For a long time I was going to see the film “Winter hibernation” / Kis Uykusu by Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, but scared off its duration, still 3 hours and 16 minutes. But the time has come (unfortunately) when I can only lie down, preferably moving less, and yesterday I finally watched it over the evening. I must say, I liked the movie. The film was based on Chekhov’s short story “The Wife”, but, according to Ceylan, he borrowed some motifs from Dostoevsky, as well as from Shakespeare and Voltaire. As I often do, I decided to refresh the memory of Chekhov’s story and made sure that in some places the film is close to him, there are even some almost identical dialogues, but still the director contributed a lot of his own. Somewhere in the mountainous province lives a former actor Aydin (Haluq Bilginer), who left his field after the death of his father, from whom he inherited some property, including a hotel called Othello, he is quite well provided, his assistant Hidayet (Iberk Pekcan) is managing, and he writes articles in local newspapers and is going to write a book about the history of Turkish theater. Together with him lives his divorced sister Nekla (Demet Akbag) and wife Nichal (Melissa Cezin). The relationship with his wife is now even, but not close, they live even in different parts of the house. And so throughout this absolutely conversational film, we're watching these people, as well as others around them, come out. And we see a complete misunderstanding on all sides, everyone considers himself right and wrong of others, this, of course, is common to people, but here it is shown quite clearly. It is worth looking at and listening to these different points of view and, as is often the case, mutual resentments and accusations. The film at one time received quite high praise, which was reflected in the fact that at the festival in Cannes in 2014 he received the Golden Palm Branch and the FIPRESCI prize. The film is good and visually, wonderful actors, especially the lead actor Haluk Bilginer, and I also liked the very restrained musical accompaniment, the main melodies - F. Schubert's sonata for piano N20 C major, as well as the melodies of L. Michelini.
Let’s face it: this film is not easy to watch even because it is an author’s film through, everywhere you can feel the influence of Bergman’s style of directing, which coincides with the slowness of Tarkovsky’s style, keeping the audience’s attention on a series of beautiful shots made in a beautiful area or a beautiful setting. It is difficult to perceive too frequent philosophical discussions, in which the characters of the film constantly enter. The abundance of cultural references to Russian literature is striking, and in general, the cinema looks like a film-performance in Chekhov’s traditions about the role of money in maintaining supranational culture, where the true ' underwater current' are cash flows.
The protagonist is Aydin, a retired actor who lives in picturesque Cappadocia and manages a rock-hewn hotel that he, along with other properties in the vicinity of the hotel, inherited from his father. Aydin sees himself as a kind of enlightened feudal lord, although some poorly educated villagers are willing to argue with this enlightened side, as Aydin often comes into fierce conflict with those who are late to rent. Among them are the stern ex-convict Ismail, who lives in a dilapidated house with his wife, their son Ilyas (who at the beginning of the film throws a stone at the car Aydin was driving in) and his brother Hamdi, an ingratiating and helpful local imam. Ismail will appear closer to the film's finale in one of the best scenes, which is an allusion to Dostoevsky's The Idiot, when he defiantly rejects and destroys a valuable gift brought by Aydin's wife.
In the hotel, Aydin lives mainly with his annoying, newly divorced sister Nejla, a tough and capable assistant Hidayet and a young beautiful wife Nihal. Aydin and Nihal don't seem to get along very well, and Nihal is trying to revive his boring life by participating in charity work for the ruined schools in the area - an occupation Aydin mocks. Nejla and Nihal criticize Aydin as arrogant and arrogant. He spends most of his time at the hotel, writing a column in the local newspaper (a newspaper no one reads, according to his sister), and preparing a volume on the history of Turkish theater.
In terms of plot, nothing else happens in the film, as it is mainly about the relationship between the different characters. The characters are recognizably real, although none of them are very cute. Interestingly, there is a clear distinction between the secular worldview of Aidin and his immediate family and the conservative values of poor, religious rural people, all of whose women wear Islamic scarves.
In the finale, the rich Aydin with a PHC the size of a god complex kills a hare on the hunt and brings it to his wife. You'll get a lot of money with a hare... Questionable victim-paraphrases on Chekhov ' Seagull' is' a hysterical gesture of thirst for rapprochement, but also a sign of the final departure from the people. After all, the Turks by blood are former Hittites, the hare was their totem, a sacred animal. Long ears of hares, donkeys, were found on the hats of kings even much later, when Anatolia was, according to the ancient Greeks ' garbage dump of peoples' which was even reflected in the myth that ' King Midas has donkey ears' And even in the 19th century, several remote villages remained, where hares were revered and not hunted. This is why the camera lingers on the agony of a small, gentle animal. . .
I don’t want to recommend this film to an ordinary moviegoer, but those who appreciate complex feature films will surely like it. The acting in it is phenomenal.
The name of Nuri Bilge Ceylan was constantly on our ears. A kind of lively classic, pouting for the whole of Turkey on the international arena, thanks to the Cannes Film Festival earned a weighty authority. He is a great admirer of Russian literature and the immortal works of Andrei Tarkovsky. Looking at 'Winter hibernation', there is definitely no doubt that the Turkish citizen tasted Russian longing with a filling of the tolerable gravity of being with great appetite. Apparently, all the subsequent (or preceding the best film of Cannes 2014) works – and we aimed at them – became strong vessels for storing the special nectar of the Russian soul.
We don't judge whether it's great or not. One thing is for sure: the work of Nuri Bilge Ceylan will appeal to a small number of viewers. Not because he shoots a heavy art house or a full surre. Rather, the thoughts that the director wants to convey through film language will become instantly or gradually understandable to the audience, accustomed to the so-called contemplative reflection. Here you sit and immediately begin to think about life on Earth, about your place in the universe, about your own destiny. Whether there is a plot or not, even the absence of it will present an ideal opportunity for thinking about the high and the sick. The more time is spent, the better for them.
It may seem that once in 'Winter hibernation' a small scoundrel threw a stone through the glass of a car, then after that a hot story about punishment, revenge, conflict and tragedy will unfold. Like the butterfly effect will happen. In fact, the incident will be only one of the episodes that build the multidimensional essence of human everyday life. Of course not routine. Here the main character suddenly begins to be interested in things about which he has not yet said a word. Characters around are sincerely surprised by the genuine interest of the Patriarch, while he himself can not hide the surprise. Then long dialogues awaken from hibernation, in which everyone has his own convenient truth.
You can say that Turkish cinema is about nothing and everything at the same time. If Asian creators try to explore and show the existential path of the hero from the inside out towards nature, the surrounding world, the worst enemy and anything in general, then the Russian environment becomes an aid for deep self-digging to the victorious end. And it doesn’t always get to the bottom to come to peace, peace and just the end. Here and in 'Winter hibernation' in the dialogues of the characters, every 3-4 lines, new questions are born that cannot be answered. A man like that, a woman like that, a boy like that will be silent. They do things that do not lend themselves to logic, but still go ahead.
Let’s not deceive, during the viewing there were glorious failures in a short sleep (as no more than 3 hours of night watching). And, as previously noted in one local text, waking up during the next conversation of talking heads, there is no feeling that you missed something important with the desire to twist the film back. In the end, the main character will sit down for writing a book, which he announced in the first hour of the story. And before that, with the effect of slow-mo, talk about a lot will float when it is fun, and smart, and annoying, and dreary. Perhaps for some it is a great movie about eternal themes, but for us it is unlikely. The cinema is quite wide, so everyone has their own movie.
This is such a film in the manner of postmodernism - the author speaks about what worries him, operating with his strong impressions from the works of Russian literature.
A husband who is ironic about his wife’s independent efforts to do charity work is from Chekhov. An aging hero, formerly a successful dramatic actor - almost Arkadin. He, at the same time, and Professor Serebryakov, talking about life and having a young beautiful and bored wife. The hare killed in the wake of a walk-hunting is almost unnecessary the Chekhov seagull killed by Trigorin. The morbid pride of an unemployed drunkard who owes rent for housing is from Fyodor Mikhailovich, straight from two works at once. This is for you and the unfortunate retired staff captain Snigirev, humiliated and mired in need, trampling the money brought by Alyosha Karamazov to the family, and Nastasya Filipovna herself, throwing money into the fire. Very Russian character complexities. In confirmation - gazing from the walls of extremely interestingly decorated rooms carved in the rock house, the huge eyes of the heroes from the drawings of Ilya Glazunov on the works of Dostoevsky. (Perhaps this is my only aesthetic difference with the author.) It seems that even the actress who plays the main character, his wife, with large “Glazunov’s” eyes was chosen not by chance.
One wonders whether all this human complexity and complexity of relations, such a familiar reflection of the Russian intelligentsia, also exists on the warm and spicy Turkish soil, even in a short period of snowy winter hibernation. So, yes, the Turkish artist is thinking about it.
The same complexity, the same inability to hear, to understand, to accept each other, the same lack of flexibility, which so correctly speaks of the old friend of the hero, receiving him in his lonely bachelor house. That’s why it hurts when you watch a movie, which, in my opinion, is a sign of a good movie. That is why beautiful sad chamber music sounds in the background, emphasizing the extra-national nature of this reflection, and perhaps timeless. Operator views with snow-capped grasses and dwellings carved into the rocks deserve a separate and careful analysis. The idol of the director Arseny Tarkovsky would probably appreciate them favorably.
The Turkish film “Winter Sleep” directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan was shot in collaboration with French and German film companies and was first presented to the public at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, where he was awarded the “Golden Palm”. Also in the film there are some references to Russian literary works, which can be traced throughout the film.
When watching this deep film, the atmosphere of Chekhov’s works is felt, expressed in the search for the meaning of life and exposing the vices of the heroes that make their lives empty and meaningless.
So what's the movie about? At first, the film immerses the audience in the atmosphere of winter serenity, telling us about a small hotel located in the Turkish Cappadocia deep in the mountains, but then the film attracts us to the lives and problems of the characters.
The hotel is kept by former actor Aydin, who lives there with his sister Nekla and young wife Nihal, with whom he has misunderstanding, alienation and constant quarrels. And the reason for all this is his character. Yes, he is smart, he has achieved much in life, but he feels too much of his importance, thereby exalting himself above others and thereby humiliating them.
Reflections of the sister on Tolstoy’s “non-resistance to evil by violence” Aydin laughingly rejects, even without trying to delve deeper into the problem. His wife, however, was abusive, and his wife was abusive. But what else would she do in a small village? And so it manifests itself in something, while feeling its importance to people.
All his life, the Aydin family rented the house to the Ismail family, which is lower in social status, and with which the actor did not have a very good relationship. What is it about? The reason was the contempt felt by Ismail's family. They could not pay for the house, and brother Hamdi went to the actor, walking many kilometers in the winter, thus constantly humiliating and kneeling before Aydin, although hating him with all his heart. The actor lacks cordiality towards this family, he cannot and does not want to understand their problems, believing that they themselves are to blame for their deplorable state. Ismail’s family is very sorry, but Aydin does not want to understand their entire situation, and therefore does not imbue with sympathy for them.
As for Aydin himself, he, realizing that he may lose his family, is trying to somehow improve, but ... he is unlikely to succeed, since he has a strong sense of his own superiority over other people.
So why is the movie called "Winter Sleep"? The answer is simple – it reveals to us the relationship of the family, whose members are just in “hibernation” and do not understand each other’s feelings.
10 out of 10
In the process of watching the film, not knowing on the basis of what it is shot, you still feel a wild, painfully familiar languor, some vague images, inspired by the past, echoes of childhood memories appear in the imagination. Some episodes clearly refer to the Russian classics, but the main thing is not that. The main thing is the atmosphere of the film. Mountainous landscape, only remotely reminiscent of Central Russian, authentic Turkish dwellings, Muslim Turks, little like Russian peasants. But the snow, slowly falling asleep in the valley, Chekhov’s interiors in the house of the main character, the characters are servile and at the same time proud people, reflective and at the same time arrogant intelligentsia, and most importantly – a leisurely, viscous life, in which real Desert passions sometimes boil. The film is almost entirely based on dialogue, very long shots, full of psychology. I don't think it's too long. This corresponds to the intention of the authors and corresponds to the chosen style. I recommend it to anyone who will not be frightened by its speaking name.
It is very important to appreciate normal human relationships. But sometimes a person who has lost faith in them begins to behave arrogantly towards other people and sometimes even snatch anger at relatives and friends. This can lead to unpredictable consequences. The analysis of relations between ordinary people is the central theme of the intellectual drama “Winter Sleep”.
Synopsis The beginning of winter. Somewhere in the snow-capped mountains of Cappadocia, a lonely Othello hotel took shelter. His manager, former actor Aydin, who periodically recalls his former glory, desperately tries to get along with his young wife Nihal, engaged in charity, and recently divorced sister Nejla. From day to day, the inhabitants seem to play the idyll of family life, whereas in reality they have long become strangers to each other.
The film strikes with a subtle and soulful play of actors, who perfectly got used to the images of their characters. First of all, I would like to note the play of Haluk Bilginer in the role of Aydin, a former theatrical actor who is used to looking at the whole world and surrounding people from a height, and therefore does not notice how his relationship ruined former family ties. She also liked Melisa Sösen as Nihal, the wife of Aydin, a young girl who dreams of personal freedom and has long since fallen out of love with her husband, although she has not yet realized this. Finally, it is worth mentioning Demet Akbag as Nejla, the sister of Aydin, a wise woman who long ago realized that she was part of this play, which is played in their house every day.
Probably, in the national cinema of each country you can find a truly worthy director, whose artistic style and manner reveals to the viewer not only the director himself, but also his homeland. In Turkey, such, perhaps, is Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who directed “Winter Sleep”. The film is characterized by extremely unhurried dynamics and chamber atmosphere. Actually, there is no intrigue in the film. But that's not what matters to the director. In the center of his attention is the image of a person who is used to living in deception and using his strongest qualities to suppress the will of others and even break their lives, without realizing the evil he has done.
As you know, the script of the film is a free translation of the story of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov "The Wife". However, despite the fact that the action takes place in Turkey these days, did not distort the overall impression of the film, because Ceylan managed to convey the very idea: you need to live like a human being. In the film, former theater actor Aydin manages a small hotel hidden somewhere in the mountainous terrain of Cappadocia. In parallel, he writes articles for an intellectual magazine and plans a book on the history of Turkish theater. He is happy in life, and he blindly assures himself that others are as happy as he is. However, in reality, we see an unhappy wife who dreams of doing business, a sister who misses after a divorce, and neighbors who hate the hero. All this truth is revealed in the course of long continuous dialogues and disputes between the characters who understand that they can not continue to live like this, and therefore it is time to change and move on, and not play with happiness, which is not yet.
Result The film may seem too lengthy due to the slow development of the action, and this is probably its slight flaw. However, all this is compensated by significant semantic content and dialogues, listening to which you immerse yourself in the world of heroes who have forgotten how to be happy, because they have forgotten how to live as normal people.
9 out of 10
The son said, "How can you watch this nudity?" And I said, "What are you doing?" It's such a drama! And he is a phrase for me that should become a catchy one, and for which the rights should be patented: “Action drama is not a hindrance.”
I fervently agree, yes, action drama is not a hindrance, and there are many worthy examples, and I do not understand how these people from a distant exotic country stirred up in me just some archetypal layers of the subconscious, how strangely their life with its temporitm, with its psychophysics was so close to my deep structure?
I find a more or less acceptable explanation for this in my Uzbek childhood, in my grandfather’s house under the weave of grapevines, in the youth of my parents with their spiritual quests. But the final answer bursts out of the chest when reading the final credits: based on the works of Chekhov and Dostoevsky. My son, well aware of the reason for my astonishment, slyly inserts: "Whom you hate." Yes, I really hate it, but as it turned out, there is no escape from the mentality.
Since the time of the velvet Brezhnev authoritarianism, issues of social inequality, social injustice, social tension - in general, social issues as such, by oversight or intention of the author, fell into a literary work, even worse - into a theater production or a film, completely discouraged reading and watching, causing excruciating heartburn.
It was especially rampant against the background of ethnically alien suburbs, generously flavored with oriental flavor. Conditional Bangladesh activated unstoppable vomiting and other physiological functions. Parents called this topic “the difficult past of the Bashkir people”.
- How was the movie?
- The difficult past of the Bashkir people.
- Right.
This was a verdict, the passing of which put an end not only to further acquaintance with the artifact, but in general to any serious discussion of it in decent company.
Perhaps we just overfeed the balanda, but it is, alas, irreversible. Perhaps the young, or rather the young category of 35-, unspoiled agitprop, and does not bother at all. The picture is visually perfect.
Everyone says: Chekhov, Chekhov ... I have never seen Chekhov. Where is he?
It is strange not to understand: Chekhov is the last one from whom you can hear “How can you drink tea when people are suffering?”, and even then as a caustic irony.
You cannot read Russian classics so seriously. Then it's not Chekhov, it's Gorky. And even whole Ilyich from the snuffbox Kartvit: "They are terribly far from the people."
That's what the tape is about. About how terribly far the idle talkers, who sincerely consider themselves mental workers, are from the people. They drink tea while the people suffer. They seem to be tormented by all signs. But still terribly far away, living in a glass world, busy exclusively with themselves and do not seem to understand what is happening. Or they don't even understand. Atrophy of the senses, and amnesia. A state of mental suspended animation. Winter hibernation.
Plus a squishy, insanely beautiful, depressing landscape. Highly professional camera. In general, everything is at the highest technical and picturesque levels. Not with a finger.
And the narrative, meanwhile, is loose, without pressure and resolution, without a climax and the surreal element so beloved by Chekhov. And guns don't shoot from the walls.
Suddenly, Dostoevsky was entwined with his cheapest circus - burning of banknotes in a furnace. Then suddenly Tusenbach surfaced with such familiar laments of self-love.
Maybe he didn't even exist. No one is required. The play didn't work. And it is not that where it is necessary not to shy away, but that the author does not know where it is necessary. The gauze and sprawled, not gathering.
Chekhov somehow succeeded, but he took the secret to the grave. Now you won't ask.
I wish it had ended like this. I mean, Jaylan had some great tapes. One was definitely there.
There are stories where nothing seems to be happening. They are sticky, slow and monotonous, like endless snow, which pours everything and there is no end to it. The world freezes, and with it life, buried under a white ice blanket, falls into winter hibernation.
Aydin is a former successful actor who left the profession to write the work of his life, the history of Turkish theater. Moreover, for a quiet and secluded work there are all conditions - a quiet hotel in the mountains of Cappadocia and houses rented, bring a good income. Together with Aidin live his young beautiful wife Nihal and his divorced sister Nekla. Nichal is engaged in charity, arranging dinners for local fat cats and thus raising money for the repair of schools, and Nekla runs the house. The snowfall cuts the hotel off from the rest of the world. And then the stone house turns into a place of mental torture for each of them. The perfect whiteness of the surrounding world ruthlessly highlights empty illusions, human fears and self-deception. Instead of writing, which could be a source of joy and satisfaction, Aidin writes a column in a seedy local newspaper. Instead of loving, being loved, and living life to the fullest, Nihal spends her days in the wilderness with an unloved person, justifying their emptiness by the importance of the cause she is engaged in. Instead of looking for opportunities to build her new life, Nekla lives with her brother, venting her dissatisfaction in the form of reproaches and scathing remarks. Everyone tries to justify his inactivity by hiding from spiritual corrosion behind empty phrases, lengthy reasoning and philosophical ideas divorced from real life. Everyone is afraid to live.
Critics call Nuri Bilge Ceylan a follower of Tarkovsky and Zvyagintsev and "the perfect festival director" - in his piggy bank seven Golden Palm branches, two for "Winter hibernation". The Russian footprint in Turkish history does not end there. The source of inspiration for the film was Chekhov’s stories “The Wife” and “Good People”, as well as the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, in which the authors create a picture of a deep spiritual crisis that shakes the foundations of ordinary life, but never leads the characters to a new one.
Sleeping your life is probably the worst thing that can happen to a person. Let's remember that. Winter is coming.
Why is Ceylan’s Winter Sleep, which received a golden palm branch, ahead of not a few serious paintings, and whose score of 8.2 imdb is so ruthlessly underestimated by the Russian-speaking world? I agree that Leviathan is not worse, and to some extent probably better. But the domestic picture is devoid of the depth and philosophical saturation that is present in this picture. Yes, Leviathan is more watchable and easy to understand, its characters are clearly painted in black and white colors. Winter hibernation, a little different genre and dimension, its characters are difficult to understand and perceive. This quality is valued in Cannes, unlike, for example, the Oscars. And this, despite the fact that it lasts a full 196 minutes!
Besides, Jaylan is a real Russophile. The idolizing Russian classics and cinematography. So that Tarkovsky is his idol in cinematography, and Chekhov and Dostoevsky are his spiritual mentors. That's why he probably taps the deepest strings of the soul. But it is no longer strange that Russian classics are revered abroad more than in Russia. Paradoxically, it is a fact that the whole world is fanatical about Russian classics, and it is customary to read Western writers.
A pleasant surprise for me was the professionalism of the actors, a rare Turkish film in which all the artists so masterfully performed their roles. And Aydin (Haluq Bilginer) is above all praise. Perfect execution. The operator is equally worthy of praise, thanks to his talent, he manages to watch this long drama without switching off.
What is not clear is that our critics are more saddened that Leviathan did not win the Grand Prize of Cannes or did not watch the Winter Hibernation carefully. One thing is for sure, their translators have failed badly. They could not even translate the word Aydin normally. Not Aidin, by the way. And Aydin's sister was written by Nekl instead of Nejl. And how shameful it is to write reviews...
The film tells the story of a wealthy Turkish family. The owner, a gray-haired man in his 50s, owns a hotel in the historic part of the country and several other houses in nearby villages. He has a beautiful wife, Nichel, young, intelligent, sensual, who has never worked anywhere. He lives with his sister, who came to his home after the divorce. A very intelligent woman, likes to start smart conversations, but she is bored and lonely in this house, she misses her husband.
The film shows how they live together, often talk to each other, discuss different “high” topics. Their life in this house is boring and empty, they live in satiety, prosperity and peace, but there is no joy, fulfillment and useful activities. Nichel, after several years of such a life, becomes indifferent and dry, like her husband. She feels unfree and meaningless. But to her happiness, she finds a work (charity) that inspired her life, meaning appeared, although her husband does not share it in this.
He is engaged in writing all the time, writes articles on cultural and spiritual topics in a local magazine. Thinks about spirituality, while he himself has not been to the mosque for a long time. Condemns the poor who are untidy and do not care for their home, does not understand how to live like this.
In contrast, this rich family shows a poor family that owes them for renting a house. They don’t have enough money and a completely different attitude towards money. One day Nichel came to them in secret from her husband, brought a large sum of money to help, and the owner of this house took and burned them in the fireplace. There's something alive in this poor family that that rich one doesn't have. They have meaning in life: a child to be raised, to be taught, an old mother who needs medicine, a house to be rented. And these people are simple, brave and emotionally open, they do not hide their desires and emotions.
I would like to write more about “decoration”. The events take place in one historical place of Turkey, some ancient city of houses in the form of stone caves with semicircular windows and entrances. If you look at these caves from afar, it looks like bird nests in the rock. Unusual. In one of these houses there is a hotel where a rich family lives. It was interesting to see a different culture, a different culture. I like how the Turks treat guests with respect, whether you are a rich guest or a poor guest. I like how they defend their honor and their family.
If you describe the film in one sentence, it’s like a long, long conversation over a cup of tea. Fine, clever, but very long.
The movie feels cool. Of all the characters, I remember only the young wife of the hotel owner, her lively, fiery eyes.
Small, boring people
They walk in the land of my homeland.
They are looking for places, and they are looking for places.
Where to hide from life.
Everyone wants cheap happiness.
Saturation, comfort and silence.
They go and they all complain, they groan.
Grey cowards and liars.
Small, stolen thoughts...
Beautiful, fashionable words...
Slowly crawling from the edge of life
Dim as shadows, men.
It's Gorky. Poems of Vlas from the play "Givings". Imagine that these poems would be read not as agitation with propaganda, not as concrete condemnation and final verdict, but with affection, understanding and sympathy in his voice. This is what Nuri Bilge Ceylan says about his “men” fading away in emptiness, boredom and fear in the film “Winter Sleep”. And although he says, in principle, the same thing, in his voice you will not find intonations in Gorky sharp and muscular, accusatory. Turk Ceylan is a fan of the thin Chekhov with his knowledge that losers are everything in general, that black and white do not happen, and gray and its shades are as many as you like. And everyone goes not in one direction - to the goal, but wanders back and forth, trampling his own tracks.
Remember the gladiatorial oath, “I burn, knit, and kill with iron”? Already at the beginning of the film, it is obvious that Jaylan gave himself an equally tough vow. By stripping everything external and alluring from the blood, he puts a special kind of people to whom he wholeheartedly refers, the intelligentsia, into the light. This is not a simple X-ray test of infirmity or vitality, it is a sublime existential test of some perfect light, clear as the first snow. And this light almost does not penetrate the heroes, does not penetrate them. Only in the final he trembles and warms in the eyes of the hotel owner Aydin and his wife. After continuous tests on the strength of the intellect, heart and conscience, the director, as if realizing that “saving a person against his will is like committing a murder,” quietly retreats from the heroes, leaving their salvation to them themselves. Chekhov would have done the same thing.
However, in the film there is not a Czech pointing finger of the author. This is the final voiceover letter of Aydin to his wife (perhaps, by the way, she invented it and read it herself) that one cannot live only oneself, that a person needs a person and a sacrifice for the sake of another, that love is in selflessness, and that the self kills it.
But this is probably the only answer given and spoken. Everything else in “Hibernation” is from the field of feelings and views that are alive not by words, but by shades of intonation, inconsistencies, silence. They are painfully beautiful in that they contain no definite points of view, they almost do not distinguish the good side from the bad. By the way, when heroes try to express their views, make assessments, putting labels of good and evil on each other, they are the most comical and pathetic. This is especially true of the charity exercises of the hero’s wife, who for some reason believes that philanthropy and love for one’s neighbor are one and the same. How powerless is the aid of material goods without love, we see in the cruel scene of the burning of money. However, the hatred and contempt of a poor man who throws a stack of banknotes into the fireplace is no better than the indifference to life, powerlessness, selfishness and coolness of Aydin, his wife and sister. And, most likely, they also talk about selfishness and coolness.
The abundance of words in the film “Winter hibernation”, to which almost everyone who writes about it pointed with surprise, for the director is not an end in itself and not a way to say something important. That's a pretty definite assessment. Evaluation of the moral inconsistency of heroes who hide a small number of souls and deeds behind words. Their words express nothing but the ability to hear only themselves and unfounded claims to moral dignity and superiority. Speaking beautifully and showing off, they seem to steal the main meanings from high words: justice, humanity, morality, conscience, Allah. In their dialogues, there is no hint that they live in the highest and universal, these people serve themselves as ends in themselves. However, they desperately need others... They need it because Jaylan is kind. Kinder than the "singer of incommunicability" Chekhov, kinder than Antonioni and simpler in his kindness than Tarkovsky.
D. Bykov once said: “Man constantly wants to consume only one thing – a beautiful image of himself.” Jaylan gave Aydin an opportunity to renounce himself. And to come to that simple, perhaps not snow-white, but gray, but certainly not “cheap” happiness, which was once perfectly formulated by the American writer Henry David Thoreau: “No matter how pathetic your life is, look in its face and live it; do not detach yourself from it and do not curse it.” She's not as bad as you. She seems the poorest when you are the richest. A man will find something to complain about in paradise. Love your life, however poor it may be.
The source of inspiration for the director Nuri Bilge Ceylan was the stories of Chekhov and some other works of Russian writers, as well as illustrations by Ilya Glazunov to Dostoevsky’s novel Netochka Nezvanov. And, amazingly, I can imagine that the action takes place somewhere in Russia in the nineteenth century. Slow melancholy narrative; long intellectual conversations, leading to nothing; the characters are wealthy bored intellectuals whose main occupation is to conduct the above-mentioned conversations. All these characteristic features of Russian classical literature are carefully transferred to the Turkish entourage of the twenty-first century, although the latter is at all strange - if it is quite possible to put up with Turkish scenery, then it is almost impossible to believe that things are happening in the 21st century (yes, the main character has a car and a laptop, he works on a laptop, and sometimes goes somewhere by car, but this affiliation of the film to our time is limited). In some scenes, Turkey becomes completely indistinguishable from Russia, for example, in scenes of hunting or Nihal’s visit to the filmmakers.
So there are three people at the center of the story. Nejla, Aidin's recently divorced sister. She reads foreign books, has lofty conversations about not resisting evil with violence, contemplates returning to a drinking ex-husband, and secretly looks down on her brother and his wife. Nihal, the young wife of aging Aidin, despises him. Nichal hates Aidin getting into her charity projects, but he spends his money on these projects. She has already fallen into these networks of longing and inactivity, but still tries to be something useful to people. And Aidin himself - at first he appears before the viewer as an intelligent, wise life intellectual and humanist, a pleasant interlocutor and generally an excellent person. Gradually, however, his other traits appear. He despises people, treats his wife and sister with mocking condescension, passing her off as care and attention (which only costs his condescending smile in response to any arguments of Nichal), he cowardly avoids anything that can disturb his peace of mind (including the fulfillment of his own promises).
The film is only for those who are able to immerse themselves in thoughtful contemplation for three hours, and who do not expect any action or even special emotions from it. It is better to tune in to this film for a classic novel, and then you will get from watching and pleasure, and a number of interesting thoughts and observations. But they won’t be on screen — they’ll be born in the head.
Winter Sleep is Nuri Bilge Jeylan’s fifth film and the most artistically perfect. A well-written, detailed script with brilliant intelligent dialogues is based on Chekhov’s works, but it is not an adaptation of any of his specific works. The main characters are three - the owner of the Odin hotel, his wife and sister, each of whom represents the quintessence of Chekhov's motifs and stories. One is a kind of balance between Trigorin and Uncle Vanya, his sister is an unrecognized reasoner, disappointed in life, his wife is an idealist philanthropist who makes a fatal mistake and does good where she is simply not ready for it.
All the characters, both main and secondary, are worked out in detail, the director does not spare screen time to paint their inner world, views on life in long dialogues, show both the rightness of their points of view and their vulnerabilities. The three-hour narration not only does not bother, but also captures a deep dive into human characters, a kind of Tolstoy “dialectics of the soul”, pointing out that Chekhov’s presence in the fabric of the narrative is not the only one: a conversation about non-resistance to evil places us in the depth of the moral problems of the author of “War and Peace”, and the scene of burning money is a direct quote from Dostoevsky’s “Idiot”.
“Winter hibernation” is a direct proof that the problems of Russian classical literature are international and can resonate in the heart of every person around the world. I admire the correctness of the Cannes jury in 2014, which this time made a choice in favor of pure artistic and psychological depth, and not the festival, politically correct conjuncture, as a year before. It's amazing how professionally Jaylan has grown in this film compared to his debut emotionally dry "Alienation" or calligraphic but plot-wise empty "Seasons" and "Three Monkeys." Already “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” testified that the director is moving towards a more psychological cinema from a calligraphically beautiful, but internally empty art house.
The visual affinity with Tarkovsky of his past paintings in Winter Sleep is sacrificed to the psychological depth of almost Bergman, which goes to the film only for the benefit. The complete absence of hysterical, plastically broken theatrical art, which sins cinema since the first years of sound cinema, conquers: the replicas and conversations of the characters are weighed and make the viewer think about himself. At some point, you simply cannot breathe with admiration, feeling that trust and respect for the viewer, who is given such a high intellectual bar. It is wonderful when you are not considered an idiot and given the opportunity to listen to human dialogues, free from everyday life, in which there is no primitivism of one-dimensional materialistic existence, but there is a rush to spirituality, the ultimate foundations of being, the questions that you ask yourself.
“Winter hibernation” is a deep intelligent film in which only once the director’s sense of proportion changes, and he introduces a foreign physiological accent into the narrative (a scene when the hero is nauseous), without it it it would be quite possible to do, but the director rather wanted the viewer to see how the hero tears up his own words, how he sharply existentially changes, tired of himself. The film has a place for many of Chekhov’s motifs – this is the theme of acting in life and on stage, this is the theme of fruitless reasoning and sarcasm, which hides nothing but unrealized ambitions, and the theme of work, which saves not only from the idleness of laziness and boredom, but also fills life with meaning, this is the topic of alienation in the intellectual environment, monad, autonomous existence among intellectuals who rarely go on emotional contact, defending their theories from life and much more. It is important that this three-hour masterpiece is as vast as the ocean, and it can be revised as you read a good book, not once or twice, but repeatedly.
“Winter Sleep” is a film about the fact that it is impossible to fully understand not only people, but also ourselves, that our ideals are destroyed by everyday reality, that fruitless philosophizing often hides creative muteness. However, like Chekhov’s last story, The Bride, Winter Sleep holds the hope of a change in human character, of a rebirth of the individual at the moment when he is tired of himself and sick of his shortcomings. This remarkable film, like Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, testifies to the fact that Nuri Bilge Ceylan has transformed from a budding art-house director into a venerable virtuoso of psychological cinema. Paraphrasing Belinsky, we can say: “The new Bergman has appeared!” – and what could be better than a new sun in our sad cinematic landscape!
I’ve seen very few movies where you can fall asleep several times and not miss anything – this is one of them, you can fall asleep at any time and wake up in 5, 20, 40 minutes – and you won’t miss anything and just keep watching the movie.
And the point here is not that I "intellectually did not grow up" or do not understand what the characters are talking about, but rather the fact that it is presented very indistinct and boring.
It is unclear what exactly the director wanted to show - the crisis of a former theater actor who is forced to monitor the household left to him by his father, or his complicated relationship with his wife and sister (where did she go by the way?) or misunderstanding and contempt between rich and poor? Or the life of the hotel through changing guests, in any case, none of the above director failed.
To disassemble all this in detail does not make sense, there is nothing to complain about because nothing that could be remembered or told in more than 3 hours does not happen, and this is not the case when you watched the film and you have a pleasant aftertaste from dialogue, acting or camera work (by the way, many here praise it, although it is absolutely absent, put the camera indoors and once every 5 minutes to change its angle, maybe anyone).
Separately, you can tell only about secondary characters, there is always something to tell about them in any film, but not in this, it is not clear who they are, where they came from, what they want and where they eventually went.
As a result, the film stands on a par with festival films that collect many prizes, enthusiastic reviews of critics and ordinary filmmakers, but after which you immediately want to watch any other film that you did not get pleasure from winter hibernation.
There were three of them, only three - Aydin, Nekla and Nihal. There were three of them, but is it not enough that overnight the usual course of life on the foaming thick blue water of the shores of Anatolia ceased to exist, and the fate over which you, alas, have no power, began to throw you from one extreme to another, from passion to possession, and from love to hatred, bordering on madness. They are locked in the snow in the hotel, locked forever, for millennia, locked up until they understand themselves, in their emotional torments, pushing them into a gaping hopeless darkness, into an endless abyss from which there will be no return. No one.
In modern Turkish cinema, the main characters of the new wave of which are Reha Erdem, and Cem Yilmaz, and Semikh Kaplanoğlu, only Nuri Bilge Ceylan has been truly entrenched in the glory of the director, whose conscious and unconscious filmmaking, taking into account the honeymooding comatose narrative style characteristic of him, is as close as the Turkish mentality in which secularism and religiosity coexist with each other, without suppressing or diminishing the importance of neither the first, nor the second, nor the all, and all-humane filmmaking in 1997.
Being the most European and in spirit and manner Turkish director, Ceylan in “Winter hibernation” ripened to his opus magnum, expressing in this long-term narration of his tape all his worldview views, all his attitude to the surrounding modern world, and to the people in it, from age to age not changing, but still being the same vicious and passionate natures.
Visual, honed to perfectionism, and Chekhov’s tonality poetics rhyme in the picture with the usual ambiguity of the heroes of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, and the director’s chosen leisurely narration, spilled only by philosophical reflections on the path of man and only to the end by exploding frantic and inevitable pain and suffering, hidden until the fateful time has frozen in its course, at the same time resembles the style of Bergman, Antonioni and Tarkovsky. In the picture as such, there is no everyday literary realism at all, and it was never inherent in Ceylan, but in "Winter Sleep" convention is emphasized sharply, deliberately. There is no lightness to Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, and even Anatolia herself is guessed only at the level of landscapes that savor in the film with a frantic, greedy aestheticism. A clear plot in “Winter Sleep” is discarded as unnecessary; Ceylan prefers a simple genre carving a complexly constructed knit of metaphors, symbols and human characters - living, full-fledged, devoid of husks of archetypality and stereotypes. The director diligently draws a concentrated picture of the world, which is skillfully superimposed on any life situations. In the film there is essentially no spirit of time or place of action.
“Winter hibernation” is, if you will, a novel film, which is characterized by an exceptionally novel – multi-voiced, multi-layered and multi-verbal – form of narration, because this is the only way to explain the abundance of lyrical digressions and direct author’s statements about Man, Life and Death, Love, Crime and Punishment, soldered into the main line of the plot narrative quite wholely, without rough sewing and declarative. "Winter hibernation", extrapolating in its rich polyphonicity and polysemantic cinematic fabric classic, deliberately textbook works of Dostoevsky ("Idiot", "Eternal husband" and "Meek" for example), Chekhov and Tolstoy, does not suffer from allusive redundancy, because the film is detailed at the molecular level and theatricalized at the level of the chosen film language. There is not a single superfluous phrase, not a single superfluous scene or episode, only tones and halftones in a muffled scale - in the film everything plays to recreate a single philosophical canvas full of variegated internal and external conflicts in the dramaturgical skeleton of the tape, not devoid of, however, and specific author's irony (after all, with Shakespeare and Voltaire Ceylan, perhaps, too and as never before played).
Here Aidin and Prince Myshkin, and the eternal husband overnight, who is not able to go with the flow and love simple, simple, only tied to carnal feelings love. He can not really understand his relationship with Nichal – this Turkish Nastasya Filipovna, who, like the Russian ancestor, devastates and ruins his beloved, burning their souls and money, and with Nekla, in whose features it is easy to recognize the pure and innocent heart and soul Aglay. Throughout the film, the characters will look for ways out of the impasse of relations, in which they, however, drove themselves. And the trigger for the gradual unwinding of the tangle of these crisis love relationships is a snowstorm that closes them in the suffocating space of the hotel. The hotel "Othello" becomes an arena for the banal battle of the sexes, and the woman in it wins a sarcastic total victory, and for the clashes of several views on the world order in general, for the destructive forces of nature is opposed much more destructive power of Man, who, having arbitrarily cornered himself, is inclined not to create, but only to destroy. I don’t care about love, I don’t care about feelings that no longer burn with flames, but dim with black coals in the fireplace. There were three of them in the snow, and each was both right and guilty, but repentance—true, unavoidable, and genuine—came to them not at once, but too late.
"Winter hibernation" tells about the life of a retired actor, leading a landlord lifestyle in the Turkish wilderness, surrounded by his sister, a young wife, a few servants. The hero, at the beginning of the film, producing the impression of an active intellectual and moralist, is gradually debunked and appears as a spoiler of fate and an ordinary person. Almost the whole action consists of long and unhurried frank conversations.
The picture captures its harmony. Unhurried melancholy narration, which should get tired after half an hour, in addition, devoid of any dramatic tension, interesting all 200 minutes and it seems to look and look, at least 5 hours, only all has been said. Landscapes, cold, indifferent and hard. Thoughtful details that are unobtrusive and echo the words of the heroes. Perfectly played roles.
The film seems very Russian: it is a lot of Russian literature, in Tarkovsky. And Turkey itself is similar to Russia - also imperial thinking, also a crossroads between West and East. Organic look and carefully relocated to the Turkish village family of the staff captain Snegirev, and Chekhov family showdowns.
As was already briefly noted above, “Winter hibernation” has the rare quality when the work of art speaks directly about life and exhaustively copes with it, drawing the final line with two Shakespearean quotes.
A masterpiece, at least in the eyes of any Tarkovsky fan.
It was cold and deserted in the spacious palaces of the Snow Queen. The northern lights illuminated them, it flashed brighter in the sky, then suddenly weakened. In the middle of the largest and most desolate snow room lay a frozen lake. The ice on it split into thousands of pieces, surprisingly smooth and regular. In the middle of the lake, when she was at home, the Snow Queen sat on the throne. She called the lake “Mirror of Mind” and said that it is the best and only mirror in the world.
Hans Christian Andersen, The Snow Queen
More than half a year has passed since the 68th Cannes Film Festival, but it was only now that Nuri Bilge Ceylan got acquainted with the victorious picture. I was absolutely prepared for what awaits me when watching “Winter Sleep”, being familiar with the other winners of the “Golden Palm”, so to call the picture boring, “not for everyone” or too clever I will not, no reason.
The author from the first frames makes it clear to the viewer what he signed up for, buying a ticket to the cinema. Slow movements of the camera, long philosophical conversations, complex angles, scanty, but very beautiful, musical accompaniment - all this, in general, is the basis of "Winter Sleep". But the problem with the movie’s existence is, will audiences watch and listen to Jaylan’s message for more than three hours through the conversations of the scorpulent hotel owner and its occupants? The answer is simple: half will watch and the other half will listen. And the point is not whether the film is boring or not, the point is whether the movie will find its viewer, perhaps the viewer is not familiar with the works of Russian classics, the same brilliant Bulgakov, Chekhov or Dostoevsky. In my opinion, it is not necessary to be picky in the world of literary works to understand what the director calls for. As the main character says about his former profession of an actor “Being an actor is a matter of honor”, and the film itself, mirror-clearly, makes you think about such things as honor, the cause of a lifetime and gratitude.
There is not one actor who has issued a false note. Just the incredible work of Haluk Bilginer will be associated with this film constantly, just masterfully rehearsed poses, habits and facial expressions will captivate you so that no Keatons ever dreamed of, and still the acting award Cannes he deserved more Timothy Spall, in my opinion. Melissa Sösen gives a completely canonical female performance of a noble wife and a reject of cold human souls. It seemed to me that her character should pay attention to the whole film, as it will lead you to a heartbreaking scene about the fact that, no matter how doomed and needy people, alas, have forgotten to accept even the most gratuitous help, defending their pride and honor, which they simply do not have.
In conclusion, I would like to advise you, after all, to watch, well, or endure this film in order to just make sure that somewhere all true masterpieces are born.
The Golden Palm of 2014 is well deserved, no doubt. I guess I haven’t seen such a smart movie in Cannes for a long time. And not just in Cannes. I am used to mental work at Dodin’s performances at the Maly Drama Theatre, to work during the films of Haneke, von Trier. But you can count those directors on your fingers. "Winter hibernation" tries to enter this clearing - sometimes too clumsy and with a claim to author's cinema. But if you remove the white horse, work with monazh, then there will be no complaints. For more than three hours I’ve been thinking about Winter Sleep and I’m still thinking. Nice aftertaste.
During this film, one can be proud of our great literature – it still excites and disturbs people around the world. Before Winter Sleep, I could not have imagined that somewhere in Turkey someone was reading Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Chekhov. And their themes climb from almost every scene - then Professor Serebryakov with a young beautiful wife from "Uncle Vani", the boy avenging for insulting his father from "The Brothers Karamazov", the main character on the railways ... This guessing is an additional pleasure while watching. Non-resistance to evil, the loneliness of man, his aging - all these topics are read by all people and, perhaps, no one has raised them better than our classics.
"Sulky," Chekhov's heroes complain. "Sweet," the hero of Jaylan's film opens the window. We have ordinary people in front of us. And we are "soulful", bored, lonely, unhappy. Life goes by and by. Woe from wit - first kitchen talk about not resisting evil, and then complaining about the maid who broke two glasses. There are no positive and negative characters in the film – everything is like life, real. Noble, intelligent - and at the same time jealous, jealous. A person dreams of becoming someone, but fails. He tries, stretches, but he realizes that it is in vain. It is difficult for him to be sincere, he wants good, and behaves like an elephant in a china shop. Ceylan very accurately conveyed this meaningless flow of life - but we are not bored Russian nobles, but bored Turks. And so Jaylan translates his narrative to all people, without regard to geography. At the same time, he does not hit the pathos and does not overdo it with symbols, avoids the black woman or the libido that is fashionable now, he calmly talks about how a person’s life proceeds, how this person needs to love and be loved. Instead, he is often a proud loner. He drives himself into a corner, wants love, but cannot admit it.
In the remarkable film of 2014 “Whiplash” (in the Russian box office “Obsession”) raises a somewhat similar theme – the formation of a person, the meaning of his life. The 28-year-old is giving his hero a chance. Someone can get what they want. But that's the view of our generation - we haven't hit the bumps yet. And something tells me that the plot of “Winter Sleep” is much more realistic. I don’t want to believe it, there is no single answer to the question, but Jaylan is probably right. Because Chekhov was originally right. The man is small. And there's a director who, without looking at most of his colleagues, is interested in a little man. Interested without regret, without condescension, not embellishing, even vice versa. Cinema is very adult, smart, too long. But if you forget that movies can sometimes be equal to good books, watch Winter Sleep.
8 out of 10
It's a frighteningly long movie - 3 hours and 15 minutes. In all the time I've been watching a movie in the audience, I think the only thing that's been going on is the Scorsese documentary about George Harrison. I must say that the duration of the Turkish picture is its main problem and trouble, although a dozen and a half spectators gathered with me steadfastly overcame this ordeal – no one left. But at the same time, I did not hear any expressed emotions. The movie was watched in death silence. Were you sleeping? I have to admit, I was washed away as well as taking a nap. But the stupid habit of looking to the end and, most importantly, an attempt to find an explanation: why they gave the Palme d’Or — forced to endure until the final credits.
“Winter hibernation” is the apotheosis of the crisis of modern author’s cinema, when the creator’s snobbery manifests itself in the fact that he cannot deny himself anything. If this movie were an hour shorter, it would have won a lot. The “radio staging” drowned in dialogue, on the one hand, quite accurately characterizes the way of life and worldview of the rural intelligentsia, which conducts endless conversations about the meaning of life over a glass of wine and wrapped in blankets before eating and sleeping sweetly. The apparent internal conflict, which annoys the main character, who is poorly able to reconcile the righteous and the businessman inside himself, gradually dissolves in the narrative, diluting the already liquid scenario construction. Alienation, misunderstanding, resentment, jealousy, empty moralization - a set of on-duty thoughts and feelings of the Turkish intellectual, often only because of all this and feels significant.
Jane Campion and the Cannes jury she chairs may have had a lot more patience than I did, and I haven’t seen much of the competition yet. However, even in comparison with Leviathan, which was content with a relatively modest prize for the script, I responsibly declare that our picture was much more worthy of victory. It is both dramatically spelled out much more interesting and muscular - it has a lot of energy and action, but, most importantly, the figurative range is much richer. Jaylan’s only scene that touched me to the core was just before the finale, but no matter how good it was, the frame of a 195-minute film by definition can’t hold on to one (albeit strong) image. Hence, I have a very serious suspicion that the Turkish director was given the main prize not for this work at all, but for his creativity in general.
This has happened more than once at this festival in the absence of a leading film, but in the presence of prominent masters, still deprived of the laurels of the winner. 55-year-old Ceylan, previously repeatedly awarded in Cannes, several times was on the verge of victory, and now awarded it for his not the best picture. It would be much more logical to give it, for example, to “Alienation”, shot by the Turk twelve years earlier, but much more succinct in thought and content. The problem is that then Ceylan just made his way into the clip of the Cannes festival, and now he is a canonized and already bronze classic - the main heir to the traditions of Tarkovsky, Antonioni and Bergman. Perhaps someday a similar catavasia will happen to Zvyagintsev, which, of course, would not be desirable. Meanwhile, Turkey is taking the Golden Palm to itself for the second time, while we continue to remain with the only one - for Cranes Flying.
Both Chekhov and Dostoevsky, who cover the director, pointing out in the credits that this film is based on their works, come out with some discounted. Again, once again emphasizing how the classics were shredded in modern cinema. And especially when comparing, for example (again with ours), The Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano, after which many should not have taken up Chekhov at all. Well, there's one more comparison that Jaylan is out of business. The film with the same name "Winter hibernation" was shot in 1997 by Tom Tykwer, declaring himself as the new leader of German cinema. A similar seasonal stagnation didn't stop that movie from keeping me on edge from the first to the last second. Just Tykver treated the viewer with much greater respect, in contrast to Ceylan, who every time shoots a longer and more "author" movie - for his beloved. Unlike Chekhov, he seems in no hurry to squeeze out a slave, in this case of his own importance: having reduced the film from four and a half hours to three fifteen, he apparently decided that everything else was priceless.
Big movies should probably be written with big reviews. But “Winter Sleep” is exactly the film that you should watch and learn everything yourself, otherwise there is no way. Is it possible to talk about the works of Dostoevsky? In principle, you can, but the whole point is in the huge texts of the novels themselves.
In this film, the director appears as the writer who wrote the novel, the composer who created the symphony, the artist who painted the picture. The film lasts three and a half hours. This, of course, raises questions. But for a long time there have been no such films, or rather, such films in general are units that after a couple of hours of narration capture even more, where the plot unfolds so harmoniously, leisurely and, at the same time, infinitely interesting and very beautiful.
The film, as they say, is for the “thinking viewer”: although it is not very correct to divide the audience into “thinkers”, it should be said that “Winter Sleep” is a philosophical masterpiece, and the philosophy in it is both Western, which is from the mind, and Eastern, which is from the heart. The masterpiece consists of endless dialogues about very different things: about ideas, about events, about people. A masterpiece is everything where the action takes place. Probably, it is all about the mood in which you go to the cinema: you should be prepared in advance to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of such a film and reflect, get used to, admire.
High-level acting. The scenery is as detailed as possible: everything makes sense, but there is nothing superfluous. As in the works of Russian classics. All this is designed to reveal the amazing inner world of the heroes. In this film, all the heroes are the main ones. Each of them played a huge role in the narrative, no matter how much it appears on the screen.
Winter Sleep is a work of art! I was lucky enough to watch the film in Turkish, with Russian subtitles. The translation of "winter hibernation" does not accurately reflect what is happening in the film. This phrase refers literally to winter, to the Russian winter, when everything is asleep, frozen in anticipation of spring awakening. But here, I think the director put a different meaning. Perhaps this name has a spiritual meaning and has no direct relation to winter. Winter begins at the very end of the film. And then, at the end of the picture, there is a spring awakening of the main character, in which everyone can partially recognize themselves.
P.S. Recently, Turkish cinema, as well as Turkish immigrant directors, have presented many surprises in the form of beautiful, deep films. They, like Turkey itself, unite East and West in a wonderful way.
In the modern world, there is no clarity in the formulation of such simple concepts as evil and good, good and bad. Everything is blurred, there are no pros and cons, poles and points of support, there is no vector of truth, the gods have gone mad, and the soul of a person, out of control, rolls to nowhere, because heaven and hell also do not exist.
In the new work of the “Turkish Antonioni” Nuri Bilge Ceylan, everything is exactly so. The male universe, the old, established, conservative world of God the Father, is being broken, while the traditional female world, the chaotic stream of everything new, is losing its shores and drowning the entire harvest of the future. The tragedy of the ancient scale is compressed to a rectangle of the screen, and three hours fly out in a second, stirring up a heap of thoughts peacefully comforted.
Succulently written characters, light allusions of Russian classics, twenty-minute dialogues - duels, oriental humor, silence, replaced by sharp "slaps" and inhuman loneliness. This movie could have been literature, had it not died in the early 20th century, it could have been a theatrical production had the theater not died a little later than the book. Apocalypse today, tomorrow and every day, white desert of alienation.
The two worst qualities are jealousy and boredom. They dictate life to the heroes of this film. They build a wall of loneliness between the communications of human hearts, creating a feeling of eternal hibernation, eternal winter. You can sink fireplaces with table bills, but it is unlikely that massive packs of coveted banknotes will be able to warm frozen souls.
The main character is the cosmic role of Haluk Bilginer. And although the script is painted on three main persons (plus a bunch of heroes - consequences), his Aidin rises a separate block among the stones of a much smaller stake. He is the main key to the whole concept of film work, put yourself in his place, and you will learn everything and understand about this film.
Even the gold of Cannes is not able, shining in the eyes of the sun, to wake up the ungrateful viewer falling asleep in the hall on this beautiful and lyrical film prose. Raise your eyelids, "blind kittens," it's a modern classic, here and now. Are you comfortable and warm on a secure internet? No way. "To Istanbul!" To Istanbul!
8 out of 10
The little tyrant of the big house. The big despot of a little life.
A very strong film, attracts and does not let go of the magnificent play of actors, a strong script.
In this film, the characters of the film are very well worked out, the interweaving of characters flows into a strong drama. The writer, his sister and his young wife are trying to find a way to coexist. Aiden, a writer living her measured life, with a beautiful young wife, Nihal, and a sister who keeps her and her brother a hotel, spend the winter together in their home. A large house will become both a cage and a place of solitude for them.
We find ourselves in a deserted hotel in the mountains that is filled with emotions. Aiden, who lives a separate life from his wife, is a writer in old age. Trying to complete his book, along the way getting acquainted with not many guests of the hotel. He tries to hide his despotic nature, a small tyrant, behind the imaginary mask of feelings about souls and fates. A very vivid, memorable scene with an alleged attempt to refuse an apology from the boy who broke the glass of the car, and its subsequent deplorable ending. The show dialogue of the film, in which Aiden and his sister challenge the well-known concept introduced by Tolstoy, non-resistance to evil by violence, in this phrase lies the whole meaning of the film. Nichal, Aiden’s beautiful young wife, was trapped in a huge house like a bird in a cage. She tries to use her husband’s position to help people, but no one gets better from her help.
9 out of 10
Before us is the new creation of the famous Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, whose films over the past decade have repeatedly been praised by critics and awarded various prizes, including the most prestigious Cannes Film Festival. It was no exception and “Winter hibernation”, for which the Turk finally grabbed the long-awaited “Palm branch”. It is not necessary to speak about the justice of the Cannes jury’s decision: Ceylan has long been recorded as a favorite of the Côte d’Azur, so he should have given a branch at least for the perseverance with which he brought his wordless ribbons to the review time and again in the hope of winning. Interestingly, he managed to achieve the coveted prize thanks to a picture in which extremely much is said.
Like Jaylan’s previous film, Winter Sleep is a redundant three-hour conversational movie in which all the drama is hidden in dialogue. The story of an elderly theater actor who has not won fame, who runs a hotel with the characteristic name “Othello” and rents apartments in a forgotten town, is placed in the favorite Jaylan landscapes of snow-capped mountains and the faceless steppe of Anatolia, emphasizing the inner stagnation of the hero. The main conflict of the film unfolds between two estates: rich, satisfied with the life of intellectuals here represent the main character Aidin and a newly divorced sister who moved to him, while poor, but not losing their pride, are a drunken miner and his family in the form of a silent son, a sick mother, wife and brother of an imam. The last few months have not been able to pay Aidin rent. This is mixed not only with the unrealized ambitions of the hero, but also his poor relationship with a young beautiful wife, languishing from boredom and depression with her cynical husband, quarrels with an annoying sister and endless high-order reflections that burst out of the mouth of any character entering the frame. Words such as honor, dignity, meaning of life, non-resistance to evil and similar concepts occupy most of the conversations of the hero, because he speaks mainly with people of his own circle. When representatives of the lower class appear before him, Aidin immediately begins to pretend to be a fool, does not know what to say, and then rebukes the annoying “poor people” for the lack of higher spiritual values in the author’s column, which he regularly sends to the local newspaper.
Despite the seemingly clear, albeit extremely conditional structure, to understand who sympathizes with whom and what relationships between the characters inquisitive viewer will be only by the middle of the second hour. Ceylan, out of old habit, does not seek to immediately reveal all the cards, and word for word, in small strokes paints a broad picture of the moral fall and stagnation of the human soul, total hibernation, into which fell the best human qualities of the protagonist. Only this time no aces in the sleeve of the Director was not, and it is understandable.
Ceylan, for all his artistic merits, it was always difficult to attribute to the category of brilliant directors: his work constantly went along a kind of curve, on which truly talented paintings alternated with strong, but helpless in their external impeccability works. The debut “Settlement” and “May Clouds”, which struck critics with authentic minimalism with a national admixture, replaced Tarkovsky’s seemingly outstanding homage “Alienation”, which, in fact, never went beyond epigony; the rare in its fearlessness study of the relationship between a man and a woman in “Climates”, was followed by the noisy and catchy “Three Monkeys”, whose cries revealed a yawning emptiness, which, however, did not prevent Jaylan from taking the prize for “Best Director” in Cannach. It seemed that “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” finally brought the Turkish nugget to a new level: an extremely confusing criminal story about the search for a corpse, pretending to be a neo-Western, turned out to be an unprecedented picture of broken human destinies, where the drama of the characters was guessed in stingy phrases and a barely perceptible nervous smile. So when Winter Sleep was presented on the Côte d’Azur, there was only one question: is Ceylan really a unique cinematic phenomenon? Now, after the long-awaited view, we can honestly admit that no.
In “Winter Sleep”, as always in Ceylan, once again there are traces of the beloved teacher, Tarkovsky, especially in the episodes with the horse; in addition, there are numerous echoes of his previous paintings, although to the end the whole story, with its endless dialogues, detached plans and snowy views, suddenly breaks into the territory of Terrence Malik – in the last minutes, the cameraman invades Lubecki, and the voiceover begins to murmur something about forgiveness against the background of the unearthy beauty of the picture. If desired, in the new creation of the Turk, among the heap of ideas and clashing concepts, you can find several interesting thoughts, entertaining household sketches, some inconspicuous details that miraculously turn out not to be buried under the pile of high-pitched philosophizing, interesting, it seems, only to the director himself. However, in no case should you let the “Golden Palm” deceive yourself. As one famous film critic wrote, “Life is too one to spend on Jaylan.”
When posters appeared for the winner of the Cannes Festival 2014, the description gave the impression that the film is a tracing of Kubrick’s “The Shining” – a hotel, snowfall, cut off from civilization, torture. Advertising prepared consciousness to watch the thriller, leaving only a shadow of mention of the works of Chekhov.
Being a poor connoisseur of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky (the works of which, as they say, also formed the basis of “Winter Sleep”), but being a fan of the work of the Man without a spleen, I can say with confidence that this picture is the most that neither is Chekhov. Not humoresque, no, but the drama that the writer showed the world, in which the characters “eat more, drink more ... dine, only dine, and at this time their happiness is formed and their lives are broken.”
In general, the thriller was not, but there is a picture of a rich landowner who inherited from his father land with real estate in the mountains of Anatolia, which allows our landowner to exist comfortably, containing a hotel, which comes to stay rare tourists from Japan and other foreigners. Other properties are leased to local residents. From such a luxury, the wife of the protagonist and his sister, who recently divorced her bulldy husband and came from Istanbul to help her brother run the house, are bored. And in general, people are not bad. Not good either. Everyone has their own truth.
Barin Aidan is a former theatrical actor who played an imam in the first act of a play. His whole second role was that he ran onto the stage shouting: "Where is the toilet here?" In his youth, he hitchhiked all over Europe, sleeping where he was. All this allows him to see himself as a life of tattered and wise experience. Now, in the twilight of his life, why not allow himself, as a true artist, to do something sublime, for example, writing articles on a religious topic in the local “Rural life”, and at the same time take up the fundamental work on “History of the Turkish Theater”. That is the righteousness of his day. The collection of duty from the guests is weighted on the shoulders of police and bailiffs, and the conduct of paper cases is managed by his sister, who only does that she lies on the couch, drinking coffin with a seagull, but starts all sorts of idle conversations about non-resistance to evil, and criticizing the brother for company and articles.
The wife of our denier is a beautiful young woman, 25-30 years younger than her husband, who despises her husband and decides to do charity at his own expense. Their relationship is, to put it mildly, strained - it would be interesting to see how they sleep with each other.
And as secondary characters - the mob, suffering unbearable humiliation and insults from his master and his family. But the mob is also motley: there are proud stubborn people, there are fading types with an almond smile and the principle of “whatever happens”, and there are just silent servants.
The film is really cool and worthy of its award. Yes, it may seem cumbersome, long, boring; the themes of some dialogues may wonder whether they are appropriate, whether it is even possible to conduct such conversations at present. However, all these are minor shortcomings against the background of such a huge canvas about human nature, about the diversity of its manifestations. A canvas that allows you to look at yourself from the outside - at the vulgarity and ordinaryness of your own life, at your petty philistine habits, at the fact that there is something more in life than commodity-money relations, satiety of the stomach and the comfort of a soft chair.
So, friends, I advise you to overcome yourself, who is difficult to do, and watch this movie. Throw away all thoughts of daily life, forget about food (do not be like me, who at the end of the second hour of viewing was thinking about what to eat for dinner). For three and a quarter hours, forget about your aspirations and immerse yourself in this picture.
8 out of 10
There were three of them, only three - Aydin, Nekla and Nihal. There were three of them, but is it not enough that overnight the usual course of life on the foaming thick blue water of the shores of Anatolia ceased to exist, and the fate over which you, alas, have no power, began to throw you from one extreme to another, from passion to possession, and from love to hatred, bordering on madness. They are locked in the snow in the hotel, locked forever, for millennia, locked up until they understand themselves, in their emotional torments, pushing them into a gaping hopeless darkness, into an endless abyss from which there will be no return. No one.
In modern Turkish cinema, the main characters of the new wave of which are Reha Erdem, and Cem Yilmaz, and Semikh Kaplanoğlu, only Nuri Bilge Ceylan has been truly entrenched in the glory of the director, whose conscious and unconscious filmmaking, taking into account the honeymooding comatose narrative style characteristic of him, is as close as the Turkish mentality in which secularism and religiosity coexist with each other, without suppressing or diminishing the importance of neither the first, nor the second, nor the all, and all-humane filmmaking in 1997.
Being the most European and in spirit and manner Turkish director, Ceylan in “Winter Sleep” ripened to his opus magnum, reflecting in this long-lasting narration of his tape all his worldviews, all his attitude to the surrounding modern world, and to the people in it, from century to century not changing, but still being the same vicious and passionate natures.
Visual, honed to perfectionism, and Chekhov’s tonality poetics rhyme in the picture with the usual ambiguity of the heroes of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, and the director’s chosen leisurely narration, spilled only by philosophical reflections on the path of man and only to the end by exploding frantic and inevitable pain and suffering, hidden until the fateful time has frozen in its course, at the same time resembles the style of Bergman, Antonioni and Tarkovsky. In the picture as such, there is no everyday literary realism at all, and it was never inherent in Ceylan, but in "Winter Sleep" convention is emphasized sharply, deliberately. There is no lightness to Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, and even Anatolia herself is guessed only at the level of landscapes that savor in the film with a frantic, greedy aestheticism. A clear plot in “Winter Sleep” is discarded as unnecessary; Ceylan prefers a simple genre carving a complexly constructed knit of metaphors, symbols and human characters - living, full-fledged, devoid of husks of archetypality and stereotypes. The director diligently draws a concentrated picture of the world, which is skillfully superimposed on any life situations. In the film there is essentially no spirit of time or place of action.
“Winter hibernation” is, if you will, a novel film, which is characterized by an exceptionally novel – multi-voiced, multi-layered and multi-verbal – form of narration, because this is the only way to explain the abundance of lyrical digressions and direct author’s statements about Man, Life and Death, Love, Crime and Punishment, soldered into the main line of the plot narrative quite wholely, without rough sewing and declarative. "Winter hibernation", extrapolating in its rich polyphonicity and polysemantic nematographic fabric classic, deliberately textbook works of Dostoevsky ("Idiot", "Eternal husband" and "Meek" for example), Chekhov and Tolstoy, does not suffer from allusive redundancy, because the film is detailed at the molecular level and theatricalized at the level of the chosen film language. There is not a single superfluous phrase, not a single superfluous scene or episode, only tones and halftones in a muffled scale - in the film everything plays to recreate a single philosophical canvas full of variegated internal and external conflicts in the dramaturgical skeleton of the tape, not devoid of, however, and specific author's irony (after all, with Shakespeare and Voltaire Ceylan, perhaps, too and as never before played).
Here Aidin and Prince Myshkin, and the eternal husband overnight, who is not able to go with the flow and love simple, simple, only tied to carnal feelings love. He can not really understand his relationship with Nichal – this Turkish Nastassya Filipovna, who, like the Russian ancestor, devastates and ruins his beloved, burning their souls and money, and with Nekla, in whose features it is easy to recognize the pure and innocent heart and soul Aglay. Throughout the film, the characters will look for ways out of the impasse of relations, in which they, however, drove themselves. And the trigger for the gradual unwinding of the tangle of these crisis love relationships is a snowstorm that closes them in the suffocating space of the hotel. The hotel "Anatolia" becomes an arena for the banal battle of the sexes, and the woman in it wins a sarcastic total victory, and for the clashes of several views on the world order in general, because the destructive forces of nature are opposed much more destructive power of the Man, who, having arbitrarily cornered himself, is inclined not to create, but only to destroy. I don’t care about love, I don’t care about feelings that no longer burn with flames, but dim with black coals in the fireplace. There were three of them in the snow, and each was right and guilty, but repentance – true, inevitable and genuine – did not come to them at once.
9 out of 10
People dine, only dine, and at this time their happiness is formed and their lives are broken.
Ah. P. Chekhov
I enjoyed watching the last film of my Turkish age in the cinema.
This movie is for lovers of smart conversations. There is no “action” in the film, almost nothing happens in it. So I don't think it's for young people, they'll be bored.
I haven't had one. Although the stories of Chekhov, based on which the picture was staged, I did not remember, only now I read.
There are two stories, the long one is “The Wife,” and the short one is “Good People.”
Few people seem to remember these stories, while the first one is excellent. It is no coincidence that Bunin loved him.
And even during the film, the play “Uncle Vanya” is remembered.
So this picture of Ceylan, who is called “Turkish Antonioni” and is considered a lover of Tarkovsky, can be considered an homage to Chekhov.
However, associations arose with Dostoevsky - humiliated people who do not accept pity, see the story of the staff captain Snegirev from the "Brothers Karamazov", and burned money (Nastasya Filippovna from "Idiot"). And the lithograph in the room of the sister of the main character is an illustration of Ilya Glazunov to Netochka Nezvanova.
There is also "Tarkovism" in the film - a white horse, which symbolizes the attitude of the hero to his neighbors (the viewer may have a memory of L. N. Tolstoy's "Holstomer", when he unexpectedly lets her go, obviously deciding to start another life).
So here we have the world of Chekhov's heroes. They are middle-aged people with their own problems. They do not know how to trust their neighbors and love them, but they are in dire need of trust and love; they are worried about their incompleteness and impossibility to realize themselves; they want to live “in truth”, but they cannot decide on this.
At the center of the ideological problems of the film are religious feelings and their manifestation, male-female, relations between rich and poor. All relevant topics!
Conversations with the sister of the hero of the film about non-resistance to evil by violence are mainly from Chekhov's story "Good People."
But the relationship between the spouses, like heavy snow - this is already from the story "The Wife"; for Turkey, such snow, of course, is rare.
I cannot say that the director managed to make the script without flaws. For example, the hotel owner's sister's line is cut. But in general, the movie clearly worked. Although some will not be very pleasant to watch it, because each of its main characters is unhappy, all of them are able to point out the shortcomings and sins of their neighbor, but are not able to see their own inferiority. “Winter Sleep” is a humanistic film. And there is a ray of hope in it.
Of course, with the great Bergman, the film is not worth comparing, does not hold up. Compared to modern movies, it is a very good movie. Filmed stylishly and even beautifully in winter Cappadocia.
The painting won the main prize in Cannes.
I honestly did not expect to see the winner of Cannes this year in cinemas so quickly, because by the standards of Russian hire 3 months from the festival premiere – wow. According to the IMDB in the United States, it is released on December 19 (!), in some centuries, good cinema reaches us before many countries. And yes, now that I've watched it, I can honestly call this 200-minute marathon a good movie.
As befits a true festival film, “Winter Sleep” has almost no plot. He owns a tourist hotel in a small Turkish town and has a wife and sister. He also has an old house, which he inherited from the family of the local imam. And then there's dialogue, lots of dialogue.
“Winter Sleep” is an extremely literary film. To be honest, all it holds is its script. The director, the cameraman and the editor in this film is absolutely nowhere to unfold. So it seems that “Winter hibernation” fits better into the format of a medium-sized book, and even better to be so in the late 19th century. No one after seeing it would say that the actors were bad — great work from the main trio, but hell, they all talked a lot, and that’s it. A couple of beautiful plans of Turkish terrain are certainly dazzling, especially snow-covered. But the film goes on for almost 200 minutes, and almost incessantly people talk, sitting in their chairs, and a very large part of these conversations is reduced to philosophical reasoning; so that the various camera plans and editing techniques are completely irrelevant in the general canvas. And that, to me, is a bit uncinematic.
Another thing is that a person who watches a movie for the sake of characters and dialogues will not deny that this part is performed with hurrah. And in general, everyone sometimes likes to philosophize or listen to the philosophizing of others. I will not even talk about the main topics of all these conversations, but, as you know, Ceylan has put a lot of Chekhov, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky here, which catches the eye of anyone who understands at least the atmosphere and essence of Russian classics.
I still belong to the category that dialogue cinema loves and appreciates, so with that small claim to the lack of cinematography as such, I still find “Winter Sleep” undeniably worth money and time. But I totally understand people who just left after the first or second hour. Sitting for 3 hours and 20 minutes and listening to Turkish actors talk about non-resistance to evil is incredibly tiring and requires some effort. I regret that day I did not get enough sleep and in the middle of the film I still closed my eyes for 10 minutes, but no one reads a good book so head-on.
To sum up, I repeat that I can see how this movie would be much better in the form of a book, so that you can put it aside and think for yourself; in the form of a movie, it is very difficult to understand and evaluate the whole thing at once. But in this place it is necessary not to succumb to what all haters can do and understand that cinema can be different, and in all its forms it can be great, whether it is a summer blockbuster, whether it is a 200-minute Turkish cinema without a plot, and that is the beauty of cinema. Bad "Winter hibernation" is hardly anyone will call, except that boring. I loved it.
8 out of 10
P.S. By the way, I do not think that the Oscar committee has the same attitude to cinema as in Cannes, so here it is likely that even Zvyagintsev will take the statuette away.