Casual in Istanbul

Crustacés et Coquillages (2005)
Synopsis:For summer vacation, Marc (Melki) and Béatrix (Tedeschi) take their two kids to the seaside house of Marc's youth, where their daughter takes up with a biker and their sons roams the beach with his best friend, who is in love with him. Things get steamier when Béatrix's lover Mathieu shows up, and Marc's old flame appears.
Now this is what summer movies should be! As perfect as the best chocolate soufflé, light and airy on your tongue, with a taste that lingers only as long as it's in your mouth. The best part is that once consumed, you will even respect yourself in the morning. And like all good French films, you will suddenly find yourself forgetting that it even has subtitles!

Release Date : 2005

Director : Olivier Ducastel - Jacques Martineau

Screenplay and dialogue : Olivier Ducastel - Jacques Martineau

Cast : Valeria Bruni Tedeschi , Gilbert Merki , Jean-Marc Barr , Jacques Bonaffé

Cinematographer : Antoine Héberlé - Matthieu Poirot-Delpech

Producer : Nicolas Blanc

Watch the trailer

Crustacés et Coquillages is a very sweet and funny French coming out , coming in , coming out , comi....movie. Actually we've seen it with Tunic two weeks ago but we were really busy to make a post about it. If you want to have a really good time , we certainly recommend this. The perfect actors with a really nice script. Especially Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (sister of Carla Bruni) was amazing. Also lots of eye candies with Edouard Collin and Romain Torres.

Don't be shy! :D Click them to see bigger size...

For months we've been reading tons of stuff about it , saw lots of pictures and read about the review posts with envy...We know the movie's been imported by a Turkish Company but no specific release date.So we were almost run out of patience then on Thursday night Tunic called and asked if we'd like to see Brokeback Mountain?! How?when?...he said wait for Saturday night...

We don't wanna type the credits and stuff cause everyone knows all the details about this movie. It's hard to explain all our feelings in English.After reading a very good review from Andy on October , our impatience has been doubled.
From the opening to the campfire scene we tried to adjust our ears to the accent that we are very unfamiliar. It was a very good DVD copy of the movie but without subtitles.And it was really hard to understand what they were saying at the first place.
By the time this scene showed up , we stopped worrying about the words , lots of old memories started to flow in our minds : taking the first step for the very first time with best friend , scare to death , afraid of losing friendship but couldn't resist to the feeling holding him , kissing him.Being a gay in the closet , always want to come out but couldn't do that..."I wish i knew how to quit you" is a sentence that every one of us told to someone.It's been two days we saw the movie but the scenes and the words are still in our minds and surely they'll remain there for a long time...

We hope to see the movie on big screen...and Tunic , you're number one!

Last Days (2005)

Synopsis :Inspired by the true story of Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of the popular Seattle-based rock band Nirvana who committed suicide in 1994, director Gus Van Sant (ELEPHANT) presents this meditative journey through the last days in the life of fictional musician Blake (Michael Pitt). In a bewildered state of drug withdrawal, Blake stumbles through deep woods groaning and mumbling quietly. His words are only occasionally coherent, and even less occasionally audible. Thus, the focus is on Blake's tortured, slow-motion movements and his tangle of chin-length blond hair, which hangs like a mask over his face. Reaching a clearing, Blake enters a dilapidated mansion where he lives with four similarly confused young rockers. A string of foggy events follows in partially chronological order. Scenes overlap, allowing for minor details to be added later. This style hints at the insignificance of time--and of everything--from Blake's perspective.LAST DAYS finds melancholic beauty in green trees reflecting in window panes, and the sound of rippling lake water echoing the ambient noise in Blake's head; and Pitt shows chameleon expertise in his mutely charismatic depiction of the unreachable Blake, whose resemblance to Cobain is both haunting and magical.

Release Date : 2005

Director : Gus Van Sant

Screenplay and dialogue : Gus Van Sant

Cast : Michael Pitt , Lukas Haas , Scott Green , Asia Argento

Cinematographer : Harris Savides

Producer : Danny Wolf

Watch the trailer

It's been a while we haven't watched movies with Tunic! At last last weekend we got together and watched Last Days. Michael Pitt was really awesome.We aren't huge fans of Nirvana ; only know few songs and some videos ; but we think he really fits in his part. Also Scott Green and Lukas Haas were ok! And in one specific scene between two of them(actually it was between Krist Novoselic  and Dave Grohl , we're still not sure if that was fictious or real?!), we were shocked...

What's going on between two Rockers???

Heights (2004)

Synopsis : "Heights" follows five characters over twenty-four hours on a fall day in New York City. Isabel , a photographer , is having second thoughts about her upcoming marriage to Jonathan , a lawyer. On the same day , Isabel's mother Diana learns that her husband has a new lover , and begins to re-think her life choices and her open marriage. Diana and Isabel's path cross with Alec , a young actor , and with Peter , a journalist.As the interrelated stories proceed , the connections between the lives of the five characters begin to reveal themselves and their stories unravel , so that Isabel , Jonathan , Diana , Alec and Peter must choose what kind of lives they will lead before the sun comes up on the next day.

USA release: June 2005

Director : Chris Terrio

Screenplay and dialogue : Amy Fox , Chris Terrio

Cast : Glenn Close , Elizabeth Banks , Jesse Bradford , James Marsden

Cinematographer : Jim Denault

Editor : Sloane Klevin

Production director : Marla Weinhoff

Producers : Ismail Merchant , James Ivory , Richard Hawley

Watch the trailer

Le Temps qui reste / Time to Leave (2005)

Synopsis : Romain is 30 years-old and learns that he has an incurable disease and only has a couple of months left to live...

French release: 30 November 2005

Director : François Ozon
Screenplay and dialogue : François Ozon

Cast : Melvil Poupaud, Jeanne Moreau, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Daniel Duval, Marie Rivière, Christian Sengewald, Louise-Anne Hippeau...

Cinematographer : Jeanne Lapoirie
Editor : Monica Coleman
Production director : Katia Wyskop

Producers : Olivier Delbosc and Marc Missonnier (Fidélité)

A Short but a very strong film...François Ozon back to his genre finally! A very touchy story of a dying gay fashion photographer. Melvil Poupaud is very into his part "Romain". The scenes , the dialogues are fabulous...no need to point Jeanne Moreau ; she's always the best!

Watch the trailer and short clips

Sommersturm / Summer Storm (2004)

Synopsis : Tobi and Achim, the pride of the local crew club, have been the best of friends for years and are convinced that nothing will ever stand in the way of their friendship. They look forward to the upcoming summer camp and the crew competition. Achim's girlfriend Sandra is on the girl's team and he enjoys spending more time with her. Tobi becomes increasingly skeptical of their relationship. Anke, the pretty girl who has fallen for Tobi, doesn't make things any easier. Then the gay team from Berlin arrives and Tobi is totally confused...

USA release: March 2006

Director : Marco Kreuzpaintner

Screenplay and dialogue : Marco Kreuzpaintner

Cast : Robert Stadlober , Kostja Ullmann , Alicja Bachleda-Curus...

Cinematographer : Daniel Gottschalk

Editor : Hansjörg Weissbrich

Production director : Jens Oberwetter

Producers : Jakob Claussen , Uli Putz , Thomas Wöbke

A beautiful coming out story combining with nice photography and lots of hot Deutsch boys! Sad beginning with a happy-end. The Saturday was like after having a good dinner with Le Temps qui Reste  , the perfect dessert with Sommerstrum...

Watch the trailer (Just click the tent on the left;)

Tunic(aka the movie master)is a good friend of ours , he's the only person we can watch movies together , he has a huge archieve of every kind of movies and we can see some movies just before their original release dates(don't ask how?). Casual in Istanbul proudly presents The Weekend Movies with Tunic !We're gonna introduce you every good movie we saw(sometimes before they hit movie theatres!!)