Quote:
Originally Posted by John Cole
Hey, I've seen and loved La Region Central and Satantango, but also enjoyed Diehard and The Princess Bride although I wish Buttercup were more like the one in the novel.
Yesterday I watched About Dry Grasses, another over three hours epic from Nuri Bilge Ceylon. Two middle school teachers are accused, wrongly, of inappropriate behavior with female students. Both men are attracted to a teacher at a school in a nearby town who had her leg amputated while at a protest. The town where they teach is covered in snow, and we only see the dry grass at the end of the film.
One of the characters says at the beginning of the film that everybody lies, even, it seems, to themselves.
It's a great film, but it does require patience. There's also one astonishing scene near the end of the film that is totally unexpected. Filmmakers lie too.
Available on Criterion.
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I watched it too, on Criterion. I loved Ceylon's earlier film
Once upon a time in Anatolia about searching for a dead body. This new one is really artsy. I think it is supposed to be like a Chekhov play, a philosphical and psychological study of 3 main characters. The protagonist, Samet, seems at first to be charming and admirable with his teaching career. As events occur in the movie , I found him more and more unlikeable. He seems cynical and narcissistic at heart and ends up hurting people. I think Samet was thinking of the village people as "dry grasses", not of much value. There is a long conversation between him, Samet and Nuray, the woman, in her apartment that reveals his beliefs and anchors the movie. By the way, I think Samet went to take a Viagra pill in that special scene In an interview Ceylon said he put it in to remind people that it was a movie to ease the tension. I didn't think it was a good idea. The movie reminded me of
Santantango that you mentioned because of the long walks in the snow and the grass. I can't say that I liked this movie because it was slow and, ultimately, was a downer.
