Öyle Olsun (1976)

Ace reporter Ferit has just come off of libelling olive oil tycoon Hulusi, not thinking of the consequences. After being sent on a vacation to get away from all the frenzy, and to avoid the rich new fiance who's gonna bail his paper out, Ferit meets Hulusi's daughter Alev. Not realising who he is makes little difference to Alev's opinion of the strange man making advances at her, and she's frosty at first. Gradually the two begin to form a connection, and the equally unwitting Hulusi invites him to the family home...

Öyle Olsun is a very funny rom-com, with its fair share of amusing moments, and sweet ones. The plot never stays in one place for too long, and always feels on the move, going from the city, to a ski resort (they have snow in Turkey? No fair, why not in Australia then!), an opulent family dwelling, etc.

The characters are a lively bunch. Ferit is your typical Turkish guy. Brash, prowls after attractive women, commits newspaper/industrial libel, you know, the usual [kind of behaviour].

Despite the fact that he is an utter scoundrel, you do come to like Ferit, and he does end up coming around, and making up for his misdeeds in a very gentlemanly way.

Alev is fiery and forbidding, but also warm and likeable. While she does get a bit less to do since she's not the main protagonist, she still gets plenty, and by the end she knows how to get her man!

Hulusi (original name!) is great fun. Equal parts chummy and grumpy, he's a very fatherly presence who adds a lot of humour to the film, with moments I won't spoil.

Ferit's troublesome fiancee Ayşe is hilarious to watch as she plots and schemes. You do feel a little bad for her though, since she's a little crazy, but not really the bad guy. She's technically the aggrieved party here! I was worried that conniving Ferit would get the girl he wants and Ayşe would get nothing, but things end up more upbeat than that.

The acting here is great. Tarik Akan plays the kind of role he could do in his sleep of unscrupulous hunk, while Müjde Ar is a fine co-star, getting across both sides to/of her character well. Hulusi Kentmen delivers perhaps one of his best and most amusing performances in Öyle Olsun. You can certainly tell he was having fun here! Ayşen Gruda gets to play a juicy villain role, and is deliciously evil in a super fun way.

The soundtrack here is nice. The titular theme song, a classic in Turkey, is a nice one, and it repeats just the right number of times. Although the editor gets a little ahead of himself and cuts the music too early at times though. More than once I said to the screen "Hey, I was listening to that!".

Öyle Olsun is a great example of its genre. It's probably fairly cliched all things considered, both in and out of Turkey, but who says cliches can't be fun...