Climates (2006)

If you want to enjoy some of the splendid natural and man-made beauty of Turkey, "Climates" will satisfy you and maybe even have you heading for a travel agent. If you love studying faces, guessing at thoughts and watching prolonged takes on a modest range of emotions, settle back and enjoy "Climates". If you love to love or hate self-centred and non-communicative males on the one hand (and Isa's a manipulative cad though, to give him his due, he doesn't seem to know what the hell he wants from women) and neglected, communication-starved females on the other, you've hit paydirt with this one. With its minimalist plot, you have a great deal of time to study relationships and facets of human nature. But it just wasn't my cup of tea. I intended to switch it off half a dozen times, but persevered in the hope someone would express themselves intelligibly to someone else, instead of shadow boxing. Even a scene of violent love-making (this is a euphemism by the way) left me annoyed - it was like silent consensual rape. The one occasion I felt uplifted was when Bahar (Isa's main prey) recounted a dream. She became animated and alive, though Isa got nothing of the beauty of spirit she displayed (as he was surely scripted not to). Altogether a bleak portrait of the search for non-loneliness.

Fmovies: A minimalistic and thoroughly miserable, painfully slow 90 minutes film about miserable bourgeois Istanbulites in various climates. Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan reminds me of Bergman and Ozu but lacks the formers comic touch with kept his best films from descending into tedium and the latter heart.

The film follows Isa (Nuri Bilge Ceylan) and Bahar (Ebru Ceylan)- the move of casting himself and his wife in a film about a couple smacks a little of self indulgence, lets hope there marriage isn't this bad!. Board Bahar leaves her husband Isa who find solace in ex girlfriend Serap (Nazan Kirilmis-The most annoying lengthy laughs in cinema history) culminating in a very disturbing sex scene where Isa bullies Serep into having sex in a detached continuous take. Isa eventually tracks down Bahar and attempts a reconciliation.

This is a film that insists on taking it's time and was for me a chore to watch scenes seem to drag on for ever the director coldly holding the frame on stationary characters, presumable so we can feel there inner turmoil, the worst offender being a scene where he holds the camera on Bahar for about six minutes so she can produce a few tear drops and allow them to run down her face. You got to admire that kind of bravery in a director to go against the Hollywood snappy dialogue and short scenes.Also admirable was the spreading throughout the film of subtle focuses on tiny details, like the sound of a bee, or snow flakes. However the film just isn't very interesting, the characters are undeveloped the script vague the ending unsatisfying, I can appreciate Ceylan intentions and his integrity but this film does very little for me.

In Turkey, the middle-age University Professor Isa (Nuri Bilge Ceylan) and his younger wife Bahar (Ebru Ceylan), who works in television, are spending summer vacation in Kas. After a couple of days, Isa decides to separate from Bahar since they do not communicate with each other. Bahar returns to Istanbul alone and then she travels to the countryside to work in a new project. Meanwhile Isa meets his former lover Serap (Nazan Kirilmis) with his friend Guven (Can Ozbatur) and later he rapes her in her house. Then he travels to meet Bahar and propose her to move in together again. What will be her decision?

"Iklimler", a.k.a. "Climates", is a boring and overrated Franco Turkish romance. The pace is too slow and the lead couple shows no chemistry and charisma. However the cinematography and landscapes are stunning. Despite the hype, this film is annoying and pointless. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Climas" ("Climates")

Climates fmovies. I just saw the film here in Chicago as part of the city's International Film Fest, and I have a few feelings left hanging around. True, Ceylan's films tend to be slow and he often leaves his character's unsatisfyingly shallow (see "Uzak," an even slower film than this one). But what leaves me intrigued is just this - the fact that he doesn't develop his characters. In "Climates," there are many close up shots which linger, leaving the characters suspended on the screen to be themselves, and these script-less glimpses of them speak volumes to me actually. So yes, in terms of how much is GIVEN to us as an audience, the characters are wanting. But in terms of how much we can construct in our minds, I feel the sky's the limit. I also found the generational difference between Bahar, the young wife, and the other few characters we're introduced to to be quite heavy. For while the other few people we see are all disillusioned by life and lazily struggle with it in the safe realms of their relative bourgeois lives, she seems to be the only one who sees something wrong with the whole picture. The catch is that while she sees through it, she also feels disillusioned by how wrong all the wrongs are, and so she keeps it to herself and simply starts crying. Interspersed throughout the film are subtle focuses on tiny details, like a bee, or snow flakes, which really highlight a rather poetic quality to the film. Overall I found the film to be falsely shallow. Audiences with short attention spans be warned!

The film is developed on a university teacher who has unstable relation with women. The film is so valuable for the man and women who don't understand each other. Excellent description of average man and woman behaviors. It shows that there are no reasonable causes of feeling to others depending on his or her character or their behaviors. Scenes are like paintings with human figures. Must be watched with patience and in rest. Lonely people can feel the sense better. The Director's other movies especially "Uzak"/Distant are recommended to feel the atmosphere better. Players, especially the amateur ones (in fact there is no professional one) so successful.

A director-as an artist-may choose to tell his story by using different parameters i.e.eloquent treatment of dialogue,scenery,costumes,soundtrack and sometimes visual effects. Another may yet choose to tell his/her story using spare plot,minimal dialogue,long still shoots and creative atmosphere.

Three-time Cannes winner director,actor,photographer Nuri Bilge Ceylan follows the second path...

*Spoiler*

A sequel to Uzak,Iklimler,very simply is about a middle-aged academic still writing his thesis and his younger wife(director himself and his real-life wife Ebru Ceylan)who pass through the seasons in their marriage.As the story moves on-from summer to fall then to winter-we see the scenery and locations change in parallel with their inner conflicts.The couple cannot reconcile; separation and break-up is unavoidable at the end.

*Spoiler

Ceylan,with almost a Tarkovskian approach tells his story in the manner of a true auteur he is.