In Review: Three Monkeys (2008)
Yesterday, was my ‘movie marathon’ day at the 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival, where I caught three films. Here they are, reviewed in the order in which I saw them.
I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen a Turkish film before, which is a pity, because if Three Monkeys is anything to go by, I have missed some terrific movies.
This is a dark, stylish, noir thriller which sees a man agreeing to take the rap for his political master who is involved in a car accident. In return for doing time for a crime he did not commit, his boss will continue to pay his salary to his family, and also settle the ‘debt’ with a lump sum payment when the man is eventually released. While he is in prison, his wife is left to hold the family together and she and her son quickly get caught up in a web of passion and betrayal.
Director, Nuri Bilge Ceylan carried off the Best Director Award at Cannes for this, his fifth feature, and it’s not hard to see why.
Three Monkeys is is a dark, brooding film, where every shot has been thought through and framed with meticulous detail. Long, intense close ups of the principal characters produces sustained psychological tension as unspoken words seem to fly through the air like knives.
The principal cast of Three Monkeys; Yavuz Bingöl, Hatice Aslan, Ahmat Rifal Sungar, and Ercan Kesal, are univerally good, but top credits should go to Hatice Aslan, the femme fatale of the piece, who has the ability to convey many layers of meaning by saying little and feeling much.
Highly recommended.
“Every shot seems lifted right off the wall of an art gallery and just as powerfully, if quietly, satisfying.” (Hollywood Reporter)
Four stars
Image courtesy of BigPond Adelaide Film Festival
I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen a Turkish film before, which is a pity, because if Three Monkeys is anything to go by, I have missed some terrific movies.
This is a dark, stylish, noir thriller which sees a man agreeing to take the rap for his political master who is involved in a car accident. In return for doing time for a crime he did not commit, his boss will continue to pay his salary to his family, and also settle the ‘debt’ with a lump sum payment when the man is eventually released. While he is in prison, his wife is left to hold the family together and she and her son quickly get caught up in a web of passion and betrayal.
Director, Nuri Bilge Ceylan carried off the Best Director Award at Cannes for this, his fifth feature, and it’s not hard to see why.
Three Monkeys is is a dark, brooding film, where every shot has been thought through and framed with meticulous detail. Long, intense close ups of the principal characters produces sustained psychological tension as unspoken words seem to fly through the air like knives.
The principal cast of Three Monkeys; Yavuz Bingöl, Hatice Aslan, Ahmat Rifal Sungar, and Ercan Kesal, are univerally good, but top credits should go to Hatice Aslan, the femme fatale of the piece, who has the ability to convey many layers of meaning by saying little and feeling much.
Highly recommended.
“Every shot seems lifted right off the wall of an art gallery and just as powerfully, if quietly, satisfying.” (Hollywood Reporter)
Four stars
Image courtesy of BigPond Adelaide Film Festival
Labels: 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival, Ahmat Rifal Sungar, BAFF, Cannes, Ercan Kesal, Hatice Aslan, In Review, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Three Monkeys, Turkey, Yavuz Bingöl
posted by Jim Lesses at
8:52 AM
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