La passione turca

This was the fourth film I've watched from Spanish director Aranda; as with THE NAKED EYE (1998), it's one of his more recent works - as opposed to vintage stuff like FATA MORGANA (1965) and THE BLOOD-SPATTERED BRIDE (1972; still his best film).

In essence, it's pretty similar to THE NAKED EYE - focusing as it does on an independent-minded woman's search for sexual fulfillment, which borders on obsession - though the details, obviously, are different; furthermore, this one has an added attraction in its exotic locale. The pace is appropriately languid, but the narrative is filled with enough ironic - if predictable - touches to keep one's interest throughout and, like Laura Morante in the later film, Ana Belen here delivers a committed central performance.

I saw this film about five years ago in Madrid. Remember wishing I'd gone for tapas and copas instead! A bit like a Spanish Shirley Valentine, devoid of humour and a bit of anal sex thrown in to spice it up.

Should have got Almodovar to direct it, at least he might have got Alfredo Landa to play the part of the Turk to liven it up a bit!

Vicente Aranda show us another example of his bizarre "obssexions", this time based in a novel of Antonio Gala. The story of a wild exotic macho who drives a tourist into a self destructive circle of violence, prostitution and sodomy. Ana Belen shows her mature beauty and is gorgeous in this film but is not the best actress for the character, a woman who finds a gigantic phallus attached to a rough man in a trip to Turkey. Georges Corraface is bad as usually, I do not understand why this man can earn money acting, he is the worst turkish actor I have ever seen. The film has some disgusting scenes like the bullet-in-the-balls one or the bus sex, a bad example of dirty and unconfortable sex, but what is really annoying is the fact that the romeo is the typical macho rejected by all modern women. Some supporting actors are laxative like Francis Lorenzo. Despite Ana Belen´s anatomy the film is bad, very, very, bad. I warn you.

Good movie. Not superb, but decent.

The movie uses a lot cliché. Orientalism hard core, the mental image of Turkey heavily used. No body want to see an another European country, like a modern factory made car, almost identical to each other. People want to see these differences, taste it, fell it and live it. So the director took us the travel to unknown, different and a bit forbidden places. In our inner world of feelings and literally.

She consume forbidden apple (desires) and became of slave of her desires and lost, than completely destroy herself and her ego. And Turkish man start exploit that love she fall in. She is going some kind of hell, with eating that exotic apple. In my life, I saw similar stories. My gal friends fall in toxic love and be miserable later on. So it happens.

The movie show us the phases of love, eventually it reach to sexploitation levels.

If you are interested Turkish culture, and visit Turkey, you will experience belly dance, food, carpets history etc etc. And the movie provide these background images. More less, you will experience same things.

Reality slightly different. Turkey is not that orientalist. It is a bridge country, it connects east and west, so you find very very western characters but also eastern. It is a mixed culture. Turkish girls will not even talk with that Yaman character. He is kind of repulsive (even for 80s-90s standards-maybe for 70s standards he is ok, I dunno). The streets, housing, environment possibly could be exist in limited old city. Like Venice, canals there for tourists and there is modern city beside. Anyway, who cares reality? People see only what they want to see.

Good man is better than gold (and harder to find). Turkish or Japanese or Mexican etc. You find a good loving man, keep it. My partner still keeping me for 15 years. I must be a good man but I am not. I am an A$$whole like Denis Leary says. The poor woman does not know, she is delusional like Desi. Shhh do not wake her up.. So the movie is a fantasy, cliché a bit soap opera but nice to watch (especially at emotional perspective).

There is some merit in setting up a troubled character, whose drab life and misfortunate marriage are made self evident to her when she meets the closest thing to a stereotypical stallion on a trip to Istanbul, but, apart from rare and not too well used embryonic ideas, this movie fails to deliver in a most disappointing way.

It could have been a lot better, had the dialogues been made more credible, had the protagonist's "madness" been depicted with more undertones and a lot more finesse. I am sorry I spent a good part of an evening on it. Characters do not go any further than superficial and - I am afraid - stereotypical. Situations always seem a little bit beyond my willingness to suspend my disbelief, turning this movie into what I consider a serious flop.

Hope others saw more in it than I did, because I really saw very little merit in the efforts profused to make a potentially interesting Spanish/Turkish romance into film.