Uncle Boonmee remembers his previous lives
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Uncle Boonmee remembers his previous lives |
| Original title | ลุง บุญ มี ระลึก ชาติ (Lung Boonmee raluek chat) |
| Country of production | Thailand , United Kingdom , France , Germany , Spain |
| original language | Thai |
| Publishing year | 2010 |
| length | 113 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK without age restriction |
| Rod | |
| Director | Apichatpong Weerasethakul |
| script | Apichatpong Weerasethakul |
| production | Simon Field, Keith Griffiths, Charles de Meaux, Apichatpong Weerasethakul |
| camera | Sayombhu Mukdeeprom |
| cut | Lee Chatametikool |
| occupation | |
| |
Uncle Boonmee remembers his previous lives ( Thai : ลุง บุญ มี ระลึก ชาติ / Lung Bunmi raluek chat - pronunciation: [ lung bunmiː rálɯ́k t͡ɕʰâːt ]; English-language festival title: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives ) is a feature film by the Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul from 2010 . The fantasy film is about transmigration of souls and tells of a man (played by the amateur actor Thanapat Saisaymar) who settles to die in a house on the edge of a forest, where he receives a visit from the ghosts of his deceased relatives. It is the last part of the "Primitive Project", from which the short film A Letter to Uncle Boonmee , several installations and a photo collection emerged.
The film premiered as part of the competition at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival , where it received the Palme d' Or. A regular theatrical release for Thailand is not yet known, while the release in Germany took place on September 30, 2010.
action
After kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee goes to the country to die with his family. Through yoga he has developed a pronounced body awareness and he suspects that he will only have 48 hours until his death. He comes to terms with his sister, a young relative and an illegally immigrated carer from Laos . In a farmhouse on the edge of the rainforest, he meets the ghost of his late wife Huay. She takes loving care of him and lets Boonmee know that ghosts are not tied to places but to living people. She also tries to calm his guilty conscience because he shot many communists in the war. Boonmee has to realize that he's not the same as he was 19 years ago. Their son Boonsong, who was believed to be lost, joins the small company, whom Boonmee and Huay can only recognize by his voice - he appears to them in the form of a forest spirit with red eyes.
Boonmee sets off through the jungle with Huay and Tong in search of the origins of his first life. In doing so, he discovers the cave in which he was born and in which he would like to end his life. At the same time, the spirits look for reasons for their own restlessness and lead Boonmee into ever new levels of their previous existence.
History of origin
Uncle Boonmee remembers his previous life is the fourth feature film by Apitchatpong Weerasethakul and, like the other works by the director, was made in northeast Thailand, where he also lives. The shooting took place from October 2009 to February 2010. 16mm film was used for cost reasons and to maintain a classic style .
Apitchatpong Weerasethakul said he was inspired to make the film several years ago when he met an abbot of a monastery. He told Apichatpong Weerasethakul about an old man named Boonmee who came to the temple to learn more about meditation, among other things. Boonmee explained to the monk that in deep meditation his previous lives would go by behind his closed eyes like a film, including as a buffalo, cow or disembodied spirit. The abbot, Phra Sripariyattiweti, knew such stories from the rural population, collected them and published them in 1983 in a small book entitled "A man who can recall his past lives" .
By the time Apichatpong Weerasethakul discovered the book, Boonmee had been dead for several years. He added autobiographical elements to the story (his own father died of kidney failure) and let the title character take a back seat to gain more space for his regular actors, all non-professional actors . The film is not about Boonmee, but about the idea of reincarnation . “To me, Boonmee is anonymous. So I couldn't use professional actors who have many public identities. I think that amateurism is precious when targeting the acting style of early cinema. That's why I signed up people from all walks of life. We got to a roof welder and a singer who play Boonmee and Huay ” , says Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Uncle Boonmee remembers his previous lives and also pays homage to the simply staged Thai television shows (recorded in 16 mm format) and the comics of his childhood. To have made the film would have been a dream for him. He thought about it for more than six years.
Although the film goes into Boonmee's previous life, it does not attempt to explain or explicitly depicts what they were. Apichatpong Weerasethakul wanted to respect the audience's imagination. But he interjected that the title character could be any living being that appears in the film. “For me, that (reincarnation) isn't necessarily something I have to believe in firmly. But I think it is possible. And I think we have something in our head like a kind of gateway to access it. Reincarnation is something that science will perhaps prove one day, ” hoped Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Uncle Boonmee Recalls His Past Lives is part of the Primitive Project taking place in northeastern Thailand ( Isan ). Apichatpong Weerasethakul worked with young people from the village of Nabua, which resulted in the video installations Primitive , Phantoms of Nabua and the short film A Letter to Uncle Boonmee , which premiered and won an award at the 2009 International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen . With the Italian Edizioni Zero, the artist book CUJO was created , which contains photographs of the project in Isaan. The installations and art films were exhibited at the Haus der Kunst in Munich and in Great Britain , among others . Apichatpong Weerasethakul's own company Kick the Machine Films and Illuminations Films were involved in the production, and they were also responsible for the production of Uncle Boonmee Remembers His Past Lives .
Apichatpong Weerasethakul described the film as a "no budget film" with partners. The Thai Ministry of Culture supported the film project with 3.5 million baht (approx. 87,000 euros).
reception
The directorial work of the highly acclaimed Thai filmmaker celebrated its premiere on May 21, 2010 in Cannes. Apichatpong Weerasethakul had already with Blissfully Yours the (2002) Prix Un Certain Regard won and 2004 for Tropical Malady the contracts awarded in the competition Jury Prize received.
Philippe Azoury ( Liberation ) compared the film from the hallucinatory level with Apocalypse Now , but also spoke of a “simple ghost film” that was “insane and masterful” . Jacques Mandelbaum ( Le Monde ) remarked that you are dealing with an artist who is not creating stories but “inventing worlds, opening the door from nature to the supernatural” .
The British trade magazine Screen International spoke of an elegant art film that was “visually captivating” and “ engagingly entertaining” . A “beautifully assembled affair” , certain scenes are staged with the attitude of a painter. The film is not suitable for everyone, but once seen it would be remembered by the audience and there would be no lack of surreal humor. Celia Walden ( The Daily Telegraph ) counted Uncle Boonmee remembers his previous life alongside Mike Leigh's Another Year as one of the promising favorites for the grand prize.
The German trade press was also overwhelmingly positive about the film. Daniel Kothenschulte ( Frankfurter Rundschau ) praised the director's independent film language , who naturally conveyed the “animistic perspective” . Anke Westphal ( Berliner Zeitung ) counted the Thai contribution together with Mike Leigh's Another Year and Xavier Beauvois ' Von Menschen und Göttern among the contenders for the main prize of the festival, “the most extraordinary and best that this 63rd Cannes Festival has to offer in the competition “ Would have. It is about "mythical, big cinema" , as one seldom sees it and Westphal emphasized the dignified staging and the "funny morphologies" . Hanns-Georg Rodek ( Berliner Morgenpost ) counted Uncle Boonmee, who remembers his earlier life, together with the Korean contribution Poetry, also among the prize candidates. The Standard described the film as "one final high point in the competition" . Apichatpong Weerasethakul present a “sensual jungle fantasy” , “a kind of science fiction myth of love and death” . The Austrian daily also speculated about a possible award.
Christiane Peitz ( Der Tagesspiegel ) criticized the magic of the film as "a reflection of the hypnotic power of 'Tropical Malady'" .
In 2016, Uncle Boonmee Recalls His Past Lives ranked 37th in a BBC poll of the 100 most iconic films of the 21st century .
Awards
Apichatpong Weerasethakul competed with his film in the competition at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival and received the main prize of the festival with the Palme d'Or. He is the first Thai filmmaker to win the award. For Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the victory is "like a story from another world" . He thanked his parents for taking him to the cinema as a child and opening up the world of film to him. During the festival he criticized the strict censorship in his home country.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives also ran on the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 and 2011 received a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Independent Spirit Awards in 2011. In the same year the film was the Thai candidate in the race for an Oscar nomination as best foreign language film, but was not shortlisted. Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, the cameraman for the film, won the 2010 Dubai International Film Festival award for Best Cinematographer.
Web links
- Information from the German distributor Movienet
- Profile at festival-cannes.fr (in English)
- Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives atRotten Tomatoes(English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b cf. On dying in the jungle ( memento of the original from September 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at arte.tv, May 21, 2010 (accessed May 23, 2010)
- ↑ cf. Release dates in the Internet Movie Database (accessed October 23, 2010)
- ↑ a b cf. Multiple avatars ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at bangkokpost.com, May 7, 2010 (accessed May 23, 2010)
- ↑ a b c d e cf. Press booklet for the film at festival-cannes.fr (PDF file, 6.98 MB; accessed on May 22, 2010)
- ↑ a b c cf. Interview ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at ARTE Journal, May 21, 2010 (accessed on May 22, 2010)
- ↑ cf. Azoury, Philippe: Weerasethakul, Thaï king size . In: Liberation, May 22, 2010, p. 23
- ↑ cf. Almond tree, Jacques: Retour aux origines dans la nuit tropicale . In: Le Monde, May 23, 2010, p. 19
- ↑ cf. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives . In: Screen International , May 21, 2010 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft )
- ↑ cf. Walden, Celia: Where The Air Shimmers With Hope . In: The Daily Telegraph, May 22, 2010, pp. 4-5
- ↑ cf. Kothenschulte, Daniel: The spirits that you call . In: Frankfurter Rundschau, May 22, 2010, p. 35
- ↑ cf. Westphal, Anke: Beyond human rights Cannes is pushing ahead with coming to terms with French colonialism: a festival review . In: Berliner Zeitung, May 22, 2010, No. 117, p. 27
- ↑ cf. Rodek, Hanns-Georg: A festival under police protection . In: Berliner Morgenpost, May 22, 2010, No. 137, p. 22
- ↑ cf. Cannes Film Festival: "Carlos" film; Terror in Vienna . In: Die Presse , May 22, 2010 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft )
- ↑ cf. Peitz, Christiane: Father and Sons . In: Der Tagesspiegel, May 23, 2010, No. 20625, p. 25
- ↑ cf. Golden Palm for Oncle Boonmee at fr-online.de, May 23, 2010 (accessed May 23, 2010)
- ↑ cf. AFP : Golden Palm for Thai film "Uncle Boonmee"; Juliette Binoche honored as best actress . May 23, 2010, Cannes (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft )
