Three Monkeys (2008)

hyped garbage

good back-story, and good acting

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I am not the best reviewer nor the best English speaker but pleas hear my words. I think Nuri Bilge Ceylan is awesome, I actually liked his last two movies. After watching Once Upon a Time in Anatolia and Winter Sleep and seeing this movie on YMS's (a movie reviewer, you-tuber) list i gave it a shot.I felt like even the Turkish TV shows could tell this story faster. (They took 2 hours per episode and at least 2 season) This movie feels like a photography slayt, most of time nothing happens on those great shoots. Characters and story itself wasn't interesting at all. I love those depressed, static scenes but it was exaggerated in this movie and it didn't gave the results like Chan-wook Park's movies does. I am sure a lot of people quoted this before but "Drama is life with the dull bits cut out." -A.H, Which in this movie there were only dull bits.There wasn't enough characters nor events, the ones we got were very undeveloped and uninteresting. You may think because the writer wanted to make it 'a cut from real life' but he didn't stick with that either. The ending was awfully cringe-worthy, i am not going to give spoilers because this should be read before watching that disaster. But if you watch it you'll see that characters can not be placed in to anywhere. They are acting randomly e.g. "I am a very nice person but i am going to be very rude in just this scene for NO reason." At least his next movies were having more interesting stories but still pretty boring. Maybe he can start taking some risks at some point. Because Turkish cinema is awful and this guy is like a treasure to us.

Turkish photographer and director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's fifth feature film which he co-wrote with Turkish photographer Ebru Ceylan and Turkish screenwriter Ercan Kesal, co-produced and co-edited, premiered In competition at the 61st Cannes International Film Festival in 2008, was shot on locations in Turkey and is a Turkey-France-Italy co-production which was produced by producer Zeynep Ozbatur Atakan. It tells the story about a middle-aged man named Eyüp who lives in a house by the ocean in Turkey with his wife Hacer and son Ismail whom is about to graduate. After being offered a large amount of money by a politician named Servet who has gotten himself involved in a hit-and-run car accident and is preparing for an upcoming election, Eyüp agrees to confess to the crime, but whilst he is serving time in prison his family changes.Distinctly and precisely directed by Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, this rhythmic fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints, draws a throughout intriguing and reflective portrayal of a father who hears no evil, a mother who speaks no evil and a son who sees no evil. While notable for it's distinct milieu depictions, sterling production design by art director Ebru Ceylan, cinematography by Turkish cinematographer Gökhan Tiryaki and brilliant use of sound and colors, this character-driven and narrative-driven parable from the late 2000s depicts three interrelated studies of character.This acute examination of human behavior where the distance between three family members is increased as much by what they choose to do as what they choose not to do, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, subtle character development, quiet characters, sparse dialog, tragicomic song and the fine acting performances by Turkish actors Yavuz Bingöl, Ahmet Rifat Sungar, Ercan Kesal and actress Hatice Aslan. A cinematographic, atmospheric and poignant drama which gained, among numerous other awards, the award for Best Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan at the 61st Cannes Film Festival in 2008.

Üç maymun (2008), directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, is a Turkish film shown in the United States with the title, "Three Monkeys." The film explores the dynamics of a working-class family when these dynamics are changed by the actions of an upper-class employer.Yavuz Bingol plays Eyüp, who is a chauffeur for a wealthy businessman/politician. His wife, Hacer--played by the lovely Hatice Aslan--and his son, Ismail (Rifat Sungar) are the other two family members. Although many reviewers have called the family dysfunctional, I think that, at the outset of the film, they aren't much different from other families. We all know of families with two hard-working parents and a young-adult son who lives at home. The son is drifting towards trouble, but hasn't actually gotten there yet. The scenario isn't all that unusual.At the very outset of the film, the chauffeur's employer has killed a pedestrian, and then left the scene of the accident. That sets the plot in motion--everything follows from that event.This is a somber, thoughtful film. There's very little on-screen violence and almost no gaiety either. Ceylan reminds me of Chantal Ackerman in his use of long, middle-distance takes. If someone is going somewhere, we get long scenes in which we see the person walking, then riding on a train, then walking again. The scenes aren't random. At that point in the plot, the person must move from point A to point B. Most directors would show him or her leaving a house, and arriving at an office, or vice-versa. Ceylan shows us the character actually traveling from A to B. Once I got into the rhythm of the film, I enjoyed this slow and careful directorial style. Whether or not you like the film may hinge on your acceptance or rejection of Ceylan's technique.We saw this film in the wonderful Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. I think it would work almost as well on DVD.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan shows us how an awful screenplay turns to a good movie in a professional director's hand. I think he deserved all those award because of that reason.Overall acting was good. Especially those two Yavuz Bingol and Ercan Kesal who are not actors in real (Bingl is a musician and Kesal is a doctor) were remarkable.By the way, to put a dead child in a movie to support the physiological atmosphere and subject of the movie was a good idea. But still I did not like the form of the child as he was too scary to be a part the movie. So, 0 for the screenplay, 6 for performers and 8 for the director.