Apichatpong Weerasethakul

[Lottery]

Is there a thread for this dude already? Anyway.

Thai Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul Preps First Feature Since Winning Palme d'Or
Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Fans of the director's dreamy, surrealistic style won't have to wait much longer for the genuine article, though. Apichatpong recently arrived at Hong Kong's screen industry confab, Filmart, touting a new feature-length project -- his first since winning the Cannes top honor in 2010 with Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recount His Past Lives.

Titled Cemetery of Kings, the project was an official entry at the Asia Film Financing Forum at Filmart, seeking investment from Asian sales banners. Its story is said to take place in a small town on the Mekong River in northern Thailand, where 27 soldiers come down with a strange sleeping sickness. Frequent Apichatpong collaborator Jenjira Widner will reprise her role – from Uncle Boonmee and Syndromes and Century -- as a nurse tasked with caring for the soldiers. Strange dreams, phantoms, a mysterious river creature and tangled romances all play a part in the evocative narrative, according to early promotional materials.

Apichatpong tells THR he is completing the script and expects to begin shooting by year-end. The film's budget is pegged to $1 million – about the same as his previous features. Apichatpong acknowledges that his elevated international profile means he could probably secure larger financing, but he says he's deliberately keeping the budget modest for Cemetery.
"With a higher budget, you're never as flexible," he says. "I find flexibility is a very happy way of working. And it also depends on the project – the next film after this one is more ambitious in terms of financing."
Following Cemetery, Apichatpong revealed he plans to direct his first film outside of Thailand, an as yet untitled meditation on the landscape of Bangladesh.


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cemetery-kings-apichatpong-weerasethakul-preps-431719


Sounds cool, also a meditation on the motherland, double cool.

[Pubrick]

 this is one of the only freaks PTA has endorsed for legitimate cinematic reasons lately.

dude's a bona fide madcunt.

that last movie he did, I talked about it with my IRL buds for about a monf after seeing it.  amazing.  something real and new.

[Lottery]

Felt like visiting his cool little site today. But then I discovered that Cemetary of Kings has been delayed to be a 2015. Godammit.

That man is too busy on film judging panels and making his installations. But hey, what the hell.

Also, this may be part of his new film. Cool.

[Lottery]

It seems that a book on his work will be released in Brazil in the near future.

[Lottery]

Love in Khon Kaen (formerly Cemetery of Kings) finished filming...in early December. Wonder how long until completion. Will probably line up with a festival release.




Kewl.

[Punch]

Love in Khon Kaen tells of a lonesome middle-age housewife who tends a soldier with sleeping sickness and falls into a hallucination that triggers strange dreams, phantoms, and romance.

The first image & synopsis from Apichatpong Weerasethakul's forthcoming feature Love in Khon Kaen.

[Lottery]

Noice. I think I see a dinosaur or two.

[Lottery]

[jenkins]

punch's tumblr has:


Jia Zhangke, Naomi Kawase, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.




Apichatpong Weerasethakul on the set of Love in Khon Kaen

[JG]

nothin could have me more excited!

[Lottery]

[Alexandro]

Cemetery of Splendour was both a blast and exasperating at once. It's full of interesting stuff (I don't want to use the word "ideas", or get too intellectual about it, as I feel it would be a disservice to the film and to film in general, but particularly because this one is aiming to a kind of spiritual, beyond-reasoning experience; so I think "stuff" is actually an apt word), unexpected touches, and it's like nothing else around thematically. It has several truly beautiful moments, and one magnificent sequence which consists only of static shots of different settings, as one transforms into other slowly, colors and sounds blend almost unnoticed. It also has a performance by the female lead so full of small nuances, so quietly commanding and vivid, you feel as if you're seeing a real person and by the end you feel as if you know her deeply.

Some of this is achieved by the style chosen: Wide shots, static camera, compositions carefully constructed to look mundane, a physical and almost emotional distance between the characters and the camera (us). The whole film feels as if told through whispers. But this comes with a price. Joe's films have always been subtle and shot in a matter of factly way, but here is almost like he's trying to balance the sheer amount of exhuberance in the story (gods, spirits, mediums, narcolepsy, time-space planes of existence, government conspiracies, dreams, hallucinations and more) with a sobriety that doesn't feel forced (I think) only because he is such a master at it, but that nevertheless can become tiresome or make your mind wander to other matters.

The sobriety was a mild dissapointment to me after the unforgettable imagery of Uncle Boonme, with it's magical images that will never leave my mind.

One thing that bothers me is that critics I've read regarding this film (and others with this sparse, sleep inducing techniques) compare them to the state of dreaming. "It's like a dream", they all seem to say. The other day I read someone say that as Lav Diaz's films usually put people to sleep (including Lav Díaz himself, apparently), and films are our closest physical representation of dreaming, perhaps films that put you to sleep are actually closer to cinema's truest nature than say, an Akira Kurosawa movie. That's utter nonsense. For starters, you are never bored or half there in a dream. In fact, dreams are probably the most engaged you are mentally and physically any time in your life. When you are in a dream you are totally into whatever is going on in the dream, in a way that when you are awake is sometimes impossible. If you are not feeling tired and a film puts you to sleep despite your best efforts the film is boring you. Now, the reasons for that can be widely discussed but that's what's happening. When you are watching a film you are supposed to be fully engaged in it, not bored to the point of falling asleep. I mean, this is common sense.

However, it would be dumb to not see all the enthralling stuff a film like Cemetery of Splendour offers, dreamlike or not.