Weerasethakul. It’ll get to it in stylistic innovations/traits below—but there is no other auteur that makes films like Apichatpong Weerasethakul—completely distinct works that are interconnected, stylistic and narratively bold– and stick in your memory long after you’ve seen them. His strengths here for the purposes of this ranking is the work Syndromes and a Century (I have it just outside of my top 100 at #128) and the level of authorship in his entire body of work. He’s very well-respected by TSPDT as well- that that it influences my list but 4 of the 5 archiveable films below are already in the TSPDT top 1000—which is  remarkable for a 21st century auteur especially. 

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is uncle-boo-cow-silohuette-Weerasethakul-1024x550.jpg
incredible imagery in the prologue of Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Live

Best film: Syndromes and a Century

  •  A visual atom bomb from Weerasethakul—his most accomplished and formally magnificent film to date. If you combine all the most gorgeous images from this, Tropical Malady and Blissfully Yours— 8 of the 10 from Syndromes and a Century
  • A series of paintings constructed formally- you have a very stark sterile hospital vs a tropical green paradise outside—in many ways it’s the same short film repeated twice
  • An ethereal romance
  • Opens on a tree in the wind
  • Weerasethakul’s obsession with medicine and then naturalism and greens
  • Monks talking about their dreams—reincarnation
  • Like almost all his films Weerasethakul is almost daring you to keep watching in the beginning of the film with slow starts
  • The reflection shot in the window is a stunner- we’re at 24 minutes and it’s really the first beautiful shot- and then it’s on- minutes 24-50 are a series of stunning mise-en-scenes set sea of greens. Medium-long shots of foliage, again and again- unrelenting- much of the story is a flashback here—he clearly knows what he’s doing with mise-en-scene- a master
  • And then he reshoots the job interview but this time with whites no longer set in the country. Stunning white set design- contrast—highly experimental
  • Man-made statues as a statement
  • An almost Cronenberg-like eeriness with machines- ethereal score long shot of a white vacuum sucking up life/air
  • Don’t fully understand the people exercising in the park coda—perhaps a statement (from Tropical Malady as well but not as big a focal point) of the how we’re a caged animal- instead of being in nature we’re having to force ourselves to exercise in the park and look ridiculous
the visual and formal masterwork– Syndromes and a Century – A series of paintings constructed formally- you have a very stark sterile hospital vs a tropical green paradise outside—in many ways it’s the same short film repeated twice
again from Syndromes – it’s on- minutes 24-50 are a series of stunning mise-en-scenes set sea of greens. Medium-long shots of foliage, again and again- unrelenting- much of the story is a flashback here—he clearly knows what he’s doing with mise-en-scene- a master

total archiveable films: 5

top 100 films:  0

top 500 films:  1 (Syndromes and a Century)

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is syndromes-and-a-century-reflection-Weerasethakul.jpg
Syndromes starts slowly (like all of his work outside of Uncle Boonmee with that magnificent prologue)– but once it gets going its one of the great cinematic achievements of the 2000’s

top 100 films of the decade:  3 (Syndromes and a Century, Blissfully Yours,  Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives)

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is uncle-boo-foreground-shadow-background-sunlight-Weerasethakul-1024x682.jpg
from Uncle Boonmee– Weerasethakul ‘s static camera, medium shot, use of green, work with shadows to cut the frame in half and great some stunning foreground/background work

most overrated:  It’s Tropical Malady for me which lands at #252 on the TSPDT critical consensus  top 1000. This makes it one of the great films of the 2000’s (#8 of the decade) and I can’t find a spot for it in my top 100 of the decade. That’s a massive disconnect.

  • Quote opening about how we’re all wild animals and then the images of the soldiers smiling and posing over a kill
  • background making shorts works here combining works
  • 10 minutes in before the credits and song
  • Medicine is one of Weerasethakul’s obsessions- we have a dog (of one of the protagonists) dying. There’s discussions about how one of the two lovers will “never die a natural death”
  • It’s a slow-moving neo-realist like (and rather toothless) love story first half
  • Pop music again 53 minutes in and we go into a full break back out into country and the entire jungle stalking sequence- about half way in
  • Is this love? Jealously? A dream?
  • Seas of green in the mise-en-scene. 20 minutes of stalking, lost in night landscapes but Weerasethakul hasn’t fully learned to frame like he would in 2006’s Syndromes and a Century
  • Tribal drawings intercut with jungle stalking second half
  • The monkey speaks to one of the characters about how the tiger is his “prey and companion”
  • Won the Jury prize at Cannes
  • Sensory experience
  • Duality is a motif for Weerasethakul for sure- two worlds, two halves- film breaks about half way through
  • The musical cues are embellished and dissident—off—Godard in Contempt almost mocking conventional cinema
  • Greens in the mise-en-scene — trees
  • Western medicine- sterile- white
  • You’re baffled 30 minutes in by the top 250 TSPDT status- again, I think it’s a ruse and a set-up for mystic naturalism finale like Blissfully Yours
  • New credits half way in- tiger drawing
  • Medication on repression- how we all hide
  • Very much admire the formal construct and ingenuity but it’s tough viewing- excited for a future bluray release
  • Final half is largely silent-
  • Malick shot through trees up to the sun
  • Dream/reincarnation/afterlife/ghost of cow
  • HR

most underrated: Mostly, Weerasethakul extremely well respected- amongst the most of the 21st century auteurs– but Syndromes is at #651 on the TSPDT top 100 and it’s underrated. It should be #128.

gem I want to spotlight:     Blissfully Yours

  • Almost entirely static camera
  • Weerasethakul’s background in shorts works combining vastly different segments here
  • Greens all over the place—the first third of the film is at a clinic which is largely sterile and white but there is green painting. Then we have the second third which is the long car ride with the outdoor vistas, and then we have the sea of green jungle final third
  • Long sequences in the car- neorealism? Transformation from tame/city to wild/rural jungle
  • Weerasethakul obsessed with clinics and health- the opening is so banal- intentionally ugly?
  • There’s a spirituality- animal traits- in the skin like a snake- de-evolution- Zoomorphism
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is tropical-malady-tiger-Weerasethakul.jpg
There’s a spirituality- animal traits- in the skin like a snake- de-evolution- Zoomorphism
  • Credits and pop song 43 minutes in- wild- the break from civilization to country
  • Voice over 47 minutes for the first time
  • Free of influence largely—having said that- I couldn’t help but think of Renoir’s A Day in the Country with the Eden-like final third and also Weerasethakul uses the Terrence Malick shot of shooting the sun from the ground through the trees 4 times
  • Weerasethakul super imposes a picture (I think meant to come from a character’s drawing) fright in the moving frame- haven’t seen that. Instinctual.
Weerasethakul super imposes a picture (I think meant to come from a character’s drawing) fright in the moving frame- haven’t seen that. Instinctual.
  • Sexuality and jungle ambient noise
  • Slow cinema- he’s certainly asking the viewer to do a lot of the heavy lifting- he’s the opposite of Nolan- not a lot of structure- lots of ambiguity
  • Fads out in the middle of a voice over letter from back home which is strange
  • Lots of stalking through the jungle- normal medium shot and cuts
  • Are the two women (older and young) the same person? Is this a memory? Are they there to show juxtaposition in love? They do talk to each other but this is not a film/auteur where you worry about there being a definitive answer— are the two women mirrors- there is a sequence of them at the end where they are shot parallel laying down in a medium long shot- one alone crying, one in love
  • Rhythmic, poetic, confident
  • This is overused by critics but it’s a true mood piece
  • Like Tropical Malady (his subsequent film) we have animal characteristics in a character in a love story—his skin is shedding. “you’re like a snake shedding skin”
  • 15 minute opening is awful- arguing over pills and prescriptions. I think it’s meant by Weerasethakul to be ugly and city-urban-bound. Caged. It’s a rouse and set up even 25 minutes in as they drive out of the city. Even at 43 minutes we have the Greens in a pop song- two lovers—I think it means all the rest before this is bullshit and we’re escaping—sea of green jungle
  • The umbrella shot coming through the trees that are shaping the frame is a stunner- precedes the best shot of Pan’s Labyrinth– there’s lighting in the background and shadows in foreground
  • Picnic with a view shot is stunning as well
  • HR- could go higher
from Blissfully Yours – the umbrella shot coming through the trees that are shaping the frame is a stunner- precedes the best shot of Pan’s Labyrinth– there’s lighting in the background and shadows in foreground

stylistic innovations/traits:   

  • Cinema of sleep – that’s description—not a critique—it’s a stylistic identifier actually  
    Tropical surrealism- parallel realities—reincarnation—
  • A series of paintings constructed formally- you have a very stark sterile hospital vs a tropical green paradise outside
  • Weerasethakul’s obsession with medicine and then naturalism and greens
  • Like almost all his films Weerasethakul is almost daring you to keep watching in the beginning of the film with slow starts
  • Duality is a motif for Weerasethakul for sure- two worlds, two halves- film breaks about half way through
  • Tropical surrealism- parallel realities—reincarnation—tame vs. wild, urban vs rural
  • The musical cues are embellished and dissident—off—Godard in Contempt almost mocking conventional cinema
  • Greens in the mise-en-scene — trees
  • Western medicine- sterile- white
  • of stunning mise-en-scenes set sea of greens. Medium-long shots of foliage, again and again- unrelenting- much of the story is a flashback here—he clearly knows what he’s doing with mise-en-scene- a master
  • dancing at the end of his films, caged animals critique
  • There’s a spirituality- animal traits- in the skin like a snake- de-evolution- Zoomorphism
  • Slow cinema- he’s certainly asking the viewer to do a lot of the heavy lifting- he’s the opposite of Nolan- not a lot of structure- lots of ambiguity
  • Free of influence largely—uses the Terrence Malick shot of shooting the sun from the ground through the trees 4 times
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is uncle-boo-night-shot-of-malick-with-moon-Weerasethakul.jpg
though he’s largely free of influence– this beautiful Terrence Malick-like shot is one that reoccurs often in his oeuvre
  • Weerasethakul super imposes a picture (I think meant to come from a character’s drawing) fright in the moving frame- haven’t seen that. Instinctual.
  • Weerasethakul is so doggedly his own. Unless you watch a ton of cinema it’s hard to tell the difference between this and just slow cinema
  • Weerasethakul’s background in short films comes through in the features
  • a talented visual director who can inarguably set and design a frame—mise-en-scene master after syndromes and a century
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is tropical-malady-gorgoeus-vista-day-1-Weerasethakul-1024x556.jpg
a talented visual director who can inarguably set and design a frame—mise-en-scene master after syndromes and a century – this one from Tropical Malady
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Weerasethakul-aldjsfkja-cemetary-ladf-1024x410.jpg
this one from Cemetery of Splendor

top 10

  1. Syndromes and a Century
  2. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
  3. Blissfully Yours
  4. Tropical Malady
  5. Cemetery of Splendor

By year and grades

2002- Blissfully Yours HR
2004- Tropical Malady HR
2006- Syndromes and a Century MP
2010- Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives MS
2015- Cemetery of Splendor R

*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film

MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film

HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film

R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives