Aaahh Belinda

Aaah Belinda is one of the many movies produced in the fruitful years of 1980's, with a low budget, not totally & precisely worked on, but still a remarkable one distinguished from the others in the era.

The scenario ( and the story ) depends on an original idea, what if our lives change in a second to a totally different one in which we find everything we hate to do. That's not only a bad dream, it is truly a different life and it seems you get used to it. Müjde Ar plays one of her finest characters with some vague silliness.

Atif Yilmaz is a master in Turkish cinema, but always struggled with the enormous low budgets and pretty short time the productions are realized. He tried to overcome this situation casting the best actors & actresses and always keeping in mind the scenario is the main element of a movie, that's what keeps the spectators in their seats.

The original negatives of the movie must have been lost, so a very bad copy is transfered to a DVD for future generations, and that's a pity too...

This is not a well-known movie in spite of the fact that it is wonderful. I remember I was surprised when I watched it first time. I think "amazing ingenuity" in the movie belongs to Baris Pirhasan who is screenwriter of the movie. It has a style, plot, and way of expression which I never expected considering period of the movie was shooted in Turkey. I like "metafiction" technique so much and so I like the movie very much.

Turkish cinema of the 1980s was mostly divided between very domestic comedies starring Kemal Sunal and / or Sener Sen and bleak sociopolitical dramas by Yilmaz Güney and / or Zeki Ökten. But there were some very good comedies and great actresses like Müjde Ar, who more than compensates for the film's low technical quality. The real star here is the screenplay which is chock full of one-liners such as the headline barb between two competing leading ladies. The fantasy of an actress who finds herself spirited away into the life of a homemaker she is portraying in a shampoo commercial is an allegory for women's standing in society, but it's handled with a light and hilarious touch. The final resolution is the best ending I've ever seen in a Turkish film. I'm writing this because a remake is about to released on Netflix, and I hope the update maintains the elegance and sarcasm of the original.