Review of Climates (2006) by Edgar C — 22 Dec 2013

In simplicity lies complexity. Ceylan has moved from urban alienation to sentimental alienation through a no less than simple plot about an unsuccessful marriage. So why is it a cinema master's work?

Ceylan understands the irrationality of human impulses and how moments drag endlessly and walk slowly during uncomfortable silences and individual reflections. He spends time putting you in the context. Such context actually works better if you can relate to it. If you can't, try emulating it. Watch the film alone during a winter evening with a cup of hot chocolate and a rested mind. You'll notice how the little things and details of life normally blocked by noise come up to the surface when everything is standing still.

This very peculiar law does not only apply to inert objects. We are the same. In those dragging silences, stares, laughs, a smoking cigar, confused eyes, killer stares, all acquire a meaning and reveal things about our deepest thoughts that would pass unnoticed under agitated circumstances. In this way, Ceylan achieves striking realism. The beauty of landscapes helps to contrast the rotten state of their personalities; the peacefulness of the scenarios contrast their inner lack of peace.

By the end, we realize that nothing is what it seems. Even if we may sometimes feel like the perfect jurors of the world, we cannot blame anybody even if we may disapprove certain actions committed by other people, because nobody is perfect. We are left, thus, with an ending difficult to decompose rationally but extremely easy to understand emotionally.

97/100.