Winning Cannes’ Grand Jury Prize (shh - that’s second place) on ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA/’11, Iranian filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s returned after three years for the Palme d’Or (that’s first) with this fascinating, if punishing work. Fascinating in its look at rural Anatolian terrain and people, centered around a relatively wealthy family who run a tourist lodge stunningly set in some hard to reach foothills off the vast Anatolian steppes. Punishing in its formality, pacing, sheer length (3+ hours) and in detailing an entire culture & society stymied by passive/aggressive behavior; subtly (and not so subtly) attacking relatives, friends, employees, tenants and casual acquaintances in a manner so polite they needn’t act behind their back. You could pull your hair out in frustration; imagine what it’s like for them! Top dog is the lodge owner, a former actor and current pontificating bore (with the local newspaper column to prove it), patronizing to one and all in an even-handed manner that only makes it worse. (Played by Haluk Bilginer, he’s also a James Mason lookalike.) And with the annoying habit of mostly being right! Hard to win sympathy when you politely dispossess poor tenants late with the rent; deal with a disagreeable sister divorced into your household; patronize your much younger wife whose only wish is to do something on her own and play Miss Dilettante Charitable Cause with other people’s donations till it blows up in her face; just as you said it would. All this disturbingly engrossing as long as you can lower your heartbeat to match Ceylan’s steady but slow pulse. He certainly manages striking compositions to help get you thru all the dramatic caesurae.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: A personal pet peeve, but does anybody ever believe characters on stage & screen ripping up or burning piles of cash to prove a point?
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