three monkeys vs a wednesday

i've been to turkey but didn't have a clue about turkish cinema n hadn't heard of nuri bilge ceylan...but "three monkeys" last night got me to sit right up in my seat riveted to the very end...a dark, very dark tale of denial and silence...brooding n deathly slow but brilliant!...a family plunged into a spiral in order to save a local politician's honour and his re-election following a car accident. the camera hardly moves n the long takes force you into the slowly unfolding narrative...no shifting focus to relieve you of an unsettling image, no cutting away or unnecessary pans. you confront the moment squarely in the face digesting every morsel of information it holds...and what performances! soo understated yet so powerful in a gut-wrenching story. hatice aslan - what a face! hauntingly beautiful...now, i learn that ceylan was a photographer before he began making films...raw gritty de-saturated, almost 'digital' imagery...there are two absolutely dramatic images when the past slips into the present!... haven't seen nothing quite like this before! so a must-watch!

"a wednesday" on the other hand, was among the worst films i've ever seen with THE worst cinematography possible...was there even a cinematographer? o it was fuad khan? no wonder! atrocious shot-taking and worse, so much of the film out of focus! the story even more disturbing - simple common man takes law into his own hands and ends up a hero complete with bhaashan that has the nation cheering and police in awe! pathetic n scary! o of course, there's this pretty bimbette utv news reporter in dilemma ...faux shallow torn betw news duty and service to the nation...in i have no idea what people were raving about :( i mean, yes, there was naseer doing what he does best so easily and anupam kher trying hard to keep up with naseer's demands as the jimmy jib swung to n fro and up n down like someone had just discovered it's function! terrible terrible terrible...