The Wild Pear Tree (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2018)

[John Cope]

New poster and images from the film.

[dda1996a]

Breathtaking as always, I just hope this isn't as monotonous as Winter Sleep. According to imdb this is again around three hours.

[Soothsayer]

Last shot in the first post looks a bit like Oshima's Empire of Passion.

[jsteffe]

Breathtaking as always, I just hope this isn't as monotonous as Winter Sleep. According to imdb this is again around three hours.

One person's monotony is another's joy. I saw Winter Sleep at a film festival, and despite being sleep deprived I found it absolutely compelling. In fact, I was astonished afterwards that three hours had passed.

[dda1996a]

I didn't say monotonous had to be a bad thing. I quite liked most parts of Winter Sleep, I just didn't really think both that and Anatolia had to be that long (and I love Satantango and Traveling Players). Granted I need to rewatch and properly watch all of Ceylan's films. It's just seems he is becoming one of those directors who's every film has to be at least two and a half hours

[FrauBlucher]

The length of Winter Sleep didn’t bother me at all. I found it enthralling. And did find the 3 hours moved. Looking forward to this.

[Persona]

So excited for this. Anatolia and Winter Sleep are two of my favorite movies of the past ten years, so I was going to be excited for this regardless, but the title when I first heard it didn't do much for me. But these images are as striking as one would expect.

[domino harvey]

Am I missing something, these look like they could literally have come from any eastern European film of the last twenty years

[John Cope]

Am I missing something, these look like they could literally have come from any eastern European film of the last twenty years

There is a bit of a stylistic trend going on there, yes, but I could just as easily point to films both good and bad that look like Haneke or Tarr. For me at least it's always about what is done with these careful compositions, how they're integrated into the whole, whether and how they are resonant and expressive thematically, structurally, narratively, etc. So for me that constitutes a scale or range of accomplishment with Ceylan (and, say, Semih Kaplanoğlu) on one end and Reha Erdem's Times and Winds on the other (recognizing fully that there are those who love the Erdem, I just don't).

[knives]

Am I missing something, these look like they could literally have come from any eastern European film of the last twenty years

To be fair his films are usually made on the Asian side of the country.

[MichaelB]

Am I missing something, these look like they could literally have come from any eastern European film of the last twenty years

I'm guessing you can't have watched many eastern European films from the last twenty years.

(Although that's an indictment of the narrow frame of reference of Western distributors as much as anything else. I've been to festivals in places like Poland where there was literally one film that fitted the "Eastern European film" stereotype alluded to above, and which was often by no means the most interesting thing playing - and yet that's the one that got acquired for international distribution. I do have a lot of reservations about The Lure, but I can't help but applaud Criterion for breaking that particular mould.)

[Persona]

Am I missing something, these look like they could literally have come from any eastern European film of the last twenty years

well, what do you think of Ceylan's other films?

I admit, maybe part of why I'm excited is the context evoked, me bringing my own love for his other films to association with these images that fit in that context but also look different enough to show that (hopefully) he's not being redundant.

[Persona]

Breathtaking as always, I just hope this isn't as monotonous as Winter Sleep. According to imdb this is again around three hours.

One person's monotony is another's joy. I saw Winter Sleep at a film festival, and despite being sleep deprived I found it absolutely compelling. In fact, I was astonished afterwards that three hours had passed.

Totally agree. Kind of astounding to me that a modern film director could write a long script with that level of sustained nuance and depth and insight, and then on top the immaculate way he directed it, along with the pitch-perfect performances. It's long but it had me the whole way, and honestly I don't know if there's a single thing I would have cut out.

Not quite as good for me as Anatolia, though, maybe just because Anatolia has the more indelible imagery.

[Persona]

teaser:

https://youtu.be/bcFuhAq1sJs

[Stefan Andersson]

I´ve read rumours that Ceylan had to shorten the film for the showing at Cannes. Does anybody know more about this?

I think (not sure) that there is a three-hour limit to Cannes Competition entries. Ceylan´s film ran 188 minutes at Cannes. Maybe the festival gave him some leeway.

[domino harvey]

Tree of Wooden Clogs won and was over three hours, so unlikely

[Omensetter]

More recently and relevantly, Ceylan's own Winter Sleep won at over three hours.

The festival can screen whatever they want in Competition, but inevitably longer films run into scheduling issues. Desplechin knowingly screened the non-DC of Ismael's Ghosts last year, but I don't know the story there. Östlund's eventual winner The Square was similarly followed by such rumors (being a late addition seems to abet murmurings), but he ended up cutting it of his own volition for theatrical release.

That said, they're definitely inclined to show long films from Ceylan, Soderbergh (Che), Assayas (Carlos was initially slotted for Comp) than a François Ozon epic.

[FrauBlucher]

Lav Diaz’ Norte, The End of History was over 4 hours when it screened at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard category.

[domino harvey]

What Ozon epic?

[Omensetter]

I don't know of one---my point was the festival is much more inclined to show an epic (say, three hours) film from bigger names and friends of the festival.

[dda1996a]

But your example of choice makes no sense. Ozon neither made any film close to being called an epic or reaching anything longer than 2 hours, and he also had multiple films premiere at Cannes. If he can get stoopid silly movies like Double Lover in the main competition I'd say he is among the outer circle of friends

[zedz]

But your example of choice makes no sense. Ozon neither made any film close to being called an epic or reaching anything longer than 2 hours, and he also had multiple films premiere at Cannes. If he can get stoopid silly movies like Double Lover in the main competition I'd say he is among the outer circle of friends

A better example would be Claire Denis, a major filmmaker continually sidelined (literally) by Cannes. It's hard to imagine them welcoming a 190 minute masterpiece from her into the main competition.

[domino harvey]

But your example of choice makes no sense. Ozon neither made any film close to being called an epic or reaching anything longer than 2 hours, and he also had multiple films premiere at Cannes. If he can get stoopid silly movies like Double Lover in the main competition I'd say he is among the outer circle of friends

To be fair, having now seen the Ozon film, it's clear they let it into the competition precisely because it is so fucking bonkers. I loved it, but it's not a movie I could argue against someone hating, and it is designed to generate incredulous discussion, which only brings further attention back to the festival for those initial responses. It's a clever programming ploy. I suspect if Denis did deliver a 3+ hour movie capable of such expectations, the fest would welcome her in, so long as it doesn't go too far in the direction that apparently Von Trier's latest went, meriting a bump to out of the main competition

[Omensetter]

Ozon is definitely among the "outer circle" of friends and I cannot imagine them letting him show a 180-minute anything. His three competition entries (Swimming Pool, Young and Beautiful, Double Lover) only arrived in competition after massive César success for his other films and his function at the festival over the decades seems to deliver seedy counterprogamming. I don't have anything against Ozon but, I don't know, maybe he'll have a moment like Beauvois or Cantet and have a massive Cannes success. He mainly presents at Berlin, Venice, or San Sebastian.

[Cde.]

If Cannes really did force cuts they made the right call. It's not absurdly overlong, but the film is starting to repeat itself by the time the conclusion rolls along. It certainly doesn't feel like anything is missing.