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Reel World: 'Climates'
Brittle, cold atmosphere marks 'Climates'
By Clarke Reader
creader3@mscd.edu

Climates 97 minutes Not rated Opens March 9

In Climates, director and writer Nuri Bilge Ceylan takes what can often be a complicated story and strips it away to the bare minimum.

In fact, the Turkish director takes so much away in terms of dialogue, character development and plot that the film barely has a story.

Climates focuses on Isa, played by Ceylan, a university professor who looks at the world with bored cynicism, and Bahar (Ebru Ceylan), his girlfriend who is many years younger than him and works for a Turkish TV series.

The film opens on the couple on vacation together, where they finally end their relationship. Viewers then follow Isa back to Istanbul where he returns to the tedium of daily life.

But despite running into friends and restarting an affair with an old flame, he just can’t seem to get Bahar out of his mind.

The film’s problems start with its excruciatingly slow pacing. Viewers see the world through Isa’s bored eyes, and that boredom starts to rub off.

Ceylan’s writing leaves much to be desired on several levels. In the first place, there is little character development, so when Isa tries to get Bahar back, it’s unclear what has motivated him to make such a move.

The dialogue is barely there, both in terms of quality and amount. This makes it extremely difficult to feel anything but apathy for the people on the screen.

Nuri Bilge and Ebru deserve some accolades, however, for using nothing but their body language and haunted expressions to viscerally show what the ending of an important relationship looks like.

The film’s innovative camera work blurs the lines between what is actually going on and what each character sees in their heads.

Climates is just too cold for anyone but the most dedicated foreign film or art house lovers to enjoy. Perhaps Ceylan’s next film should try something warmer.