I have recently watched the last movie of Polanski, Carnage. It is not like the movies I got used to. It was difficult to follow for me because of continually dialoges. It is more like a play with four talented actors. They are all performing their best acting performances along 80 minutes. We are watching the change of all character's attitudes from start to finish. They alter each minute of the movie. They start to disclose their secret expectations from life and expose real ideas about each other.
Two couple of parents get together at one of them's house because of a fight their children got involved. At the first scene, they seem like they figured out the issue with ease because they are very civilized! families. However, guests can not leave the house because of the new questions come up last minute. Whenever they try to leave, a new issue arises and they stay for a coffee. The coffee turns into liquor and the problem between childrens turns into other problems of couples and characters.
Penelope Longstreet,Jodie Foster, is a self assertive, questioning, dominant wife. Micheal Longstreet, John C. Reilly, who tries to control the discussion. Nancy Cowan, Kate Winslet, is emotional woman who tries to act reasonable. Alan Cowan, Christoph Waltz, who cares his work more than anything.
I think the top point of the movie is the throwing up scene of Kate
Winslet (Nancy Cowan). It is also the turning point, since such an
extraordinary thing happens, there is no need to behave in good manners
any longer. They start to expose their real ideas about eachothers and
also themselves and it turns into chaos. First the sides are the families, then each of them stands in front of the jury one by one. A while later women and men become the counter-sides. In the end, sides are the families again.
My final remark about the movie, it must definetely be seen because of the actor's excellent performance.
I do not know what I should write about this movie because there is no word to describe it. Whatever I say regarding it would be inadequate, nevertheless I will try in my own style.
The first Aranofsky movie I have watched was Black Swan. The style of two movie is very different from eachother. I also liked Black Swan a lot but this movie has definetely deeply impressed me in comparison with Black Swan. The common thing about both movie is incredible music that is integrated excellently with the scenes. I decided to watch the other Aranofsky movies as soon as possible.
If we return to "The Fountain" again, it starts with a quote: "Therefore, the Lord God banished Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden and placed a flaming sword to protect the tree of life." and Hugh Jackman appears on screen as Tomas the conquistador from Spain. Then we see him again but now he has different look, he looks like a monk who is meditating and he is dreaming conquistador. He is living in a big bubble with an old tree. For the third time, we see Tom in a different look, now he is a scientist who is looking for a cure for his dying wife.
We see three different era during the movie; the past, current time and the future. They are all integrated with eachother and have the same key elements. Tree of life, a woman and a man who is trying to protect his woman by figthing for something.
This is definitely at least for two time must watch movie. At your first watching you are fascinating but you had questions on your mind. When you watched it for the second time you can see the whole picture and again fascinating by understanding how well all the pieces completed eachother. And you will want to watch it again again just for honoring it.
The first time in my life I traveled to a foreign country which is in the eastern part of world except Turkey. Even though Lebanon is an eastern country, I heard about it is very different from the other eastern countries. I especially visited the capital and the largest city of Lebaon, Beirut.
Beirut is called "Paris of the East". One of the reason of this phrase is the remained effects of French Mandate on Beirut. I think it is not correct to define a city over an another city. Beirut and Paris are both beatiful, unique cities and they are one of their kinds. On the other hand it is true that they have similarities. They both are insipiring cities thus they got attention of the most talented artist along history. When I visited 12th İstanbul Biennial, I realized once again that Beirut has became a distinct district for artists from all over the world.
It is a shame that such a beatiful city had been mostly demolished during the Lebanese Civil War. Beatiful buildings are desolated and about to fall to pieces. As usual big construction firms are taking an advantage from this situation. They are paying under it's value for the damaged buildings and building hotels in place of them. The people are trying to fight againts this company and hanging posters which is written on " Stop Solidere".
We started to our city tour from the historical part of Beirut. I loved the architecture of buildings. They are made from yellow stone and rectangular shaped. They have big balconies. The historical district of the city is like a seperated island and it is protected by guards with guns in many spots. Maybe because of this there was only a few person from locals and the cafes are considerably empty.
In our first night we went to the famous restaurant of Beirut "Karam" in downtown. I fell in love with Lebanese cuisine. Actually it is very similar with Turkish cuisine but they use much more spices than us. Houmus, tabbouleh, fattoush has been my favorites. These are side dishes made by vegetables but when you eat these, you would be full already. During our three day long trip everyday I ate these. I also tried their special drink, "Arak". It is very much alike Turkish rakı but it is easier to drink arak.
Tabbouleh, Houmus, Fattousch (Clockwise)
Our second day of trip was very intensive. After breakfast first we went to Jeita cave which is outside of the city. We had a small boat tour in the cave. Jeita is popular with being a canditate for "New 7 Wonders of Nature" competion. It is really amazing and beautiful nature wonder even though it couldn't be in 7 wonders of nature.
Our second stop was Byblos, which is a small historical village on the seaside of Lebanon. There are small touristic shops where you can buy souveniers like postcards, magnets, special soaps, spices. There is castle or remains of a castle that you should see. We did not have time to visit the seaside of the village but if you have time, definetely you should.
After Byblos, we stopped over a seaside restaurant to have lunch. When we were full again, we continued to our last stop, Harissa from where Holy Mary looks aftes Lebanon.
On our third day in Beirut, I preffered to make a city tour instead of going Baalbeck. I like exploring the city more than ancient ruins.What a pity my sister became ill and couldn't get out of the hotel room so I was all alone in Beirut. First I was a bit irritated from glance of local guys but then I got used to it. Even so it is different from its neighbours, it is still an eastern city and you feel it if you are alone woman who is wandering around. My first destination in the city was Saifi Village. It is a modern, well designed district which looks like a movie decoration. You can say from the people around that it is an expensive fashionable neighbourhood. There are fancy cafes and boutique stores.
Gemmayzeh is two street next to Saifi Village. It is a long street where too many bars, restaurants, cafes are located in. I recommend you to come by Gemmayzeh at night when people hang out.
My final destination in the city was Hamra. I got lost a bit when I was trying to find it but I managed to get there and finally found the place where the local people are. It was like the heart of the city. It was the most crowded place I had seen in Beirut. There are modern shopping stores, fast-food restaurants and also local ones. I found a nice bookshop and bougth a lebanese cuisine book for myself. Beside book, I bougth a pretty wristband from a guy who has a interesting little shop called "Henry's Handmade". Then I realized I had been walking for three or four hours. I sat at a small, pretty cafe called "Bread Republic" for a long time.
I finished my Beirut city tour by drawing a circle and went to seaside from Hamra. On the seaside of Beirut there is a wide walking way where you can walk or bike, watch beatiful view and breath in the air of sea. On our last day we rent a bike and enjoyed beatiful weather. It was a lot fun!
Being alone in another city and exploring it made me feel free and happy again. I enjoyed very much wandering around Beirut. I think Beirut has a different energy. Surprising things are hidden in the streets of Beirut. I will definetely come to explore Beirut again!
What I liked most about Beirut:
Delicious dishes
Architecture
Places
People
What I don't like about Beirut:
Traffic
Taxi drivers who are calling for customer all the time
Policemen with big guns
What I regret about Beirut:
not to explore night life
not to try watermelon water pipe
not to stay for a long time
What a beatiful song from Roger Waters! He is telling the story of what he experinced in Beirut when he was 17.
Being superstitious is very very dangerous. When you start to believe in something which doesn't have an rational explanation, it conquers you day by day. The beliefs of this thing makes you obsessive. You begin to blame irrelevant things from ordinary life for everything, which goes not exactly like you want, in your life. For example, I read somwhere that making your fingers on your two hands cross, brings you unluck in your love life. Since that day, whenever I realized that my hands in that position, I remember and seperate my hands immediately. The another really silly thing that I couldn't stop myself to believe in, is the belief of when clock shows 12:12, 13:13, 14:14, it means your lover thinks about you. The opposite of this means he does not. I realized that these superstitious beliefs increase when I am feeling desperate. When something beatiful happened my life and then it goes bad again, I started to think it was because of what I wore that day or because of an evileye.
One day, this summer, we called a fortune teller with my friends. She tells your future with her tarot cards on the phone and only asks you your name and age. The first one of us asked her whether he is going to go Germany or not. She said no but now he is in Germany. The second one of us asked her where will he go for his mlitary service. She said somewhere high and now he is on a mountain in the east side of Turkey. She said the third one of my friends that she will find a job earlier than her friends and she really did. She said to me that life is very hard for me, I keep thinking about me all the time. Yes these were true but I was surprised mostly when she knew my horoscope. The most creepy thing she said is I will be ill because of something in my throath and a month later I really became ill because of an infection. If she really know the future, according to her I will be married when I am twenty eigth years old.
Beliefs are true or not, nobody can tell us. I think that they are very dangerous and they can make you crazy, even so it is very hard to live without any beliefs. Some people believe in religion, The other ones who don't believe in religion, believe in luck. I mean there is not a person in the world who has not got any belief.
Don't let your belief, rule you! You rule your beliefs and use them for your own good! Enjoy the song :)!
"When you believe in things that you don't understand
Then you suffer
Superstition ain't the way"
This will be my very first writing experiment. I am starting this experiment with a movie review. Today I have seen a movie which is a kind of extremely absurd cinema. By the way I have no idea if there is an expression like absurd cinema, is there? Whatever... The name of the movie is "The Extremely Sad Story of Tan Family". It starts with the scene of preparition of a table for a surprise birthday party to the father of the family. I forgot to say that it is a Turkish film. The family looks like a typical Turkish family from this very first scene except the father is married with a woman who is approximately 30 years younger than him. The members of the Tan family is a grandmother who is on a wheelchair, a thirty years old son who has not got any proficiency, a thirty five years old daughter who works as a speaker in tv education program and has got a son who is 7 years old and the father who is an important constitutional law proffesor. Except these members of family, there is another one, young and beatiful new wife of the father, who will be deceased so soon.
All the members of the Tan Family are ready for the surprise they prepared for Celal Tan. They are waiting in the dining room with lights off. Then Mr. Tan goes into home with his keys but waits outside of the dining room. His young wife goes to look for him. Mr. Tan starts to shout her, hits her head to the wall and suffocates her to dead. The other members of Tan family watch everything in the dark without any noise or movement like they paralyzed. Mr. Tan does not see them and leaves the house immediately. Then the things happen one after another.
I think that this film is a good example of a tragicomic movie. It reminds me a bit "The Royal Tenenbaums". Although It has a long way to reach Tenenbaums, It makes me and the whole cinema saloon laugh many times. It is definetely worth to see!
We know Onur Ünlü, the director of the movie, from his recently popular absurd comedy tv show "Leyla ile Mecnun" and also the existing movies like "Güneşin Oğlu", "Polis". These are the projects that have similar style. Personally, I like very much the works of Onur Ünlü and follow him closely. Unfortunately he is figthing with cancer desease nowadays. I wish the best for him and hope to see him better than ever as soon as possible!
