Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Blissfully Yours arrived in the mail today. It looks interesting.

- haven't seen it
- have seen it, like it
- have seen it, don't like it

we have three films

3 x 3 x 3 = 27

c'mon this shouldn't be too hard

Blissfully Yours > Tropical Malady > Mysterious Object

Iron Pussy was...a collaboration with someone, no?

I'll try again, but I thought it was telling that I was galvanized during Blissfully Yours and I saw that the same evening.

ummmmm...

Mysterious Object Delivered At Noon?

According to the-numbers.com, his latest and Tsai's have each grossed about $15,0000 in North America.

Why do some of us continue to write about these for public consumption? Barely distributed, and nobody goes.

i tried to pimp this movie out as much as possible but it doesn't help that it's not distributed or available on video here :(

disheartening, ain't it? as baffled and left semi-cold as I was by it.

haha. it's weird though, especially considering all the shit foreign fare that opens here anyway

Shit makes money. Go figure.

Wet Hot American Summer was a b.o. dud. Coincidence?

on seeing a Syndromes and a Century / I Don’t Want To Sleep Alone twinbill:

http://mattzollerseitz.blogspot.com/2007/07/dialogue-vs-duplicity-notes-on.html

i almost basically did the same double bill at tiff!

I saw In Between Days last night, which I liked a bit more than either.

i want to see that for sure.

I want to know how to pronounce his name.

To the average American filmgoer it could rhyme with "Short Round" for all they care.

it's why he goes by "Joe"

Ha, I was at that Syndromes screening! I wonder if this is the dude who wanted to see the copy of Cinemascope I was reading? Cinephile secret handshake.

I really liked Syndromes, it was probably the first JOE film that I've just loved from beginning to end. Some of it was ridiculously beautiful. I know that it is somewhat of a cliche to talk about architecture and filmic space, but the way he shoots the two hospital structures really impressed me, particularly the first dentist's office (both day and night!). The only film that I've seen recently that used built environments so well was...I Don't Want To Sleep Alone.

We should do another thread about architects-turned-filmmakers (and vice versa), it's sort of an obsession of mine.

Or architecture STUDENTS, at least.

well, he lost me in the 2nd half, esp after we went up that steamy vent.

b-b-b-but that was at the end! =)

From your description, Morbz, it sounds like you were bored by the porn.

After his other films I expected a more difficult second half but it was fine, perhaps a little more fractured than the first.

Meta-porn

Not quite, Adam.

You mean IBD is a year and a half old, and it's played NYC before Montreal?

I mean that wasn't quite the end (exercise in the park)

Adam, you're a Patrick Keiller, right?

Patrick Keiller FAN

YES

I AM A PATRICK KEILLER

Yes, I am. And he trained at UCL as an architect I think.

Also, Antonioni may have studied architecture, but that seems so fitting that it probably isn't true.

And Rem Koolhaas used to be a screenwriter!

RS: How did your study of architecture inform your concept of cinema?

Apichatpong: I think they’re quite the same; it’s dealing with time. When you treat your audience, in architecture, they walk into the space, they experience the space, the light and shadow, by walking through time. So you design the space to evoke certain feelings and certain reactions from the viewer. The same with film; you use time, but I think film is more forcing the audience to experience while sitting in the dark. So I think architecture gives more freedom in a way. But in terms of the filmmaker, making films has more freedom, because it’s more abstract. And you don’t have to give in much on the practical use of the space.

Wikipedia says Antonioni studied economics!

OK, fair enough. =)

Are we agreed that the likely pronounciation of "Apichatpong" has less possible variations than that of "Weerasethakul"?

Dr. Morbius said: After one viewing?

how many times do film critics see a new movie? in this months film comment, amy taubin sounds like she's seen Zodiac, like, five times.

well, I've found that in writing about films -- esp the more 'open' seminarrative ones like AW's -- one viewing is often inadequate. (For one thing, I misremember sequences, dialogue, etc.)

Dr Morbius, do you write about films?

under the radar, oui.

i could only see it once. and it's not like i was gonna be like "wow this movie totally blew me away i should see it again just in case i actually don't like it"

anyway, i almost always only see a movie once before writing about it cuz i don't got any other choice.

yeah, which is why I write notes like a motherfucker for the half-hour after the screening.

i very often write my reviews like... half an hour after the screenings anyway.

(xpost: ie, wait til yr my age)

"wow this movie totally blew me away i should see it again just in case i actually don't like it"

I think that is a desirable mindset!

it's just never practical!

and honestly... if my 2nd impression of a movie is different than my 1st i don't think it necessarily means it's more valid

It doesn't usually amplify? "Joe" takes a second look, esp Malady, I found.

i watched woody allen's Manhattan four times last week and every time i saw something new.

(this is not supposed to be shocking or sarcastic)

You didn't pay all 4x did you?

(I'm assuming you went to Film Forum)

Taking notes in the dark is the real grind, especially when you'v efound that you've written over a previous entry.

I tend to note things like actorly gestures, throwaway moments, and what used to be called "mise en scene," sprinkled with what bon mots a scene or actors inspire.

i just never take notes. i am world's worst note taker.

oh, I'd never take notes IN the theater. I've seen Gavin Smith of Film Comment doing that, tho, w/ his penlight.

and i guess i can agree that multiple screenings can deepen your appreciation or understanding of a movie. i mean, who wouldn't? but i didn't feel i needed that with "syndromes" any more than any other movie, apichatpong's peculiarities notwithstanding.

OF COURSE Gavin Smith has a penlight

i mean, who wouldn't?

Pauline "I Only See Movies Once" Kael

You didn't pay all 4x did you?

DVD from the library. Srry, film forum..

(i was sick all week)

hahaha, Gavin Smith with penlight non-shocka.

Nathan Lee is New York-based, right? I always look out for his articles..

Taking notes in the dark is the real grind, especially when you'v efound that you've written over a previous entry.

I can never read what I've written, but just the act of note-taking usually helps me remember specifics better than I normally would.

nathan lee is nyc-based, yes. also: YOWZA

(hi poortheatre! good seeing you last night.)

Nathan Lee is hot?

remembering specifics is what it's about.

The only hawt film guys: Anthony Lane (10 years ago) and Dave Karger.

and at least one on ILX I can think of

http://www.uea.ac.uk/eas/people/images/higsonpic.bmp

rather dashing

morbs: YES

I'd like to know so we can embarrass him.

Season of Weerasethakul films in London at the BFI (formerly NFT) later this month :

http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/southbank/seasons/weerasethakul/

Whee!

Every renowned art filmmaker should have an "Adventures Of Iron Pussy" in their closet.

haha

I'm particularly looking forward to that one.

Got the DVD of "Blissfully Yours" last month so this is just excellent timing.

Can't wait to fall asleep to this :-)

Tomorrow at Cinefamily (Silent Movie Theatre) in Los Angeles:

1/6 @ 5pm / SERIES: a guy named joe
The Short Films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Not only has Weerasethakul made numerous, ecstatically gorgeous features, but he has produced over half a dozen shorts that have toured the world’s film festivals to great acclaim. Joe maintains that the bulk of his "craft" exists in the form of these video shorts and installations, seeing them as the best avenue to evoke a single mood. The Cinefamily is proud to present the first major Los Angeles retrospective of these key works in the oeuvre of a major new auteur. This program will include:

* Malee And The Boy, in which a 10-year-old controls the use of the microphone, as he gathers sounds in various Bangkok street locations.
* In The Anthem, Joe lampoons ritual-as-propaganda by creating "the Cinema Anthem that praises and blesses the approaching feature for each screening, "
* Thirdworld, in which he blasts the West's "exotic" view of Thailand by portraying a peaceful island through intentionally unprofessional videography.
* 0116643225059 uses an overseas phone call to join the disparate worlds of Joe's Chicago schooling and Khon Kaen family home through eerily silhouetted childhood pictures of his mother.
* My Mother's Garden is a silent, venomous juxtaposition of an ornate jewelry collection with carnivorous plants.

Also showing: Windows, Relentless Fury Of The Pounding Waves, Worldly Desires, Ghost Of Asia.
Dir: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 1997-2007, 35mm and Beta, ca. 180 min.
Tickets - $10

How can I get a penlight a la Gavin Smith?

i missed the anthem at TIFF :(

How can I get a penlight a la Gavin Smith?

-- admrl, Saturday, January 5, 2008 8:52 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

i know right. (was gonna do a suzy here.) some ldn crix have them also -- f knows where.

i had one but i busted it. also i hate them.

i don't really get the point coz you shd be able to write w/o looking at the paper right? otherwise you're kind of fucked movie-watching-wise.

ya and also i find it really annoying when other ppl sitting in front of me use them.

some FAMOUS London critics?

they got their pens from Daddy.

While tearing off a game of golf
I may make a play for the caddy
But when I do, I don't follow through
Cause my pen belongs to Daddy

If I invite a boy some night
To dine on my fine food and haddie
I just adore, his asking for more
But my pen belongs to Daddy

i dunno if there are any famous london critics rly. the really famous ones, johnny vaughn and jonathan ross, don't actually see the films i don't think. anthony lane actually lives couple miles from where i sit, in cambridge. i dunno where he sees his films though.

Johnny Vaughan is a film critic now?

oh yeah he did that programme where "normal" people review films. the name escapes me

hey so this is gonna be good right? i'm a weerasethakul n00b but this is close. worth finding a coinstar to rustle up $10?

yeah. see the other films too! "Asian Sundays"!

I don't know if this will be "good". He's divisive I suppose. My wife hates his stuff and refuses to attend.

Stupid woman

oh i'm definitely a fan after only seeing 'tropical malady.' are you going?

i'll probably save my $ for the next three cuz i'm broke right now, but it's good to know they're playing. 'syndromes and a century!' thanks for the info.

I want to go but it all depends on my finishing some work in time. It's going to be close!

i wouldn't bother with AW. go with 'the shield' season 6.

Johnny Vaughan is a film critic now?

-- admrl, Sunday, January 6, 2008 10:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

yuh, for 'the sun'.

the shorts will be in the Joe retro in NYC in about 10 days

OUR Joe Retro will be half over by then, do keep up NYC!

That's goin' mighty slow, considering how slender his oeuvre is.

This is the West Coast. Different pace of line, innit? ;)

life

On his short films:

http://tischfilmreview.com/?p=174

Anthem is a wow!

rrrrrrrg want to see

just scored an interview!!

also, cinematheque here doing a retro next month... including anthem!
woohoo!

nice

ya

email interview, not ideal, but still stoked.

Is he attending the retro?

no, unfortunately not!

Neat. Ask him if he's familiar with Boonga Boonga.

i'll ask him what video games he's planning on making into movies.

weird coincidence that you brought up interviewing him on that uwe boll thread yday though!!

very weird.

I have powers I don't even know about yet.

Ask him about bringing shame to his parents

Ask him if he's into lanky, tall redheads.

Syndromes... was my favourite of last year.

also

hi adamrl!

hello you

anthem!!!!!

yes, what a camera lap.

i just saw tropical malady.

it was good. it reminded of something my football coach used to say to me: "that's like trying to fuck a tiger with a wet noodle."

Just watched Syndromes and...well, it underwhelmed me. The transitions, such as they were, didn't make sense to me. I still got the DVD, so I may rewatch it. Anyone want to discuss their experiences with it.

?

I've only seen it once, and my reaction was a shrug:

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/movie_review/syndromes-and-a-century.htm

i loved it. really, really loved it. i don't think i have much to say about it though.

or rather, i don't think i could adequately express why it affected me.

I have owned this movie for a while now and keep putting off the "now's the time to watch" evening. I worship Tropical Malady though and have had some correspondence with him - would pretty much work for free to be part of some of his stuff, I think he's an artist of genuine vision

SPOILERS in as much as syndromes can be spoiled:

i saw it at the pictures with a few other people and we all came out thinking totally different things - all positive, but just with so little in common in terms of how we'd received it. i kinda forget exactly what happened/didn't happen now, but so much of its consideration of family went straight over my head.

kinda comparable to one of the claire denis films of the last ten years in its lively ending too

i think they are similar in many ways. esp l'intrus.

man, he has never baffled and annoyed me the way L'intrus did.

i loved it

i thought it was beautiful - funny - strange. it made me laugh out loud. i loved the way the village settings looked, the colours, the blown-out windows and late afternoon light.

i knew i was watching something at least a little cryptic and personal, but i didn't feel shut out - i felt welcomed

i really want to see "anthem". is it a film they show in the cinemas or an installation piece?

"i felt welcomed"

so OTM

i saw anthem at the cinemthque quebecoise

"phantoms of nabua" which is AMAZING i saw in a museum

why doesn't he put these shorts on his website? (I ask not knowing if he has one)

come on morbs u of all people should understand there's a difference b/w a cinema or a gallery and a web page

yeah, but we get to see the shorts in NY every 3-5 years or so!

i was actually in toronto when "Phantoms of Nabua" was on and i didn't even know about it ;_;

I did love the use of light -- the sunlight coming through windows, coloring the actors in soft, almost pastel hues. The monks were funny.

I dunno. I'll rewatch it, but I prefered Blissfully Yours (even with its longeurs) and especially Tropical Malady.

online premiere:

http://www.theauteurs.com/notebook/posts/1406

cool. i saw that, liked "phantoms" better but it is worth seeing.

Nice! Will watch when I get home.

thinking about syndromes, which i just saw a few days ago, i think there are the dualities morbz talks about in his review above, most of which have featured in earlier films of his -- nature vs. civilization, the pagan vs. the scientific, love vs. loneliness, tradition vs. modernity -- but i think it's less about their opposition than their coexistence, and the blurriness of the boundaries between them. the doctor diagnosing the monk as the monk diagnoses the doctor, the chakra healing in a room full of artificial limbs and medical equipment, etc. and maybe the overriding or undergirding false opposition is the past vs. the present, then vs. now, which actually always inform and shape each other -- and which fits with the idea that the movie is about his own parents, whose lives in the past were necessary to produce his in the present, and that he carries their stories consciously or unconsciously inside himself.

but i've only seen it once, seeing it again would probably help rearrange some of that.

also, i think it's a really good movie. it brings together and focuses his themes and his whole personal vocabulary.

I was at Toronto's Cinematheque last night for Syndromes and...I feel bad; I slept through half of it. It wasn't the film. I should never try to see something on a worknight, especially anything subtitled. I sit down, settle back, remind myself to stay awake at all costs, then immediately start drifting. Anyway, I liked what I saw, and I'm hoping it turns up again on a weekend. Fantastic ending.

where is s1ocki's interview?

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2008/061208/film1.html

email interview so a bit blah but

ty!

"Phantoms of Nabua" is showing in the gallery at the bfi southbank for you london folk.

Anyone been lucky enough to see Uncle Boonmee?

i can't wait!

just watched "a letter to uncle boonmee" kind of couldn't really see what i was watching though (e.g. the bugs) on this screen.

OK, have just seen Uncle Boonmee. And I think dude has lost me with this one. There's no way to explain why but I just wasn't into it like I was with Tropical Malady, Blissfully Yours or Syndromes and a Century. Whereas for all his other films I can still very clearly remember some beautiful images/scenes, I feel like that won't be the case with this one (ok maybe that strange strange scene involving the princess and the catfish).
I will admit that Apichatpong Weerasethakul is still on a roll with his movie titles with this one though.

Short film about the censorship of Syndromes And A Century in Thailand by Apichatpong's assistant director:
http://thaifilmjournal.blogspot.com/2008/08/12th-thai-short-film-video-festival_30.html

Warning: this post has spoilers regarding "Uncle Boonmee" (though I don't know if you can actually spoil a movie like this)!

Those of you who have seen Uncle Boonmee, can anyone explain what's the deal with this movie? I haven't seen any other movies by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, so maybe this one makes more sense when viewed in light of his previous output, but I just don't think I got it. I've nothing against slow, arty films, weird narrative structures, nor evocative nature scenes, so it was not like I was predisposed against a movie like this, but I just didn't see what was so special about Uncle Boonmee. Here's some questions/thoughts that went through my mind while watching it...

Why did the movie end with scene with Tong and Jen living two parallel lifes, one in the restaurant and one in the hotel room? Did that have something to do with the reincarnation theme? And why did the Weerasethakul spend so much time with the dullness and lifelessness of the hotel room, or with Tong's shower routine? Was the point of that to show how gray city life is compared to the life in the jungle? (I felt like the scene where Tong the monk checked his mobile phone in the mosquito cage was trying to do something like that.) But in order for that to to work, the jungle scenes should've been colourful and full of life, and IMO most of them weren't. There was a few nice compositions of the forest, but mostly it was just lifeless, stationary shots of trees, with no particular sense of mystery or vitality. The only times the movie felt vibrant was with the ghost scenes in the beginning, but in the end it got kinda boring just seeing the ghost woman and the ghost monkeys, and nothing else. Other than that, everyone in the movie was acting laconically and speaking in monotone regardless of what happened, and I just didn't understand why it was like that.

And what in the name of god was the point of Uncle Boonmee's dream of the future with still images of soldiers and monkey men? Seriously, wtf was the deal with that? Was it supposed to be a allegory of Thailand's politics? Who were the monkey men supposed to be?

I doubt anyone can answer these questions, but I just wanted to get them out of my head, because Uncle Boonmee was seriously one of the most confusing and seemingly pointless movies I've ever seen, and I was wondering if anyone else got something out of it. I agree with Jibe that the scene with the princess and the catfish was pretty much the only memorable part of the movie, but it didn't feel like it was connected in to the rest of it, except for the vague reincarnation theme. (I guess the princess was supposed to be one of Boonmee's former incarnations?)

I haven't read your post because I haven't seen the film, but going on his other films, it's probably a little fruitless to try and make sense of everything.

Yes, AW movies are far more intuitive than cognitive.

http://www.animateprojects.org/films/by_date/2009/phantoms

but going on his other films, it's probably a little fruitless to try and make sense of everything.

I get this, and I would've been fine with the movie if it there'd been some gut-level beauty or sense of wonder in the movie, but except for a few isolated scenes (involving the ghosts and the princess), there wasn't. It felt like the movie was intentionally laconic and monotone, and I didn't understand why. Also, with all the talk of (illegal) immigrants and the still images of soldiers, it felt like there was a political angle to the movie as well, but it remained equally obscure.

i get an experience from Joe's films that i've never had from any others. i'm not entirely sure why i'm so moved by them.

Not to be a total apologist, but he might have some good reasons for making gestures towards the political rather than outright statements. I do think that there are political motivations in a lot of his films, but they're just part of the soup along with everything else. It's a strange tendency given recent events in Thailand, but I get the vague sense that this is how a lot of Thai artists roll.

There's one comment Uncle Boonmee makes about his past that might be key to the political themes of the movie, but I'm not familiar enough with Thai political history to know whether that comment explains things, or whether it's more of a throwaway line that's only meant to illustrate what kind of a person Boonmee is.

Have you seen A Letter From Uncle Boonmee? Wondering how the two films work with each other.

that comment explains everything.

Really? How do you think it connects to the still images of soldiers? Are the soldiers doing what Boonmee said he used to do in his past? With the ape men standing in for (SPOILER)? But in one of the images the ape man seems to be quite friendly with the soldiers.

i dont think the movie is as plainly symbolic as you'd like it to be. like the whole "country bad, city good" thing - apichatpong doesnt go for such literal metaphors. he's basically a surrealist.

Ok, but for a surrealist he seems to be quite interested in very mundane activities - like Tong washing himself with soap, Boonmee going through dialysis, etc. And I don't think the images of soldiers hold much surreal power: they're not impressive as such, they mostly just serve to illustrate Boonmee's story. So if there's no symbolism in the story + images, I don't see why they are in the movie, as the whole scene is audiovisually rather boring.

saw blissfully yours a few weeks ago and it's stuck with me. who doesn't want to pick wild berries and make out in a jungle?

I'm not reading this til I see it at NYFF, but G Kenny's take:

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2010/09/nyff-2010-some-brief-notes-toward-constructing-a-users-manual-for-uncle-boonmee-who-can-recall-his-p.html

I gotta disagree with his point #4: to me the "clunky handheld camerawork" didn't translate into a "breathtaking, [...] head-spinning sequence". It just felt clunky and amateurish. I'm sure that was a deliberate choice on Weerasethakul's part, but there would've been many ways one could've shot a breathtaking sequence in an environment like that (the shot with the fireflies in the dark hinted at those possibilities), so why he chose not to, I simply don't understand. If it was, as he suggests, to emphasize Boonmee's mortality, I don't think it was very effective in that. The scenes with the dialysis tubes worked much better to that effect.

Just surfaced:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemr-3n_Hcs

that yours adam

No! It's Apichatpong's trailer for the festival my movie is showing in. He didn't get in, he's not good enough.

sad

saw him speak and present clips from all his movies (and anthem) at tiff

pretty awesome

I like the way he talks, it relaxes me

saw Unc, still absorbing the aftertaste, esp after it goes into the cave. Looked and sounded great.

He took a pic of the audience at the start of the Q&A and was wearing a t-shirt they made to raise funds for flying the crew to the NYFF.

apichatpalme?

and now I know it's a-PICH-at-pong

the t-shirts i mean, were they the apichtpalme ones with the monkeys on em?

I didn't get a close look. I think they shoulda made a catfish vibrator.

haha

a roundup of reactions:

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/2345

fuckin need to see it again tbh

I saw Uncle Boonmee last night...I'm reluctant to say anything negative, because I know people will jump all over me. There are many slow, contemplative films I like and love; I didn't love this one. Music often helps me get into such films (e.g., the Arvo Part opening to Gerry). Uncle Boonmee has none, unless I drifted for a minute or two and missed it. (The quiet nature sounds were nice, and reminded me of the park scenes in Blow-Up.) I giggled at the still shot of the futuristic monkey-creature surrounded by all those people in fatigues, like it was some kind of vacation photo--I think it was meant to be funny, but no one else in the theatre seemed to think so. Some nice cinematography. I saw it at Toronto's new Lightbox theatre, so unlike Syndromes and a Century last year, I was allowed to drink coffee and eat a chocolate bar. That was good.

its ok to say u didnt like it if u didnt like it, don't worry, we're not going to beat u up.

Yeah – I have a blind spot for Tsai films.

I will not be able to see this until November, unless I get a chance to see it in Vienna.

Trying to avoid "spoilers"

don't worry, we're not going to beat u up

Still recovering from my traumatic defense of Up in the Air.

Haha

around here that's like admitting you ate babies ;)

this film didn't blow me away, but I like his stuff more on second viewings.

but he's never really reached "great" level in my head.

Mysterious Object is definitely "great" for me but it is sort of a perfect storm of "elements adam would like"

the monk in this was same one as in Syndromes and a Century, yes? and he was in Tropical Malady? I recognized his teeth.

I hate those critics who "luxuriate" in a film's imagery, but I opened my shirt and luxuriated in Tropical Malady.

I giggled at the still shot of the futuristic monkey-creature surrounded by all those people in fatigues, like it was some kind of vacation photo--I think it was meant to be funny, but no one else in the theatre seemed to think so.

The same thing happened when I saw the movie. Me and my friend and a handful of other people laughed, but most of the theatre was dead silent.

watched Tropical Malady a few hours ago. was really into it through the first half, started fading during the second. paused it and took a half hour nap (was operating on little sleep). woke up a bit out of sorts and finished it.

basically FUCKING WOW. it's one that will haunt me. dude's onto something. i'm sure the groggy sleep state helped, but still...

Nobody laughed in the theatre I saw it in. Then again, there were like maximum 10 of us at the beginning of the movie and only 6-7 left by the time that picture came up.
Circa1916, everytime I've seen one of this guy's films I either fell asleep during the movie or was in a half asleep state as the movie went on. I find that that is one the things I enjoy most about his films, this tranquility that lulls you to sleep. Well that and the fact that there are some beautiful images that I remember long after I've seen the movie. Except for this last one, which left me a bit cold.

Just watched Uncle Boonmee - it was SPECTACULAR. I have honestly never seen anything like it before. Perhaps this is an overenthusiastic post-cinema reaction, and I'll realise that the film isn't really any good, but I'm coasting on good energy for now!

Funny, creepy, atmospheric and above all beautiful. Enter the Void meets Pandora from Avatar?

I watched Tropical Malady a couple of days ago. The first half was splendid, I really liked how joyful and light it was. I think it's my favorite depiction of courtship I remember seeing on film. We get to see them abstracted into myth on the second part. The forest looks incredible. The tiger. The opening credits with the soldier. I want to see everything by this man.

Mark Kermode asked the BBC Pronunciation dept about this (first reaction: 'Pronunciation unit?!' *googles* oh ok...) and the guy was all like: "you know they call him 'joe'".

Anyway kind of want to watch w/anything reincarnation related I want to bring more knowledge to this.

http://www.monologueaudition.com/image/red-dot.gifhttp://www.monologueaudition.com/image/red-dot.gif

Loved Uncle Boonmee, I can't think of another filmmaker doing anything similar at the moment, or ever really. Is there anyone? Really glad to see him getting more and more international acclaim these days.

really enjoyed Tropical Malady despite having to pause it halfway through to take a nap.

oh man, i didn't love this, i just liked it. parts of it anyway. the opening half hour is so seductive and resonant and strange and mysterious. i hated the princess and the catfish segment and i don't think it full recovered from there on although the cave section pulled it back to an extent before letting go again. pretty disappointed.

Was thinking of Stalker when that cave scene came on. Think it was trying to do a lot w/Buddhism and modernity and then the whole 'are they mad ghosts or are they dead commies' piece. Lots of stuff that was hinted at but not allowed to grow, even if its filmed with all the spatial stuff in mind.

Quite interested in the book it was based on.

oh man, i didn't love this, i just liked it. parts of it anyway. the opening half hour is so seductive and resonant and strange and mysterious. i hated the princess and the catfish segment and i don't think it full recovered from there on although the cave section pulled it back to an extent before letting go again. pretty disappointed.

― jed_, Wednesday, 24 November 2010 23:32 (5 days ago) Bookmark

wow, really? i don't really feel ready to totally cover all of it yet, but the catfish segment was next level, for me, and sat so nicely. like the gold/river part in tropical malady (or was it blissfully yours?).

cave section was pretty special - kinda reminded me more of the magic of the jungle content in his other films more than the jungle content in this one did.

I was disappointed by just how visually uninteresting I found this film. I was prepared for something slow, meditative and non-narrative like (or at least non-linear), but not for how underwhelming I found a lot of the direction and photography.

Yeah, I don't understand people who compliment the cave scene, because to me it looked only like amateurish, shaky handheld shots of... a cave. Someone compared it to Stalker, but Stalker at least made its nature scenes feel incredibly hypnotic and beautiful.

there's a very arresting image of the ghost/wife emptying boonmee's catheter while the nephew tries to avoid the stream of the waste. it's almost like a religious painting. i thought that was very beautiful. arresting. that single scene is more interesting than the whole of most films.

but i just couldn't get with the catfish segment. it seemed too obviously mythical or meaningful or something. whereas i almost died of wonderment when boonsong showed up at the table. it was so strange but the way he describes his "journey" toward becoming a monkey ghost spirit makes it seem even more mysterious. e.g. his specific reference to his mother's PENTAX camera, which seems to ground it in modern reality and therefore makes it, somehow, ever stranger than it already is.

also the aunt, the first thing she asks boonsong is "why did you grow your hair so long?" !!!

I agree that the table scene was wonderful and mysterious, but I was let down by the final third of the movie (the cave scene and everything that followed it). I just couldn't figure out why it was so lifeless and grey and boring compared to the beginning of the movie. Even the weird and potentially interesting segment with the soldiers and human apes was made boring by having it look like a Powerpoint slideshow. If final third was supposed to contrast with the mystical mood of the first third, I'm not sure why.

Just saw Syndromes and a Century and I don't know what happened but it felt good.

It reminded me of Stalker as in it had a similar idea of people going to a place that feels end of the world to find themselves. But yes it was filmed differently.

It was often funny, including the powerpoint slide, couldn't figure out if some of the laughs were intentional or not.

Also liked how it often grounded the events in an everyday world - soap operas, karaoke, guerrilla warfare, cameras, etc. - the scene at the end where the monk to be can't wait to come back to a world of computers from his retreat.

It had the Buddhist thing where you actually did want to find out more about it.

A lot of slack is being cut for this film by reviewers on the grounds 'it had this Buddhist thing'.

For example, Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian needs to be booked in for a quick chat with Richard Dawkins:

"It's the most persuasive and beguiling account of mysticism and religion that I've seen in the cinema recently, or perhaps ever."

There was not much of an argument as such -- however it does display people who are at ease with modern objects and cling to old beliefs. I doubt it was trying to persuade anyone of anything. And i felt the monkeys were DEAD COMMIES.

re: 'Buddhist thing'. It had certain scenes (the Catfish scene, which I found quite funny at first then hated, like jed) where it lingered on after and I wanted to know a bit more as to what was behind it, hence I like to get hold of the book it was based on.

Usually its just a bit of reincarnation over here, karma over there blah blah.

i think i'm going to go see uncle boonmee tomorrow night. i am in the mood for a meditative film. but i'm pretty tired this week; i hope i don't fall asleep... also i hope i like it.

Robyn never reported back.

still asleep

totally agree about the scene where the guy is trying not to let the piss get on his shoes. awesome. and i never would have expected it to end with that song.

Am going to see uncle boonme this week in Glasgow. Never seen any of his other films.

missed this :(

three whole showings! did you go see on of the 60-odd screenings of it's a wonderful life instead?

some posters:

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/2661

forgot first showing, had an hour of sleep the night before the next showing so was asleep before it started, went for dinner with some friends for the next one. I really like it's a wonderful life and think its status as quintessential christmas movie is fairly justified but i'm never sure who is going to see it at all those showings at the gft every year.

Your guardian angel was watching over you. A narrow escape.

if i were to find it crap i really wouldn't mind. i have waded through lagoons of shit celluloid. I have seen that film Mafia! starring Jay Mohr.

I'm just to desperate to see if someone share the same view as me: if you are going to be surrealist film-maker. at least be interesting,competent, and have some visual sensibility.

i don't think he is a surrealist or is even trying to be.

but interesting, competent with a visual sensibility? yes and much more.

i didn't like this film all that much at the time but i can't stop thinking about it.

when i saw this film he said at the Q+A that he switched gears plotwise with every reel (the standard 35mm film reel being about 20 minutes, so the film goes through about six reels), but you don't even really notice that kind of structural experiment when watching it, or i didn't

how are crowds at Film Forum, anyone?

Missed it at Film Forum but saw it at Brooklyn Heights Cinema. No one there on a Sunday night, but that's a weird little theater anyway and often half empty.

I think it's also playing somewhere in the Village.

this movie is unbelievably strange, i couldn't make heads or tails of it tonally and otherwise..

[SPOILER, to the extent a movie like this can have a SPOILER]

The whole dying sequence, where they go into the cave, I think is one of my favorite sections of any film of recent years. Almost no dialogue, and for a while almost no anything, but so carefully and almost perfectly made.

I saw his short - Phantoms of Nabua last year at BFI and it was great, loved it. I watched Uncle Boonmee just recently and it was completely lost on me.

I took it partly as a meditation on dying from something closer to a Buddhist perspective. I thought it was kind of funny that in the theater at the same time Biutiful was playing -- which appears to be a meditation on dying from an exceedingly vain and non-Buddhist perspective. I do think there were cultural and political references that were lost on me. E.g. I sort of gleaned that Tong became a monk temporarily as part of some kind of mourning tradition but I wasn't entirely clear on that.

There were certainly parts that I had no idea what to make of -- e.g. Tong and Auntee Jen going out and staying in at the same time. The princess sequence was sort of confusing, although I guess that was something of a "past life."

I assumed the still photo part was a Chris Marker homage, and the dream sort of foreshadowed the end, in which Uncle Boonmee does become a kind of "past person" and is forgotten. Definitely seemed like there was something in there about modernity and tradition, but I didn't take it as a standard lament of the former overtaking the latter.

I took it partly as a meditation on dying from something closer to a Buddhist perspective.

well yes, but that doesn't explain, say, the really, really odd final 10 minutes--the stuff in the karaoke bar, in the horribly-lit hotel room, etc.

the princess thing seemed like a tangent, which i guess is ok with me.

it's the still photo part that i found both bewildering and kind of annoying, for reasons i can't explain.

really--a chris marker homage? i'm not sure weerasethakul is really that much of a cinephile, honestly. he doesn't seem to go in for "homages." i think that's one thing that's sort of refreshing about his films.

I dunno, narrated still photograph montage about the future seems pretty Jetee to me. He did get a film MFA at Art Institute of Chicago, btw.

I thought there was something about afterlife as a part of memory and consciousness rather than a separate realm -- the wife says that ghosts aren't attached to places but to people. When he asks her where he'll go when he dies, she's silent. Maybe saying "from a buddhist perspective" is unfair, but more like using that as a jumping-off point.

I also thought there was something going on in the last ten minutes about technological "ghosts" -- disembodied images on the TV and disembodied voices/music in the bar. The relatively rudimentary technology is very jarring after the rest of the film (although there is one other scene with a television). Also something about the indifference of the young people to the death and to tradition.

i'm not sure weerasethakul is really that much of a cinephile, honestly. he doesn't seem to go in for "homages." i think that's one thing that's sort of refreshing about his films.

He has said that each reel of Boonmee was conceived as a pastiche of a particular genre or tradition, most of them, I think, Thai. This is easy to parse in a few of the segments -- the photomontage (which is adapted from 'Phantoms of Nabua'), the princess sequence, the cave, but, having only seen it twice anyway, it's hard to tell where some of the other reels end. I don't think this is really essential to the film, but it's silly to say that he's not a cinephille or that he doesn't do homage. He also made Adventures of Iron Pussy.

I don't really know that there's much to explain, plot-wise. As corny as it sounds, it is a kind of "meditation on dying", set within a particular religious tradition (which, if I understand correctly, isn't just 'Buddhist', but an Isaan-specific mystical Buddhism) made by a non-religious person. Apichatpong adapted the premise from a Buddhist tract, and I think the movie is an attempt to enact such accounts of ecstatic spiritual experience without really making claims about their truth or import either way. The hotel room/restaurant scene takes place outside of linear time -- he shows us parallel sequences involving the same sets of bodies, and you can accept what you're watching or not. The filmmaking is so fluid, and the formal textures so consistent, that I found it very easy to do so. If it didn't work for you experientially, though, I'm not sure there is much to argue about.

I was sorta thinking each segment of the movie was more or less a recall of a previous "Joe" film. I think maybe I saw a critic say about as much some time ago and never really got it out of the back of my head while watching it. Certainly didn't hurt to have some of the actors show up again, even with some of the same names ... ?

I think it has to be a lament on the passing of tradition. We see all these stunning images of the forest and the life they lead in the countryside and after Boonme dies that final room is just so sad and depressing. They only care about TV and computers but Tong decides to go back to the temple after some fast food so there might be some hope. I was as surprised as the lady. Notice how in Tropical Malady they definitely have fun at the karaoke bar and in Syndromes and a Century the dancing suggests a shared positive experience between people in the city. But now they stay indoors and also go out and it's all the same?

ok, well he likes old movies, but i'm not sure he's the sort of person to make an homage to art cinema in his films? i dunno, i won't pursue this much further.

it worked for me "experientially" off and on...

it seems like marker is one of the people he would make reference or even homage to though. fwiw it seemed like the "black hole"/air con scene in syndromes was a nod to kubrick but it can definitely stand on its own.

This guy.

Like the rest of his movies, Uncle Boonmee has dead spots and moments where whimsy, mystery, quietness, and erotics intermingle like nothing else -- maybe ever.

boonmee

man I really gotta see Boonmee

its on netflix streaming. i loved it.

gotta see it again. have a p dope poster of it in my dining room

love it so much. this guy's the greatest.

I thought it was boring, I'm obviously a philistine.

gotta see it again. have a p dope poster of it in my dining room

― funny-skrillex-bee_132455836669.gif (s1ocki), Saturday, 7 July 2012 06:42 (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is it the chris ware one y/n

I thought it was boring, I'm obviously a philistine.

― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Saturday, 7 July 2012 15:59 (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

aw!, this is him at his most diverting, i think; the vignette structure, the oscillation between recognisable, familiar present and less specific, unfamiliar (to me) other places. there is that funny line about each segment being shot in the cinematographic style of a different decade. i've still got around to catching that mysterious object & probably a bunch of non-feature-length worthy small things before rewatching this, but it was great. weird remembering & reading the discussion of the cave scenes upthread; the images still exist like dark sacred tableaux in my head.

^otm about the cave scenes!

this movie rules

ooooh i didn't know there was a chris ware poster - love that ozu poster that ware did

i think blissfully yours, of the ones i've seen, is still my favourite - captures languid heat lust better than p much any other movie.

http://images.nymag.com/images/2/daily/2011/02/08_uncleboonmee_560x824.jpg

& wow, that ozu's nice, sure. the criterion art too.

co-sign on blissfully yours, even as a more restrained example of the thing-he-does. so patient and tender. tropical malady's probably an easier catch-all because it has a little of that & a little of his out there side.

Yeah I really treasure these movies because they really capture a specific mood--reminds me of late summer afternoons in Houston. Beautiful and oppressively hot and humid and very still. The air hums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGVXnvgxseE

report from set of his latest

The 44-year-old director expects the film to represent a turning point in his oeuvre. “I’m at a stage where I doubt a lot about career and country. This movie is like a farewell. I have to make a movie to get away from old memories and try to build anew, maybe in a different country, maybe in a different form of filmmaking,” he said. “I’m sick of this place and this movie is a manifestation of this thinking.”

http://www.filmcomment.com/article/on-set-with-apichatpong-weerasethakul

can't wait

Me too.

Saw this last night... a "spiritual" movie with an expected element of political allegory. Due to my awful sleep-deprivation-related drug regimen i did nod off some in the last third, but Dennis Lim read a note from Joe before the beginning of the film which said that was OK.

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-nyff-2015-apichatpong-weerasethakuls-cemetery-of-splendour

Interview in last month's Cahiers is excellent and includes lots of making-of stuff for his latest.

will check that out.

Cemetery of Splendour showing at MIFF in a month.

showing at NYC IFC in March

they appear to be doing a retrospect too
http://www.ifccenter.com/series/mysterious-splendors-the-films-of-apichatpong-weerasethakul/

Saw it last saturday. Boy is it strange. I almost dozed off myself, might be the most tiring film I've ever seen. The soundscape could be from a sleep box at times. Looking forward to seeing it again, think it might work a lot better once you know what's coming.

Oh, in case it isn't clear, it's pretty unique and a must-see.

love me some joe

Frederik with another balanced "narcotizing" / "must-see" review!

love me some joe

― Cornelius Pardew (jim in glasgow), Monday, February 1, 2016 12:38 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Frederik's mini-review makes me want to avoid this one like the plague ("I fell asleep! Five Stars!"). Is there any "slow cinema" you dont like?

It's quite literally a film about falling asleep, so I think it's warranted here.

is it a film I can mop the floor to?

;)

mopping allowed. no vacuuming, please.

i absolutely have slept at least partially through every apichatpong film i've ever seen and I still would call him one of my favorite filmmakers

That's happened once with Tsai.

I'll admit I closed my eyes once to the new Akerman one today. I caught when a new scene came on, as the sound changed, and opened them back up.

In general I like 'slow cinema'. I dislike plenty of films for being too slow though. But when an image is particularly stunning, or a soundscape meticulously constructed, I don't mind having time to take it all in. And the imagery in Cemetery of Splendour is stunning, as is the soundscape.

but methinks you needed coffee time.

hearing about how sleepy something is. but stunning and meticulous. from a laptop in fred's mom's apartment. kill me now.

The film is about a sleeping disease, and I watched it at Gothenburg film festival, and you're an asshole.

Artwork is key in the film. What’s the significance of the use of religious sculpture?

The whole temple, with the sculptures and the signs, was always preaching Buddhism and the karma and reincarnation. And this sculpture is part of this cycle of suffering, and I think of certain periods when I feel that living here seems very depressing—being governed by this law that constantly teaches you, as if you are a student all the time living in Thailand. And also in school, we always have this propaganda, texts and poems. That’s how we grew up: the kids are taught [to be] very, very religious.

How did you choose shooting locations?

It was in my hometown. So I know all the places, and mostly I based it off of my memory growing up with this hospital, and the cinemas, and this school. I tried to combine the three elements in the film. And during preproduction, all the lake script-writing I shifted to my hometown because I felt that the story was getting more and more personal.

There is a mural of one of our prime ministers of the most brutal regime, yet people still worship him because of all this propaganda. Khon Kaen, our place, my hometown, is the home of his statue because he is considered the one who brought development to the region. But for me it’s quite shocking to see his statue and all the murals of him.

http://www.filmcomment.com/article/apichatpong-weerasethakul-cemetery-of-splendor/

I found it marvelous, and my attention didn't flag. Fairly conventional for him in parts, thanks to the dialogue scenes. There's a moment between Jenjira Pongpas and two goddesses in the flesh that as creepy-funny as anything in Lynch.

Koresky:

At times, it seems as though the film is hypnotizing the viewer. Cemetery of Splendor exists in an almost constant state of tranquility, its deliberate pacing and frequent stretches of silence acting as a kind of cocoon. Only Apichatpong Weerasethakul could make a movie that features ghosts, a slowly rising erection from under a bed sheet, and an actor literally shitting in the woods on camera and still make it seem serene and entirely disinterested in disruption or shock.

oh yeah, the erection! that got some titters at the NYFF.

this was incandescent and surprisingly narrative! More plot and character focused than most of his other films. lots of shots that developed into miniature stories like the dinosaur sculpture roaring at impotent rage at a parade of schoolchildren or the strange musical chairs on the lakeside or the men and women jogging in place on perpetual motion machines or the multilevel cinema as an escher sculpture of inception into the multicolored lights of the hospital cemetery.

my takeaway was that the simple technology of the world we live in is far more impossible than true magic. the final shot, with the nurse staring wide eyed at children playing football on the graves of kings and trying valiantly to wake up from the waking dream of life, underlined the point nicely i thought

yeah I don't remember so many dialogue scenes in other Apichatpong films.

the tate modern in london is doing a 14 hour all nighter of his work next month. would love to do it, but dont think i can manage it :|

that all-nighter is so fkn stupid

it could be a cool experience. if it was an all dayer, i would def do it.

http://taildom.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/cat-plays-ping-pong.jpg

would be good if they filmed the audience at the all nighter and showed that as a film. lots of sleeping people. very meditative.

that'd work w/ a single Joe film, often

it could be a cool experience. if it was an all dayer, i would def do it.

― StillAdvance, Thursday, 10 March 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

His films didn't have that intention - its a gimmick.

he makes me want to believe in ghosts

watching five of these back to back is just wasteful

some Joe faves -- Gattaca might be the biggest shocker, but it makes a kind of sense.

http://grasshopperfilm.com/transmissions-weerasethakul/

yeah, agreed.

“What was it that turned you on to making movies?” Matt Thrift asks Apichatpong Weerasethakul for Little White Lies: “It was Spielberg. Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. and Close Encounters were really important to me. I didn’t think it’d be possible, but I just wanted to be involved in some way. When I discovered experimental cinema in Chicago, I found that a better fit with my nature—very personal, and something I could do by myself, in a darkroom, with a small group of people.”

http://lwlies.com/interviews/apichatpong-weerasethakul-cemetery-of-splendour/

saw Blissfullly Yours again, it was as beautiful as I remembered. I liked what Nathan Lee had to say about it, that instead of resolving the story it “deliquesces into a state of feeling.” Between Blissfully Yours, Tropical Malady, Uncle Boonmee and Cemetery of Splendour it’s hard for me to pick a favorite! I didn’t love Syndromes and a Century quite as much as those on first viewing but I need to watch it again. Haven’t yet seen Mysterious Object at Noon

From Sight and Sound:

Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Memoria sees the Thai director filming a feature outside his native country for the first time, and working with a name Western cast. It stars Tilda Swinton, Jeanne Balibar and Daniel Giménez Cacho (Zama) and is set in Colombia, where Apichatpong teamed up with a local crew and his longstanding director of photography Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. Memoria is about an archaeologist, a fish scaler and a woman plagued by strange sounds. The director talked about the film in this email interview.
Jonathan Romney: What has the experience been like working outside your usual domain
of Thai landscape and mythology?

Apichatpong Weerasethakul: Enjoyable, liberating. Still, I approached the new place similarly to when I work in Thailand. I appreciate everyday life’s details, a sense of perpetual transformation, the decay. They are universal.

JR: Why did you decide to work with
Tilda Swinton and Jeanne Balibar?

AW: I have been friends with them for
many years. I wrote the script with them
in mind. We share the love of a particular cinema, and we wanted to be in a place
that is foreign to us, to open our senses.

JR: How did you first discover Colombia, and what fascinated you about the country?

AW: It started when I was young with the stories of the Amazon, the Inca, and Gabriel García Marquez. Later, I had a chance to visit Mexico, Peru, then Colombia. I learned about the country and was struck by the land that links with violence and greed and people’s perseverance.

JR: Archaeology features in the film – is
that what the title Memoria is about?

AW: Yes. Intermixed layers of memories.

JR: Given the story, does sound
design figure heavily?

AW: One hundred per cent!

Jonathan Romney

Second palm secured.

will see this the first instance i can!

This seems like the kind of gimmick you might come up with if you think the film you’ve acquired might be poorly received.
https://t.co/w4An1IXuTW?amp=1

Sounds like this is going to be Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Captain Eo.

I'm going to see it

New one has a couple of longueurs but measures up to the last two but with a return to the Uncle Boonmee spooks.

The last 30 minutes are among his best, most sustained filmmaking. I was holding my breath.

How do you find out where/when this is screening?

I got the Neon screeners #firstworldproblems

ok lol

https://i.imgur.com/fK1mVYp.jpg

I wanted to ask does anyone know who the jazzy sort of postrocky band were in this

No DC-area dates yet. AFI better be planning a massive retrospective in collaboration with the Freer Gallery, or whatever they're called now.

https://silver.afi.com/Browsing/Movies/Details/f-0100003400

Memoria opens at AFI Silver for a one-week run on Friday, April 8. I'm going to the Sunday afternoon screening; will anyone else be catching it there?

i'm seeing memoria tonight for its final night at ifc :)

you know what, they're right, i shouldn't be able to watch this movie at home

it is showing at the Roxie in SF right now, through Tuesday

i shouldn't be able to watch this movie at home

They said the same about Captain Eo

I watched this movie at home and it still amazed me.

same here but i don’t think i’ve ever heard rain sound so amazing and lifelike in a film as i did watching this in a theater

what i’m saying is if this drops into a theater near you alfred go see it again. i certainly will be when it returns to new york

I'm glad I'm waiting for it to arrive at the Walker, even if it means waiting until almost July.

thx for the heads up on the DC showing. will be going tonight.

yeah likewise. going to the early screening on monday so i don't have to get a babysitter

playing in LA 4/29 thru 5/5 at the Los Feliz 3

https://www.americancinematheque.com/now-showing/memoria-5-5-22-10pm/

This was beautiful, loved it. That entire last act with Hernan in particular was a total dream. Walking out into the real world afterwards, the sound of the city took on a new kind of resonance. So much of this is sound. Which is why…

I almost lost my fucking mind about 15 minutes into this when some dude directly behind me and to the right began to aggressively shovel his hand into his popcorn bag, slurp soda, and rattle some kind of candy out of a box INCESSANTLY for what seemed like almost 30 minutes straight. In a small theater during a movie that’s frequently pin drop quiet. I wanted to absolutely throttle him. Like who goes to a Weerasethakul movie and gets The Marvel Super Platter and goes at it like they haven’t seen food in a week?

But yeah, go see this and please eat beforehand.

Risk COVID if you must.

Apparently Memoria is being held over at AFI for a second week. I didn't think that was possible under the distributors' terms? (The Sunday afternoon screening I went to was sold out, and the programmers were struggling to make room for more screenings that week.)

And THIS to what everyone has been saying about the sound. By the last act my fellow audience was riveted.

I'm glad I'm waiting for it to arrive at the Walker, even if it means waiting until almost July.

― Max Hamburgers (Eric H.), Friday, April 8, 2022 8:28 AM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

same!

The “only playing one city at a time for a week” release schedule was apparently abandoned by the US distributor (sez Wiki).

xp

Everyone was handed a film strip with scenes from the movie upon entrance at my AFI screening. Nice lil memento.

I'm still sort of in disbelief about how astonishingly good this was

The best thing he's done since Tropical Malady IMO.

Words cannot express how disappointed I was that no fish were eaten

Finally got a chance to see Memoria yesterday, my wife and I loved it. It's still unfolding in my mind, it's a hard movie to say anything concrete about because so much of it seems to exist at the edge of perception. A movie you feel more than see, in a way. I know what Alfred means up above about holding his breath, it's so full of resonance even/especially when nothing is visibly happening. (And then when something does happen it's ... nothing you'd expect.) Lovely mysterious movie.

Afterward we had to stop by Target, and because it was 6:30 on a holiday Monday evening, the store was weirdly depopulated. We both commented after a few minutes that we felt like we were still in the movie, floating down these clean empty aisles.

Walking out into the real world afterwards, the sound of the city took on a new kind of resonance.

Yes, exactly.

i'm annoyed at myself for missing this when it came to our art house a few weeks ago.

should i just watch it at home or is too much of the effect lost that way?

If Joe ever actually releases it to home video, I'd totally recommend it — but for sure the big-screen immersion is important.

I watched it at home. It didn't open in South Florida.

I've had a screener for the last half year that I've been avoiding. I finally get a chance to see it in theaters this Friday.

played at a cinema 40min away from me in canada but the border crossing rules were still too tight for me to get there, no Weerasethakul exemptions. no sign of it coming around again anytime soon so just gonna download it and just watch it at home. feel like it might be a fun one to watch with headphones.

Yeah as noted above the sound is really essential, even in the long quiet sections.

Just got tickets to see it outside at the local gardens where we walk the dogs a few times per week. Very stoked.

i had planned to see this at the walker art center in mpls but just realized it was THIS weekend and not the upcoming one :(

hmm i guess it's also playing in duluth at the beginning of august

As far as I'm concerned, the "must be seen in a theater" gimmick was no more true of this than any of his other films. This has a particular sound mix and narrative rhythm, but so do a lot of movies that aren't subjected to such theatrical-only gatekeeping. This is the best film of 2021 I've seen -- a total beauty -- and is more accessible than the release pattern and reviews might let on. See it on a smart fridge if you have to.

haha thx

Apparently MUBI will be streaming it in some countries starting August 5. I'll see it in a cinema if I ever get the chance, but I have no regrets/apologies for watching it at home. I'm too far from anywhere.

I agree that "must see in a theater" is no more true here than his films in general (or lots of movies, obviously, particularly ones that demand/reward slow careful attention). I've seen three of his movies in theater — Tropical Malady, Uncle Boonmee and this — and all were definitely enhanced by the experience. But I've also liked the ones I've watched at home. (I do really wish I could see Blissfully Yours on a big screen.)

No one else will ever be able to say this in this thread: I saw Memoria tonight, then I hung around for Caddyshack afterwards. (Not an obscurely conceptual double-bill, just bizarre programming.)

Fifteen or 20 minutes in, Memoria had a scene with subtitles. That went on for a couple of minutes, and then, for the rest of the film, no more subtitles. Two-four-six-eight people walked out at different points. Seeing as I was staying for the second film, I stuck it out, not 100% sure if it was a mistake or intentional--part of me wondered if it was the most audacious, arrogant example ever of a director saying "This is pure cinema so pure, subtitles aren't necessary."

The rest of us got a free pass as we exited, so evidently a mistake. (It was the first of a few screenings this week.) I will try to see it again and withhold comment until I do.

No subtitles for Caddyshack, either, but even though I was seeing it for the first time, I was able to follow along for the most part.

Cool, so you liked Memoria!

I saw memoria in the theatre a couple weeks ago.

BONG!

wasn't sure about it tbh, glad I watched it but some aspects I didn't really enjoy and there's a bit near the end that made me chuckle somewhat derisively.

best scenes are the long dialogues between Tilda and the dude at the end

that bit near the end is transcendent

xxp You’re lucky, after my screening we got Caddyshack II.

Now I’m just imagining Tilda passing by Chevy Chase doing his zen driver practice in the middle of a mountain jungle lmfao

there's a bit near the end that made me chuckle somewhat derisively.

You mean the "Flight of the Navigator" ship with a new paint job? This not particularly convincing sfx shot kind of broke whatever spell the film was casting. I forget which one, but one of Jia Zhangke's films does this too - a naturalistically shot film with one special effect that sticks out like a sore thumb.

I certainly agree with a lot of the positive comments about this, but it's probably my least favourite of the five of his films I've seen.

I was not aware until I saw his name in the credits that Danny Glover has a production company that has been involved in three of Weerasethakul's films.

Props to Hernan #2 for playing dead so well for so long.

So there is going to be a physical media release for Memoria after all:

https://sovereignfilms.square.site/product/memoria-limited-collector-s-edition-bluray-dvd-/2

I want my eight bucks back!

siren.gif

https://metrograph.com/apichatpongweerasethakul/

GMC: I want to know more about what you’re working on, but first I must congratulate you: Tropical Malady was just voted one of the 100 best films of all time. I imagine you saw the Sight and Sound poll. Does that kind of recognition mean anything to you? And are you surprised Tropical Malady was singled out, rather than one of your other films?

AW: Well, sometimes I am asked to make a list, and often I change that list. So, it doesn’t mean much… And for me, it doesn’t mean one work; Tropical Malady belongs to the other pieces of my memory because they are all connected. Whatever film is in there, it’s the same, they’re connected. What is meaningful is that the film still resonates after all this time. It’s like a very, very old memory, so I’m surprised.

GMC: You’re in the process of restoring Tropical Malady, right?

AW: Yes, hopefully we’ll be able to release it by August next year.

Bought the t-shirt
http://tickets.ifccenter.com/images/user/_13370/weersethakul%20mock%20on%20natural.jpg

clem! Did you ever give Memoria a second shot?!

Never did post here about seeing Memoria -- caught it at one of some irregular Alamo screenings here last September. Very involving, I thought, and I'm glad for the experience.

forks where did you get that shirt

It's been almost two years since Memoria screened at Cannes and won the Jury Prize, and it looks like it isn't going to be available on streaming or on dvd in the US any time soon, although it is continuing to be shown at a few various small theaters around the country for one day or one week at a time.

That strategy has some brilliance, I see that it is trying to build a cult audience, but it is also very frustrating

table:
https://tickets.ifccenter.com/websales/pages/CatalogProductInfo.aspx?catinfo=3428~8722a542-64c1-4c0b-af02-c3e8a239d769&epguid=96a5becf-2226-4da1-b589-53e5c6a24d95

thanks forks

http://www.moriareviews.com/rongulator/wp-content/uploads/Tropical-Malady-2004-1-650x366.jpg

Just got this from the library, excited to watch sometime this week.

UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010) Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Sensory Meridian Response is a wonderful thing. In the Thai genius’s movies, the characters speak slowly and hypnotically, usually in tandem with a soothing symphony of buzzing insects. Uncle Boonmee, in particular, depicts a somnolent environment in which ghosts, monsters and humans peacefully co-exist. Subsequently, the soundscape is two hours of pure pleasure, including an “aural” sex scene between a princess and a catfish that amounts to ASMR-esque ripples of water and an occasional moan. As Weerasethakul encourages viewers to fall asleep during his movies, his entire back catalogue can be appreciated with closed eyes. So much so, the director released an album of “selected soundworks” from his filmography, including the jungle noises from Uncle Boonmee.

same here but i don’t think i’ve ever heard rain sound so amazing and lifelike in a film as i did watching this in a theater

Omg WANT

on a recent long flight I had put a rip of Syndromes and a Century on my iPad and expected it to not quite work in that context, but I was drawn in and mesmerised as always. I have no idea how he sustains such a hold during long, slow takes. I find his stuff transformative to watch. I think I’m kind of addicted to how it feels.

he's coming to the walker in mpls in april. going to screen his shorts and a few days before is introducing a tsai ming-liang film

http://walkerart.org/calendar/2023/apichatpong-weerasethakul-in-conversation-with-sky-hopinka

Oh man, he's introducing Goodbye, Dragon Inn — which I think is his favorite film. I'd love to see that on a big screen.

So I made it exactly 3 minutes into Uncle Boonmee before I fell asleep. Not gonna lie, i allowed myself to nap through the entire thing. 10/10, mostly for the audio, and also for the occasional glimpses of the film i caught whenever i remembered to open my eyes.

Will rewatch 'properly' before I return it, needless to say his album of "selected soundworks" has jumped to the top of my wantlist.

I bet he would be delighted with that experience