Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

[Stay Puft]

RAK TI KHON KHAEN (CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR)
Dir. Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul

http://i.imgur.com/tku5zXd.jpg

IMDb page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2818654/)

[Stay Puft]

This is such a sleepy movie! The rhythm is so leisurely and hypnotic, I nearly dozed off twice. That's probably the biggest compliment I could give the film?

It's seriously good, though. This is unmistakably the work of Joe (he quotes himself repeatedly throughout the film) and yet two things stand out. The visuals are softer, brighter than anything he has done before, and I recognized immediately that he was working with digital instead of film. It's a different look, but it works and suits the atmosphere of this film. The atmosphere is the second thing that stands out. Unlike, say, Uncle Boonmee, there's something more casual and mundane about the world building, despite the usual supernatural shenanigans. This is a movie where two girls will introduce themselves as dead goddesses half way through a conversation about clothes shopping, or where a casual conversation shared over a glass of Pepsi suddenly and inexplicably turns into an episode of spirit possession. (Also notable: no special effects, outside of one shot that sort of sticks out for being so inexplicable; I wonder if he just had a much smaller budget for this one?) The film will constantly turn on a dime, but continue to proceed as if nothing remarkable has happened. The whole thing is grounded in Jenjira's day to day. It's really quite beautiful, simple and intimate.

It also didn't leave me with an overwhelming impression, however. Films like Tropical Malady and Uncle Boonmee in particular have sent me out of the theatre reeling, overflowing with emotion, but this movie just sort of ends and I walked out of the theatre thinking "that was nice" and went on my way. I suppose I just didn't get what I was supposed to take way from the last ten minutes. It feels less than the sum of its parts, a scattering of beautiful and delicate moments, and one specific political metaphor involving the Cemetery of Kings, that fail to coalesce in a significant or powerful way. I actually kind of feel like Joe accomplished more in seven minutes with "Fireworks (Archives)" than he does over two hours here (both films are cut from the same cloth, shooting in many of the same locations and using the park bench statues with the living and dead couples as a central image). The Cemetery of Kings does function as a beautiful and incisive metaphor, however, and I really was in love with the concept of the whole piece. Cemetery of Splendour, like all of Joe's films, has been resonating strongly after the fact, and I look forward to another viewing, to see how the experience changes (or potentially changes me).

[Ivan Drago]

That is an incredible poster.

This is playing at my local film festival in a month, and while I do have interest in it, I don't know if stasiscore is for me. I nodded off twice during Uncle Boonmee, and it didn't leave an impression on me, either. Maybe a second go will confirm my feelings about it.

[Peng]

Many have said (correctly imo) that this seems like a more straightforward Joe than usual, both visually and thematically, and I wonder if Joe thinks the Thai government would feel the same way as well. Really loathe to give them any intellectual credit since they are still give us great grief with all their tyrannical ineptitude (even more laughable are their sincere attempts to appear fair and just), but the implication of the soliders' sleep, kings' spirit, and obscuration of history might be too obvious for them to ignore, leading to Joe deciding not to screen his own film in Thailand.

Anyway, the political undercurrent adds a layer of resigned sadness to the proceeding. The film feels like Joe's greatest hits rather than a cohesive whole, so the said undercurrent helps ground its various captivating passages of magical realism quite a bit for me. Even then, it's too diffused to be great, lacking the enchanting mystery of Tropical and Boonmee or the structural headiness of Syndromes (come to think of it, is the latter Joe's version of a Hong Sang-Hoo film?). Still, his style of cinematic meditation remains unique, and he evokes the serene feeling of being suspended between dream state and waking up like no one else.