The American Dream and the American Nightmare
The American Dream and the American Nightmare
'A true story about finding the courage to be yourself'
Director: Kimberly Peirce Writing credits: Peirce and Andy Bienen Cast: Brandon Teena: Hilary Swank Lana: Chloe Sevigny Candace: Alicia Goranson Kate: Alison Folland John: Peter Sarsgaard Tom: Brendan Sexton 3rd Runtime: 118 minutes MPAA: Rated R for violence including an intense brutal rape scene, sexuality, language and drug use
'She brought a small town to its feet and a huge corporation to its knees'
Director: Steven Soderbergh Writing credits: Susannah Grant Cast: Erin Brockovich: Julia Roberts Ed Masry: Albert Finney George: Aaron Eckhart Donna Jensen: Marg Helgenberger Pamela Duncan: Cherry Jones Kurt Potter: Peter Coyote Runtime: 126 minutes MPAA: Rated R language
Here we have two movies playing in Turkish movie theaters, which, initially, seem to possess no similarities to each other. One is a big production, directed by a prominent director with a box-office star. The other is a small, independent film, from an unknown director, with a cast most moviegoers will see for the first time. We are talking about Steven Soderbergh's "Erin Brockovich" with Julia Roberts as the film's namesake, and Kimberly Peirce's controversial "Boys Don't Cry" with Hilary Swank at its lead, having won all the awards she could in a year, including the Oscar.
The movies had a similar stance and a similar sense of influence over me, even though the two are heading in totally different directions and there is only a mere resemblance in terms of what kind of a cinema experience each has to offer. Two striking real life stories, about two potent women in suburban America, set in the nineties. One is an American dream, and the other, definitely an American nightmare.
Girls just wanna have fun I watched "Boys Don't Cry" before "Erin Brockovich," and could not shake the feeling of turmoil, until I watched the latter, a refreshing story of another middle-class suburban woman. To begin with both are true stories and I, more or less, was familiar with both which removed the element of surprise.
"Boys Don't Cry" is the story of Teena Brandon (Hilary Swank), a girl who feels that she is a boy. She gets a farmer's haircut, sticks a sock in her crotch, and moves from one Nebraska town to another. He (it is difficult to refer to Brandon Teena as 'she') begins hanging out with the local guys, drinking, cursing, bumper surfing and pissing with them in public (we are not informed of the technical details).
He soon charms young women, especially the hometown beauty Lana (Chloe Sevigny), who feel unfamiliar in their small town with the appearance of a childish, insecure, vulnerable and attractive man. Brandon begins to lead the life of freedom he so craved for. But everything collapses around him when it's found out that he is actually a woman. When the people closest to him discover Brandon's secret his life is eventually ripped apart by betrayal, humiliation and worse.
The movie has its weak moments and frailties, but the commitment and conviction of director Kimberly Peirce and the cast to the original story is so strong that it actually stands as a strong movie. There were certain harsh criticisms regarding the movie, and some of them were certainly true. But "Boys Don't Cry" is one of the most intense stories of movie history, and it is told with such rare sincerity that it would be unfair to attract attention to its weaker points. One has to be too cool to write something like Time magazine's Richard Corliss: "(The film) is too cool: all attitude, no sizzle -- horror under glass. This time, art can't measure up to real life, love and death."
The cinematography, reminiscent of the dreary atmospheres of David Lynch, constantly reminds the audience that something bad is about to happen. And it inflicts a terrible sense of paranoia as you begin to feel empathy with Brandon and Lana. As the movie progresses, you like them more and begin caring about them, only to feel more cramps in your stomach.
With curved cheekbones and a generous smile, Brandon Teena is a beautiful boy and we can guess that she was a beautiful girl, even if a bit masculine in her previous life. It is difficult to restrict her to conventional gender identities, like butch lesbian or transvestite. Brandon Teena, simply, is a boy. As Brandon, Hilary Swank gives a brilliant performance as she incorporates a new element into her character with each scene. An out of the ordinary character like Brandon Teena becomes a real and convincing character with Swank.
Chloe Sevigny gives a resonance to the meaning of supporting actor/actress. With her lizard eyes and sly smile, Sevigny's character Lana, helps bring depth to Brandon. As she slowly becomes more and more comfortable with Brandon, so do we. When the two of them find themselves in her darkened backyard, playing around with a Polaroid camera, we get the first clue that she has strong feelings for him. And when their relationship turns into something of a modern "Romeo and Juliet," it feels all the more straining to know that there's trouble ahead.
"Boys Don't Cry" is a twisted "Thelma and Louise," a sad story of suburban American women who went up a hill, but came down a mountain.
And now to the other film in question, an antithesis to the short and sad life of Brandon Teena, "Erin Brockovich." The real life former Miss Wichita is divorced twice, is a single mother with three children, and possesses no qualities other than being smart to find a proper job. While working in a lawyer's office as a filing clerk, Erin finds a discrepancy that arouses her curiosity and comes off with an important discovery. At its base in the desert town of Hinkley, Calif., PG&E has poisoned the groundwater by dumping lethal doses of hexavalent chromium. As a result, residents of the town are riddled with cancer, and as Erin gets to know them through her own footwork, she pushes her boss Ed Masry to bring a lawsuit on their behalf that, if it doesn't succeed, could ruin his small firm.
As can be deduced from the fact that there is a feature film about Erin Brockovich, played by the most expensive female actress in the world, Brockovich wins the largest direct action lawsuit in U.S. history with a record $333 million. And probably she lives happily ever after.
With her high heels and push-up bras that peek out of her skimpy tops, Erin feels that she looks sexy in her cheap flashy clothes. The trick with watching Erin Brockovich's character is not making the same mistake everyone else is doing and underestimate Erin because of the way she looks. As Erin, Julia Roberts gives her finest performance to date. Her performance here is very similar to another actor with a similar screen presence, Tom Cruise, in "Jerry Maguire."
Probably for the first time, one does not feel that Julia Roberts is inflicting her strong megastar persona onto her role. In her previous movies it was always the character interpreted by Julia Roberts with her usual screen persona and her big and flashy smile. This time, we get the feeling that Roberts is giving a new meaning to Brockovich and that the real Erin Brockovich must be like how she is portrayed in the film. A familiar feeling from "Jerry Maguire." And don't forget that Tom Cruise received a Best Actor nomination for the Oscars with his role as Jerry Maguire. Wait for next year's Oscars.
Both films stand on different pedestals and other than this article, it would be difficult to see any comparisons between "Boys Don't Cry" and "Erin Brockovich" elsewhere. But if you have seen and liked "Thelma and Louise," you will get similar feelings from both films in terms of women's experience, on totally opposite scales.
There are many windows in this movie. When you look through one, you meet a girl, Brandon who tries to survive in her small world with her "false" sex. In fact this girl is in search of her identity. Her body harmonizes with her soul when she behaves as if she is a boy. When Brandon leaves her town where she can not hold on to life with her identity as a "boy," she finds her love Lana, who, in a way, encourages her with "praising the differences in Brandon's being" which in fact is one of the main themes of the movie which deals with the true life story of Teena Brandon who was brutally murdered in a small town in the United States in 1993, just because she wanted to live as a "man."
Lana is affected by Brandon's kind manners and different character which separate him from the other typical men whom she knows. The audience expect anxiously for how Brandon and Lana's relationship will turn out, because the -- beloved -- girl will soon understand the real sex of this kind and handsome gentleman, Brandon. But the events follow a different path. Lana learns the truth but does not leave Brandon. Because she loves "him," because she respects "him," because she supports "him."
And at this stage we are now introduced to two "similar" characters who in a way try to escape from their "real" life, Brandon from her real identity, Lana from her real environment and family. Lana, one may say, is the cause of Brandon's birth and death. Brandon's being, which is actually rejected by everyone in the film, finds meaning with Lana. But this happiness does not last long because two narrow minded men who claim to protect Lana, in fact kill both Brandon and Lana, if metaphorically as one.
The climax point of the movie is the rape scene of Brandon. The two men do not only cause physical damage but also psychological damage to him. But I believe that his purity remains in him and gives him strength to stick to life with Lana. The end of the movie has a shocking effect on the audience and places a problematic question on people's minds: Is this real justice? But I am sure that people who watch this movie will decide upon their own truth and justice and it will lead them to rediscover the real meaning of "humanity."
It is that time of the year for music lovers in Ankara to enjoy the Sevda Cenap And Foundation's music festival. The festival will feature a great variety of music from jazz to classical. The 17th Ankara International Music Festival started last Thursday with a concert by the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra (BASSO) and will continue until May 16.
This year's program includes orchestras and bands from around Turkey as well as other countries including Austria, France, Lithuania and Israel and famous names such as Turkish violin virtuoso Suna Kan and jazz singer Dianne Reeves.
BASSO gave two concerts on April 27 and 28, with Russian Alexander Dimitriev conducting and famous Turkish pianist Fazil Say as soloist. In the first concert Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 was performed, while the following night, Richard Strauss' "Burleske" was performed. Dimitriev has been the musical director and conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra for 23 years.
Fazil Say is a world-renowned musician whose breakthrough came in 1991 when he won the "Best Contemporary Music Interpreter" award at the European Community Piano Competition. The same year, his concerto for violin, piano and orchestra, commissioned by the Berlin Symphony, was premiered by the same orchestra. Winning the European portion of the piano competition organized by Young Concert Artists Inc. took Say on to win joint first prize in the intercontinental finals in New York, which has previously been won by such musical giants as Yehudi Menuhin, Vladimir Ashkenazi and Pinchas Zuckerman.
Following the opening concerts, the next four days will feature chamber concerts. On April 29 the Italian chamber music group "I Solisti Veneti," founded in 1959, will perform with Claudio Scimone as conductor. The group will perform pieces from Baroque composers, such as Vivaldi, Tartini, Paganini and Rossini.
Suna Kan will perform on April 30, along with Cana Gurmen on the piano, offering pieces from Mozart, Schumann, Dvorak and Barton aw well as Beethoven's "Spring Sonata." A Turkish-British cooperative effort will unite the British chamber music group Manchester Camerata conducted by Cem Mansur with famous Turkish guitarist Ahmet Kanneci, who recently released a CD, "Anatolian Pieces." The program will include a guitar concerto by Ertug Korkmaz, Stravinsky's "Pulcinella," Britten's prelude and fugue and Mozart's Symphony No. 41, "Jupiter."
On May 2 the Tashkent Quartet will perform pieces by Uzbek and Russian composers. The quartet will open their concert with a piece by Bach on occasion of the 250th anniversary of the death of the famous composer.
Another interesting concert will be given by Vedat Kosal and the famous German string quartet, the Henschel Quartet, on May 3. Kosal is known for the concerts and recitals he has given outside of Turkey for the 700th anniversary of the Ottoman Empire. As a student of famous Turkish musician Cemal Resit Rey, Kosal brought to light many classical music pieces composed by members of the Ottoman dynasty. For the 17th International Ankara Music Festival, Kosal adapted Ottoman pieces composed by sultans Abdulaziz and Murad V, sultans' wives Ayse, Hatice and Fehime and sons Burhaneddin and Necmettin.
An interesting blend of classical music and ethnic music will be performed by Israeli musician Chen Zimbalista, a graduate of the Tel Aviv Music Academy. The piano and percussion band formed by Zimbalista will interpret famous classical musicians such as Bach, Shostakovich and Bizet as well as their own compositions on May 4.
The final highlight of this week's festival program will be a combined performance by the Vienna Strauss Festival Orchestra and the Vienna People's Opera and Ballet Group, consisting of six dancers. The orchestra and group will perform for two days, on May 5 and 6.
The festival now has a nostalgia concert, featuring French singer Adamo, who was very popular in Turkey more than three decades ago. Most of Adamo's songs were sung by Turkish singers, with Turkish lyrics. His "Tombe la neige" (Her Yerde Kar Var) was almost an anthem for the '60s generation in Turkey. The French singer's performance on May 7 is the only one to be held at Ataturk Sports Hall.
For the first time in the 17-year history of Sevda Cenap And Foundation's international music festival, a Turkish painter's painting is being used for its poster, depicting a painting titled "Music" by the Ankara-born painter Ece Turaman, who lives in England at the moment.
The festival again boasts various sponsors and contributors. Central Bank, Arcelik, Philip Morris/Sabanci, Turkcell, Is Bank, Sheraton Ankara Hotels & Towers, Cumhuriyet, Radikal, Hurriyet, Sabah and Binyil daily newspapers, Kanal-D, TRT and NTV television stations, the Prime Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the culture and education ministries, the embassies of Belgium, Finland, France, Israel and Lithuania, Bilkent University, the State Opera and Ballet, The British Council, the Austrian Culture Office and the Italian and French culture centers are some of the sponsors and contributors to the 17th Ankara International Music Festival. For more information, call 0 (312) 427 08 55, or visit the Web site, www.ada.net.tr/scav
French artist Denis Pondruel's exhibition entitled "Room/Railroad Hall" can be seen until July 1 at Dulcinea every day except Sunday between 1:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. and Thursday between 6:00 p.m. and 12:00 p.m. Dulcinea is located on Meselik Sok. No. 20, Beyoglu.
Ahmet Ozel Painting Exhibit Ahmet Ozel's paintings can be seen between May 2 and 31 at the Vakko Istanbul Art Gallery. The exhibit will open on May 2 at 5:00 p.m.
Adnan Varinca's painting exhibition is open until May 17 at the Tem Art Gallery.
Varinca was born in Istanbul in 1918 and graduated from the Istanbul State Fine Arts Faculty in 1948. He studied painting in Paris between 1957 and 1973. Varinca was awarded the Sedat Simavi Association's Visual Arts prize in Istanbul together with Turan Erol in 1980.
Israeli percussionist Chen Zimbalista will come to Turkey to give a concert on May 4 at the 17th International Music Festival arranged by the Sevda Cenap And Music Association.
Zimbalista has given concerts in Germany, Portugal, Holland, the United States, China and Italy. This is his first visit to Turkey.
Irfan Ertel's painting exhibition is being held until May 12 at Beksav Art Gallery located in the Osmanaga district at Kirtasiyeci Sok. No: 21, Kadikoy.
Between May 3 and 24, Seref Bigali's paintings can be seen at Garanti Art Gallery located on Cumhuriyet Sok. No: 125, Elmadag.
Nese Erdok's exhibition entitled "Portraits" will be shown at the Evin Art Gallery until May 18. The gallery is located on Hamam Sok. No. 12/1 Bebek, Istanbul.
The Akademi Istanbul/American Consulate General co-production of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" will be performed at the Afife Jale Theater in Ortakoy on Wednesday, May 10 at 8:30 p.m.
The production, directed by Neil S. Fleckman, opened in Istanbul on April 8 and features actors from the Akademi's theater department. Following the engagement at Afife Jale, "Streetcar" will go on tour to Kusadasi.
Tickets are TL 2,000,000 and TL 1,000,000 for students. Advance purchases can be made at the Akademi Istanbul Cinema.
For reservations call Kris Ochedowski, 212 251 74 84.
Habib Gerez's retrospective exhibition will open on April 30 at 11:00 a.m. at the Habib Gerez Private Art House located on Galip Dede Sok. No: 126, Galata.
Tangul Akakinci's painting exhibition can be seen between May 2-24 at the Is Bank Parmakkapi Art Gallery.
Tangul Akakinci was born in Balikesir in 1946. She graduated from the Istanbul Fine Arts Academy painting department, Bedri Rahmi Eyuboglu Workshop in 1970. She has opened six solo exhibitions in Istanbul, Ankara and Bayreuth, Germany, since 1971. Akakinci was awarded the 50th Ataturk and Republic Prize in 1973 and in 1975, the Darussafaka Painting Prize and France's International Women Artists' Group Prize.
Gallery Nev's 15th anniversary exhibitions are continuing with works from artists Hakki Anli, Koray Aris, Inci Eviner, Jale Erzen, Paul McMillen, Azade Koker, Fatma Tulin Ozturk, Mithat Sen and Ali Cevik Arevyan between May 5 and June 6 at Gallery Nev. The opening is on Friday, May 5.
Release Yourself After the hilarious worldwide popularity of the Turkish Internet hero, Mahir, with his (in)famous cyber-quotation "I kiss you," and the Turkish hacker residing in Germany, who initially became a threat to the U.S. government, then became rich through his ingenuity, Turkey has made an extravagant entrance into the world of cyber reality. For the last couple of years, there has been an immense proliferation in Turkish web sites, from politics, to cinema and popular culture, to cartoons and news sites. We have our fair share of the uniquely "nonsense" world of the Internet as well, definitely not epitomized by Mahir's home page, but truly smart and creative web pages. The Turkish Daily News will begin featuring Internet sites unique to Turkey and Turkish culture in its "Cyber News" pages every week.
This week's web site feature will be a site, quite popular for some time now among Turkish-speaking Internet surfers. A small warning for non-Turkish speaking readers. Even If you are not competent in Turkish, do not pass this article by, as the concept of the web site is quite original, and you still might want to take a peak. You might even be inspired to create your own web pages, in your own language, with a similar concept.
The literal translation of this week's web site, ITALIK< www.itiraf.com >ITALIK is "www.confession.com." It is a surfer-friendly site, letting you surf through the it without much effort. When the home page comes on the screen, you see two alternative choices: "I am going to confess," or "I am going to read the confessions." Yes, the idea behind this web site is releasing yourself, peeking into other people's secrets, a blend of voyeuristic and exhibitionist pleasure (on a verbal scale only).
If you decide on reading the confessions made by previous surfers, you will see that they are listed, with a nickname, information on the sex, age and city of residence of the confessors, above the confession. This small line of basic information actually helps the cyber-voyeur to create a basic profile of the confessors, and establish an informal and personal sampling on the secrets of the surfers of Turkey.
Upon request, the site e-mails the top-ten confessions of the week. As a loyal confessor and follower of confessions, I get my weekly dose of both dirty and naive secrets. To give you some idea, here are some examples from this week's top ten confessions.
The dirty and the naive "Nickname: Back to my ex-lover, sex: female, age: 29, city: Izmir. I have married for eight years now. It was a marriage of love. Actually I was dying to marry him. At the time, he was an intellectual and a social man. He was a leftist. But he has changed enormously. He does not read any more. When he takes the newspaper, the first part he looks at is the gossip stuff. He doesn't have any friends and is not a social person any more. The only thing he always wants is to make love. I don't even enjoy sex any more. I think I still love him though. He is a good father, but a lousy husband and a lousy friend. Once in a while, I long to fall in love again, to live the excitement of falling in love. I never cheated on him. But maybe... No, I am afraid. Afraid of losing my self-respect..."
And read these: "Nickname: They are small, so what?, sex: female, age: 16, city: Izmir. Hey, boys! Since my tits are small, I am using padded bras and you don't understand a thing. The good thing is many girls do that..." And, "Nickname: Hodja, sex: male, age: 28, city: Istanbul. I bought a large bundle of shares in Akbank for TL. 18,000, and now the price has dropped to TL. 11,000. I have lost most of our money and my wife doesn't know anything about it."
The confessions mainly fall into two categories. The first group is grand confessions, mostly with a direct or indirect sexual content, like the first example. The creator of the web site, Ersan Ozer, maintains in his page, containing his welcome message, that these confessions would constitute useful material for many social scientists, especially sociologists. He is right. Much can be deduced from these messages about the current situation of familial and sexual relations in Turkey. They are not scientific findings or observations of any intellectual, but they sure are valuable raw data.
Other type of confessions are naive ones, that people don't generally tend to reveal to anyone else, even though they wouldn't constitute a serious problem if they did so. Such is the one I posted couple of weeks ago: "Yesim, I accidentally burnt a hole in your armchair with my cigarette, and while you were out of the living room, talking on the phone, I flipped the cushion." These ones mean nothing in terms of their sociological significance, but they are definitely fun to read, and remind the surfers that they are not alone with their petty secrets. Read the one who confesses that she spits into her co-worker's coffee.
Close followers of recent publications on popular culture and folklore in Turkey will recognize the web site's creator, Ersan Ozer, from his book, "Sehir Efsaneleri" (Urban Legends). In his informal research, Ozer mentioned various urban legends, which share a similar universal background in different nations. Some of the popular urban legends related were that there is treasure buried under the waters of the Golden Horn in Istanbul or that the famous Turkish celebrity Ajda Pekkan was once a porno movie star. With "itiraf.com," Ozer, definitely, is looking at, and giving us the chance to look at urban culture once more from, a different point of view.
Other than the fundamental pages of reading the confessions and making confessions, the site also features more specific pages. "Platonikim" (I am platonically in love) displays messages of unrequited love. "Fikir seyedin" (Tell your idea) picks a confession for that week, and asks the "itiraf.com"-surfers to write down their opinions, regarding the confession. These confessions generally are about problematic relations, and people trapped in disconcerting situations. And the surfers send their solutions.
You must have thought of what you have to confess, or what you would confess if you visited http://www.itiraf.com/, while reading this article. It is refreshing to remember that nothing can replace that old feeling of guilt.
http://www.arabul.com/ A search engine, for Turkish sites or sites on Turkish culture. You can easily submit your own web site. After a brief checking of your site, it is included on their virtual database.
http://www.netbul.com/ Although the name of the site refers to a search engine, it is more designed like an e-zine. Even though, a search engine is incorporated into this site, it is relatively slow, and functions more like an Internet magazine.
http://www.adanzye.com/ This site contributes to the content of http://www.superonline.com/, one of the leading server groups, as well. This portal site has numerous detailed categories. One of the best.
http://www.sanalkutuphane.net/ With the literal translation as "virtual library," this site features information from 5,000 different sites with Turkish content. The site features a surfer-friendly and unique design.
http://www.turkvista.com/ With a simple design, this site offers the chance to search in different ways. You can search through the 6,000 recorded sites, or conduct more elaborate searches in other Turkish portal sites, containing around 3 million documents with Turkish content. There are short cuts to major Turkish newspapers and magazines, and short cuts to the latest news on stock exchange, weather and exchange rates.
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