Gizli Yüz

Gizli Yuez or The Secret Face is a strange and beautiful film that approaches the unconscious mind through the process of Middle Eastern mysticism. The movie's central character is a young Turkish man who decides to leave his home and move to Istanbul. While in Istanbul he forms a friendship and then falls in love with a mysterious woman who suddenly disappears. He embarks on frantic search for the woman and in the process is lead on a metaphorical journey that leads into his own unconscious mind.

Omer Kavur's film, Gizli Yuz (The Hidden Face), is based upon the scenario of Orhan Pamuk. The film tells, in fact, the concept of time, and the sub-concepts of it. The human, love, the unreachable, within time. Orhan Pamuk is known about his keen observations and obsessions about the very contradiction between the East and West. The Eastern and Western civilisations were always different in the perception of time, individual, god and related matters. nevertheless, both the scenario and the film are too vague about what they want to tell. The pictures are of inferior quality, too touristic, orientalist, to say, and the words -not dialogues, actually, for they don't develop in the sense of dialogues- are harmingly artistical (!) What saves this film being a kitsch is the good acting of Rutkay Aziz and Zuhal Olcay, two prominent theatre players of Turkey.

I just watched this movie at the 2003 Toronto FIlm Festival and I must say I was deeply unsatisfied. It's not that I can't enjoy a good Art Film, but I found that this movie was open to interpretation that it was lacking in actual substance. The initial 30 minutes become so intriguing and are beautifully constructed, but then it seems to run aimlessly for the remainder. I had made conclusions in my head as to what happened. At the end of the screening Ömer Kavur came out and answered questions from the audience, he really didn't have much to say. With every question he seemed to respond with "That had no particular meaning" or "that is your own interpretation, it's always open to interpretation." When finally asked as to what HIS interpretation of the film was, all he said was that it was "the personal pursuit of happiness." which I must say, doesn't take 2 hours to show.

He goes into cafés, bars and the like, in search of the "secret face" -- someone the woman feels will be able to divulge some sort of secret, or possesses some sort of answer she needs. After a considerable amount of time, she finds the man with the "secret face" - a clock maker. By this time, the young man has fallen in love with the woman, who has disappeared with the clock maker. Obsessed, or haunted, by her and by clocks, he travels the country looking for them. I saw this at the Seattle Film Festival in 1991 or 1992, I think -- There were about 15 people at the screening, sad to say. I feel some need to comment here, that though my memory of it is spotty at this time, there are parts that STILL resonate within me. I remember walking out of the theater and wandering down the street, not sure if I wanted a drink, a cup of coffee, to be alone or... or... Just utterly captivated by it -- it so took me into it and dropped me off somewhere else; for the first time in YEARS I had the feeling that I had entered some other world and the buildings and objects on the street seemed foreign / alien to me; that odd, disoriented feeling I had first going to movies as a kid. I went to a park and sat on a bench near some water for about half an hour afterwards. To this day, its recollection is akin, if anything, to a scent one hasn't smelled in quite awhile, the way it evokes something unsayable. The fact that I saw it over a dozen years ago and still find something compelling about it, still think of it as one of the five greatest movies I've ever seen, says a thing or two.

Yes.A real stinker. I saw this movie on the advice of my "sweet" friends who told me that this is a great "psychological" movie. This film makes every effort not to be understandable. I was aware that I was in for a stinker after seeing the first 20 minutes.I waited since I expected to see something valuable, and most important of all, I PAID for this film. The wait was unbearable. After seeing the film, I talked with my friends and learned that in the intellectual environments ( They call themselves under this title ) of Turkey this "movie" had recognised as a masterpiece. Yes, a masterpiece, but in the category of stinkers.I think that a movie must be self-explanatory. This film is just the opposite. Keep away from this thing which calls itself a "movie". Burn your money instead of paying for this "phenomenon". Rate: 1 out of 10