1950’ler Sonu Türk Sinema Eleştirisinin "Türsüzleştirme" Uygulaması: Üç Arkadaş (1958) ve Yalnızlar Rıhtımı (1959) Melodramlarının Eleştirel Alımlamaları ve Estetik Çözümlemeleri [The Practice of "de-genrification" of the Turkish film criticism in the late 1950's]; 2016. (original) (raw)

2016, The practice of “degenrification” of the Turkish film criticism in the late 1950’s: The critical receptions and the aesthetic analysis of melodramas like Three Friends (1958) and Port of the Lonely (1959)

This study named “The practice of ‘de-genrification’ of the Turkish film criticism in the late 1950’s: The critical receptions and aesthetic analysis of melodramas like Three friends (1958) and Port of the Lonely (1959)” has proved that the critical discourse of subject period ignored the identity of genres for mentioned films but it especially emphasized the identity of film director. Thereby, it was proven that the film criticism which is assumed to have an important function in recognition of genres of film acted out of the scope of “genrification model” created by Rick Altman and it exposes the films examined to the “practice of de-genrification” because of some aesthetic and ideological reasons. The main purpose of this article was proving that film criticism which is accepted to have the role of genrification in genre studies that occupies a very important place in cinematology executes the function of de-genrification because of various arbitrary reasons (negligence of genres which is known as the trademark of popular cinema, partisanship of absolute realism, passion for the art cinema, an excessive auteur eulogy, ideological perspectives etc.). Carrying out the case study in order to bring the empirical legitimacy to the concept of practice of de-genrification was essential. The examples of melodrama and representatives which are absolutely despised and accepted as an enemy genre for cinema when it comes to the Turkish film criticism of 1950s could be used as an irreplaceable subset for the solution to this problematic. Here the thing which should have been done was finding film(s) that were slandered at this period and the fact that it belongs to mentioned genre will be proven with aesthetic analyzes but at the same time whose identity of genres was ignored by critics’ environment. As demonstrated also by this study, Turkish film criticism that was predominantly under the thumb of leftist ideology at the end of 1950s has described the dominant melodrama genre of mainstream Yeşilçam cinema as outside the cinema and located it against the realistic cinema. This critical discourse described the melodramatic one and realist one as two inconsistent aesthetic characters that can never come side by side. Thereby, Three friends made by Memduh Ün and Port of the Lonely made by Lütfi Ömer Akad which attracted the notice of film criticism because of their high artistic qualities have been evaluated from the perspective of a pure auteurist approach. The director identities of artists were recognized immediately but, the identity of genres of works were ignored. It means that, common critical discourse denied and ignored the melodramatic properties of these films. The rejectionist and ambiguous attitude can be seen obviously. The comparative double reading of Three friends and Port of the Lonely expressed that critical discourse of 1950s has certainly ignored these hybrid melodramas consist of complex aesthetic features. However, as indicated by the comparative film analyses done in article, it is impossible to evaluate the Three friends that is under the influence of romantic comedy movie of Charlie Chaplin named City Lights (1931) out of the melodramatic-realistic aesthetic, because comic one and pathetic one intertwine in this hybrid movie. In the same way, Port of the Lonely which was affected from the French poetic realist cinema movement of 1930s about creating a visual atmosphere combines gangster film features with melodrama conventions through a hybrid aesthetic attitude. In fact, there was shown that both hybrid melodramas took inspiration from some realist cinema aesthetic forms (depth of field, long fixed or tracking shots, the use of simultaneous mise en scène through cast placed to foreground and background, long takes etc.) popularized by some famous directors as French Jean Renoir (1894-1979) and American Orson Welles (1915-1985) in Western cinematography. This critical discourse which never trusts the genre of melodrama was maintained in traditional Turkish cinema historiography almost as is and aesthetic analysis of some genres of film belong to Turkish cinema was delayed accordingly. The actions to be taken from now on are exceeding the limits of director based narrow perspective while writing the aesthetic history of Turkish cinema and accepting reality of “film genre” which affects the styles of the directors as well as the contents of the movies.