PortraitEleven years after his Palme d’Or for the metaphysical “Uncle Boonmee, the one who remembers his past lives”, the Thai filmmaker went to Colombia to put his camera down. With “Memoria”, in competition at Cannes, he delivers a new meditation on time.
If the Thai jungle has a soul, it undoubtedly mingles with that of Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Since his debut, the 50-year-old filmmaker has been the messenger of his native country, summoning his invisible forces, his inner demons, in feature films and video installations of hypnotic languor. The world of contemporary art was the first to notice his extraordinary outlook, at the end of the 1990s.
But, very quickly, each of his films created the event, especially in Cannes: in 2002, he won the prize Un certain regard pour Blissfully Yours, then, in 2004, that of the jury for Tropical Malady. Ultimate consecration, in 2010, his Palme d’Or for Uncle Boonmee, the one who remembers his previous lives, delighted moviegoers. “The craziest and most metaphysical Palm in the history of this great festival”, salutes the critic Jacques Mandelbaum in The World.
Director and visual artist
His films are UFOs in the sky of an increasingly formatted cinema. Their narration is slack, their rhythm languid, their aesthetic sensual. Pure boredom, strikes a part of the public. Not his peers, who consider him one of the greatest. For many filmmakers, he is one of the most daring, the most avant-garde. A “master” like there are very few. And whose dense jungle is the territory of predilection.
It is since his quarantine in Villeurbanne that Apichatpong Weerasethakul exchanges with us. He prepares for it an exhibition at the Villeurbanne / Rhônes-Alpes Contemporary Art Institute, which opens this July 2. “A greeting to the night and to the dream”, tells the story of one who is one of the rare artists, like Julian Schnabel or Steve McQueen, to shine as much as a plastic artist as as a director. “A most natural movement for me. “
Concentrated, attentive, he still feels in a bubble, after a year and a half of epidemic lived in internal exile. “It has become more difficult for me to interact with people. Now that I am in France, between Villeurbanne, Paris, Cannes, I have to relearn how to socialize, which I am not comfortable with. ”
Curious about Latin American culture
“Joe”, as he is called – like all Thais, he has a short nickname that allows his friends and admirers to avoid stammering – now creates a surprise. His ninth feature film, Memoria, in competition in Cannes, was shot in Colombia, between Medellin and Bogota. What the devil did he do away from his country, the anchor of all his previous films? “I wanted to lose myself, he concedes with a soft smile. Filming in Thailand has become too comfortable for me. I know a lot. Too much. ”
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