Nuri Bilge Ceylan likes to take his time. The Turkish director is one of the greatest living practitioners of slow cinema. The filmmaking ethos — pioneered by Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky and taken up by the likes of Theo Angelopoulos, Albert Serra, Béla Tarr, Kelly Reichardt and Lav Diaz — eschews the rapid editing and relentless nonstop forward-driving plots of the Hollywood blockbuster (looking at you, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) for a more contemplative, metaphysical approach.
The characters in a Ceylan movie don’t do much. There’s little action or traditional suspense, and the storylines are fairly basic. In 2002’s Distant, a rural factory worker visits his cousin in Istanbul. Homicide police unearth the body of a murder victim and take a long drive back to the city for the autopsy in 2011’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. An old actor, his wife and his sister sit...
The characters in a Ceylan movie don’t do much. There’s little action or traditional suspense, and the storylines are fairly basic. In 2002’s Distant, a rural factory worker visits his cousin in Istanbul. Homicide police unearth the body of a murder victim and take a long drive back to the city for the autopsy in 2011’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. An old actor, his wife and his sister sit...
- 5/27/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Following The Wild Pear Tree, Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan has been working on his next feature for some time and is poised for a return to Cannes Film Festival next year. In the meantime, the opportunity to revisit one of his most acclaimed films has arrived. Distant, which premiered 20 years ago this year in Turkey followed by a stop at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival where it won both the Grand Pix and Best Actor for Muzaffer Özdemir and Mehmet Emin Toprak, is now returning to theaters.
The film––which follows a divorced photographer’s life of solitary routine beging interrupted when a distant cousin from his remote village comes to stay in his tiny Istanbul apartment, quickly outstaying his welcome––will get a re-release in select theaters across the U.S. beginning at May 20 at Film Forum. Ahead of the run, Big World Pictures has debuted a trailer.
Watch below.
The film––which follows a divorced photographer’s life of solitary routine beging interrupted when a distant cousin from his remote village comes to stay in his tiny Istanbul apartment, quickly outstaying his welcome––will get a re-release in select theaters across the U.S. beginning at May 20 at Film Forum. Ahead of the run, Big World Pictures has debuted a trailer.
Watch below.
- 4/28/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
★★☆☆☆ Existential malaise has long been a tenet of contemplative European cinema, and Turkish filmmaker Muzaffer Özdemir has embraced the tradition in his first feature as director, Home (Yurt, 2011). In this instance, the reflection is seemingly brought on by a mid-life crisis, but soon extends to frustration with the apathy exhibited in the direction of the destruction of once-pristine scenery. Glacially-paced, it's a film perhaps a little too concerned with its style rather than its substance, meaning that although the landscapes and visuals can be admired, there's precious little to enthral an audience beneath surface level.
The aforementioned existential funk is being experienced by architect Dogan (Kanbolat Gorkem Arslan) who suffers a breakdown whilst on a camping trip and is unable to shake the ensuing mental sickness. A doctor suggests that a countryside sabbatical may prove the key to recovery, so the maudlin Dogan arranges a trip home to the land...
The aforementioned existential funk is being experienced by architect Dogan (Kanbolat Gorkem Arslan) who suffers a breakdown whilst on a camping trip and is unable to shake the ensuing mental sickness. A doctor suggests that a countryside sabbatical may prove the key to recovery, so the maudlin Dogan arranges a trip home to the land...
- 6/24/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Spring Breakers | A Late Quartet | The Expatriate | Thursday Till Sunday | Dark Skies | The Odd Life Of Timothy Green | Papdopoulos & Sons | All Things To All Men | Home
Spring Breakers (18)
(Harmony Korine, 2012, Us) Selena Gomez, James Franco, Gucci Mane. 94 mins
The new American dream/nightmare of the endless beach party is both celebrated and satirised in Korine's woozy Florida tale. The story is fittingly loose – four naive teens turn to criminal means to fund their hedonism – but it's more of an experience: a dubstep-tracked collage of neon, Day-Glo and tanned flesh, all facilitated by Franco's fantastically watchable gangsta rapper.
A Late Quartet (15)
(Yaron Zilberman, 2012, Us) Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener. 106 mins
A respected New York string quartet is struck by an excess of issues here: terminal illness, infidelity, professional jealousy, you name it. Without the distinguished cast, its highbrow melodramas would seem ludicrous.
The Expatriate (15)
(Philipp Stölzl, 2012, Us/Bel/Can/UK) Aaron Eckhart,...
Spring Breakers (18)
(Harmony Korine, 2012, Us) Selena Gomez, James Franco, Gucci Mane. 94 mins
The new American dream/nightmare of the endless beach party is both celebrated and satirised in Korine's woozy Florida tale. The story is fittingly loose – four naive teens turn to criminal means to fund their hedonism – but it's more of an experience: a dubstep-tracked collage of neon, Day-Glo and tanned flesh, all facilitated by Franco's fantastically watchable gangsta rapper.
A Late Quartet (15)
(Yaron Zilberman, 2012, Us) Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener. 106 mins
A respected New York string quartet is struck by an excess of issues here: terminal illness, infidelity, professional jealousy, you name it. Without the distinguished cast, its highbrow melodramas would seem ludicrous.
The Expatriate (15)
(Philipp Stölzl, 2012, Us/Bel/Can/UK) Aaron Eckhart,...
- 4/6/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
A quiet and reflective drama from the Turkish actor-turned-writer-director, Muzaffer Özdemir, but the overal effect is inertia
Muzaffer Özdemir is the award-winning Turkish actor who had the lead role in Uzak, the 2002 movie by Nuri Bilge Ceylan a director whose ascent to world-cinema greatness was made complete by his recent austere drama Once Upon a Time In Anatolia. Özdemir now makes his debut as writer and director of this quiet and reflective drama. An architect, suffering pangs of ill-health on a camping holiday that almost amounts to a breakdown, seeks solace by revisiting the countryside of his childhood, but he is – predictably – disturbed to find that it is changing, and his unease is greater than ever. Perhaps his own profession is part of the forces that are contributing to the change.
Home is a movie indebted to Ceylan: it is slow, calm, thoughtful and well shot, but I'm bound to...
Muzaffer Özdemir is the award-winning Turkish actor who had the lead role in Uzak, the 2002 movie by Nuri Bilge Ceylan a director whose ascent to world-cinema greatness was made complete by his recent austere drama Once Upon a Time In Anatolia. Özdemir now makes his debut as writer and director of this quiet and reflective drama. An architect, suffering pangs of ill-health on a camping holiday that almost amounts to a breakdown, seeks solace by revisiting the countryside of his childhood, but he is – predictably – disturbed to find that it is changing, and his unease is greater than ever. Perhaps his own profession is part of the forces that are contributing to the change.
Home is a movie indebted to Ceylan: it is slow, calm, thoughtful and well shot, but I'm bound to...
- 4/5/2013
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
In an excerpt from this week's Guardian Film Show Henry Barnes, Peter Bradshaw and Catherine Shoard review the first film from Muzaffer Özdemir, who won the best actor prize at Cannes in 2003 for his performance in Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Uzak. Yurt (Home) tells the story of a depressed architect who returns to his home town to find the local countryside threatened by a giant mining corporation Continue reading...
- 4/5/2013
- by Henry Barnes, Peter Bradshaw, Catherine Shoard, Richard Sprenger, Irene Baqué and Phil Maynard
- The Guardian - Film News
★★☆☆☆ Best known for his Palme d'Or-winning turn in Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Uzak (Distant, 2002), actor-turned-director Muzaffer Özdemir's debut film Home (Yurt, 2011) is an introspective examination into the sustained cultural shift within modern Turkey, and the issues this raises for its people. Returning from Istanbul to his childhood village in the province of Gumushane, downhearted architect Doğan (Kanbolat Gorkem Arslan) is under doctor's orders to take a brief sabbatical from his high-pressure job. It's the perfect opportunity for Doğan to go back to his roots and hopefully find the origins of his existential funk.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 4/4/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Whereas westerns reflect a longing for a vanished past, Turkish cinema is examining and lamenting modernisation as it happens
By the time Sergio Leone got to Monument Valley in 1968 to film exteriors for Once Upon a Time in the West, its sandstone buttes – engrained in the popular consciousness by their presence in John Ford's westerns – had already assumed the hulking mythic grandeur the great Italian director needed for his story of American beginnings. Nuri Bilge Ceylan was surely hoping for a little of the same when he had his night convoy of murder investigators sweep their headlights across the vast prairie in last year's Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. The auburn-grey hills around Keskin, near the capital Ankara, might not be as singular a location as the Utah valley, but they've got their own mute, unknowable magnificence – a suitable backdrop for Ceylan's gloomy night of the Turkish soul.
By the time Sergio Leone got to Monument Valley in 1968 to film exteriors for Once Upon a Time in the West, its sandstone buttes – engrained in the popular consciousness by their presence in John Ford's westerns – had already assumed the hulking mythic grandeur the great Italian director needed for his story of American beginnings. Nuri Bilge Ceylan was surely hoping for a little of the same when he had his night convoy of murder investigators sweep their headlights across the vast prairie in last year's Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. The auburn-grey hills around Keskin, near the capital Ankara, might not be as singular a location as the Utah valley, but they've got their own mute, unknowable magnificence – a suitable backdrop for Ceylan's gloomy night of the Turkish soul.
- 2/26/2013
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
Bristol Palestine Film Festival, Bristol
The Palestinian struggle hasn't been forgotten, but with so much going on in the Arab world this year, it could have slipped our attention a little. This new festival, spearheaded by Ken Loach, should rectify that. Its remit is to see the world through Palestinian eyes, via films, art, photography, discussions and poetry. It's not all pain and misery: the first night proper on Friday, introduced by Loach, has delightful animation Hassan Everywhere and (No) Laughing Matter, which journeys to the West Bank in search of good jokes. Other non-fiction subjects include Jaffa oranges and the Palestinian women's football team, while culture-clash drama Amreeka warmly tracks a Palestinian mother's move to the Us.
Various venues, Thu to 10 Dec, bristolpff.org.uk
Terence Davies, Nationwide
Having struggled to get his films made for so long, Davies is now in danger of becoming a national treasure. The...
The Palestinian struggle hasn't been forgotten, but with so much going on in the Arab world this year, it could have slipped our attention a little. This new festival, spearheaded by Ken Loach, should rectify that. Its remit is to see the world through Palestinian eyes, via films, art, photography, discussions and poetry. It's not all pain and misery: the first night proper on Friday, introduced by Loach, has delightful animation Hassan Everywhere and (No) Laughing Matter, which journeys to the West Bank in search of good jokes. Other non-fiction subjects include Jaffa oranges and the Palestinian women's football team, while culture-clash drama Amreeka warmly tracks a Palestinian mother's move to the Us.
Various venues, Thu to 10 Dec, bristolpff.org.uk
Terence Davies, Nationwide
Having struggled to get his films made for so long, Davies is now in danger of becoming a national treasure. The...
- 11/26/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Elephant, Gus Van Sant's take on the Columbine high school massacre, scooped the top prize, the Palme d'Or, as well as the best director award at the 56th Festival de Cannes on Sunday. The minimalist movie, which used a non-professional cast, was produced by HBO Films, Meno Film Co. and Blue Relief. It will be distributed in France by independent MK2. The runner-up award, the Grand Prix, went to Uzak directed by Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan. The movie, something of an outsider for major honors, also took the best actor award, which was shared by its stars Muzaffer Ozdemir and Mehmet Emin Toprak. Best actress went to Marie-Josee Croze for her role in The Barbarian Invasion which also took best screenplay for writer-director Denys Arcand of Canada.
- 5/26/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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