Cannes. Iklimler.

In the New York Times, Manohla Dargis calls Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Iklimler (Climates; site) "one of the finest films to play the festival in competition."

Mike D'Angelo at Nerve: "Shot for shot, this is the most visually evocative film I've seen so far; unfortunately, Ceylan has written a fairly banal scenario."

"A by-the-numbers Man from Mars/Woman from Venus relationship story slogs through its predictable paces in this Turkish Competition entrant," sighs the Hollywood Reporter's Duane Byrge. "In traditional romantic movies that begin with a break-up, the audience usually roots for the couple to get back together. Not here. Filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan has ambitiously broken that formula but in so doing, he has also forfeited his hold on our attention."

Updated through 5/28.

Variety's Derek Elley: "Stylistically, there's little new here that hasn't been seen in his two previous color films, Clouds of May (2000) and the 2003 Cannes prize winner, Distant.... [T]he quality of the images is remarkable, with only one brief night shot hinting at pic's HD origins... However, as in Distant, all this technique is in the service of very little at the end of the day."

Time Out's Geoff Andrews finds Iklimler "as subtle, substantial and sublimely beautiful as was his previous Uzak (Distant)." It displays "such wit, intelligence and exquisite artistry – if the Festival comes up with more visually stunning film than this, I'll be very surprised – that the film confirms him as one of the most exciting cinematic talents to emerge in recent years."

Update, 5/23: Mary Corliss, blogging for Time: "[Distant] was enthralling or infuriating, depend on your threshold of love or pain for emotional minimalism. Climates was much more involving, perhaps because it's simply a better, more human film."

Update, 5/24: Jonathan Romney for Screen Daily: "Ceylan's growing reputation as a contemporary classic is confirmed by the immensely satisfying Climates, which is certainly as personal as anything we’re likely to see in Cannes, or anywhere else, this year."

Update, 5/27: "It's unquestionably a powerful and absorbing work for those with patience, and it's stunningly photographed," writes Salon's Andrew O'Hehir.

Update, 5/28: Jonathan Romney in the Independent: "It's a small film, which often counts as a criticism in Cannes, but it's intensely personal, and confirms Ceylan as one of today's real auteurs - one of those film-makers who, as they say here, has a signature."

Posted by dwhudson at May 22, 2006 5:29 AM