Vizontele

I entered this movie, expecting an over-rated, far-from funny, horribly acted, unrealistic load of hyped-up trash. Imagine my suprise, when it turned out to be a magnifecent piece of art, worth praising for hours without end. This is cinema art in it's best moments. Alright, I'm exaggerating, but Yilmaz Erdogan has done a terrific job with the story, the characters, and most of all the editing and cinematography. Erdogan has created magic with the camera, and has created a believable, realistic movie. Like a Coen Brothers movie, Vizontele is done so neatly, that one mutters curses during the final 15 minutes, cursing at the irony of the entire plot and ending. I've been living in Ankara for the past 4 years, and my knowledge of Turkish is now almost as good as my English. I sent out mail to all my friends back in the States, recommending this movie. Catch it- and catch it subtitled. For some odd reason, the greatest movie-producing country of all time, conjures up some of the worst dubbings in history. Watch it, and keep in mind that this not the usual turkish stuff. Watch it as soon as possible, and I mean it.

Yilmaz Erdogan, I think, improves his career with this film. His colleagues, Cem Yilmaz, Demet Akbag act as they are Oscar awarded actors. I am very proud of this great Turkish movie. I think this means that Turkish cinema is in great progress.

Turkish cinema is successful only in two genres, drama and comedy, unfortunately. However, in this two genres, there are some masterpiece level movies, I must say. Vizontele is one of them in my opinion, as a great harmony of these two genres. It is the beginning of a new era in Turkish cinema which is dominated by the actors and actresses of this movie in the following decade. The cast of the movie is so to say an 'All-Star' squad of acting containing plenty of master degree acting artists, which is very hard to be encounter again in the future. There are lots of notable performances without a distinction of lead role or back role, some of which are performed by Erkan Can, Köksal Engür, Cem Yılmaz, Cezmi Baskın, Şafak Sezer, Zerrin Sümer, Tolga Çevik, Salih Kalyon, Selahattin Taşdöğen, Sinan Bengier, Erdal Tosun, İclal Aydın, Tuncer Salman, Bican Günalan, Şebnem Sönmez, Serhat Özcan and of course the lead artists Demet Akbağ, Altan Erkekli and Yılmaz Erdoğan. This movie has gifted so many quotes that are used even today in Turkish people's daily conversations. In this manner, it is possible to claim that Vizontele has already became a cult Turkish movie.

This movie broke (by far) all time box office records in Turkey and it was highly regarded by critics. It appears all critiques at IMDb so far are also quite positive. But, I have several reservations about this movie. One of the first is also expressed by another reviewer. The script is more like a theater play than a movie; it is really a series of sketches, similar to those you would find in some TV series (MASH in the US comes to mind). Second, and maybe this was an unrealistic expectation on my part, is the absence of a commentary. Somehow I expected a deeper social expose or a commentary about TV entering into social life in rural areas, especially in Eastern or Southeastern Turkey. It turned out the Gevas, Van locale played no specific role. The movie could have taken place in any town in Turkey. TV changes lives in profound ways everywhere, especially in places such as Gevas which I felt was missing in a big way. Third is what I would consider a number of historical errors or omissions. The year is obviously 1974, specifically July 1974. I don't think this was a time when the Turkish (TRT) TV network extended into small towns via transponders yet, especially in Eastern Turkey. At the time even daytime Medium Wave radio reception could not have been as flawless in that area as depicted in the movie. The story about a two-member non-technician TRT crew delivering a transponder without installing it and the equipment being essentially ready to be plug-and-play is not realistic. This is an entertaining movie and maybe that is good enough for many people but based on what I have read I was somehow expecting another Camdan Kalp.

Yilmaz Erdogan's first film which is about the introduction of TV to a village in Southeast Anatolia. People's first encounter with TV technology is told in a humorous way. Yeah, it is fun. The cast is basically of theatre origin - Yilmaz Erdogan's famous BKM players who are acting in the hilarious TV show "Bir Demet Tiyatro" for years. And of course the incredible Cem Yilmaz. Visual editing is nice.The dialogues are entertaining. I recommend it, you'll not be disappointed.