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Three Monkeys (2008) (109 min)

Director:  Nuri Bilge Ceylan

"Üç maymun" (original title) / Turkey | France | Italy/ Turkish

 

A family is dislocated when small failings become extravagant lies. The film opens as a wealthy businessman, Servet, running a campaign for the upcoming election, is driving in his car alone and sleepy, struggling to keep his eyes open. Seconds later he hits and kills a pedestrian in the middle of the road. Servet panics when another car with a couple inside approaches. He sneaks away.

Eyüp, a man living in a slum at the Yedikule neighborhood in İstanbul, with his wife and only son, is the driver of Servet. He wakes up in the middle of the night with his cell phone ringing. It's his boss, telling Eyüp to meet him immediately. Shivering in shock, Servet explains the current events to his driver. His excuse is if the fatal accident comes out in press it would terminate his political career, so he proposes Eyüp to take over the penalty and stay in prison for a brief period of time in exchange for a lump sum payment upon his release, whilst still paying his salary to his family so they can get by. Eyüp accepts the deal.

An unspecified time passes, summer arrives, and Eyüp's son İsmail fails to enter college again. His mother, Hacer, who works in the catering division of a factory, starts worrying about her son after unpleasant events, and tries to convince him to get a job. İsmail suggests driving children between home and school but of course they don't have any financial source for this kind of an enterprise. İsmail asks his mother to request an advance payment from Servet without consulting Eyüp. Hacer meets with Servet, in his office after the election (which he lost), and requests the money. After Hacer leaves the office and starts waiting for a bus at the stop Servet persuades Hacer to accept a lift from him back to her home.

More unspecified time passes, and İsmail intends to visit his father. Things take a poor turn when he finds his mother having an affair with Servet. İsmail stands passive. After serving nine months in prison, Eyüp is released. He senses things are "a little peculiar" inside his home. Hacer is in love with Servet and insists on maintaining their affair. Servet disagrees. That night, Hacer and Eyüp are invited to the police station and informed that Servet has been murdered. Police officers interrogate the two and Eyüp finds out that Hacer was cheating on him. He denies knowing anything about it. İsmail confesses to his mother that he murdered Servet. Eyüp calms down when he pays a visit to a mosque. Afterwards, Eyüp goes on to speak with a very poor man who works and sleeps inside a tea house in the neighborhood. Eyüp makes the same proposition to the poor man, Bayram, that Servet made to him: to claim the crime committed by his son.

Amour

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	Amour (2012)
	127 minutes / Austria/France/Germany /  French Written, Directed by       Michael Haneke Starring :Jean-Louis Trintignant,Emmanuelle Riva,Isabelle Huppert Cinematography :Darius Khondji Editing by :Monika Willi
	A brigade of firemen break down the door of an apartment in Paris to find the corpse of Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) lying on a bed, adorned with cut flowers. Several months earlier, Anne and her husband Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant), both retired piano teachers in their eighties, attend a performance by one of Anne's former pupils. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, Anne silently suffers a stroke. She sits in a catatonic state, not responding to Georges. She comes around as Georges is about to get help, but doesn't remember anything that took place. Georges thinks she was playing a prank on him. Anne is unable to pour herself a drink. Anne undergoes surgery on a blocked carotid artery, but the surgery goes wrong, leaving her paralyzed on her right side and confined to a wheelchair. She makes Georges promise not to send her back to the hospital or into a nursing home. Georges becomes Anne's dutiful, though slightly irritated, caretaker. One day, Anne tells Georges that she doesn't want to go on living. The pupil whose performance they attended stops by and Anne gets dressed up and carries on a lively conversation during the visit, giving Georges hope that her condition was temporary. However, she soon suffers a second stroke that leaves her demented and incapable of coherent speech. Georges continues to look after Anne, despite the strain it puts on him. Georges begins employing a nurse three days a week. Their daughter, Eva (Isabelle Huppert), wants her mother to go into care, but Georges says he will not break the promise he made to his wife. He employs a second nurse, but fires her after he discovers she is mistreating his wife. One day, Georges sits next to Anne's bedside and tells her a story of his childhood, which calms her. As he reaches the story's conclusion, he picks up a pillow and smothers her. Georges returns home with bundles of flowers in his hands, which he proceeds to wash and cut. He picks out a dress from Anne's wardrobe and writes a long letter. He tapes the bedroom door shut and catches a pigeon which has flown in from the window. In the letter, Georges explains that he has released the pigeon. Georges imagines that Anne is washing dishes in the kitchen and, speechless, he gazes at her as she cleans up and prepares to leave the house. Anne calls for Georges to bring a coat, and he complies, following her out the door. The film concludes with a continuation of the opening scene, with Eva seated in the living room, after she has wandered around the now-empty home.