Memoria (2021)

I think if you took out all the long drawn out scenes the movie could have been 30 minues long! Got lost wondering what the movie was all about due to fast forwarding through the long drawn out parts!

Fmovies: My test of a film is whether I could have made it. If I could have made it - then it's rubbish. Not only could I have made this film - I could have acted any of the parts as well. That means Memoria is Utter Rubbish.

Reviewers here giving this 7, 8, 9 stars must have been watching another movie. The movie I saw; Memoria, has no story, no centre, no acting, no dialogue, no description of the human condition. Nothing. Memoria has long static camera shots for no reason, huge wastes of time and space, chiefly the audiences, pointless and nonsensical scenes. It's really boring.

I really like Tilda Swinton. Unfortunately, here she just wanders around looking confused the whole time. She looks how I feel on Monday mornings at work. Any fool could wander around looking confused - the trouble is - it doesn't go anywhere. We don't sense her confusion because the film is made so badly. I could have acted her part and produced the same result.

Memoria has no story and no (apparent) timeline. There are plenty of films that would fall under this category; Koyaanisqatsi, Fata Morgana. These are great films because they tap into cultural memories and imagary. I think Memoria is trying to do this but from the point of view of an individual (Swinton). It fails utterly and the result is tiresome pointless irritating tripe.

I read that the film will not go on general release and will not go to platforms or DVD. Good job. Perhaps the film maker knows the truth about this film then?

Despite the changing of settings and languages, from Thailand to Colombia, as well as the involvement of big international stars such as Tilda Swinton as the lead, Memoria still adamantly puts forward Apichatpong Weerasethakul's iconographies, especially the dreamlike narrative, nature as the main background, and with a dash of metaphysics.

Like most of Joe's films, Memoria is about the experience. Not the plot nor the characters. But, if his previous films tend to present with a strong lyricism, this time he is more inclined to propound a sense of restlessness that creeps around the whole film.

Still in a quiet manner, of course. However, the slow-burning pace serves the purpose as the antithesis of the rush of modern life. The film encourages us to remember and re-connect with life itself. Thus Joe has presented a meditation platform that is both contemplative and absorbing.

Memoria fmovies. In "Memoria" Tilda Swinton plays Jessica Holland, an expat woman from Scotland who lives in Medellín and is in the market-gardening business. One night, Jessica is awoken from a sleep by a strange bang, like a sonic boom. This is the long version of the movie. The short version is "what did I just watch?" If they had made a short movie (35 minutes), you would still ask the same question. This is by far the slowest movie I have ever seen and then having to admit I still did not understand the plot? Or was there no plot? Was there even a movie? So many questions that might never be answered. This movie left me behind feeling very frustrated. It might have been a masterpiece or just the opposite. But if I have to stare at trees, roads, the sky etc for at least 75% of the movie, I fall asleep. There is one thing that is very good about this movie, and that is the always wonderful acting Tilda. Without her, this movie would not even exist. This is the trick, use Tilda and some people might actually come and see the movie of my twisted "Memoria". And the only good scene was when Jessica was visiting the doctor. She was trying to ask Xanax but had to struggle to get a prescription because Xanax is addictive! And this is happening in Medellin, once the cocaine capital of the world...

*Watched at Cannes 2021 World Premiere*

The work of Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (try saying that five times fast) have never fully been able to register with audiences outside of the festival circuit. He has amassed universal critical acclaim since he graced the Cannes Riviera in 2004 with "Tropical Malady." He creates gaps between his feature films by creating several short films, some of which eventually are spawned into feature-length, such as the 2009 short "A Letter to Uncle Boonmee" becoming the 2010 Palme d'Or winning "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives." Now in 2021, Weerasethakul is stepping outside of his native Thailand for "Memoria," (translated from the Latin word "memory") which prompted another return to Cannes, this time netting him the Jury Prize.

The first English-language film for Weerasethakul, "Memoria'' is set within Colombia, following Tilda Swinton from destination to destination. The film opens with a surprising jumpscare illustrating our main character's problem, which is that she often hears a loud crashing noise that seems to be confined entirely within her head. This noise confounds her, leading to an investigation into what exactly it is and why it is happening, which puts her in contact with a sound engineering student, a morgue doctor, and a strange fisherman offering profound insights on memory and identity.

Those familiar with the work of Weerasethakul will know that the plot is not the driving force behind the ultimate narrative. Instead, the visuals and sound work do the bulk of the heavy lifting. Within "Memoria," dialogue is seldom found for long stretches at a time, leaving the viewer to look at the screen like one would look at a painting, soaking in as much information as possible. This restriction of information will irritate those looking for answers to the questions the film raises, which Weerasethakul doesn't have any intention of addressing. The Cannes World Premiere garnered nearly fifty walkouts from disgruntled viewers, and several nodding heads from the slow pacing that were often reawakened by the mysterious crashing noise, which shook the theatre.

Swinton acts less like a character and more like a wandering observer. Never shot in closeup and always present of the world around her, she moves from place to place, learning new information about her condition, all without much dialogue from her end. The first half of the film is where Swinton does most of her traveling, which keeps the film moving at a steady, yet still slow, pace. Much of the "action" within these journeys would be considered filler in most mainstream projects, such as Swinton waiting patiently for the sound engineer to finish his work before addressing her, or an unbroken take consisting solely of car alarms going off.

The last hour of the film is where some will applaud and others will boo (just as they did at the world premiere). Swinton's final journey takes her to a remote village housing a fisherman who claims to remember everything about his life. The two of them engage in an extended conversation that explores the strange connection they share. To an extent, the conversation acts as a vessel for Weerasethakul to talk to his audience about his ideas about cinema and life. It's a bold move by a director not known for boldness, and is one that teeters reshapes the way you look at the world at its best and teeters on self-aggrandizing at its worst.

This is going to be very difficult for some to watch. Tilda is fantastic, the way she connected with the story telling for the concept of memories, is what helps this movie. Good visuals, eerie atmosphere, sometimes you get lost a bit, but then you find what is all going. This movie is released for those who need to actually watch these types of cinema, not for the average movie fan.