Winter Sleep

2014
8| 3h16m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 13 June 2014 Released
Producted By: ARTE France Cinéma
Country: Turkey
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Aydin, a retired actor, owns a small hotel in central Anatolia with his young wife Nihal and his sister Necla, who is coping with her recent divorce. During the winter, snow covers the ground and boredom brings the return of old memories, pushing Aydin to flee…

Genre

Drama

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Director

Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Production Companies

ARTE France Cinéma

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Winter Sleep Audience Reviews

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined
Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
ilhangenc I think the best film of Turkiye is unconcerned. Turkish Cypriot wise wise ceylan the people who want to be better and who want to do it are in a last There is no doubt that there is a director who works in this film. individual issues such as social problems are very impressive presenting to a spectator on a sec.Newsehirin muhtesem The cinematography with the images shows us almost as much. At one time in anatolia, 3 monkeys, as far away as dense movies den won a golden palm feud for winter sleep. Oscar I wish the person is safe and I hope this happens.
em-chandelier An epic, great film, one of the masterpieces of cinema of all times. The acting is absolutely fantastic, the actors actually take a grip of the viewer and one cannot but be bewitched by them. The setting in Anatolia and shots are great, contrasting greatly with Western cinema so full of clichés and stereotypes about relationships. Each scene is like a painting, a painting which breathes of life, simplicity, and complexity at the same time. The story is to be understood on multiple levels, yet there are great questions to be answered probably only after the film has finished, it contains probably some of the great themes of humanity, all surrounded by the great enigma we call 'life'. A great film for all times.
Frank Dudley Berry, Jr. There is no gainsaying that this is an incredibly beautiful movie, or that the dialog is well written. The problem is that there is much, too much of it. Comparisons to Shakespeare overlook the fact that Shakespeare is a marvel of economy - and also that he wrote action plays, by and large. Each of the dialogs is well-written - but there are too many of them. And with all the talk, some important points of character are never resolved. The central character is Aydin, a retired actor and heir to a number of rental estates in Anatolia. His wife is decades younger. How did they meet? How did the unlikely marriage take place? What did she want or expect? Etc.None of this is addressed - instead everything is expressed in present tense. No one except Necla (Aydin's sister) has a personal history, and even that is only partially described. But all of this is actually pretty important to understanding how they came to where they are.I don't mind pictures in which nothing much happens, which is certainly this one. I do have a problem with movies that seem premised on the notion that simple artiness is sufficient. It isn't.Finally, the incredibly dull musical score consists of various piano selections from the romantic masters - sort of like that Bergman picture in which the only music was a Bach unaccompanied cello suite. That tells you all you need to know.
Razvan Ungureanu Winter Sleep is a long movie. At three hours and 15 minutes, this film will make you actually look at your clock before hitting play. It won Palm d'Or at Cannes and I had no idea of any of this until I saw it on Netflix this week. There's a lot of substance to this movie and a great deal can be said and debated philosophically. I'll just stick to what really stood out for me.The Disconnect Between ClassesAydin, the protagonist of the movie, is a wealthy man, well educated and, in kid mind, generous and kind to those around him. What becomes apparent early on in the film is that he is also detached from the practical ongoings of his estate. His property is rented out and managed by lawyers and helpers, he does not know his own tenants, and he's oblivious to the issues they are having.When a kid breaks his car window with a stone, he's shocked and surprised. He does not realize that debt collectors and the police had a conflict with the kid's father, that the father has no job, and that they live of one person's wage. If this were a more predictable film, you would expect Aydin to realize these details. It doesn't happen! In fact, the only way Aydin tries to help the less fortunate is by donating a great sum of money to the charity his wife, Nihal, is organizing.This same disconnect is present in my own life, and likely in the life of many of the people around me in the same social class and age group. Our idea of helping the less fortunate is donating to charity once a year or jumping on some online viral bandwagon every so often. And do we really do it to help, or do we do it to help ourselves feel good?Just like Aydin writes a weekly column in the local paper, so do we write our blogs and Tweets and Facebook posts preaching whats's right and showing off our opinions and moral stances. But in the end, how many of us actually take action or speak from experience rather than simply from philosophical realms?The Physical SeparationWhat is captivating about the movie from the get-go is the setting. It's filmed in Cappadocia, Anatolia, a region of Turkey. The landscape and the homes are truly unique. Aydin lives with his wife and sister in a hotel they own. This hotel is built into the mountain, in a way, and it has the feeling of a castle. Aydin is like a kind ruler, and this castle is separating him from the rest of the people, adding to the idea of disconnect.While he sees himself as a sort of benevolent ruler, we quickly see that practically nobody feel this way about him and he's actually disliked even by his own family. His helper runs all errands, and the ruler sits oblivious in his tower. His sister challenges his moral standpoint on the notion of evil; his wife feels like a prisoner with no purpose in life; his subjects despise him behind his back.This separation does not happen only in remote regions. This separation is a daily reality in the society we live in. Very few people live in communities where they interact with their neighbours, or even with their own family. People are separated by vast geographical distances, going far from home in search of materialistic gains. And even those who stay close often just shut themselves in, watching Netflix all day or spending hours on their smart phones. Aydin fails to see past the his own mountain fortress. We fail to see past our computer screens.Making the Best of What You HaveSad ideas aside, there is a sense of redemption buried somewhere in the snow. Aydin claims he worked all his life, and it is only in his old age that he's as wealthy as we see him. Maybe it's unfair to judge him so harshly. Maybe he was not really meant to be a ruler and his detachment is a byproduct of his lack of interest and his moral high ground. He used to be an actor and his current goal is to write a book on the history of Turkish theater. That's not so wrong, is it? A quiet life on top of a mountain, removed from the problems of the village? Isn't that what many of us want after a life of work?And what about the tenants who failed to pay rent for many months? If they lived in Canada, they would have been kicked out a long time ago! It's clear that even though the people around Aydin are unhappy, he's actually content with his station in life. He tells Nihal that he still realizes the value of having a warm room and a roof over his head, while she talks about doing greater things in life. I couldn't help but agree with Aydin: we often forget what we have and, like Nihal, we get stressed with wanting more and more from life. A simple shift in focus could make us happy: just focus on what you have and consider that billions of others would give anything to have a full fridge, a warm house, and people who love them.There: I tried to end it on a more positive note! Hope you will watch this long but rewarding movie! Thank you for reading.