DOCUMENTARY ON A LEGEND : "DON’T LOOK BACK"

Ok, honestly, I am not quite sure what you guys will make of this one. I mean I don’t blame anyone for it; I’m not quite sure what to make of it either. Or rather I wasn’t at first. Its style is a little unconventional but to be fair I personally fell in with it very quickly. I mean, you might ask yourself what the heck could be unconventional about a documentary; it’s a pretty simple format after all… Pertinent clips and footage is shown as a narrator explains and what is going on. My point exactly. What if there is no narrator?
This seems to be exactly what the director D.A. Pennebaker asked himself before he made this documentary, for this is exactly what happens here. The documentary is about music legend, philosopher and poet Bob Dylan. In 1965 he spent three weeks touring the U.K. with Joan Baez. D.A. Pennebaker’s camera (in the singular. No fancy multiple camera angles, close-ups and so forth here) followed wherever he went. Then the footage was edited, the most striking moments selected and edited together – with no fancy or frills you understand, just one segment on the back of another – and presented for our delectation. I personally thought this was NOT the brightest idea a director could have at the start; I stand corrected. When you think about it, it’s rather an ingenious idea…
In the age of the internet and the DVD, we have all seen quite a lot of backstage – behind the scenes clips, right? We almost inevitably have a guide, telling us who is who, what is what; we are the privileged guest being shown around the studio / backstage. But of course, even though these are basically documentaries they still reek of performance. And these days they are performances of course. I mean let’s face it – every film accounts for the “behind the scenes” footage in the production stage. With Don’t Look Back however, we are just spirited backstage and left there. We are not even told who is who and what is going on. Not even a sentence or two on the screen. So in the first place, this is no performance. Mr. Dylan has kindly allowed us to hang around that’s all, he has no time to stop and explain stuff to us, and so he just gets on with his life as if we weren’t there. This whole feeling is exacerbated by the use of a single camera – no continuity type editing and definitely no real concern with “painting pretty pictures”. But this in itself doesn’t really matter because the subject matter is just so interesting; it’s a historical moment, it’s Bob Dylan and there we are, face to face with the man himself – or the closest we’ll ever get to him at any rate.
In this footage Dylan is 23. But even back then, as he gives snappy answers to well-meaning reporters and tries to explain his unique point of view and message to the world the poet and philosopher side of him shines through. I was taken aback by the lack of guidance but by the time we reached the end I was staring absolutely mesmerized… It’s a proper oldie this one, so it may be a tad hard to find; but make the effort to get your paws on a copy. It’s an experience not to be missed in my view…

AND NOW, A BIT OF LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT: "YEDİ KOCALI HÜRMÜZ"

This film actually got a bit of a bad rap when it first came out, not necessarily from the general public but from “art circles”. I think the reason was , since Yedi Kocalı Hürmüz is in fact quite an old play that has been re-made for various mediums a number of times, the expectancy from the film was a little too high. No, honestly, this film will not change your life. It will however bring a smile to your face that I guarantee. If the film did not exactly turn out to be a deep, philosophical work of art it stayed true to itself: this is a light-hearted musical, aiming solely to entertain. The cast is brilliant, the acting hilarious (which is a compliment seing this is a comedy) and the songs, while in Turkish and aimed largely at a Turkish audience are fun to listen to and the dancing that accompanies it is fun to watch so even those viewers who do not speak Turkish can be sure of a good time when they sit down to watch this one…
We are back in Ottoman times, at an uncertain date before the First World War. Turkey is governed by Sharia law, and according to this law any man can marry up to four women legally – provided he can look after them. The same right is not, as you can imagine, extended to women. They have hardly any rights at all – hardly any say in the matter even seeing as they are often “given away” by older relatives and not necessarily allowed to court or chose their future husband. In İstanbul lives one woman who is determined not to be the “weakling” in this whole set up. After all, if a man can marry more than one woman, then a woman should be able to marry more than one husband. As there are no actual centralized records back in those days, and the second wives do not necessarily live in the same house as the husband (it is common to live in the same house but not necessary)with a little intelligence this is not hard to manage either. Hürmüz lives in a large house left to her by her late husband (a very old and rich man in love with her beauty and died leaving her everything) and by using her wits and with help from her friends is married to no less than seven men! The trick is not to keep the rest of the town (for back then, as it is now, reputations once gone cannot be regained) and of course the seven husbands in the dark. Thus Hürmüz very successfully has her cake and eats seven helpings at once until… Until she meets a man she actually falls in love with – and she isn’t married to! And just as she is trying to find a way of luring him in as well to be number 8, one husband (who was in jail and thus out of her hair) breaks out of jail, one who lives in a neighboring town decides to pay a surprise visit and her newest husband – a sea captain – comes home one day with no prior warning, causing the two husbands she has in the same town to become suspicious… Hürmüz risks public humiliation and stoning if she is found out, and with such a plague of husbands buzzing at her door, she must use all her wits and creativity to break herself out of this mess…
As you can tell from the summary, the actual topic of the film is as old as the hills. Men vs. Women. However, my personal opinion is that if films on the subject continue popping up, it’s because we keep on watching them. It is rather funny to think that this was first adapted from a play that was, as I said, quite old and from a time one assumed moral values to be different. Just goes to show I suppose, some things never really change… Another thing that is as international as the story is of course good acting. And this film offers up some of Turkey’s best; Nurgül Yeşilçay makes for a striking Hürmüz, while Gülse Birsel – who is also famous for her successful performance in a very, VERY long standing sit-com she also wrote is a priceless sidekick (the town matchmaker, naturally) and… Well I could go on and on and on, but just about every single one of the cast members are famous and I can’t think of a single one that ends up doing a bad job…
I was in two minds about writing about this. I mean, since stories and sentiments are more universal, normal “film” films are a better bet when it comes to crossing the language barrier. Comedies tend to rely a bit more on cultural specificities and a goodly number of the jokes in the film do tend to be “in jokes” on local dialects and funny sayings. But all in all, I personally feel that the sense of fun and the universal nature of the topic – men and women – make up for the bits that will get lost in translation. And let me also add that some of the songs from this musical have quite literally come from Turkish traditional music so you it will be a true cultural tour for the unfamiliar as well…

A TRIP BACK IN TIME – TO THE BOAT THAT ROCKED!

The Boat That Rocked is one of the newest creations of the team that brought us such classics as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Noting Hill. And although it is a “fun” film in many ways it definitely lacks the star quality of its more famous siblings.
Not that the film is lacking in stars, in more senses than one : Phlip Seymour-Hoffman gives a superb performance as the inevitable “Brash American” set among “The Brits” without being in the least bit cliché or annoying ( or at least annoyingly cliché) Bill Nighy is your typical “Brit on the ocean waves” with just the right Bohemian overtones, Rhys Ifans is… Well no other word for it absolutely “yummy” as Gavin and Tom Sturrdige is the perfect “naïve young beau”
Reading back on my previous paragraph I find that I seem to have hinted at what I find “wrong” with the film – it’s a cliché. Although it starts on a very interesting point – history of Pirate Radio Broadcasting in the U.K (a concept I was not personally aware of incidentally) and in the meanwhile offers an absolutely wonderfully nostalgic soundtrack of 60’s rock and pop classics, the actual storyline itself is nothing new. Young beau arrives among rebels. Defies authority bravely. Succeeds at last minute where all seems to be failing terribly. Gets girl in the end. * Yawn*.
But, as can be expected from the team that creates such classics – and such great actors - the film has a saving grace apart from its soundtrack (that is so good it deserves a second mention). It’s funny. It does, I have to stay, stray once or twice into a realm the American Pie franchise has exploited in my opinion once too often but other than that it is embarrassingly Britishly, wonderfully funny. I gurantee you an entertaining and depending on your generation VERY nostalgic couple of hours if you make the time to watch it. Just don’t expect it to change your world. Or stick in your mind for more than 2 days…