The History of Cinema stretches back more than a hundred years in Turkey -- almost to the time when moving pictures began their rise in the West as creative art and amusement.
The Turkish cinematic age had its innocent start at Ottoman Sultan Abdulhammid's Yildiz Palace in Istanbul in 1896, with the screening of a film whose name goes unrecorded. It must have been tremendously popular though, and in the very next year Sigmund Weinberger, an Hungarian lawyer turned film-buff, wowed Istanbul crowds with foreign film showings in Beyoğlu and Sehzadebaşı.
Just 17 years later (in 1914), fledgling Turkish director Fuat Uzkınay debuted the very first Turkish Film, a documentary -- that re-enacted the destruction of the Russian monument in Ayastefanos by activists.
The first Turkish films with fictional 'plots' were Himmet Aga'nın Evliliği (The Marriage of Himmet Aga), completed in 1918 by Uzkınay; Pence (The Paw) and Casus (The Spy) both completed in 1917, both produced and directed by Sedat Simavi.
The next major Turkish film was another documentary, Kurtuluş, İzmir Zaferi (Independence, the Izmir Victory), about the First War of Turkish Independence. But, exactly who made the film in 1922 and how it got made are facts buried in film dust. (We can only guess that the film was a collaborative effort of the Turkish film producing organizations of the time -- The Central Cinema Directorate and the Disabled Veterans Society.)
Muhsin Ertuğrul, One Man Show
From the left,
Director Muhsin Ertuğrul with
actress Azize Emir and
cinematograher Cezmi Ar --
on the set of İstanbul Sokaklarında
(On The Streets Of Istanbul) 1931
Click!
Thanks to Rekin Teksoy152 |
Between 1923 and 1939, the only film director in the whole of Turkey was Muhsin Ertuğrul. And in those years he produced 29 full-length features based on popular novels, operettas, and plays -- and films from abroad.
More than any one before or after him, Ertuğrul controlled every aspect of the Turkish Cinema during his two-decades reign. And he firmly planted the seeds of the future Turkish film industry for those who followed him.
World War II had a profound effect on the subject matter and direction of Turkish Cinema between 1939 and 1950. And film companies began to proliferate, albeit in a modest way, during that time.
The Turkish Cinema continued its progress during the 50's despite the significant political turmoil of the period. And it actually boomed between 1965 and 1975 -- during the era known as the 'Golden Years'.
Next: A 'Golden Bear' in heady days... but when TV steals family audience-share, 'Erotik' Films make hay -- and headway
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