Stars: Haluk Bilginer, Demet Akbag, Melisa Sozen, Ayberk Pekcan, Serhat Kilic
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Oscar History: The film didn't score any Oscars, but you shouldn't feel too bad for it, as it was honored with the Palme d'Or at Cannes (essentially the Nobel Prize of Film).
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars
(Spoilers Ahead) Trying to explain Winter Sleep is not an easy task. This is a movie that in many ways functions almost like a play, where characters rarely interact with each other in more than one scene, and yet the story is always moving forward. Our central protagonist is Aydin (Bilginer), a former actor who is now a hotel owner and landlord, and is extremely wealthy. He lives in an eery, Bronte-like home on a hillside with his young wife Nihal (Sozen) and his newly-divorced sister Necla (Akbag). The film starts with Aydin having an interaction with one of his tenants, a man who is behind on his rent and is being sued to be removed from his home, and whose son has thrown a rock through Aydin's window. The film progresses as we learn about the life of Aydin and that despite not being an obvious ogre at first, we learn that everyone around him hates him for a variety of reasons. Whether it's his sister who constantly casts aspersions on his career or his wife, who blames him for the suffocation that she feels in her life or the townspeople who look upon him as a version of Mr. Potter from It's a Wonderful Life, the people hate Aydin and he is largely ambivalent toward it all-he has success, a career that he finds happiness with, and an insane amount of comfort.
That level of comfort has to be the most effective aspect of the entire film. So many films in recent years have been made discussing the economics of the movies (just look at films like Foxcatcher and Two Days, One Night from this past year, for example), but few have done it with such obvious ease as Winter Sleep. The movie frequently shows the leisure of the lives of Aydin, Nihal, and Necla. All of them are constantly surrounded by lovely decor, books, and access to fine food. Their house doesn't seem palatial (until later in the movie when you see a wide shot of the estate), but there's never any doubt that these people are of great means. With that, though, you see something that is almost never done well in the movies: atrophy. While Aydin is kept busy with his newspaper column, book research, and managing his businesses, the two women in his life have become incredibly bored with their lives and are tortured by the thought that they aren't doing enough with their time. It's a weird contrast to earlier in the film when we meet a family that can barely keep their home in order, and at first you sort of hate both women because they live in a world where they can have anything, but the film smartly moves from vantage point to vantage point, and we soon see the suffocation of their lives, how when we don't have to worry about money our hearts long for something else. Satisfaction becomes a bit of a mirage in Winter Sleep and even the happy moments in their lives soon evaporate.
Aydin, as we continue on through the film, becomes more and more complicated, which is odd because his personality never shifts-this is a great trick since we learn more about what his effect on his wife and sister have done to them rather than more about our chief protagonist. He's not an obvious tyrant, but his points about their lives, the subtle emotional abuse that his wife in particular has to endure, makes you feel sympathy for both women, even if they aggravate you. That's one of the least American aspects of Winter Sleep-you'll probably leave this film disliking every single character. Principally this is because there's some truth to Aydin's attacks on both his wife and his sister; his wife is far too impetuous and reliant on the shelter that money provides, while his sister casts aspersions on others while never taking any of the blame for her own life. We learn as the film goes on a little bit why this is (that Nihal has never had Aydin's support and that Necra's husband had been abusive), but that doesn't mean that you don't become extraordinarily upset with the women for their ignorance about their situations and their advantages.
The film stretches an arduous pace, and while I get the point, there are scenes that are near constant dialogue that even I had my limits stretched upon. We're so used to quick editing of conversations on screen that when we see entire conversations, unabridged, it's jarring-scenes take twenty minutes at a stretch to finish, which is exhausting and particularly with Nihal (who is so unlikable it's difficult to see whether it was she or her husband who first started the emotional abuse in their relationship) it's incredibly vexing. I definitely got the point of the scenes, as we learn more from awkward silences and repetition than we would from crisper cuts, but damn if that wasn't hard to get through at times.
The film was a major player at Cannes, of course, winning the top prize over the likes of Two Days, One Night, Mommy, Foxcatcher, Leviathan, and Mr. Turner, and since a number of these made waves throughout the year, it's worth asking-was Winter Sleep the right choice? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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