CLIMATES
(Iklimler)
© 2006 by C. E. Murphy. All Rights Reserved.
       
       CLIMATES, the latest feature from Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan,
centers on a self-absorbed professor names Isa (portrayed by the
director) and his relations with two women in his life. As the film opens, he is on
holiday photographing ruins for his classes and his in progress thesis.
Accompanying him is his longtime (and seemingly long-suffering) girlfriend
Bahar (the director's spouse Ebru Ceylan). For much of the first third of
CLIMATES, the couple exist in silence and Ceylan utilizes camera placement
and dreams to detail the ever widening gulf between them. When they fight at a
dinner party, it really is almost anticlimactic. By this point, the audience wants
them to separate. When the decision is finally made, it comes as a relief.

       The second act unfolds back in rainy Istanbul, where the professor teaches.
One evening, he runs into a friend and his female companion. Later, he shows
up on the doorstop of the woman (Nazan Kirilmis) with whom he has a shared
past. (Her name --Serap -- is briefly mentioned by Bahar, and it is clear that Isa
had had an affair.) The pair reminisce briefly before finally engaging in rough
sex -- slapping,  pushing, tearing of clothes. It's a rather strange sequence that
is disturbing but it clearly defines the sort of relationship the couple has. At their
second meeting, Serap casually mentions Bahar, who is now working in Eastern
Turkey. Isa confesses that they are no longer a couple and quickly loses interest
in his mistress.

       The final section of the film finds Isa traveling to Eastern Turkey, ostensibly
to photograph some ruins but really to try to find Bahar and convince Bahar to
resume their relationship.

       Each of the sections of the film unfolds in a different climate. The first
unfolds against a backdrop of heat and sun, in the beach community of Kaş.
The middle section, with its steamy sex, takes place in cold and rainy Istanbul,
while the final part is set in the wintry east. But, Ceylan is also charting the
internal climates of an unsteady and possibly doomed relationship.

       CLIMATES is a mood piece, a film where the silences speak volumes.
The central character of Isa, though, is a difficult one to like. He is chauvinistic,
selfish, demanding, rude -- a liar and a manipulator. Ceylan imbues him with
a certain amount of charm, but his action eventually turn the audience away
from him. Perhaps that was the filmmaker's intent, but it devalues the movie.
Instead of rooting for Bahar to go back to him, the viewer wants to tell her
to turn and run.


                               Rating:                    B -
                               Running time:         97 mins.
L to R: Ebru Ceylan as Bahar and
Nuri Bilge Ceylan as Isa in Climates
Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey

Photo Credit: Zeitgeist Films