I will simply start “in medias res” (a pretentious word for “in the middle of things”) and just start telling you (whomever you might be) about the opening I attended last night.

!f Istanbul is an international independent film festival that is in its seventh year and is organised by a dear friend of mine, Serra. This is the thing about Istanbul: Intellectuals are an endangered species (as they no doubt are all over the world). Therefore we are all on first name basis and never use the word intellectual so as to remain inconspicuous and out of dangers way. God knows what Serra will think when she realises I called her an intellectual for instance. She might blush or get angry or laugh or feel flattered or insulted. I will be ranting on this subject quite a bit in the days to come so enough for now.

The event started with a cocktail at 19.30 followed by ‘a special music and video performance’ at 20.00, followed by the screening of the opening film “Lars and the Real Girl”. Me and my girlfriend Seda (love of my life) thought that the cocktail is expandable and had managed not to attend it last year. But then again a lot of our friends have found us a bit introverted for their taste. In any case this time Gencay (our dearest friend who is the very reason I have a blog!) said we had to attend since Inanc (his friend) had no intention of skipping the opportunity of free booze.

Although I made the very unwise decision of wearing the high heeled boots I had bought at Camden Town 2 weeks ago (they are nice as a fetish not as actual boots I have decided) we managed to get there quarter to eight. The gala event was at Beyoglu AFM which is a big cinema complex with 10 theatres that has recently been renovated. It was the first time I was seeing the place after its renovation. Renovations are weird things I can’t but the life of me understand which part of the old building has been turned into this new structure and everything becomes dreamlike. This is the 3rd version of this theatre I have seen and I am afraid all 3 have become jumbled up in my mind turning into one big Lynch theatre. Incidentally the last Lynch film Inland Empire will be shown at the festival which I have already seen on DVD. But I digress. I will have to learn to stay on topic if this blog thing is going to work.

The place was full to the brim with all sorts of notable personalities but since this is a diary rather than a gossip column I will only note those of my personal acquaintance. My fellow film critic Cuneyt was the first to say high though we managed to loose him in the crowd then we found Gencay, Inanc and Aykan who is an ex-student of mine. He is doing a video activism performance on LGBT (please don’t make me write lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual every time) issues next Friday as a part of the festival and we talked about that. I will be going to it so there will be more on this later.

Then I saw a very old friend Eren who is the editor in chief of the independent very hip and artsy fashion magazine “2’de bir’. We used to work at the same newspaper Gunes back in the very beginning of 1990. (Oh god we are old!) She said she saw Mine and they decided we 3 should meet (Macbeth’s witches) Mine is another friend who used to work at the same newspaper back then but now has become a writer. I seriously don’t know how many novels she has published (shame on me). Of course we saw Serra and congratulated her. She was stressing about the screening and praying nothing would go wrong. It is a shame one can’t simply start enjoying and quit stressing at that point (the point of no return) but I know the feeling. Then we saw Sevil who is my ex, and her wonderful sister Belgin. Gencay wanted to meet Sevil for quite some time now, so we got that out of the way but by then the performance was starting and we went in. We were late meaning the theatre was full and we had to sit at the front which I hate, while we stepped on toes to get seated I managed to chat with yet another friend Olgu whose arm was in plaster. Didn’t learn how that happened but managed to gossip about Neo the new film school that he used to work at and which has rapidly proved itself to be a huge disappointment.

Then the theatre went dark. The musical performance was by a group of two woman and one man one of the woman Selen is an ex student of mine and I have been meaning to go to one of her concerts for the past 2 years now but alas could never make it so this was the icing on the cake of events this night. The performance was great. I am so feed up with people who think it suffices to simply stand on stage and sing. Here we had a thought through and perfectly timed stage performance. The music was also nice and novel with room for improvement, though Seda was not as impressed. Then again music is her line and (I actually know next to nothing about it) therefore it is more difficult to impress her in that score. I am determined to go to Selen’s next concert.

Then came the film, which is a typical American independent film about a man who falls in love with a sex toy! The film was very sweet. Too sweet actually one could even claim that the filmmakers took a radical subject and managed to drawn it in honey and render it domestic. But it was fun to watch and that is all that I ask really. In fact that’s what I like about many of these independent films: you thoroughly enjoy yourself as you watch but forget them immediately, many have this ‘feel good’ quality the likes of which you used to find in the good old golden age of classical Hollywood.

Anyhow Inanc it seems was not impressed and asked me “why don’t they show ‘No Country For Old Man’ at the opening. is it because they don’t want anybody to watch it for free” and I said “well I guess it is not wise to show hard-to-swallow-films-that get-to-you at openings. you go with things that will make your invited guests feel good, especially the sponsors”. But of course there is more to it than just that. I mean it would be a misrepresentation to the festival with the latest, and in my opinion best to date, Cohen bros film. Most films in the festival are nothing like it. Most are much more modest than this Oscar nominated film, that might find a place for itself in the ‘best 10 films ever lists’; most are much more like Lars and the Real girl.

There was a party at The Hall (more about this new club later) and we meant to go. However my feet were killing me (I am not used to high heels and should know better when occasionally I take the fancy) so I said to Seda l’ets just go home and change and then go to the party’. After all it was 11.30 and a proper party doesn’t kick in until midnight. You see we live at Cihangir – the intellectual ghetto- (I have a mind to create a dictionary of sorts to explain these things to those of you who do not live in this city) very near to Beyoglu, which is the centre of night-life and cultural activities. But the walk home under snowfall discouraged us to go back out. After all clubbing and parties are for younger and single people. Since we are lucky to have found each other, we have better options like cuddling and gossiping or having wild sex for the rest of the night. Therefore we decided we could do without the party.