory (1939), the themes of which are almost identical. Further, like both of these films, the overall effect of Koza is oddly invigorating - it leaves one a changed human being, and herein lies its power.
Shock, Horror! July 23, 2006
Posted by filmlover in : Turkish Film , add a commentHello all,
Following on from yesterday’s review of Uzak, I was shocked to discover that DVDs of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s two other feature films - The Clouds of May and The Small Town - have only ever been released in Turkey. I was then horrified to further discover that these DVDs appear to have gone out of print (even major Turkish retailers, such as www.ideefixe.com, list them as unavailable). Luckily, I picked up copies some time ago (they have English subs - I’ll be reviewing them soon). I think that any readers interested in getting them should try certain onine auction sites or, failing that, contact me (on pghoskin@hotmail.com) and I’ll see what I can do (I’m in Turkey at the moment). If anyone from an enterprising DVD company is reading, you could do far worse than to release these superb films in Britain or elsewhere…
Uzak (Distant) Turkish DVD Review July 22, 2006
Posted by filmlover in : Turkish Film , 1 comment so farFor all those who are attending - I must apologise for the delay in posting anything new on the site. Unfortunately, I’ve been ill over the past few days. What follows is a review of the Turkish DVD release of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Uzak. Due to Uzak’s ready availability on DVD in Britain and the rest of the world, as well as its critical acclaim, I thought a review of it would be the perfect introduction to a series of articles that I intend to write, over the next few weeks, on the work of Ceylan (a series that will incorporate reviews of his other feature films on DVD, The Small Town and The Clouds of May, as well as something a little more special). Anyway, I hope that this is enough for you to be going on with for now (incidentally, there are unavoidable “spoilers“ in this review, but these should not detract from a first-time viewing of the film):
Uzak (Distant) Turkish DVD Review
Film Info
Country of Origin: Turkey
Year: 2002
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Screenwriter: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Main Actors: Muzaffer Ozdemir
Mehmet Emin Toprak
Zuhal Gencer Erkaya
Nazan Kirilmis
Feridum Koc
Fatma Ceylan
Ebru Ceylan
DVD Info
Region: 2
Running Length: 105mins
Audio Tracks: Turkish DD 5.1
Subtitles: Turkish, English, French, German, Dutch
Screen Format: 16/9
Extra Features: Making-of feature (42mins - w/ English subtitles); Uzak in Cannes (9mins); Koza (1995) - a short film (18mins) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Photographs and stills
DVD Distributor: Palermo
Film Review
Uzak is a glorious film, a classic. However, much like any of James Dean’s three features, watching it should also provoke sorrow for a talent whose life has been cut short. Shortly after the completion of Uzak, one of its lead actors, Mehmet Emin Toprak died, like Dean, in a motoring accident, aged only 28. I should like to pay my own tribute by pointing out that Toprak’s performance, as the unlikely and unassuming moral centre of the film, is one of rarely-seen sensitivity and grace - many actors would do well to learn from his artistry in this film.
Besides its central performances, much of Uzak’s appeal may be attributed to the fact that, as Nick James commented in the July 2004 issue of Sight and Sound magazine, it is “almost the compete antithesis of mainstream, Western cinema” (need I remind you that this is a good thing?). Just how far it diverges from Western cinema is something that I hope will become apparent in the following review:
An Excellent Article on Modern Turkish Cinema July 17, 2006
Posted by filmlover in : Turkish Film , add a commentReaders - I recommend that you check out this recent article by Catherine Simpson, in which she discusses modern Turkish cinema.
Kurtlar Vadisi Irak (Valley of the Wolves: Iraq) Turkish DVD July 16, 2006
Posted by filmlover in : Turkish Film , 1 comment so farI recently had the pleasure of viewing the recent Turkish DVD release of Kurtlar Vadisi Irak (Valley of the Wolves: Irak), a film whose vehemently anti-American stance has already engendered controversy (I refer you to this BBC News story). Here follows a review of that DVD:
Film Info
Country of Origin: Turkey
Directors: Serdar Akar and Sadullah Sentürk
Screenwriter: Raci Sasmaz
DVD Info
Region: 2
DVD Released: June 2006
Running Length: 122mins
Audio Tracks: Turkish DD 5.1; Turkish DD 2.0; Turkish, English, Arabic, Kurdish DD 5.1; Turkish, English, Arabic, Kurdish DD 2.0
Subtitles: English, Turkish, German
Screen Format: 1.85:1
Extra Features: Making-of Documentary (45 mins) (w/ English subtitles), Trailer
Film Review
Every so often a film comes along that is an essential watch for reasons beyond the quality of the film itself. One such film has recently come out of Turkey; a film which, whilst a highly competent thriller in itself, becomes a vital piece of cinema when one factors in its political significance. This film is Kurtlar Vadisi Irak (Valley of the Wolves: Iraq), and has just been released in Turkey on DVD ahead of worldwide theatrical distribution. (more…)