Aditya Gokhale Nuri Bilge Ceylan is no ordinary director. This fact becomes evident from the very first few frames of his "Climates" (2006), a rather languidly paced, wonderfully minimalist piece of work. We come across an odd looking couple, a young woman, Bahar (Ebru Ceylan) and her visibly older partner (?) Isa (Nuri Bilge Ceylan). It is not clear if they are married or engaged or just living in. They are on a holiday somewhere and Isa is busy photographing some ruins, while Bahar looks on with odd stares. The ambient sounds of buzzing bees and chirping birds add to the mood of the lazy afternoon and the seemingly laid back attitude of the couple on screen. Only just before the title credits appear, there is a long take of Bahar staring right at you (although in the film it's Isa she is looking at). And suddenly, tears start rolling down. Clearly, all is not well.It is soon established that the couple are in a troubled relationship. They are out of love. Bahar seems trapped and suffocated in this relationship. This part is highlighted in a real neat dream sequence of a blurred image of Isa smothering Bahar with sand as she lies on the beach. And later, Isa, who is also aware of the distance between them, rehearses lines to convey that they should probably part ways. These two sequences and one awkward dinner table conversation with a friend quickly impress you. You instantly sit up and take notice. Perhaps you are watching yet another minimalist European masterwork.If only the same sentiment stayed on after the first 50 odd minutes, after which it appears that Ceylan probably exhausted the greatest written scenes in his visibly unaccomplished script, which simply isn't potent enough in the first place. The plot, if any, merely delves on Bahar and Isa's break-up and Isa's attempt to reconcile. That's all you can really write about it. The deficient script wouldn't matter much, if all of the handful of characters that appear on screen make up for the lack of substantial meat in the writing. But the focus is mostly only on Isa, while the other players, although introduced, appear in some important scenes, but aren't much looked into. We only know them superficially.For example, sometime later, we are introduced to Serap (Nazan Kirilmis), apparently an ex of Isa. Isa runs into Serap, old romance/lust rekindles, and he invites himself into her home, in spite of the fact that she is now carrying on with a friend of his! Serap and Isa stare at each other awkwardly for a long while and exchange small talk about their respective relationships. Serap smokes her cigarettes with elan, and in the moments of silence we can actually hear the sound of smoke being drawn in every puff till the cigarette burns out. Just Lovely! But suddenly something happens that makes you wonder what kind of man Isa really is!This is further corroborated in a sequence in the snow-clad eastern Turkey, to where Isa travels to find his lost love, Bahar, in an attempt to win her back! How fickle can one get? He meets a friendly cabbie, who doesn't ask much except to be sent a photograph he takes of him against a snowy landscape. Isa agrees and the cabbie writes down his address on a piece of paper. But later, very nonchalantly, he throws the piece of paper in an ash tray in a coffee shop! One wonders if the only character that carries so much weight in the script should come across as so unlikeable that you would hardly even care about him much."Climates" had potential to completely succeed only in scenes like these that highlight some behavioral traits of Ceylan's characters, since plot-wise he didn't have much to go on. More talent, though, is invested in capturing breathtakingly beautiful landscapes across Turkey in some of the finest cinematography this reviewer had the pleasure of coming across. Add to that, some of the greatest sound design, capturing ambient sounds that you simply fall in love with, and wonderfully natural acting that you can't forget for a while.The title, apart from the physical change of seasons we see on the screen, also alludes to the ups and downs in human relationships. But more so, it is symbolic of the fickleness of a human being, his shifting inclinations that change with time. "Climates" shows us in its subtle, simple narrative, how a man can break up, stray and then attempt to make up again! "Climates", thus succeeds on a considerable level, as a romantic mood piece. Only it ends up being a little too simple and a tad hollow for a film trying to bring out the complicated functioning of the human mind.There certainly is sheer grace in the mechanics of "Climates", and Ceylan proves that he has the skill for the aesthetics. Only one wishes there was more heart in it too.Score: 8/10

darcymoore 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.

zetes Palm D'Or nominated feature by the director of Distant (2002). This is nearly as good as that one. Like it, it's a slow, contemplative art film about relationships. This one stars the director and his wife, Ebru Ceylan, as an unhappily married couple on vacation. They mutually decide to break up. Much of the rest of the film follows the husband trying to cope with his loss. The latter part of the film has him follow his wife to a snowy mountain region where she has moved for work. I hate to harp on it, and I frequently attack others who have this complaint about films, but the main problem with Climates is that the protagonist is incredibly unlikeable. Like I said, I hate to have that complaint, because there are so many bad people in the world. Why shouldn't some movies explore the less than enviable characters? I suppose, though - and this is how I felt about this film - spending a lot of time with such a character can become something of a bummer. Yet he is a human being, and I do like that Ceylan explores him. He's not exactly redeemed by the end (there's a certain act in the movie that's pretty much unforgivable), but we understand him. The end of the film makes it well worth seeing (besides, it's only just over 90 minutes anyway). Those final two scenes are exquisite. Despite my complaints, this is worthwhile.

frankenbenz The films of Michelangelo Antonioni will either bore you to death or captivate you in the most subtle of ways. I fall into the latter category and am profoundly influenced by his work and the filmic conventions integral to them. It was my discovery of Antonioni's work that led to my discovery of New German Cinema, both of which ultimately shaped the way I watched and interpreted films. Brought up on a steady diet of Hollywood movies, I was conditioned to be a passive viewer, one swept away by movies made solely for entertainment purposes. In many ways I still am that little boy who gets lost in the fantasy world on the silver screen, but as an adult I've learned the films that truly make me feel alive are the ones forcing me to be an active participant in what is being projected before me. In other words, films that challenge me by asking questions in lieu of providing absolutes.Nuri Bilge Ceylan's is an Antonioni disciple and his 2006 film Climates is unmistakably an Antonioni clone. From the story of a couple's dissolving relationship on vacation (one part L'Avventura one part La Notte) right down to the compositions of every shot and the very deliberate pacing, Ceylan wears his influence with pride. Cinematographer Gokhan Tiryaki beautifully frames every shot, where the meticulous compositions are allowed to play out in patient long takes. As it is with Antonioni's films, the minimal use of editing allows the viewer to study things they normally wouldn't get a chance to even consider. Things like landscape, diegetic sounds and subtleties expressed by the actors, all take on heightened significance where, ultimately, this minutiae plays a crucial role filling in the blanks predominant throughout the film. In other words, films like Ceylan's and Antonioni's challenge their viewers to think, to read between the lines and to actively search for context, meaning and subtext within every frame of their films. As much as I love to revisit the thrills of my youth with standard Hollywood fare, nothing bests a filmgoing experience where I'm not only expected to think and feel as an adult, but am forced to act like one. What an interesting world we'd live in if the blockbusters were all films designed for adults.http://eattheblinds.blogspot.com/