Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Three Monkeys” and the Dardenne brothers’ “Le Silence de Lorna” are two films that provoked feelings of admiration at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, and not without reason. Ceylan is one of the consistent Turkish auteurs whose filmography is distinguished for the austere and cinematographic-specific way it treats its subject matter. The same applies to the Dardenne brothers who have created a distinctive filming style that deftly oscillates between emotional detachment and intense involvement.
Among other similarities, the two films share an emphasis on cinematographic narration in the way Robert Bresson understood it, that is, as a diegetic form that is not subservient to the plot or the scenario. In both films, the camera does not function as a means of reproduction of a pro-filmic reality, but as an instigator of emotions, gestures and responses that are not necessarily predetermined by the script. On the surface, they...
Among other similarities, the two films share an emphasis on cinematographic narration in the way Robert Bresson understood it, that is, as a diegetic form that is not subservient to the plot or the scenario. In both films, the camera does not function as a means of reproduction of a pro-filmic reality, but as an instigator of emotions, gestures and responses that are not necessarily predetermined by the script. On the surface, they...
- 6/29/2010
- by Angelos Koutsourakis
- The Moving Arts Journal
Sometimes, there's no pleasing critics and cinephiles -- they'll dreamily wish someone like Turkish arthouse force Nuri Bilge Ceylan would break his introspective paradigm and make a genre film, and then when he does, kinda, with "Three Monkeys," everyone compliments it tamely with canned praise. "Suspenseful!" was a common pullquote, though "pulpy" was a term I didn't expect to see but did, in the New York Times.
Pulpy? Ceylan's movie is as elliptical and internalized and visually elusive as anything by Hou, but it's as if actually having a story to tell automatically takes you down a notch or two. And the flavor of the tale defines what the film is for most critics, living as we do in a world still oversaturated in the aura of noir.
The trap of having a film about crime and fate labeled "neo-noir" may well be inescapable, even if the story per se...
Pulpy? Ceylan's movie is as elliptical and internalized and visually elusive as anything by Hou, but it's as if actually having a story to tell automatically takes you down a notch or two. And the flavor of the tale defines what the film is for most critics, living as we do in a world still oversaturated in the aura of noir.
The trap of having a film about crime and fate labeled "neo-noir" may well be inescapable, even if the story per se...
- 12/1/2009
- by Michael Atkinson
- ifc.com
Release Date: May 1
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Writers: Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Cinematographer: Gökhan Tiryaki
Starring: Yavuz Bingol, Hartrice Aslan, Rifat Sungar, Ercan Kesal
Studio/Run Time: Zeitgeist, 109 mins.
Evil is subtle, but undeniable, in fascinating Turkish family drama
So much goes unsaid in Three Monkeys, that the simian alluded to in the title seems likely to be the one who “speaks no evil.” Likewise, in this Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Cannes-wowing noir, the two killings (one accidental, the other premeditated) that bookend the story are never seen. And what is heard, amid the torturously intimate unraveling of a Turkish family, is only as audible as a sigh, a quickening heartbeat, the crack of a palm across a face. Masterfully lensed in dark hues and long static shots, Monkeys tracks the consequences of a cover-up that sends a politician’s chauffeur to jail for a hit-and-run, instead of the guilty man.
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Writers: Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Cinematographer: Gökhan Tiryaki
Starring: Yavuz Bingol, Hartrice Aslan, Rifat Sungar, Ercan Kesal
Studio/Run Time: Zeitgeist, 109 mins.
Evil is subtle, but undeniable, in fascinating Turkish family drama
So much goes unsaid in Three Monkeys, that the simian alluded to in the title seems likely to be the one who “speaks no evil.” Likewise, in this Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Cannes-wowing noir, the two killings (one accidental, the other premeditated) that bookend the story are never seen. And what is heard, amid the torturously intimate unraveling of a Turkish family, is only as audible as a sigh, a quickening heartbeat, the crack of a palm across a face. Masterfully lensed in dark hues and long static shots, Monkeys tracks the consequences of a cover-up that sends a politician’s chauffeur to jail for a hit-and-run, instead of the guilty man.
- 6/24/2009
- Pastemagazine.com
Cannes film review, In Competition
It's no secret that the films of Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan are an acquired taste. They are as slow as molasses, but as discerning cinephiles discovered with "Distant" (2003) and "Climates" (2006), what a sweet flavor that molasses, properly savored, contains. "Three Monkeys" is no different, yet at the same time represents some tentative steps into new and welcome thematic territory.
Low-grossing theatrical releases can be expected in major cities around the world in which the long-take aesthetic is still appreciated, and ancillary sales, especially DVD, will be even better. It's a must for festivals with even modest art-film pretensions and, given Ceylan's highly developed visual sensibility, should especially appeal to art museum programrs.
Ceylan's usual focus on individuals has now been expanded to include a family, comprising a husband, Eyup, a wife, Hacer, and their teenage son Ismael. Eyup, the driver of a local politician named Servet, is convinced by the latter to take the rap for a death caused by a driving accident on the eve of elections. His sentence will be short, Servet explains, his family will continue to be paid his salary while he's in prison, and a lump sum will be waiting for him when he gets out.
All of this backstory is conveyed by voiceover in seconds, then gotten out of the way as the film settles in to a leisurely exposition of the daily life of mother and son. Nothing whatsoever seems to happen, yet little clues are constantly being planted that will continue to build throughout the film and lead to several grand, if understated, emotional payoffs.
No one currently working in cinema today can suggest an interior psychological state, solely through the camera's external observation of an unmoving character, as well as Ceylan can. Also, he uses the entire frame, which is always perfectly composed for maximum expressivity, whether in a long-held extreme long shot, or in a devastating close-up. Differential focusing and camera angle are also meticulously thought out, and the emotional tension created in a few purposely drawn-out scenes can be excruciating.
The new territory, besides the emphasis on family dynamics, includes the occasional unnerving appearance of a long-dead younger brother, and several subtle feints in the direction of a apparently new religious sensibility.
The film is not without blemishes. For one thing, Hacer's motivation for a rash act that severely threatens the family is barely sketched in, hence not quite believable. For another, Ceylan seems unsure how to end his film, which would require a decision concerning which themes to accent.
But these are small cavils in the face of a film whose every shot seems lifted right off the wall of an art gallery and just as powerfully, if quietly, satisfying.
Cast: Yavuz Bingol, Hatice Aslan, Ahmet Rifat Sungar, Ercan Kesal. Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Screenwriter: Ebru Ceylan, Ercan Kesal, Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Producer: Zeynep Ozbatur. Director of photography: Gokham Tiryaki. Art Director: Ebru Ceylan. Editor: Ayhan Ergursel, Bora Goksingol, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Sales: Pyramide International
No MPAA rating, 109 minutes.
It's no secret that the films of Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan are an acquired taste. They are as slow as molasses, but as discerning cinephiles discovered with "Distant" (2003) and "Climates" (2006), what a sweet flavor that molasses, properly savored, contains. "Three Monkeys" is no different, yet at the same time represents some tentative steps into new and welcome thematic territory.
Low-grossing theatrical releases can be expected in major cities around the world in which the long-take aesthetic is still appreciated, and ancillary sales, especially DVD, will be even better. It's a must for festivals with even modest art-film pretensions and, given Ceylan's highly developed visual sensibility, should especially appeal to art museum programrs.
Ceylan's usual focus on individuals has now been expanded to include a family, comprising a husband, Eyup, a wife, Hacer, and their teenage son Ismael. Eyup, the driver of a local politician named Servet, is convinced by the latter to take the rap for a death caused by a driving accident on the eve of elections. His sentence will be short, Servet explains, his family will continue to be paid his salary while he's in prison, and a lump sum will be waiting for him when he gets out.
All of this backstory is conveyed by voiceover in seconds, then gotten out of the way as the film settles in to a leisurely exposition of the daily life of mother and son. Nothing whatsoever seems to happen, yet little clues are constantly being planted that will continue to build throughout the film and lead to several grand, if understated, emotional payoffs.
No one currently working in cinema today can suggest an interior psychological state, solely through the camera's external observation of an unmoving character, as well as Ceylan can. Also, he uses the entire frame, which is always perfectly composed for maximum expressivity, whether in a long-held extreme long shot, or in a devastating close-up. Differential focusing and camera angle are also meticulously thought out, and the emotional tension created in a few purposely drawn-out scenes can be excruciating.
The new territory, besides the emphasis on family dynamics, includes the occasional unnerving appearance of a long-dead younger brother, and several subtle feints in the direction of a apparently new religious sensibility.
The film is not without blemishes. For one thing, Hacer's motivation for a rash act that severely threatens the family is barely sketched in, hence not quite believable. For another, Ceylan seems unsure how to end his film, which would require a decision concerning which themes to accent.
But these are small cavils in the face of a film whose every shot seems lifted right off the wall of an art gallery and just as powerfully, if quietly, satisfying.
Cast: Yavuz Bingol, Hatice Aslan, Ahmet Rifat Sungar, Ercan Kesal. Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Screenwriter: Ebru Ceylan, Ercan Kesal, Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Producer: Zeynep Ozbatur. Director of photography: Gokham Tiryaki. Art Director: Ebru Ceylan. Editor: Ayhan Ergursel, Bora Goksingol, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Sales: Pyramide International
No MPAA rating, 109 minutes.
- 5/16/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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