Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)

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FrauBlucher · #1 Post by **FrauBlucher** » Tue Jun 24, 2014 10:00 pm

Adopt Films has purchased the U.S. theatrical distribution rights. Not familiar with them and wonder if they'll be involved in the DVD/Blu rights.

warren oates · #2 Post by **warren oates** » Tue Jun 24, 2014 10:11 pm

Looks like some of their past titles have come to home video via Kino Lorber, which is very much a toss-up when it comes to Blu-ray. Petzold's Barbara went Blu but Miguel Gomes' Tabu did not.

FrauBlucher · #3 Post by **FrauBlucher** » Tue Jun 24, 2014 10:25 pm

That sucks if Kino decides not to release this on blu ray, if they are home media distributor.

Jgh8xxx · #4 Post by **Jgh8xxx** » Fri Jun 27, 2014 6:56 pm

Luckily, like TABU, New Wave Films has rights to WINTER SLEEP in the UK, so we'll at least be seeing a Bluray release of this released somewhere English friendly.

#5 Post by **swo17** » Fri Jun 27, 2014 7:04 pm

I'm hopeful given the film's pedigree, but there are plenty of new films that New Wave has released DVD-only.

newwavefilms · #6 Post by **newwavefilms** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 10:38 am

We can put any pessimism to rest: we'll certainly release Winter Sleep on blu.

#7 Post by **zedz** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 8:41 pm

It's a terrific film, and possibly Ceylan's best (it's sort of arm-wrestling with Uzak in that respect for me). Lip-smacking landscape porn interspersed with long, snaking confrontations in richly detailed interiors, in which layers of politeness and deflection are slowly peeled away to expose the tender wounds that are really at issue. I feel that Ceylan is at his best when he isn't rubbing our noses in his heroes' inadequacies, and in this film Aydin's shortcomings are more organically revealed, leaving him as a far richer and more interesting character. It's ultimately an interior drama, but it's punctuated with moments of levity and great, harsh beauty (which puts it well ahead of something like Zvagintsev's handsome and accomplished but one-note bleak Leviathan). The pace never gets above a saunter, but the three-plus hours flew by.

jsteffe · #8 Post by **jsteffe** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 9:36 pm

Yes! I concur enthusiastically with zedz's assessment. I just saw the film at the Golden Apricot Film Festival in Yerevan, and was frankly bowled over. Ceylan's very considerable accomplishment in this film is to tackle difficult moral problems but within a wholly believable and richly detailed social and physical environment, while maintaining absolute stylistic mastery. Even though I was sleep-deprived, once I got past that and settled into the film it kept me transfixed. In fact, I was surprised at just how quickly the three hours passed by.

Aydin's character is certainly complex and richly developed, but I thought the wife Nihal was even more interesting. Melisa Sözen's performance is astounding in its nuance and complete believability.

I think it's important to see this film on the big screen if at all possible, so that you can become immersed in the film's world and fully appreciate the many subtleties in the performances. I know that I will see the film *at least* once more on the big screen if it plays in Atlanta.

FrauBlucher · #9 Post by **FrauBlucher** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:08 am

UK trailer

hearthesilence · #10 Post by **hearthesilence** » Sun Nov 02, 2014 7:06 pm

They actually showed this at MoMA to kick off their Ceylan retrospective. I'm still new to his work, having only seen Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, but I liked this one. I was a little wary because I know some had knocked it for being painfully slow and lugubrious, but honestly it wasn't like that at all. Verbally, it's a very dense film, and sitting through it wasn't that different from, say, sitting through a verbose play or two. (FWIW, Ceylan was there to introduce the film and said the script was loosely based on several Chekhov plays, basically using them as a starting point for the film. Perhaps as a consequence of this approach, a few dramatic moments felt predictable, especially one of the major ones towards the end.) Beautiful looking film as well. Still processing it, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia left a greater impression, but I liked this one quite a bit, the dialogue was especially good, so much that I wonder how much could have been taken straight from Chekhov? It's been ages since I've seen or read one of his plays.

repeat · #11 Post by **repeat** » Sun Nov 02, 2014 8:37 pm

hearthesilence wrote:the dialogue was especially good, so much that I wonder how much could have been taken straight from Chekhov

Quite a lot - there are entire scenes and long stretches of dialogue lifted almost verbatim from The Wife and Excellent People (not plays, but stories) - it's basically an adaptation of the former, with the other, shorter piece weaved ingeniously inside. It's great!

FrauBlucher · #12 Post by **FrauBlucher** » Sun Nov 02, 2014 9:50 pm

As a fan of Chekhov, although I haven't read any of works in many years, this excites me.

Oedipax · #13 Post by **Oedipax** » Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:44 pm

I did miss not seeing more of Ceylan's beloved scope landscape compositions in this film - it's almost an inversion of Anatolia in that sense, with very long interior dialogue scenes between two people only briefly offset by quick exterior shots. Initially after the screening ended I found myself somewhat disappointed in the film as a result; I didn't think it was a bad film by any stretch but I wasn't sure where to rank it among Ceylan's other works.

However, after thinking about it more in the following days, I now think it's one of his finest works because of the tremendous depth of understanding and nuance brought to bear on the lead character over its extended running time. In that sense it really is quite literary (and not knowing Chekhov's work well, I know I'm at a disadvantage). This is not a sketch, it's a fully fleshed-out portrait of a flawed human being and the tiny world he inhabits.

Thematically, I thought the film dealt with the complicated moral and ethical implications of charity very well, showing two different extremes in approach that both have extreme pitfalls - whether for reasons of ego and narcissism or vague class guilt that's insufficiently considered and oblivious to the recipient's own sense of pride and self-sufficiency. The backfiring of the second attempt near the last section of the film is a particularly electrifying moment.

I look forward to revisiting the film again on video (and with English subs - I saw it in Paris where as a non-native speaker still learning, I mostly kept up, I'm a bit proud to say...

Spoiler

...Although I initially thought his sister was his wife, because of the extreme age disparity between his young wife and himself! Of course, this age difference is even alluded to earlier in the film (someone comments that his wife could pass as his daughter) but I thought they were referring to the older actress who still looks a bit younger than him and, in fairness, seems to still be on much better speaking terms! #-o

#14 Post by **domino harvey** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:18 am

Rejoice: New Wave is indeed giving it a Blu-ray

#15 Post by **swo17** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 1:35 am

domino rejoicing over a ponderous art film--now that's saying something!

#16 Post by **domino harvey** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 1:36 am

I was rejoicing on y'all's behalf

chatterjees · #17 Post by **chatterjees** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 2:19 am

Great news! Especial thanks to Domino. Who has got the US home video rights?

hearthesilence · #18 Post by **hearthesilence** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 4:29 am

Sony Classics is distributing it, so surely they must have home video rights as well?

Brian C · #19 Post by **Brian C** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 5:19 am

Actually the U.S. distribution is through Adopt Films.

rrenault · #20 Post by **rrenault** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 8:07 am

Hmm, why did I think Cinema Guild had this one? In any case, if Sony Classics is involved, does that give it a chance of making it to "indie" theaters?

lacritfan · #21 Post by **lacritfan** » Fri Nov 21, 2014 7:09 pm

rrenault wrote:Hmm, why did I think Cinema Guild had this one? In any case, if Sony Classics is involved, does that give it a chance of making it to "indie" theaters?

Click View Theaters & Showtimes

hearthesilence · #22 Post by **hearthesilence** » Fri Nov 21, 2014 9:58 pm

Brian C wrote:Actually the U.S. distribution is through Adopt Films.

My mistake, it is Adopt.

aox · #23 Post by **aox** » Tue Dec 30, 2014 2:01 pm

I caught this last night at the Quad Cinema here in NYC. This easily shot to the top of my list for best film of 2014. Fantastic script and acting all around, and I haven't been this enthralled by a "talky" since Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage. The three hours and twenty minutes sailed by. I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more attention on this board. I haven't seen Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, but this film has certainly piqued my interest.

#24 Post by **swo17** » Tue Dec 30, 2014 7:52 pm

Yes, it's a beautiful film. Atypically talky, but only to show how far removed our words often are from what's in our hearts. The dialogue is very well constructed and feels especially relevant to our times (how much of this is down to the timelessness of Chekhov I'm not sure) but doesn't feel didactic as it could have in lesser hands. I feel like it has somewhat similar aims to Nymph()maniac in this way, though of course I would be slightly more likely to watch Winter Sleep with my mom. It's a visually sumptuous film as well, which is par for the course with Ceylan, but I didn't expect him to be able to get as much as he did out of the largely interior settings.

You should definitely seek out Anatolia.

Jack Phillips · #25 Post by **Jack Phillips** » Wed Dec 31, 2014 12:22 am

repeat wrote:
hearthesilence wrote:the dialogue was especially good, so much that I wonder how much could have been taken straight from Chekhov
Quite a lot - there are entire scenes and long stretches of dialogue lifted almost verbatim from The Wife and Excellent People (not plays, but stories) - it's basically an adaptation of the former, with the other, shorter piece weaved ingeniously inside. It's great!

Thanks, I took a look at some of Chekhov's stories today to see how Ceylan adapted the material. Not only the dialog, but a lot of the structure of the film comes from "The Wife." I also discovered that the episode of a benefactress visiting a needy family at night, although heavily reworked for the film, comes from the story "A Woman's Kingdom."

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