MEMORIA
****
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Screenwriter: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Principal cast:
Tilda Swinton
Elkin Díaz
Jeanne Balibar
Juan Pablo Urrego
Daniel Giménez Cacho
Agnes Brekke
Country: Colombia/Thailand/France/Germany/Qatar/UK/China/Switzerland
Classification: PG
Runtime: 136 mins.
Australian release date: 7 April 2022.
Experimental Thai writer/director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has been a darling of the international film festival circuit for many years, having first gained attention at the Cannes Film Festival with his Un Certain Regard-winning movie Blissfully Yours in 2002, then earning a Jury Prize at Cannes in 2004 with Tropical Malady and ultimately winning the Palme d’Or for 2010’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Now, he has made his first film in English (and Spanish), Memoria, which is as unusual and enigmatic as most of his earlier works – which is not to say they don’t have charm. Indeed, his films are full of whimsy and mystery, almost surreal at times, and it’s easy to see why they garner so much critical acclaim (Memoria won the Jury Prize at last year’s Cannes Festival) yet are a tougher sell in the wider market. You won’t find Memoria at your local multiplex.
Weerasethakul’s movie opens with a bang, literally. Jessica (Tilda Swinton) is a Scot living in Medellín, Colombia, but visiting her ill sister Karen (Agnes Brekke) in Bogotá when she is woken early one morning by a percussive, strange-sounding bang, a noise she continues to hear over the following hours and days. The curious thing about this is that nobody else appears to hear it, even though it sets off neighbouring car alarms. Her search for answers leads her to a young sound engineer, Hernán (Juan Pablo Urrego), in the hope that he will be able to replicate the bang digitally, which she describes as being “like a rumble from the core of the Earth”. Seeking calm after Hernán mysteriously vanishes (did he exist? does the sound?), Jessica takes a trip out into the surrounding countryside, where she meets an older man by a river bank, a fish-scaler also named, wouldn’t you know it, Hernán (Elkin Díaz), and they seem to have a strange connection, even sharing memories. But how? Hernán has never left his village.
Running for two-and-a-quarter hours, Memoria will test many people’s patience. It’s almost a meditative experience and, thus, you have to go with the flow of the enigmatic narrative to get the best out of it and not try to second-guess the plot (there’s much more to it than the brief synopsis above). The screenplay does provide answers, however, just not ones that clear up the mystery but, rather, add to it. The director often plays with notions of life and death, time and space, reality and dreams in his films, and this one is no exception. Long takes and static camera shots, an eerie soundscape and little music, add to the ethereal, dream-like quality of the film but its mysteriousness holds your attention and, of course, you couldn’t pick a more other-worldly actor than Tilda Swinton to play Jessica. Her pale face and high cheekbones are always wondrous to behold because they have the ability to say so much while doing so little.
Memoria is a challenging film, one that, by Weerasethakul’s own admission, seeks “a state where delusion is the norm”. Not everybody will be happy visiting such a place but intrepid cinema-lovers who want to take the trip will be rewarded if they do.
Screenwriter: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Principal cast:
Tilda Swinton
Elkin Díaz
Jeanne Balibar
Juan Pablo Urrego
Daniel Giménez Cacho
Agnes Brekke
Country: Colombia/Thailand/France/Germany/Qatar/UK/China/Switzerland
Classification: PG
Runtime: 136 mins.
Australian release date: 7 April 2022.
Experimental Thai writer/director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has been a darling of the international film festival circuit for many years, having first gained attention at the Cannes Film Festival with his Un Certain Regard-winning movie Blissfully Yours in 2002, then earning a Jury Prize at Cannes in 2004 with Tropical Malady and ultimately winning the Palme d’Or for 2010’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Now, he has made his first film in English (and Spanish), Memoria, which is as unusual and enigmatic as most of his earlier works – which is not to say they don’t have charm. Indeed, his films are full of whimsy and mystery, almost surreal at times, and it’s easy to see why they garner so much critical acclaim (Memoria won the Jury Prize at last year’s Cannes Festival) yet are a tougher sell in the wider market. You won’t find Memoria at your local multiplex.
Weerasethakul’s movie opens with a bang, literally. Jessica (Tilda Swinton) is a Scot living in Medellín, Colombia, but visiting her ill sister Karen (Agnes Brekke) in Bogotá when she is woken early one morning by a percussive, strange-sounding bang, a noise she continues to hear over the following hours and days. The curious thing about this is that nobody else appears to hear it, even though it sets off neighbouring car alarms. Her search for answers leads her to a young sound engineer, Hernán (Juan Pablo Urrego), in the hope that he will be able to replicate the bang digitally, which she describes as being “like a rumble from the core of the Earth”. Seeking calm after Hernán mysteriously vanishes (did he exist? does the sound?), Jessica takes a trip out into the surrounding countryside, where she meets an older man by a river bank, a fish-scaler also named, wouldn’t you know it, Hernán (Elkin Díaz), and they seem to have a strange connection, even sharing memories. But how? Hernán has never left his village.
Running for two-and-a-quarter hours, Memoria will test many people’s patience. It’s almost a meditative experience and, thus, you have to go with the flow of the enigmatic narrative to get the best out of it and not try to second-guess the plot (there’s much more to it than the brief synopsis above). The screenplay does provide answers, however, just not ones that clear up the mystery but, rather, add to it. The director often plays with notions of life and death, time and space, reality and dreams in his films, and this one is no exception. Long takes and static camera shots, an eerie soundscape and little music, add to the ethereal, dream-like quality of the film but its mysteriousness holds your attention and, of course, you couldn’t pick a more other-worldly actor than Tilda Swinton to play Jessica. Her pale face and high cheekbones are always wondrous to behold because they have the ability to say so much while doing so little.
Memoria is a challenging film, one that, by Weerasethakul’s own admission, seeks “a state where delusion is the norm”. Not everybody will be happy visiting such a place but intrepid cinema-lovers who want to take the trip will be rewarded if they do.