Just above this vast plateau, the car lights in the night are very beautiful and shocking. Car lights and train lights pass quietly in the dark night, adding a bit of treacherousness to this originally convoluted murder case. In this regard, the photography of the film is truly breathtaking. Compared with the day part, it is a bit disappointing. The interaction of the characters is more obvious, but the calm restraint of the night part is missing.
Ceylon’s film is considered by many to be an epoch-making one of his works. Compared with previous films, it is more calm and restrained and has an extraordinary narrative technique. The main line of the movie’s story is a group of 10 police officers, prosecutors and doctors who took two suspects to search for the victim’s body. After a long night of painstaking searches, the group was exhausted and finally found the corpse in the night after dawn. , After returning to the city, try to solve the case for half a day. The director deliberately slowed down the time. The intricate narrative techniques and trivial dialogue made the audience seem to be gradually tired over time. Following the members of the search team, they were lost on the plateau, and the truth about the murder was also Thousands of clues are up.
However, Ceylon does not want the audience to watch the movie in order to find the truth about the murder. He just uses the line of finding the truth as a clue to connect the people in the film and show their Words and deeds reflect the life reality of this group of people on the Anatolian Plateau. As for the truth, a dialogue, a micro-expression, and even a phantom are all necessary subsections that constitute the truth, and because there are too few clues and too much white space, this movie also extremely tests the patience and brain power of the audience. When the truth is revealed, the audience has gradually lost the patience to pursue the truth. Instead, they are more concerned about the fate and living conditions of the characters in the story. I am afraid that this is the real intention of the director.
Ceylon’s lens is so close to the face that the audience will inevitably not let themselves be involved in the process of searching for the corpse when watching the movie. The detailed dialogue allows people to gradually understand the family life of each person in the film, and each person’s habits and temperament. It doesn't dig deep, it just floats on the surface, and is only inferred by the audience's own imagination. Not long after the opening, the sheriff and the driver started talking about cheese, and even the number one suspect Kenan almost fell asleep; the conversation between the doctor and the driver basically established the doctor’s view of right and wrong; the phone call between the sheriff and his wife, and him The fact that the child needs to take medicine also proves that his family life is unsatisfactory. After the body was finally found, he also had a temper due to various pressures; and the mysterious conversation between the prosecutor and the doctor about his wife also brought the prosecutor’s family Unfortunately, it is vaguely expressed: the wife committed suicide after giving birth and left him with a child; the doctor pulled out the old photos, and the old wife recalled her own memories. On the Anatolian Plateau where the storm is about to come and thunder, everyone seems to have a secret, and everyone seems to feel exhausted because of the failure of searching again and again.
Ceylon was completed by one person in his first film, and now has a technical team of 14 people, which proves the improvement and leaping of his directing ability. His work "Distant" won the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize in 2002, "A Season for Breakup" in 2006 won the Fabian Critics Award, and "Three Monkeys" in 2008 won him the best For the director's award, this time "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" allowed him to score twice and win the Grand Prize of the Jury. I personally think that the movie really shows Ceylon's master style, many of the processing makes people feel very wonderful, and the scheduling of a few long shots is also very comfortable. Although the plot of the movie is not very compact, there are many fragments that are impressive, such as the horror sculpture in the lightning mapping on the plateau, and the doctor with blood on the face of the deceased watching the deceased’s wife and children slowly walk away. It's a clip I like very much. But because the film has too much white space and the narrative is too subtle, it really tests the audience very much. When the masses on the plateau finally follow the rising of the ending subtitles and stay away from our sight, those unforgettable images still seem to linger in my mind, as far as they are near, as if telling the fragments of Anatolia. Realistically follow the wind.
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