The background of the story should be set before and after the two financial crises in Turkey between 2000 and 2001. Under the background of unstable domestic politics, collapse of the exchange rate system and banking system, and severe inflation, the "pool fish" in remote villages also It is inevitable to suffer. After the collapse of the country factory, the protagonist Yousef went to Istanbul with expectation and hesitation, hoping to find a job in the big city. (It may also be the successor to the previous "May Blue Cloud Sky")
Yusuf, who is from the countryside, and his cousin, an art worker, Mamm, did not get along well. Ceylon accurately grasped the mutual disgust that was caused by the incoordination of the two people’s living habits and the difference in identity at the beginning to breed humanity. The whole process of some kind of evil. Mamm hated Yusuf for not flushing the toilet, smoking indoors, not putting odorous shoes in the shoe cabinet, and his vulgarity. And Yusuf has really become a parasite because of his frustration in job hunting and his inherent inferiority. And these mutual disgust emotions flow in the silent and superficial harmony, which is run through through the design of character performance and behavioral details (it is hard to imagine that Ceylon later filmed "Hibernation").
What is the evil of human nature? Evil is that Mamm couldn’t find his own watch to question Yousef, but when he found it, he remained silent, saying "Forget it, it doesn’t matter." Let the cousin continue to be awkward; just use a bunch of high-sounding preaching to vent His unhealthy hatred and "not to be used to"; that is, when Mam was away, Yousef did whatever he wanted in his cousin's house. These evils are not big evils, but they are so real and stinging.
However, Ceylon neither intends to criticize the hypocrisy and high self-esteem of intellectuals, nor does it intend to expose the vulgarity and depravity of the country folks, but only presents the estrangement between people, the state of aphasia that establishes communication, and the city to people. Of isolation. This series of expressions is like the ice and snow that melts unconsciously in the film, smoothly blending into a complete audio-visual system.
The variables that can best express the distance are the focal length and the scene. Most of the indoor lenses in the film use panoramic and deep focus. Sometimes the wide-angle is used to further enhance the sense of distance. Although the two people live in the same room, they do their own things while casting their actions on each other. With casual attention. Their respective actions, superficial harmony, and detailed expressions of disgust towards each other are all exposed in a deadly and inhumane space at a glance.
The location is empty, bitter, and white. Like Mamm’s home, it is an embarrassment to Yusuf that has nowhere to rest. It is the passion and dream sealed by the cold winter. It cannot be retreated, cannot be avoided, and do not know where to go. Place. The laziness spawned by the cold can only be allowed to grow like weeds.
The panorama creates a sense of strangeness and alienation throughout the film, while Ceylon uses close-ups to highlight contrast and contrast when intensifying conflicts and expressing emotions and desires. There are several impressive scenes. One scene is the beginning. The left side of the foreground is a close-up of Yusef. The background is a prostitute undressing. The picture stays for a while, and Yousef stands up and walks towards a blurred background. This shot directly implies that Yousef’s regularity His life has entered a nih, chaotic, meaningless city life.
The next scene is a close-up of Yousef’s hopes when he sees the ferry going away, and his peeping at passersby/neighbor girls. Later, he often receives a subjective perspective, which represents Yousef’s desire for communication. When he "stalked" a strange woman in the mall, Ceylon expressed his desire to be close by allowing Yousef to "break into" the frame where she was from the foreground by constantly changing the scene.
In a scene between the corridor and the female neighbor, the switching of scenes has become a concrete means of alienation. Yousef and the girl are silently in the dim, panoramic view. At this time, you can cut the girl close-up along with Yousef's sight, and play both front and back (still silent). After a period of time, the camera will finally enter the mood of the character. However, at this time, the neighbor made a noise from the basement to break the silence. With the light on, it crossed the axis and cut to the other side of the panorama. The angle of view returned to almost indifferent observation, and at the same time, the space where Yousef went upstairs and left was released.
For his cousin Mamm, the director gave him fewer close-ups, and a conversation with his ex-wife did not even give him any shots. At his sister's house, he also became the object of dislike, showing that his loneliness is not actually Yusuf, so apart from his finally venting the angry confrontation to his cousin, the slow end of the shot is even more meaningful. This is the most emotional stroke in the whole film. His face gradually zoomed in, and the lens finally entered his inner world. His ex-wife had nothing to do with him, and his disgusting cousin finally left. He clicked on it. The cigarette that my younger brother left behind was still a little proud and confident but at a loss, looking into the distance. Spring is coming, and the cold has penetrated every inch of the city’s texture. People are destined to endure loneliness.
The rhythm of the movie is gentle, but not dull. In addition to the exquisite audio-visual language, he also benefits from Ceylon’s equally proficient scripting skills. He will set up a lot of inconspicuous idle pens, and then let it take on the inner at the turning point of the plot. The external symbolic and suggestive function of expression. The most important thing is the mouse in the house. The mouse is a metaphor for an outsider, that is, Yousef. The first time he went to Mamm’s house, he noticed the rat’s call and was confused. In the middle, Mamm eavesdropped on Yousef. I stepped on the mouse-sticky paper pad on the phone. It implies that Mam’s life became messy because of the mouse (Yousef). In the end, the real mouse was finally glued to the paper pad and couldn’t get out. Mam’s solution was to use the paper pad. Put one piece into the bag and throw it out. This state of waiting for death undoubtedly stimulated Yousef, and he finally left his cousin's house with the mouse the next day. As for whether he returned to the country, became a dream crew member, or wandered in the city, we don't know.
Ceylon is pessimistic. He may inadvertently highlight the alienation of people from the environment, and also point to the contradiction between human nature and self-exclusion, or present huge differences between classes, or even Turkey’s chaotic economic situation. But these "causes" "It doesn't seem to be what Ceylon wants to say. He didn't try to seek reconciliation or set a value benchmark. He just showed people, showing their ultimate destiny of sadness and loneliness. In this way, he seems to be optimistic again.
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