The event will feature an array of music including blues, Americana, country, gospel and folk. That's where the real joy of Weerasethakul's entrancing film is to be found.JONESBORO – KASU, the Arkansas Folklife Program, and Arkansas State University's Department of English and Philosophy are teaming up with the West End Neighborhood Association to present the Roots Music Festival Saturday, April 11, as part of Delta Symposium XXI. But to do so you have to still your mind, watch and listen. It's about joining Jessica on her lonely melancholy peregrination. But ultimately it's about getting to that point. There is an answer to the big question in the final few shots (an answer that I'm still chewing on weeks after seeing the film). It gets back to what I mentioned above - this is more about experiencing.
But that doesn't mean Jessica's journey is empty or meaningless. That'll come as no surprise to those familiar with Weerasethakul's work. "I think I'm going crazy," she tells a friend.Īs Jessica continues her search, we're fed very little in the form of answers. He succeeds, but it doesn't get us any closer to the sound's source. A music professor friend connects her with Hernan (Juan Pablo Urrego), a sound engineer who tries to re-create the sound for Jessica. Soon the film's gaunt, soft-spoken, and curious protagonist sets out (with us in tow) to determine the source of the assaultive sound in her (and our) head. Not only do the mystifying whomps startle Jessica, but they jar us as well thanks to the exquisite sound design.
Later Jessica is shaken again by the sound as she sits alone in an otherwise quiet park.
While there, she hears the sound again and realizes that no one else can hear it. It's a mysterious sound that she later describes as "a big ball of concrete that falls into a metal wall, which is surrounded by seawater." She travels to Bogota to visit her sister Karen (Agnes Brekke) who is hospitalized with a sudden illness. The movie opens with Jessica shaken from her sleep by a jolting boom in the middle of the night. She conveys this perpetual sense of being lost, like someone trying to get a hold of the world she's in. But Jessica comes across as more than a foreigner in a new country. First, she's a Scottish botanist living in Medellin, Colombia (the movie's most overt sign of displacement). Interestingly, everything about her character feels out of place. She is perfectly calibrated to Weerasethakul's enigmatic frequency and she effectively channels the very apprehension and incertitude that we the audience also feel. I'm not sure any actress could be more fitting for this role than Swinton. And as we do, not only are we pulled deeper into the film's beguiling mystery, but Weerasethakul slyly put us into a similar headspace as his central character, Jessica (Swinton). Rather than cutting, Weerasethakul keeps his camera locked in place, allowing his audience time to soak up every detail of the frame. They extend to well after the action has finished. In many cases his scenes aren't simply long takes. You could also consider it "slow cinema." Some will be quick to assert that often "nothing happens," a perspective that Weerasethakul's style partially contributes to. Soon I found myself swept up by feelings of fascination, bewilderment, curiosity and full-on admiration. But once I was in tune with his patient and observant rhythm, "Memoria" turned into something I wasn't expecting. Admittedly, at first I found it to be a challenge. But to do so will require viewers to get on his unique and unconventional wavelength. Weerasethakul wants his audience to feel. You could consider it a sensory journey more interested in experience than plot. After all "Memoria" isn't the kind of movie aimed at large crowds. Neon, the film's distributor insists "he only means of experiencing 'Memoria' will be in theaters. This certainly cost the film some viewers and some revenue (it has made less than $57,000 in U.S. This "cinemas only forever" has finally made it to Arkansas. "Memoria" was released in 2021, but Weerasethakul insisted on an unusual release strategy for the film - a long series of single engagements.
This is Weerasethakul's first movie made outside his native Thailand, but those familiar with his work will almost instantly notice his distinct style of storytelling. Tilda Swinton is haunted by a mysterious sound in the otherwise quiet and meditative "Memoria," the evocative new drama from director, writer and producer Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Editor's note: This review is adapted from a piece that ran earlier this year, when it seemed unlikely "Memoria" would ever play Arkansas theaters.
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