The opinion of the “World” – masterpiece
We know it, since the first dazzles that were Tropical Malady (2004), Uncle Boonmee, the one who remembers his past lives, Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2010, or Cemetery of Splendor (2015): Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s kingdom – or ark – is ample and generous enough to accommodate a whole world, living and dead, humans and animals, ghosts and forests, probing the present and the past of our sorrows and letting slip on the wave some memories imbued with mystery.
Memoria, ninth feature film written and directed by the 51-year-old filmmaker and visual artist, completes the Thai’s sensitive project while opening it up to a new territory, Colombia, and to a collaboration with international actors (the British Tilda Swinton, Frenchwoman Jeanne Balibar and Mexican Daniel Gimenez Cacho).
Far from narrowing the director’s sensory and shamanic universe, this change of scenery gives him a certain distance to reinvent his language, in a broad spectrum bringing together genre film and experimental, sound installation and special effects of blockbusters that have nourished his childish imagination (AND, by Spielberg, and swe echo in Memoria, in the form of a strange shuttle, in a hurry to leave Earth). Presented in Cannes, in competition, this totem film, above ground, catapulting the spectator into unknown cinematic land, won the Jury Prize, tied with Ahed’s knee, by Nadav Lapid.
Detonation
Craftsman and magician of reincarnation in the cinema, Weerasethakul built the scenario by transferring to the main heroine, Jessica Holland, alias Tilda Swinton, the care of enduring a chronic illness from which he himself suffered, known as ” exploding head syndrome ”- Jessica Holland is also a tribute to the eponymous character in Jacques Tourneur’s film, Voodoo (1943), in which the heroine suffers from an unidentified disease.
Like a shadow theater Memoria opens into the silent darkness of a room, suddenly struck by a dull and deep detonation. Little by little in the half-light, the silhouette of Jessica emerges, waking up with a start. Where does this “bang” come from that pulled her out of bed? Has she dreamed, as the image of a row of cars parked in a parking lot suggests, which suddenly start honking, as if moved by an invisible force?
This change of scenery in Colombia gives the director a certain distance to reinvent his language.
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