Friday, June 19, 2009

Three Monkeys (Rhoades)

“Three Monkeys” Bespeaks Of Chaotic Lives in Turkey

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

Last week my wife was discussing Turkey – the middle-eastern country, not the with Thanksgiving bird – with someone at a party, recounting a time when she’d “followed the navy around the Mediterranean.”

I pointed out that she had been meeting with her first husband, a navy jet jockey, rather than entertaining the arms forces at large. A small point of honor.

She remembers Turkey as a sprawling, chaotic place, with troops carrying AK-47s, narrow and confusing streets, and airports crowded with bedraggled travelers.

The Turkey you see in “Three Monkeys” – the new film at the Tropic Cinema – presents an Istanbul not that different from her memory, even after 30-some years.

Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, it tells of people who take a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no evil approach to life.

A businessman hits a pedestrian with his car, but pays an employee to go to jail for him. The ripple effect this has on the employee’s wife and son, and eventually back to the businessman, and then starting the cycle all over again is an intriguing concept.

Cause and effect. Nothing is without its consequences. The Chaos Effect: If you step on a butterfly in America it may cause a tsunami in Japan.
Or Turkey.

srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]

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