Winter Sleep, 2014 Cannes Palme d'Or winner, is long but engrossing
Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Cannes Palme d'Or winner fits many people's stereotype of what an art house film is: it's serious, peopled with moody characters, very lengthy (196 minutes) and there's a lot of dialogue.
Starring: Haluk Bilginer, Melisa Sözen, Demet Akba
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Category: IIA (Turkish and English)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Cannes Palme d'Or winner fits many people's stereotype of what an art house film is: it's serious, peopled with moody characters, very lengthy (196 minutes) and there's a lot of dialogue.
Principally a character study of a wealthy middle-aged man who fancies himself to be a local dignitary, also shows a small community riddled with ugly emotional undercurrents and socioeconomic rifts.
Aydin (Haluk Bilginer, below) is a small Cappadocia hotel owner with his hand in many pies. He has previously dabbled in theatre, he's an impoverished family's landlord (a couple of whom are involved in two of the film's visually shocking moments), and he writes an opinion column for the local newspaper.
Initially, it seems Aydin is happiest when tapping away on his keyboard, writing his column. But his attempts at moral pronouncements don't seem to enhance his status in the community.
Instead, they bring certain long-standing complaints to the fore. The columns also bring out the grudges that his wife Nihal (Melisa Sözen) and divorcee sister Necla (Demet Akba) have against him.
The scenes in which everyone rails against each other are breathtaking — and not just because they often involve individuals delivering extended monologues that go surprisingly uninterrupted, even by those angered by their content.
Ceylan shows that there's no rest for the wicked, and that counts for those who didn't realise they actually were that way.
