films seen
2
average score
1.25*
nationality
status
Alive and kicking

Movies


Time to Love

Sevmek Zamani
1965 / 86m - Turkey
Romance, Mystery
1.5*/5.0*
Time to Love poster

Apparently, this is a film that merely exists to taunt me. It's like my monkey's paw, for always complaining that Turkish cinema is too dry and dreary. Time to Love is anything but that, but the result isn't that much better. It feels like an amateur attempt to recreate the Nouvelle Vague in Turkey, and while somewhat interesting, it's also incredibly bad.

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While on a job, Halil falls in love with the painting of a woman. He adores the artwork so much that he often returns to the villa to admire the painting. One day, the woman in the painting turns up at the villa, and she instantly falls in love with Halil. He isn't swayed by her advances though, as he firmly believes he only loves her image in the painting.

The performances are terrible, the cinematography feels uncertain and the music is an absolute assault on the ears. I swear there were moments when you could hear someone put on a vinyl. The film is quirky though and it deserves points for being different. I liked none of it, but at least it kept me interested in seeing the next scene. Time to Love is pretty bad, but never boring.


Dry Summer

Susuz Yaz
1963 / 92m - Turkey
Drama
1.0*/5.0*
Dry Summer poster

The poster may look colorful and somewhat exciting, but the actual film is a barren and dreary drama that did very little to change my perception of classic Turkish cinema. It's stylistically poor poverty porn that thrives on misery and unpleasant characters. Not really my kind of cinema really.

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The coming summer promises to be warm and dry. Osman plans to dam the spring that originates on his property, so he is assured enough water to get him through the summer. The other farmers in the neighborhood are furious, because their crops will suffer, and they need a good harvest to support their families.

The cinematography is half-decent, but the black-and-white doesn't do the film any favors and it's far from refined enough to carry the film. The soundtrack is terrible, the plot depressing and the characters are horrible. Not the slowest film of its kind, but hard to recommend unless you're a hardcore fan of rural drama.