What Winter Sleep and Serena have in common?

I have seen two films in the last weeks that made a big impression on me. Winter Sleep is one of them and Serena the other. My assessment of the length of the films was as it turned out subjective. Winter Sleep is 3 hours and 16 minutes and Serena 1 hour and 49 minutes. Yet, in the second half of Serena I had an impression that  I have been watching another veeery long film.

I consider Winter Sleep an outstanding film for many reasons, Serena seems to me to be an outstandingly silly film also for many reasons. Serena should not have been made at all in my opinion. My movie companion was wondering what made those relatively good and popular actors Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper take the roles. She also downgraded the rating given in Rotten Tomatoes (1.5) to -5. 

Beautiful people but a very silly story

                                

It is a really silly story which I fully realised trying to summarise it to my friend. There are a couple of interesting points related to the film though. Rhys Ifans known to me better as Spike from Notting Hill plays is the film. I have not noticed him playing in any other film so far but now he caught my attention. Not that he played well his pathetic role in Serena, he was not funny there at all. Sad role and sad story.

I preferred him as Spike

                                          

 I also found out that the film was made in Prague. This is a very beautiful city but there was no opportunity to show the town maybe except for some interiors.

Winter Sleep is not a film which I would easily recommend either, but I had a ball. No much fun but bringing many points worth thinking about. Human conditions type of questions concerning universal dilemmas:

•       To what extent are we able to look at ourselves objectively

•       How to help others without humiliating receivers of our benevolence

•       Gaps between intentions and results of related action

•       Human reactions or lack of it towards evil

Those are questions without answers really, even though we humans try again and again to answer them. Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the director of the film does it in a way that I got some new insights to the life dilemmas. He made many films by now but this is the only one I have seen. I will try to fill in the obvious gap in my familiarity with Turkish cinematography. And Ceylan in particular.

Three names of world deep thinkers and writers are often mentioned in relation to the film : Dostoyevsky, Chekhov and Shakespeare. Heavy weight, all of them and that includes Ceylan who is apparently a Chekhov’s fan.  

Dark interiors of the hotel create sense of intimacy and show the mood of  the film 

The film takes place in a beautiful and haunting Cappadocia. Watching the film I developed strong desire to go and visit the caves and stay in a cave hotel for few days.

Aydin, the hero of the film runs such a hotel. He has been a successful and famous actor and now is a man of considerable means who lives in his cave palace on top of the mountain and owns a village lower down. People who live there depend on his governance. They are like serfs at a mercy of a king. Is the king Aydin a good king? He wants to appear as such but his sporadic generosity only serves his own purpose. He is strangely uninvolved in matters of the village.

 His courtly remoteness often hides cruelty. He is like a schoolmaster ready to punish his villagers, his wife and his sister. Or at least sermon them in a patronising and belittling way. We observe him often through the eyes of his wife and his sister and we see a deeply lonely and cruel man who can watch suffering with indifference. Detached observer of pain and cruelty inflicted on others.

I was particularly moved by the scene of taming a wild horse. The drama of taking by force spirit, freedom and dignity of the animal through violence of the strongers is heart breaking. Symbolic horrifying scene.

On reflection I do recommend Winter Sleep as an important film.