Displaying items by tag: Ferzan Opotek

GODDESS OF FORTUNE/ DEA DI FORTUNA

Italy, 2019, 119 minutes, Colour.

Stefano Accorsi, Eduardo Leo, Jasmine Trinca, Sara Ciocca, Eduardo Brandi, Barbara Alberti, Dora Romano.

Directed by Ferzan Ozpetek.

Ferzan Ozpetek, originally from Turkey, living in Italy, has been making striking human drama since the end of the 1990s. Here he is with his themes, 20 years later.

Ozpetek is a gay man, a gay director, sexual orientation being significant in most of his films. Here is a variation, and established relationship, over many years, over many years, ups and downs, ambitions frustrated, infidelities. The couple is played by veteran actors, Stefano Accorsi and Eduardo Leo.

The title is taken from a statue of the goddess of Fortune in a monument in the town of Palestrina where the woman at the centre of the film works and which has an influence on her children.

At the core of the film is the relationship, from the past, with a woman who has rebelled against her harshly strict mother, left home, has entered into relationships, has a daughter, forward and outspoken, and the younger son, rather more prim, father uncertain. She is played by veteran actress, Jasmine Trinka.

On the one hand, the issue is of the woman and her being ill, diagnosis and prognosis, hospitalisation. On the other hand, there is the issue of who will care for her children while she is in hospital, her wanting to entrust them to the men. This raises the issue of gay couple, parenting, responsibilities, capacities, society’s attitudes. However, they are surrounded by an eccentric group of friends who are very supportive.

With the serious illness, a decision is made that the children should go back to stay with her grandmother, the men travelling to take her, encountering the harshness of the old woman, but also meeting her companion/servant. They leave the children.

The story becomes more serious when the woman dies, the men coming for the funeral, discovering that the old woman is treating her granddaughter as harshly as she did her daughter, a dilemma for them because they are in personal conflict, the discovery of an affair, one of the men frustrated in his ambitions in academia, forced to do translations, the other a labourer, discovering that his partner had been cheating and wanting to leave.

The drama comes to a head, the men fortunately being helped by the sympathetic companion, taking the children – and facing the prospect of a middle-aged gay couple taking on the role of parenting.

1. Family drama, mother and children, gay couple and fathering?
2. The settings, the Italian city, homes, building worksites, the streets, markets, hospitals, the boat journey, the country mansion and interiors? The musical score?
3. The opening, the atmosphere, the party, straight, gay, transgender? Setting the tone?
4. The story of Arturo and Alessandro, their age, 15 years together, memories of their first meeting, friendship with Anna Maria, homosexuality, partners, settling, home and companionship? Arturo and his story, his later recounting what he gave up, University professorship, his writing, work on translations, keeping house? The contrast with Alessandro, the plumber, practical, out on the job? The ordinariness of the relationship, the loss of passion, the revelation Arturo and his affair with the artist, his physical collapse, calling Alessandro, the truth, taking him home, a two row and his plan to leave?
5. Into this setting, Anna Maria, the story of her past, her harsh mother, escaping, men and partners, her two children, her health, coming to her friends for help, in hospital, the doctors, tests, the brain, the need for surgery? The visits of the two men to the hospital?
6. The children, entrusted to the two men, their range of friends, characters, the couple, the old lady…? And trusting the children to their care for an hour? Alessandro taking the boy to the house for the plumbing job, saying that he was apprentice? Martina, interactions between the two, friends, fights, Alessandro and his formal manner, polite, Martina more forthright? With the men, the meals, telling stories, sleeping arrangements? The men responding to the demands of care? The children and their concern about their mother?
7. The background of the difficulties, the two men and their clashes, fighting, arguments? Future arrangements? Alessandro and his disappointment about the affair?
8. Anna Maria, writing the document about the men to look after the children? Her leaving hospital, dressing up, urging them to take the children to her mother?
9. The voyage, the mother, wealthy, harsh, taking the children, her reliance on Leah?
10. Anna Maria, her death, the grief, the voyage back to the country mansion, the grandmother and her looking after the children, her reaction to the men, harsh denunciations of them, condemnation of her daughter? To keep the children, demanding that the men leave?
11. The importance of Leah, her devotion to the grandmother, the years? Yet the criticism? Helping the men, getting the children to escape, going back to Rome?
12. The effect on the men, the death of Anna Maria, the memories, possibilities for forgiveness, love continuing, the bonding, and the children keeping them together?

HAMAM

Italy, 1997, 95 minutes, Colour.

Alessandro  Gassmann, Francesca D'Aloja,Carlo Cecchi, Halil Ergun, Serif Sezer, Mehmet Gunsur, Basak Kokluka, Alberto Molinari, Zozo Toledo.

Directed by Ferzan Ozpetek.

Hamam is the Turkish word for steam baths, a strong Turkish tradition.

This is a first feature film by Turkish director, Ferzan Ozpetek, who obviously has a great affection for Istanbul as it becomes a character in this film, the familiar vistas, the waterways, the neighbourhoods, the streets, the baths… However, he left Turkey and settled in Italy and remained there, making films for the next decades.

Over the decades, the director has had a strong interest in dramatising gay themes, sometimes the characters, sometimes the issues, very strongly and more openly from the late 2010s, Goddess of Fortune and the issue of gay fathers adopting and bringing up children, Nuovo Olympo, more visually explicit, the study of a relationship that begins intensely separation in space and time.

Alessandro Gassman plays Francesco, an architect designer, married, the relationship as seen somewhat brittle, and the discovery that the wife was having an affair with a partner. Scenes in Rome.

However, an old lady dies in Istanbul, Francesco’s aunt, leaving him the Hamam that she began and which has now lost its popularity and is in a state of disrepair. Francesco has to come to terms with this, his relationship with his aunt, finding letters she had written to his mother which had been returned unread, explaining the attraction and the delight of living in Istanbul. The local family, strong personalities, welcome him.

A chance experience at the baths changes his attitude, clashes with his agent who wants the property sold for setting up a shopping centre, his entering wholeheartedly into the renovation of the baths. At the same time, he is attracted towards the young man of the family. His wife then arrives, intending to divorce him, discovering his relationship, a melodramatic scene at the dinner table. However, the wife comes to understand her husband a bit more.

The ending is quite unexpected and unexplained, Francesco stabbed by a visitor front door and dying in the street. A sad effect on the family. A sobering effect on his wife – and her wandering Istanbul, having read the letters of the aunt and how liberating it has been to live in that city.

1. The films of the director, his first film, his Turkish origin, settling in Italy? His relationship themes, gay themes?
2. The Italian locations, Rome, homes, business, interior restorations? The Turkish locations, the views of Istanbul, affection for Istanbul, the noted sites, the vistas, the streets, the homes, the baths? The musical score?
3. Introduction to Marta and Francesco, the marriage, brittle, business association, interior decorations, contracts, absences from home, Marta and her relationship with Paolo?
4. The Istanbul story, the house, the maid, the death of the old lady, grief in the street? The neighbourhood, so many people gathering, the bonding? Her will, leaving the baths to her nephew? The further elaboration of her story, her letters to her sister, returned unread, her moving from Italy, at home in Istanbul, kindness, love, settling, freedom of spirit, the baths?
5. Francesco, the news of his inheritance, his going to Turkey, meeting Zozo, Zozo and his agency, the contract for the baths, transformed into a shopping centre, the discussions, the hard lady dealing? Francesco, being welcomed, getting to know the family, to appeciate his aunt, his memories of her when he was a boy? His wanting to get back home, contact with Marta, wanting the sale to go through, in a hurry?
6. The family, the kindly mother, the dignified father, the daughter studying, the son as cameraman? The bonding, the meals? Oscar as family friend, confidant?
7. Francesco, wandering, in the rain, the baths, his being invited in, the experience of the baths?
8. His change of heart, deciding to renovate the baths, their state of disrepair? The plans, the work, decoration, design, his involvement? The support of the family, the spirit of the family and neighbourhood? Francesco and his being attracted to Mehmet?
9. Marta, her arrival, her manner, her relationship with Paolo, bringing the documents? Being welcomed by the family, accommodation, her manner, wandering the city and enjoying it, the rain, giving her ring to the old lady?
10. The night, the relationship between Francesco and Mehmet? The eruption at the dinner table? The argument, the effect on each of them? Taunts? But a certain understanding, Marta wanting to move out, the discussions with Oscar, some affection for Francesco?
11. The shock of the ending, the assault on the street, Francesco stabbed, Mehmet and blood, everyone at the hospital, his death? Marta visiting?
12. Francesco giving Marta the letters of his aunt, her reading them, her looking at Istanbul through this perspective, and her future and Istanbul?