Not yet part of the European Union, largely Islamic yet a secular state, Turkey is a political and cultural anomaly in the Middle East; yielding to the lifestyles and freedoms of Westernised modernity while contending with fraught cultural differences between many ethnic minorities. New Turkish Cinema of the late 1990s and 2000s is marked by these struggles of cultural uncertainty and a yearning to belong.
It is here that university taught engineer, once photographer and now filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Ceylan) needs to be situated; as a pioneering filmmaker dedicated to representing these socio-cultural issues with precision and lyricism. Having adopted a small-scale mode of production with involvement in writing, filming, co-editing, producing and financing, Ceylan’s ‘hands-on’ approach points to the same devotion, total immersion and control as seen in auteurs such as Orson Welles and John Cassavetes.
Having made just six features and one short: Ceylan stands as a true cinema auteur. With engineering precision and experience in photography, Ceylan’s signature can not be equated to authorial penmanship, as proffered by Astruc’s camera-stylo in 1948. Rather, his authorial mark stems from his painterly and poetic composition of landscapes, mainly shot in deep focus with minimal camera movement.
Together, these stylistic choices create an unsettling cinematic stillness which can be seen in the opening long takes in his first four feature films. Whether it is the crisp image of children playing in the snow in Kasaba (1997) (reminiscent of the infamous deep focus shot of young Charles in Citizen Kane (d. Welles, 1941)), or the outside world reflected back onto disappointed Saffet (Emin Toprak) in Clouds of May (1999), or the snow-white provincial town about to be left behind by Yusuf (Emin Toprak) in Uzak (2002), or the prolonged conventional shot/reverse shot of troubled, restless Bahar (Ebru Ceylan) in Climates (2006) (all Figure 1), it is clear Ceylan’s technical approach is one of discretion and subtlety.
The quiet modesty in which he opens his films is quintessentially auteurist; as if he is sharing these images with the audience rather than announcing them ostentatiously. Where other filmmakers would readjust the camera when Yusuf briefly goes out of shot in Uzak, or intercut and reveal what is troubling Bahar in Climates, Ceylan holds back, letting things unfold. Ceylan’s refusal to break the stillness these images create mark him as an auteur with technical finesse and grace.
Ceylan is a contemporary auteur with aesthetical grace comparable to Tarkovsky and Antonioni, as well as sharing an aural taste, a controlling desire and an artisanal mode of filmmaking with Cassavetes. The content of Ceylan’s cinema is undeniably informed by his Turkish heritage and life experience, which through an intricate weaving of memory and poignant fiction verifies his abilities as an auteur to communicate subject matter that resonates on both a localised (ie. nationally specific) and a universal level.
Although comparable to the cinema’s greats in some areas, as a whole, it is irrefutable that Ceylan is an auteur like no other. Kasaba, Clouds of May, Uzak and Climates are films which interrelate with one another significantly yet are no less affective without the context of Ceylan’s body of work. Ceylan is establishing himself a cinematic reputation that calls for critical attention and a deep appreciation. His more recent films, Three Monkeys (2008) and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) are demonstrative of Ceylan’s stylistic and thematic mastery evolving into new genres and narratives; further exploration here would be fascinating. Years from now, I hope Ceylan’s first four features will be remembered as artistic masterpieces and that he will be remembered amongst the great, most senior auteurs of the cinema.
Filmography:
- Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)
- Three Monkeys (2008)
- Climates (2006)
- Distant (2002)
- Clouds of May (1999)
- Kasaba (1997)
- Koza (1995) (short)
Here is Ceylan’s personal photography site; these stills are fantastic!
http://www.nuribilgeceylan.com/photography/turkeycinemascope1.php?sid=1
Cinematic Discovery 