Running time: 102 minutes
Starring: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan
Rating 6 out of 10
A favourite at the Cannes Film Festival, Nuri Bilge Ceylan's latest film took the lesser Fipresci Prize at last year's awards, three years after he stunned the judges into giving him the Palme D'Or for his first bona fide masterpiece, Distant. With Climates, Ceylan treads similar ground to before, and examines middle-aged antipathy and apathy seen very much through the eyes of a male protagonist. Isa (played by the director himself) is a forty-something professor who at the beginning of the film is spending an unenjoyable holiday with his partner Bahar (played by Ceylan's own wife Ebru). The two have a split of sorts at the end of their break, and Isa returns to the city where he works.
A single man once again, Isa chases down an old flame and rekindles a sexual, slightly S and M, relationship with her. But something begins to bug him, and soon enough he is off to remote Turkey to hunt down Bahar once again.
Ceylan's films may be something of an acquired taste, but those that do acquire it will love the silent, long and gloomy takes that dominate his work. It takes a long time for not very much to happen. His is a cinema of meditation on the interior, and just as likely to confuse as many new viewers as it will win.
Everyone should be able to appreciate the beautiful composition of both the sound and vision, but the languid pace may well be the film's chief downfall. Even Ceylan's fans might ask for a tiny bit more action in his next work.
Paul Hurley
