'œ'§ Maymun (Three Monkeys): Film review
iView Author: Neeraj Ghaywan (Gurgaon, India)
Email: neeraj[dot]ghaywan[at] gmail.com
'œ'§ Maymun (Three Monkeys): Film review
This review contains spoilers. Viewer discretion is advised
Dark brooding clouds hover around a couple recovering from an aftermath. Guilt melting on the wrinkled face, hand blithely perched on forehead waiting for an undoing of fate. Smoke emanating from a face hopelessly silent like battered streets following a hurricane, looking at the sky for an answer that has never returned. The couple’s unwilling chemistry awaits the rain or may be an absolution. An image cast a spell on my senses and I had to pick up this film. If the image could talk so much about a film, I wondered what the film would be like.
At the onset you may expect that Three Monkeys will be a metaphorical film about the obvious meaning but make no mistakes, this film just borrows a cue from that philosophical undertone and weaves cinematic magic. The proverbial three monkeys are a hapless husband, his guilt soaked wife and his embittered son. See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil is what the family surrenders to when a coercive politician turns their lives upside down. Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Uc Maymun is an artistic meditation of relentless guilt, searing imagery and the vicious circle of vice. It won the award for Best Director at Cannes 2008.
Turkish politician Servet (Ercan Kesal) falls asleep at the wheel as he drives through the woods at night. He runs over someone and is desperate to hide his crime in order to save his political career. Servet’s crime is now covered up by his loyal driver, Eyup (Yavuz Bingol), who takes the blame on himself after Servet’s promise of hefty lump sum money. Eyup accepts his fate of a year’s imprisonment in lieu of the money. Wife Hacer (Hatice Aslan) and son Ismail (Ahmet Rifat Sungar) are coming to terms with his absence in their own ways. Hacer finds her son becoming aimless and unmotivated. She approaches Servet to pull them out of their misery. She falls for Servet and indulges in sexual infidelity. This is witnessed by her son Ismail. One lie leads to a domino of lies, deceit and rage. Meanwhile Eyup, the husband returns and becomes suspicious. In a fit of rage Ismail kills Servet.
The acting from each character is breathtakingly understated, constantly reminded me of Trois couleurs: Bleu. In fact the depiction of mood is similar to Tarkovsky (Mirror and The Sacrifice; the only movies of Tarkovsky that I have seen). Dialogue is minimal but the panting, the pauses, the uncomfortable angst-ridden silence, the loud ringtone; makes you almost hear their emotions even when they are not enacting them out. The sound is perfectly married to the narrative. You can hear the scream for freedom from that loud ringtone, from the train that runs past the house killing silences of waves ebbing from nearby sea, sounds of speeding train and Eyub walking uncomfortably under those tracks. Everyone is trying to come out of their shells of dreary existence.
The camera ellipses are conspicuous by their ‘absences’ and that defines the movie. The opening scene captures the sound of a screeching car and the accident is heard in the backdrop, the camera on the politician’s face mapping his brilliant expression of an oncoming loss in the elections more than the guilt of a hit-and-run. Hacer sleeping with the politician is off camera, while the camera focuses on Ismail’s eye peeping from a key hole. Soon after his rage and his refusal to accept this bitter reality is what the camera focuses on. Ismail killing the politician is again not shown but the cold confession of “I did it” and the fantastic reaction portrayed by Hacer. These three sequences are what define the film’s intent to hide a disaster but to show the reactions and what becomes of the people associated with it. It’s more with how each one of us cope with continuity of a calamity surpassing its transitory existence.
Initially it is not apparent that the couple ( Hacer-Ayub) lacks chemistry but still you empathize with Hacer when she confesses her obsession with Servet. How do you know it? You know this from the director’s eye of subtlety that there was prevailing uneasiness in the marriage even when it does not form part of the mise-en-scene. The shot when Hacer confronts and confesses her love to Servet is interesting. There are no close ups. On the contrary it is an extreme long shot with the backdrop of a cliff overlooking dark clouds foreboding the essence of their ailing chemistry. The color palette is kaleidoscopic ranging from sepia, to green to natural, almost as though the sun doesn’t rise in this city, they are just dark times. The scene with Ismail’s imagination of his dead brother walking in to the house is chilling and subtly conveys the yearning. Both men witness this imagination in their darkest hours. The final scene is a visual feast with his redemption, washing off his sins or is it that they are just passed on? By the end of the movie you feel like you are gradually being released by an unnerving hold of a python. The tension is taut and yet languid in its pace.
The film has a layered spiritual sub text which questions our morality. We end up committing crime which we would have never imagined as though our lives have no control on our actions. Is it righteous of man to denounce his morality to salvage human bonds? Does existence and survival justify the espousal of sin?
Tags: three monkeys, World Cinema
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Nice film, nice review. :-)
will come back to this later…
Hey Neeraj,
That made for an interesting read and though i have not seen the movie – am inspired to do so now!
So keep us dated on whatz hot on the international scene!
very detailed dissection of what was possibly going on in the directors mind. you have nicely unwrapped every little nuance in the movie and put a strong emotion behind it. havent watched this movie but your writing has enticed me to look around for it now. extremely well thought and well written
“The camera ellipses are conspicuous by their ‘absences’ and that defines the movie” What a brilliant line. You knid of summed up all my feelings when i saw this film. Its diffcult bracket this film in a genre, is it noir, is it drama or is it sheer avant garde filmamking. Nevertheless, a brilliant film and an apt poetic review to it. Bythe way, I couldnt find it anywhere, had to resort to pirated means :-( Where did you see this?
Hey,
i saw the film in the Kolkata Film Festival last november. the film, well, it’s amazing. but what struck me more, after watching the movie is the fact that there have been no background score used in the film at all. and that, the un-use of music, is so subtle (if i can call it that!) i hadn’t even noticed it till a friend brought it directly to my notice!
A BRILLIANT review!
Love the way all aspects of cinema-story, acting, direction and cinematography has been reviewed. Being both empathetic and objective, the writer has brought the movie closer to all readers …making them want to watch it as soon as possible!!
:-D
Hey, the movies is available on DVD. lumiere just released it. Have seen it and loved it. Worth keeping it as part of your DVD collection. Please dont buy pirated copies.
Brilliant Review
Love the way the author has analysed all aspects of cinema-story, direction, cinematography, and acting.
The objective and empathetic way of analysis makes the movie come alive for the reader.
I am definitely going to go watch it!
wonderful review for a wonderful deserving film, the film stays with you for some days and you pity very hard for the three monkeys in the story….the director has done his job very well……
My first and favourite I-view friend!..Kya faadu post hai yaar,aur likh aur ban ja author!
Keep it up bro!
Thanks all! The comments are quite encouraging!
@Manish, In some scenes it kind of looks like a dogme film. Sound of ordinary things, real locations and all. Sometimes looks noir. Some surrealism. An amalgamation of lot of genres! I went through the same confusion. Ironically, I couldnt find it on torrent. Picked up the Lumeire DVD. BTW, NDTV Lumeire, Moser baer and Shemaroo are doing great work in bringing world cinema home.
The movie mocks the popular meaning of the Three Monkeys. Because Shutting your eyes, tongue and ears doesn’t mean that the evil is no more.
It took an instance of encounter with evil to bring out the greed of Eyup, destroy the loyalty of Hacer and make a murderer out of Ismail. And thus end all that was running perfect. There is a Fourth Monkey around which says – Do No Evil.
Wow……..it was quite like watching the movie itself! Except it was in a language I understand
Quite liked the filming style (obviously basis the description since I haven’t seen it!) of not showing the scene but portraying it nonetheless! interesting concept….kind of heightens the senses (concept of the movie itself) that even without seeing u know exactly what’s happening….
Good review! Look forward to some more…
@ Zarreen
In Literary world it is called ellipsis. I liked the fact that they used it in a screenplay. I am not into filmamking so i wouldn’t know if it is a known practice. Does anyone know more on this with respect to films?