Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul
by Fatih Akin
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Actor: Alexander Hacke, Baba Zula, Duman, Orient Expressions, ReplikasDirector: Fatih Akin
Producer: Fatih Akin
Writer: Fatih Akin
Producer: Andreas Thiel
Producer: Christian Kux
Producer: Klaus Maeck
Producer: Sandra Harzer
Producer: Tina Mersmann
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); English (Original Language); German (Original Language), Unknown; Turkish (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-09-19
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Strand Releasing
DVD Reviews of Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul
DVD Review: Uneven quality but contains some great stuff
Summary: 3 Stars
This survey of the various musical cultures of Istanbul attempts to fairly represent the enormous variety of musics in that city. It's an ambitious film that falls somewhat short, but nonetheless contains some extraordinary musical performances that make this DVD well worth buying and seeing repeatedly. I could quibble with the director over his choice to devote so much coverage to rap and heavy-metal rock musicians. The latter are especially bad, even by the standards of heavy-metal, and are basically lacking completely in any kind of musical artistry or skill. It's hard for me to comprehend how these naive and immature musical duffers could be given such a considerable amount of time in this film, which also features some truly great musical artists. The best thing for the viewer is to skip the first half of the movie and jump to the second half, where the really good stuff is. Especially strong are the performances by Selim Sesler, Brenna MacCrimmon, the great Kurdish singer Aynur, Mercan Dede, and Sezen Aksu. Unfortunately only a short amount of time was devoted to Mercan Dede, the great ney player, but he was one of the more interesting artists in the film. Aynur was certainly one of the great standouts in the film. Her performance is astoundingly beautiful and absolutely mesmerizing. Sezen Aksu is another extraordinarily beautiful singer whose performance near the end of the film is very moving. In general though the movie appears to be poorly thought out and poorly put-together. There are far too many scenes featuring the German bass-player Alexander Hacke, basically doing nothing but trying to look cool at all times, walking the streets of Istanbul or leaning out of a window overlooking the city while smoking a cigarette. Why he was a part of the filmmaking team at all is a great mystery, since he contributes nothing to the film. I would have appreciated a more serious effort to look at the deep cultural roots of Turkish music instead of this superficial survey. For example, nothing whatever is mentioned about the importance of Sufi music in Turkish musical culture. There is one very brief interview with a Sufi monk who only describes the symbolic significance of his clothes! No mention is made of the great importance of Sufi music and no Sufi music is ever played in this film. Instead the director seems to be more interested in portraying the superficial grunge of Istanbul and talking to pretentious hipsters. Still, although the movie does have a lot of weaknesses, its strong qualities are so VERY strong that it's definitely worth watching.
Description of Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul
Fatih akin introduces an international audience to the diversity and uniqueness of musical creativity in the heart of istanbul ranging from modern electronic rock and hip-hop to classical arabesque. Studio: Strand Releasing Release Date: 09/19/2006 Run time: 90 minutesBestsellers in DVD
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