Hollywood Alla Turca: a History of Popular Cinema
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HOLLYWOOD ALLA TURCA: A HISTORY OF POPULAR CINEMA IN TURKEY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Savaş Arslan, M.F.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2005 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Ronald Green, Adviser Professor Stephen Melville _________________________ Professor John Davidson Adviser History of Art Graduate Program ABSTRACT This study deals with the history of popular cinema in Turkey, called Yeşilçam. Yeşilçam’s dawn, rise, and fall extended over four decades, from 1950 to 1990. Yeşilçam is discussed through four notions: Turkification, hayal, melodramatic modality, and özenti. While cinema started in Turkey by interweaving two screens, the traditional and the modern, Yeşilçam had a dream (hayal) of making films similar to Western cinemas, especially Hollywood. But the presence, combined with the technologically belated arrival, of this Western medium in a non-Western land brought about its own particularities and peculiarities, reflected by Turkification (practices of translation, transformation, and restitution). Yeşilçam represents a transitory state enmeshed with the drama of nation building and characterized by an aggressive attempt to unify multiplicities. The dubbing of films, both foreign and domestic, led to Turkification, a process of making films ideologically “proper” to Turkey. Yeşilçam also “Turkified” the Western cinematic language through remakes and adaptations, producing not only a non-realistic, postsynchronized filmmaking, but also an active (mis)translation and transformation, thus inventing a popular cultural synthesis, a cinematic amalgamation of the West and the East. ii In the meeting of a two-dimensional Eastern scopic regime with a three- dimensional Western one, özenti (imitation or pretension) indicates a perpetual movement from Eastern self to Western other in Yeşilçam’s desire to be like the other, i.e., Western popular cinemas. But a return to original self is impossible in this movement, and through özenti, Yeşilçam continuously transformed itself. Thus özenti suggests a rhizomatic existence, not being one nor being the other but being in a continual movement, in between two cultures. Yeşilçam’s “melodramatic modality” deals with a particular history of filmmaking that combined realistic film language with non-realistic and anti-illusionistic traditions in its various genre films. Specific analyses of these films address the changes in both the socioeconomic and the cultural milieu, and the cinematic practices and their consumption. Through the introduction of these four notions, this study not only attempts to revise the Turkish histories on popular cinema in Turkey, but also aims to introduce the English-speaking audience to this under-explored field. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my adviser, Ron Green, for the intellectual support, encouragement, and enthusiasm which made this thesis possible, and for his patience in correcting both my stylistic and scientific errors. I thank Stephen Melville and John Davidson for their comments and support for the realization of this thesis. I also wish to thank my wife Wendy and all my family members who supported me during this process which is full of obstacles. This study would not have been realized without the support and grants of The Ohio State University’s various departments and branches. iv VITA March 8, 1973 Born – Manisa, Turkey 1995 B.A. Political Science, Bilkent Univ, Turkey 1997 M.F.A. Graphic Design, Bilkent Univ, Turkey 1997-2000 Ph.D. Program, Graphic Design, Bilkent Univ, Turkey 2000-2001 M.A. Program, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, OSU 2001-present Ph.D. Program, History of Art, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS Research Publication 1. Melodram. İstanbul: Leyla ile Mecnun Yayıncılık, 2005. 2. “Zorro of the East, between the Western and the Eastern” in Cinemascope: Bilingual Quarterly (Independent Film Journal) 2 (Spring 2005). Available online at http://www.cinemascope.it. 3. “Kara Sevda: Melodram ve Modernleşme.” (Blind Love: Melodrama and Modernization) in Türk Film Araştırmalarında Yeni Yönelimler 4 (New Directions in Turkish Film Studies 4). Ed. by Deniz Bayrakdar. Istanbul: Bağlam, 2004. 4. “Sinemayı Yazarken Kültür ve Siyasetin Halleri: Refiğ, Erksan, Özön” (The State of Culture and Politics in Writing Cinema) in Halit Refiğ. Ed. by Ali Karadoğan. Ankara: Dünya Kitle İletişimi Araştırma Vakfı Yayınları, 2003. v 5. “Sinema ve Millet: Bir ‘Derin’ Söylem Makalesi” (Cinema and Nation: An Essay on ‘Deep’ Discourse) in Türk Film Araştırmalarında Yeni Yönelimler 3 (New Directions in Turkish Film Studies 3). Ed. by Deniz Bayrakdar. Istanbul: Bağlam, 2003. 6. “Şeytan ve The Exorcist: Yeniden Çevrim, Din ve Kültür” (Şeytan and The Exorcist: Remake, Religion, and Culture” in Türk Film Araştırmalarında Yeni Yönelimler 2 (New Directions in Turkish Film Studies 2). Ed. by Deniz Derman. Istanbul: Bağlam, 2001. 7. “Türk Tapon Filmlerini Oyun Olarak Okuma Denemesi” (Reading Turkish Trash Films as Ludus) in Türk Film Araştırmalarında Yeni Yönelimler (New Directions in Turkish Film Studies). Ed. by Deniz Derman. Istanbul: Bağlam, 2001. 8. "Kitap Eleştirisi: Bakhtin, Kültürel Eleştirellik ve Sinema" (Book Review: Bakhtin, Cultural Criticism and Cinema). Toplum ve Bilim (Society and Science) 79, 1998. 9. "Popüler Yeşilçam Filmlerinin Eleştirilmesinde Bir Sanat Sineması Söyleminin Oluşumu" (The Discourse of Art Cinema in Criticizing Popular Turkish Films). 25. Kare (25th Frame) 20, 1997. 10. "Sanatın Yapabileceği En İyi Şey Metaforik Olmamasıdır: Jimmie Durham’la Söyleşi." (The Best Option for Art is being non-Metaphorical: Interview with Jimmie Durham). Birikim (Recollection) 104, 1997. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History of Art Minor Fields: Film Studies, Visual Studies, Contemporary Critical Theory vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract .....................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................iv Vita .................................................................................................................................v List of Tables ....................................................................................................................xi Chapters 1. Introduction ..........................................................................................................1 1.1. Couch Grass ..............................................................................................1 1.2. Cinema and the Republic of Turkey ..........................................................3 1.3. Yeşilçam: The Popular Cinema of Turkey ..............................................8 1.4. Addressing Yeşilçam ................................................................................13 1.5. The Practice of Filmmaking in Yeşilçam ............................................16 1.6. Yeşilçam and Melodramatic Modality ........................................................18 1.7. Door with Couch Grass ................................................................................21 1.8. To Be Continued ............................................................................................23 2. Cinema in Turkey Until The Late 1940s ........................................................27 2.1. Periodization ............................................................................................27 2.2. Early Turkish Cinema: The Problem of Origins ............................................30 2.2.1. First Film Screenings: Beer Halls to Coffee Houses ....................30 2.2.2. Traditional and Modern Theaters and Performances ....................32 2.2.3. The First Film Theaters ........................................................37 2.2.4. Discussions Concerning the First Turkish Film ....................39 2.2.5. Nationalism and Belated Modernity ............................................43 2.3. Early Turkish Feature Films and Film Import ............................................45 2.3.1. The Army and Cinema: The First Feature Films ....................45 vii 2.3.2. Cinema and the Republic ........................................................48 2.3.3. Film Importation and Hollywood ............................................49 2.4. The Advent of Sound Film and Dubbing ............................................52 2.4.1. Silent Films and the Problem of Intertitles ................................52 2.4.2. Sound Film ................................................................................53 2.4.3. Dubbing: (Mis)translation, (re)writing and “Turkification” ........54 2.4.4. Dubbing Hollywood ....................................................................56 2.4.5. Dubbing and Censorship ........................................................59 2.5. Early Feature Films ................................................................................61 2.5.1. Early Film Studios ....................................................................62 2.5.2. Muhsin Ertuğrul – The One Man of Turkish Cinema ....................63 2.5.3. Turkification-from-above as hayal ............................................68 3. The Advent of Yeşilçam in the 1950s ........................................................70 3.1. The Trans-ing of Yeşilçam ....................................................................70