Apichatpong Weerasethakul

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