Review of Climates

2006's Climates (Iklimler, literally Weather Conditions) is the third film of Turkish director and screenwriter Nuri Bilge Ceylan's that I've seen, and it is the first one in which he has starred in as an actor. Each of the films has gotten better than its predecessor, and, since his previous film, Distant, touched greatness, Climates had its work cut out for it; but it succeeded. That stated, many critics who compare the film's style and characterizations to those of the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, at his height, are only seeing superficial resemblances. Yes, both directors used long shots that featured landscapes prominently, and Ceylan's cinematographer Gokhan Tiryaki, works wonders with the camera; but Ceylan is interested, to a far greater extant than Antonioni, in the inner human landscapes of the psyche. Antonioni's films had protagonists which were never allowed to open up to the viewer. They were all surface, and no depth. And I mean that not in a bad way. Antonioni saw humans as props to explore deeper terrains, that which was transhuman. Ceylan does not. He is interested in the fundamentally human, and in this manner, he far more resembles the work of Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos than Antonioni, although all three filmmakers have a definitive Mediterranean visual sensibility.

Climates is a masterpiece, but it is more than that. It is also possibly an augur to even better things cinematically. It is not an overstatement to declare that Ceylan may be the best living filmmaker today. And, if one argues with that claim, then one might only add that he's the best still at the height of his powers. Yes, Angelopolous's Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow was great, but he's been at a high level for decades now. Ceylan, on the other hand, is still in ascent. Watch Climates, and feel his pull.