Journal # 2

This movie stuck out from others because of the awards it won at the Chicago international film festival and Cannes film festival in Paris, France. I also observed the many awards the actors, Muzaffer Ozdemir and Melmut Teprak, recieved for their roles in the film. Teprak sadly died in a car crash shortly after finishing the movie. The main characters, Mahmut(Ozdemir) and Yusuf(Teprak)throughout the entire film had this awkward emotion on there faces like they weren't quite sure what to do or the precise time to say there lines, though lots of dialog in a single scene was sparse. I don't know how he did it but director, Nuri Ceylan, somehow made a film with no speech for the first 20 minutes, having the audience make assumptions of what was happening. The only thing that was obvious to the viewer was the obsession to cleanliness Mahmut had, and the free spirited, lazy nature of his cousin, Yusuf. The random, uncomfortably long and silent scenes all throughout the movie were more of a distraction than an anticipation builder. There are ways of making scenes more powerful and moving without dialog but director, writer and producer Nuri Ceylan has much to learn about the art of film making.
Cinematic elements were well presented in the film. The only song or non-diagetic sound in the movie was with the end credits, but this helped add an awkward feeling with the audience that showed the large difference in personality or distance between the two men. There were numerous shots of deep focus, where details in all depths were visible, making the viewer fully aware of what was happening around the character. Interestingly enough, Ceylan only used 4 different camera angles for every scene in Mahmut's apartment. He also used many extreme long shots to show the slow change in weather and surroundings as the movie progresses. Still camera shots were most common in "Distant" but panning shots were used to follow car movements. The most important scenes are those of Mahmut smoking cigarettes because he silently ponders the question why he is living and what is life about? There is a noticeable lack of touching up or editing with the film, this is because Ceylan was trying to make the surroundings and actors appear as real as possible and connect with the audience in a more truthful way. Ceylan, again, doesn't seem to grasp his concepts and some of his shots look like home movies while others look crisp.