A darling of the Cannes Film Festival, Apichatpong Weerasethakul has been mesmerizing western audiences for years now, most notably with his Palme d’Or winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. A feverish quality runs through both that and Cemetery of Splendour, which disregards any need for narrative clarity and dumps audiences into a world where life, death, and consciousness don’t have solid boundaries.
The divide between eastern and western cinema runs deep, and while Weerasethakul is a straight up experimental filmmaker, his Thai roots add an extra layer of mystique to his movies. He’s one of only a handful of writer/directors to have crossed the cultural divide, and he did it by making films about the very things that set the cultures apart. I find it quite likely that his experimental approach is precisely what makes his films more palatable to western audiences, as the fundamentally different outlook on life and death that they portray only heightens their opaqueness.
Nowadays, everyone expects Weerasethakul’s films to be a bit quizzical, but even when prepped, it’s hard not to get sucker punched by just how odd they are. I’m lucky enough to have caught this film at one of the many festivals it played at throughout 2015, and I’ve got to say, as strange as this trailer is, it barely hints at all of the rabbit holes the film takes you down. For those who revel in movies that require careful analysis to understand, Cemetery of Splendour will provide more than enough meaningful weirdness to obsess over.
Side note, am I a terrible person for laughing every time that guy collapses into his plate?
Cemetery of Splendour is directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and stars Jenjira Pongpas and Banlop Lomnoi. It will be released in the U.S. on March 4th, 2016. Other release dates are not currently known.
What do you think allowed Weerasethakul to break out onto the world stage? Let us know in the comments!
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