"It's ummm... it's like a rumble... from the core of the Earth. And then it shrinks."
A woman from Scotland, while traveling in Colombia, begins to notice a strange sound. Soon she begins to think about its appearance and what it may be. I haven't seen any Apichatpong Weerasethakul films, but from what I've been told, you'll either embrace them or fall asleep to them. Whether I should've started with this or not was a little out of the question. It received praise at Cannes and festivals around. While at CIFF, I missed its two initial screenings and didn't mind to much. Then, it was announced that Memoria would have the release strategy of going from city to city for one week only. Once it passes through each city, it will never be shown ever again. Not in theaters, not on blu ray, not on streaming, literally never again. When it won a grand prize award at CIFF, it had one last screening for the best of the fest and I bought tickets right away. Memoria is entrancing and throughly provoking. It's hard to make out the film for a while. We don't know too much about this woman, other than this great emotion this sound brings her. Tilda Swinton is really good. Her range here isn't wide as her character of Jessica is stuck in place. We're on the same level as her the whole time. My favorite part do her performance is how she reacts to this sound. Every time she hears it, especially after the first time, there's this tenseness in her hands and she sort of jumps but not really. It's a reaction of fear, confusion, and puzzlement. Everyone can agree that she's wonderful.
I keep mentioning this sound and you're probably wondering what I mean. Describing it is hard to explain. There's a really cool scene where she and a sound designer sit and try to recreate it. It lasts around ten minutes and the different ways they render a simple bang into an almost perfect recreation of the sound is incredible. If I'm not mistaken, I believe they actually worked on it in real time. It makes you think of how you describe sounds because it's a hard thing to do. And then adding the whole appearance thing to it is even harder. The use of sound throughout the film is incredible and would well deserve a nomination or some sort of recognition, however, this is a little too inaccessible of a film. Apichatpong Weerasethakul has a distinct style in which he takes all the time he can get. The runtime is 135 minutes, and you don't feel it too much, at least for me. The opening shot/scene has us sitting in a quiet room where Tilda Swinton is sleeping. Nothing happens for a good three minutes, and then we get the jump scare of our lives with the sound. Every scene takes as much time as it needs. There's another cool scene towards the end where we're watching two people sit outside. At one point, we see this one shot of the man lying down for a good 5 minutes before anything else happens. I was a big fan of the direction and writing. Because of the unique story and how odd it is, there are moments of comedy that work incredibly well. The whole theater was laughing. Even those times where the sound comes in out of absolutely nowhere, we can have a moment to laugh and think "what is going on?!" By the end, I'm not entirely sure what happens. The explanation threw me and literally everyone completely off. There's no possible way to see it coming. I have yet to find a good explanation. I do think it works but I am definitely missing some things. In the end, I may never know and that's ok. Memoria really stuck with me and is an incredible film. I would say another watch would help and explore you to go out and see it, but that's not plausible. If you do see it, you'll have to be the right person to, otherwise I don't think you'll like it in the slightest. For what it's worth, I'm glad I had the experience and opportunity to see it.
A woman from Scotland, while traveling in Colombia, begins to notice a strange sound. Soon she begins to think about its appearance and what it may be. I haven't seen any Apichatpong Weerasethakul films, but from what I've been told, you'll either embrace them or fall asleep to them. Whether I should've started with this or not was a little out of the question. It received praise at Cannes and festivals around. While at CIFF, I missed its two initial screenings and didn't mind to much. Then, it was announced that Memoria would have the release strategy of going from city to city for one week only. Once it passes through each city, it will never be shown ever again. Not in theaters, not on blu ray, not on streaming, literally never again. When it won a grand prize award at CIFF, it had one last screening for the best of the fest and I bought tickets right away. Memoria is entrancing and throughly provoking. It's hard to make out the film for a while. We don't know too much about this woman, other than this great emotion this sound brings her. Tilda Swinton is really good. Her range here isn't wide as her character of Jessica is stuck in place. We're on the same level as her the whole time. My favorite part do her performance is how she reacts to this sound. Every time she hears it, especially after the first time, there's this tenseness in her hands and she sort of jumps but not really. It's a reaction of fear, confusion, and puzzlement. Everyone can agree that she's wonderful.
I keep mentioning this sound and you're probably wondering what I mean. Describing it is hard to explain. There's a really cool scene where she and a sound designer sit and try to recreate it. It lasts around ten minutes and the different ways they render a simple bang into an almost perfect recreation of the sound is incredible. If I'm not mistaken, I believe they actually worked on it in real time. It makes you think of how you describe sounds because it's a hard thing to do. And then adding the whole appearance thing to it is even harder. The use of sound throughout the film is incredible and would well deserve a nomination or some sort of recognition, however, this is a little too inaccessible of a film. Apichatpong Weerasethakul has a distinct style in which he takes all the time he can get. The runtime is 135 minutes, and you don't feel it too much, at least for me. The opening shot/scene has us sitting in a quiet room where Tilda Swinton is sleeping. Nothing happens for a good three minutes, and then we get the jump scare of our lives with the sound. Every scene takes as much time as it needs. There's another cool scene towards the end where we're watching two people sit outside. At one point, we see this one shot of the man lying down for a good 5 minutes before anything else happens. I was a big fan of the direction and writing. Because of the unique story and how odd it is, there are moments of comedy that work incredibly well. The whole theater was laughing. Even those times where the sound comes in out of absolutely nowhere, we can have a moment to laugh and think "what is going on?!" By the end, I'm not entirely sure what happens. The explanation threw me and literally everyone completely off. There's no possible way to see it coming. I have yet to find a good explanation. I do think it works but I am definitely missing some things. In the end, I may never know and that's ok. Memoria really stuck with me and is an incredible film. I would say another watch would help and explore you to go out and see it, but that's not plausible. If you do see it, you'll have to be the right person to, otherwise I don't think you'll like it in the slightest. For what it's worth, I'm glad I had the experience and opportunity to see it.