I rushed to see Vizontele, a Turkish dramady, because recently Netflix offered Paper Lives, a neorealist Turkish drama that could compete favorably internationally with its sweet characterization of an Istanbul dumpster diver. Vizontele, a less impressive drama but oddly effective comedy, is as much silly as it is subtle in its satire of the effect television has on a small Eastern Turkey town of the '70's and, of course, the world.
Director, co-writer, and star Yilmaz Erdogan deftly uses almost slapstick humor about the delivery of the first TV to the town to remind us all that 50 years later we have never yet slipped the bonds of the medium. Through a series of vignettes, some more successful at comedy, others more so at drama, Vizontele (so new they can't even give it the right name) gives us laughs at the town's bungling efforts to get the TV working while hinting that even more than cinema, which they have nicely adjusted to over the years, television, and by extension technology, changes things.
This new medium will not go away, no matter how deep they try to bury it. The local news shocks them, some from Pakistan, ye gods! Bringing bad news they might have lived happily without. Like visiting strangers in dramas of the West, this new arrival changes things profoundly. More so TV
Notwithstanding the comic struggles of the town to broadcast, the deeper drama in the last act prophetically warns of the enduring effects of technology, not all good. Yet Vizontele remains positive about humans, and I am beginning to gain affection for Turkey's film output, which so far has fun with the present while it subtly comments on the effects of progress, not all good.
Balancing between the comic and the serious with sure footing is the Turkish legacy, aided by a gifted Yilmaz Erdogan.
Director, co-writer, and star Yilmaz Erdogan deftly uses almost slapstick humor about the delivery of the first TV to the town to remind us all that 50 years later we have never yet slipped the bonds of the medium. Through a series of vignettes, some more successful at comedy, others more so at drama, Vizontele (so new they can't even give it the right name) gives us laughs at the town's bungling efforts to get the TV working while hinting that even more than cinema, which they have nicely adjusted to over the years, television, and by extension technology, changes things.
This new medium will not go away, no matter how deep they try to bury it. The local news shocks them, some from Pakistan, ye gods! Bringing bad news they might have lived happily without. Like visiting strangers in dramas of the West, this new arrival changes things profoundly. More so TV
Notwithstanding the comic struggles of the town to broadcast, the deeper drama in the last act prophetically warns of the enduring effects of technology, not all good. Yet Vizontele remains positive about humans, and I am beginning to gain affection for Turkey's film output, which so far has fun with the present while it subtly comments on the effects of progress, not all good.
Balancing between the comic and the serious with sure footing is the Turkish legacy, aided by a gifted Yilmaz Erdogan.