By M&C News May 22, 2006, 4:02 GMT
Three years after Uzak, walked away with the Grand Prix as well as another prize for Best Actor, Turkish helmer Nuri Bilge Ceylan is once again back in the Official Selection, in competition with ‘Climates,’ a French co-produced feature film by Fabienne Vonier.
Nazan Kesal, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Ebru Ceylan from 'Climates' © AFP
This time, we find the director both in front of and behind the camera: he thus reserves for himself the leading part by the side of Ebru Ceylan (his wife in real life) and Nazan Kesal, two actresses who already appeared in the credits of his previous picture.
Having evoked the question of work, through the relationship between two brothers in Uzak, the filmmaker studies in this new picture man-woman relationships.
‘Climates’ is indeed the X-ray of a couple in crisis, the meteorological changes echoing the evolution of the ties which unite Isa to his wife Bahar.
If the shots are highly worked from a visual point of view, particular care was likewise taken with the sound.
According to the wishes of the filmmaker, ‘Climates’ will be screened in a digital version at its official presentation.
Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan accompanied by actresses Ebru Ceylan and Nazan Kesal, cinematographer Gökhan Tiryaki, producers Zeynep Özbatur and Fabienne Vonier fielded journalists' questions at the press conference for his film ‘Climates’, presented May 21st in competition.
Some highlights:
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, on being in front of and behind the camera: "If I wished to become an actor, it isn't because the film tells the story of my own life, moreover, in no way it is autobiographical. It's just that I wanted to try out this exercise.
Let me add that sometimes, there are things that we feel which we can't really explain to the other actors... Already, I had wished to act in Uzak, but I was then missing the necessary courage.
This time, the fact that we shot in digital HD enabled me to skip a step: you can shoot more, control more with the monitor. On the set, I sometimes tended to overact, because there was nobody to direct me, but as we shot a lot, we had enough material to get something out of it."
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, on the subject of his film: "This film reflects my point of view on the relationship between men and women; it doesn't solely concern Turkish society. I'm inclined to focus on tiny details, for they often have great consequences.
For example, when a couple quarrels, sometimes violently as in the film, we try to find out, perhaps out of pride, precisely what lay at the origin of the quarrel. But often, it is something that we can't guess; it's a detail of no importance whatsoever."
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, on the sound work: "I like being realistic as regards the image but not the sound. For ears are selective, we hear only what we want to hear. I find that often in motion pictures so-called "realistic" sounds don't seem very real. That is why all the sounds were created after the shoot, and even after the editing. The sound work lasted two months."
Fabienne Vonier on Nuri Bilge Ceylan's style of filmmaking: "I found in Nuri Bilge Ceylan the same passion as in two filmmakers who have always been my mentors: Bergman and Antonioni. One is Scandinavian, the other Italian, Ceylon is Turkish. But all three speak about one and the same thing, about what each of us feels in our lives, no matter what continent we live on.
For a producer such as myself, the task is more complicated today due to the commercialization of the motion picture industry. Fortunately, the French system enables us to be minority co-producers on this type of film. I don't judge the other types of cinema, but one must reserve a place for this cinema of creation, of culture, which brings people closer together."
© Festival de Cannes
Your Talkback on this Story