EMOTIONALLY CHILLY SUMMER IN `CLIMATES'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Nuri Bilge Ceylan is the new hot commodity on the international art-film scene.

His widely praised ``Distant'' and new release ``Climates'' have been compared to the emotionally alienated, exquisitely filmed masterworks of Michelangelo Antonioni. And even though there's a little more action in the Turkish newcomer's pieces, they also share the Italian legend's predilection for deliberate, sometimes patience-trying pacing.

But does Bilge Ceylan escort us as deeply into the lost regions of the soul? He tries to in ``Climates,'' and comes up with a few shocking demonstrations of angry passions. But in the end, I'm not sure he has much more to say than that men and women can't always get along.

Playing the lead character, Isa, himself, Bilge Ceylan nonetheless paints a minutely observed portrait of a middle-age man who would probably like to, but just can't, fully commit. A college professor who teaches something to do with history or architecture, Isa likes to vacation where there are ruins or old mosques to photograph, the emptier of other tourists the better. Sure there's a lot of psychological revelation in that.

We first meet him one summer in a pile of ancient Greek columns near a sweltering Aegean beach. Isa's younger girlfriend Bahar (played by the director's wife, Ebru Ceylan) watches him longingly -- and long -- with an unreadable expression that slowly turns tearful. Their relationship is coming apart, probably due to an infidelity on his part, and by the scary scooter ride home to Istanbul, it's over.

Back in the big city for the incessant autumn rains, newly single Isa dogs that other woman, Serap (Nazan Kesal), whose boyfriend is conveniently -- and now, suddenly, amusingly -- away on a business trip to Kazakhstan. A few glasses of wine at her apartment leads to what looks like rape but, since she asks him back, is likely just rough sex. Regardless, it's terribly upsetting to watch, and like most scenes in this movie, it feels like it goes on for an eternity -- but the brilliant finishing shot makes it worth sitting through, if you can.

Isa still pines for Bahar, though, and follows his television professional ex to a snowy region in the east that winter. He'd like to win her back. She is understandably torn by the prospect. And there's an impressive old Muslim outpost to photograph.

Obviously, Bilge Ceylan takes full visual advantage of his three disparate locations and their wildly varied weather conditions. Whether gazing through sleet-befogged windows or luxuriating in the textures of sweat and sand on a sunbathing body, the director's high-def camera unerringly locates deliciously tactile images. And the movie is a terrific travelogue of Turkey past, present and combined, from sophisticated urban bistros and bookshops to towns where cattle and SUVs compete for road space.

Superb, utterly natural performances all around ensure that there's not a false emotional moment in all of ``Climates.'' That's worthwhile enough, but a little bit more uniqueness in the main characterizations would have made this more than just a finely crafted art film. It would have made it a great one.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

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CLIMATES - Three stars

(Not rated: sex, nudity, language)

Starring: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan, Nazan Kesal.

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

Running time: 1 hr. 37 min.

Playing: Town Center 5, Encino; One Colorado, Pasadena; Music Hall, Beverly Hills.

In a nutshell: Well-observed, gorgeously composed but rather mundane story of a professor's romantic dysfunctions. In Turkish with English subtitles.

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A college professor (Nuri Bilge Ceylan) and his girlfriend Bahar (Ebru Ceylan) deal with their unraveling relationship in ``Climates.''