TIME FOR SOME CRIME AND MYSTERY : "VAVIEN"

There are good and exciting things happening in Turkish cinema. I mean yes, directors like Semih Kaplanoğlu (Berlin Film Festival – Golden Bear) and Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Cannes Film Festival – Golden Palm) are the ones getting all the praise but they are not alone in making achievements. Normal films, for lack of a better word – minimalist cinema is something I respect and enjoy greatly but I wouldn’t call it “normal” if you see what I mean. But never mind that now, what I want to talk about is a film about lies, deceit and murder. Now, a good quality film noir is literally non-existent in Turkish cinema. And if this carries distinct traces of humor that stop it qualifying as a “film noir” it is definitely a “film gris” if you see what I mean…
Celal and Sevilay (played by Engin Günaydın and Binnur Kaya respectively – two of the best Turkish comic actors of today) are a married couple living in a small Turkish town with their son Mesut. They have a pretty average life as far as family lives go, Celal is an electrician, Sevilay is a housewife and they make a living somehow. And all three family members have their own separate lives that the other members don’t have a clue about… Mesut sneaks out of his bedroom window every night to meet up with his girlfriend next door. Sevilay stashes money her parents send her around the house without telling the family and is close to amassing a small personal fortune. And Celal wants to kill his wife to marry the woman of his dreams. And because she really annoys him. Now, Celal is not exactly known for being a man of action, but today he will make an exception. He plans the whole thing carefully, prepares and sets the deadly trap in action. The trap seems to succeed alright… However, it will have results that Celal’s wildest dreams or nightmares couldn’t have foretold…
If nothing else, Vavien is a brilliant example of dysfunctional families. Whether family members have seemingly happy and peaceful existences or are literally at each other’s throats, sometimes, just sometimes, they never quite get round to understanding one another. You can co-habit the same house for years and actually have no idea who you married to begin with or who your offspring actually is. Sevilay adores Celal to the point of worship and has no idea, nor could she ever imagine that her beloved husband would try and kill her. She is a good girl who does as she is told, so when her father (who we never meet but only hear on the phone) instructs her to hide the money and not tell Celal she does faithfully, but not out of a lack of trust for Celal. The same goes for Celal’s relationship with his son. Poor Mesut is never sure why his father approves of him or scolds him (and the two moods seem to come in rather unpredictable swings). As for Celal and his “wild and passionate” affair (that is in fact a one-sided obsession on his part) no one who knows him could believe him capable of such emotion. So, in fact, every man is an island. Miserable message, yes? Not really. While The Taylan Brothers (I’m not being facetious; their surname is Taylan, they are brothers and that’s what they call themselves!) make no bones about the utter lack of communication between family members, subtle elements of comedy pertaining to everyday life are slipped in, making the whole film that little bit more real. And don’t forget, the fact that you are not communicating doesn’t necessarily mean you have a sad relationship. In the end, as long as everyone gets what they want out of the whole affair somehow, who cares whether you know what the other person is thinking? That’s what Vavien argues anyway. Watch the film and see what you think…

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…

ESSIE SPEAKS OF... COPS AND ROBBERS!

Aah, the adrenaline of a good car chase, the hard-hitting, honest cops and the inner workings of the dastardly - yet often charismatic - mob... These bad boys are one of those "basic" genres everyone has hear of. We have all watched a few, at least the cult classics (see Millers Crossing below for an example of the latter)and can all (well most of us can) repeat the key scenes off by heart...
Now all that being said, I am pretty sure you're expecting a review of the Godfather, but you'd be wrong. Not because I don't like the series, au contraire I love it like everybody else, but it is a classic, everyone has seen it and therefore, no point in reviewing it, yes? We all know it's brilliant anyway... :)

Here's a couple of little gems you may have missed...

happy viewing :)

Essie

ANYONE WHO KNOWS THE MOB HAS BEEN TO "MILLER’S CROSSING"

Put your hands on your hearts… Admit it. You like a good old-fashioned gangster movie. I don’t mean the new-fangled genre, you know, gang wars, drugs and shootouts, that kind of jazz. No, I mean the old-fashioned ones. About wise guys. I mean films like the Godfather(s) (naturally) and Goodfellas in the U.S. , films like Borsalino and C.O. (starring Alain Delon in case you’re interested) from France. The ‘40s. Wise guys with automatic weapons and slick hats rule the streets. Heck, sometimes they even rule the town. The wit, the power, the danger the adventure… All from the security of your own living room… Miller’s Crossing is one of the best examples of the genre, oh yes and by far. This oeuvre bares the signature of one of my favorite directing / producing duo the Coen brothers and is guaranteed to take you on a bumpy ride, back to the times when wise guys ruled the streets, and you could almost smell the danger in the air…
Leo is the “big guy” in town. He basically runs everything with his moody and cool-as-ice right hand man Tom (played by the charismatic Gabriel Bryne). Things go pretty smoothly as a rule but soon a problem emerges. Leo is the big guy in town but he is by no means the only major player. Johnny Caspar, along with his own right hand man Eddie Dane, is determined to get a piece of the action. And Leo’s refusal to compromise on what we shall for the present call a “minor point” will push the town to the brink of gang warfare. Tom pleads with Leo to be reasonable, but Leo cannot be budged. Plus there is another problem. Tom and Leo have found themselves on either corner of a love triangle – an occurrence that doesn’t best please boss Leo who is both used and determined to get his own way. Which leaves Tom in quite a lot of trouble no matter which way you cut it. But, as we said, if one thing Tom knows how to do, it is to keep calm and use his head. And he will need every single ounce of wit he has if he wants to turn this sticky mess around…
There are many different ways of creating suspense. Chases are a good one in this genre, and check a little further down for one of the greatest car chases in film history in Bullit. Another one is by keeping back information. You know, just giving the viewer a tiny drop at a time, one single clue at a time just enough to go the next step and then wait, biting your nails, for what is coming next. In a lot of films, the viewer is “omniscient”, that means that we are kinda “all seeing and all hearing” a lot of the suspense here comes from the “It’s behind you!” effect. Here however, the audience is by far the one who knows the least in the whole mess. Thus we, like Tom, are left with nothing but our own wits to puzzle out what the heck is going to happen next. And the film is ingenious in the balancing act it produces; there are so many really cunning characters (such as our unlikely hero Tom and Verna, a class- A femme fatale played by Marcia Gay Harden) and each one of the characters has woven such a complicated web of intrigues leading to completely opposing goals that you will, I guarantee it, not only be completely unable to unravel the whole thing until the very end (i.e. when Ethan and Joel Coen damn well feel like it) but you will marvel at the engineering of the whole thing. If there was ever a film that pushed you to use your head, here it is. And that makes a brilliant change from the violence-packed movies that are usually thought of as typical of the genre. I also think this makes the film more realistic. Think about it, the times when the wise guys ruled the streets were real. No doubt there. And just as real was the amount of danger, blood and violence. But as in every power struggle, bigger and more effective than going in all guns blazing was the scheming. Be it the really “wise” wise guys like Tom who use their wits to keep themselves and/or the people around them on top, to Verna and her brother Bernie (a character who later became a classic played by John Turturo) who used the inflated egos to chisel a living for themselves. If you think about it that is also what makes the Godfather films great. The “factoring in” of intelligence, Michael Corleone’s careful planning and creating of strategies to get to power and stay there, as opposed to his brother Sonny whose hot-headedness gets him murdered. Oh, this is a classy little number no doubt about it. Watch out for a couple of cinematographically rather brilliant scenes too – especially on the attack on Leo’s house, my personal favorite – you’ll know the one I mean if you watch the film… =)

AND NOW, THE HARD HITTING COP NOONE MESSES WITH... MEET BULLIT

There are some films that become epitomized with certain genres. It’s a funny phenomenon that. I mean, in this kind of movie the main hero often doesn’t even need much in-depth character analysis or even establishing shots giving us information about him, because even if the face and name may change we know him well really… I can think of many examples of this phenomenon, but the one I have in mind in particular today is a certain kind of crime-thriller from the end of the ‘60s and the beginning of the ‘70s. Our hero is a moody and charismatic individual who doesn’t play by the book. His superiors are bothered by this but let him operate any way he chooses because he is a good cop and gets results. He has an unbendable sense of justice and may be either a serial womanizer or have a long-term relationship but the relationship will be without a doubt problematic. You know him well, right?
In this particular case his name is Lieutenant Frank Bullit (played by a very moody and charismatic Steve McQueen). His superiors tolerate his “not by the book” attitude, the guys he works with are loyal to the bitter end because he has earned their respect as the best in the business. So, when he is assigned as protection detail to a star witness in a major gang-related trial, Bullit reckons it’s no big deal. However, nothing is as simple as it seems, and before Bullit can say “knife”, the witness is dead and one of Bullit’s best men is in hospital, critically injured. His superiors, the prosecutor in particular is baying for blood – and Bullit’s head on a plate. Bullit, however, has only one thing in mind: finding the killers and bringing them all to justice.
Now pray don’t be discouraged by the fact that I have slightly slammed the movie in my opening statement. I mean, the fact that there are many of the same thing knocking around is testament to the fact that whatever it is hit off in the market, right? You may be additionally coaxed by the fact that back in 1968, the film won the Oscar® for Best Editing (although Best Editing does tend to attract movie buffs more than some regular Joe just looking for an evening’s entertainment). On no, without a doubt Bullit is one heck of a good cop flick. Set in San Francisco and peppered with lovely shots of the sweeping hills and old wooden houses common in those parts (back in the ‘60s at any rate), it is quite a spectacle to watch. And speaking of hills, there is of course the famous car chase. Now, this went down in history as one of the best of its kind, and for all the new technical thingamajigs we have to enhance the experience today, I have to admit, they had a point. The chase starts out pretty casually as it were, then the music accelerates as does the speed and as the cars wind up and down the San Francisco hills at what is sometimes a break-neck speed (funny isn’t it how when you say “car chase” you never really think it can mean up or down a hill but on a straight road? It’s what I visualize at any rate), strategically placed point of view shots ( shots where you see the scene directly from the eyes of the character as it were) must have given cinema-goers the impression of being on a fair-ground ride and not a film (Mom actually felt sick watching it – she could never really handle fair-ground rides…). There is nothing like a really good car-chase to get you into gear, and this one is a jewel in the crown of Bullit. Shame it doesn’t have much else to say about itself. One thing that is mentioned on the DVD cover and that does deserve praise – credit where it is due – is the film’s realism. Well think about it, if you actually were a cop trying to nail big-time mobsters, I sincerely doubt your day actually would be dotted with funny anecdotes and witty repartee that is so essential to sub-plots in such movies. No, the film is concentrated on one thing only, the main plot. But then again so is Bullit, so that actually ties in rather nicely… I guess what I am trying to say is that the film has a sort of “sparse” feel to it. But that’s all right. Bullit is a man of few words, out to get the killers. Any other kind of story would… Well, feel wrong…

AND LASTLY, A CLASSIQUE FRANÇAIS WITH "INSPECTOR BELLAMY"

As the opening credits rolled through, I felt I was slightly bemused by the combination of Gerard Depardieu, Inspector Bellamy and a mention at the Berlin film festival. I respect Gerard Depardieu deeply as an actor but somehow when the two are combined with Inspector Bellamy, it didn’t seem to fit. The DVD sleeve was pretty darn sneaky about the whole thing as well – it gave the impression of being a common or garden cop film; and this was partly the reason the award surprised me. But Claude Chabrol’s version of Inspector Bellamy (and let’s face it, I should have trusted him more) combines a very subtle, very understated and very beautiful film with an excited and unpredictable cop-show plotline with wonderful mood setting and witty dialogue. One leaves the film slightly unsure of what just happened other than the fact that whatever it was was very striking indeed.
Inspector Bellamy (Gerard Depardieu) is on holiday. He hates this fact with a passion one can only imagine. His loving wife Françoise longs for a cruise in Egypt but it is all she can do to persuade him to come out to their summer house in Nimes. So she is not best pleased when a mysterious stranger knocks at their summer house door demanding to see Inspector Bellamy about a case he could be interested in. The whole thing seems highly fishy but Bellamy is bored out of his wits so he decides to go along with it. The man claims to have killed someone to be with his mistress, “the woman of his dreams” but he is obviously lying about something or other… On the home front, as if the lack of Egyptian cruises was not enough, Bellamy’s brother Jacques has come to stay. Jacques is constantly broke, has a bad habit of “borrowing” various things of Bellamy’s be it cars, guns or other people’s money without asking and drinks almost constantly. But what can you do? The man is family, and Paul Bellamy feels responsible towards his much younger brother. What sort of shape will Bellamy be in at the end of the holiday? And will he be able to get to the bottom of this mystery murder? If it was a murder that is….
Ok, so the film starts off nice and slow. Witty repartee and typical scenes of a long-married couple bickering seem to promise something light-hearted and mildly exciting. Witty repartee, by the way, will be something that is very present through the whole film. Clever comebacks and wordplay are scattered in the least-likely places, making them all the more appreciated and setting a sometimes slightly acid tone. The whole “murder mystery” angle is very cleverly done with some rather nifty flashbacks; the story itself actually seems rather mediocre I know, but the “real story” is so confused and convoluted that as we follow Bellamy trying to make head or tale of a seemingly simple affair we completely lose track of where on earth the whole thing might end… What I loved best though is the “contretemps” created with the home angle. Jacques is not your typical “drunken oaf” from the world of vaudeville, oh no, he is a very real character with very real personal problems and explodes into Bellamy’s life almost costing him his marriage in the process. It is a really, really good portrait of family life, “problem” relatives and trying to deal with both.
Chabrol gives us the “point” he wants to make right at the end with a quote from W.H. Auden : “There is always another story; there is more than meets the eye.” And in this film, categorically nothing is what it originally seems. A great choice with those who prefer a little meat on their movies – if you get my drift. And don’t insist on “happy” films…

ESSIE SPEAKS OF... MANY THINGS...

OK, you got me, yes it's a mixed bag this week. But it's not just any old bag, I've got some good quality stuff here... We have the works of classic masters like Bertolucci, contreversial artists like Lars von Trier and a documentary that will both teach you and make you cry buckets...Now I come to think of it this weeks fare is a particularly thought - provoking bunch all in their own individual ways of course... Well well, we all need time to stop and quietly think every once in a while, right?

enjoy the show and happy viewing!
Essie