Uncle Boonmee

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Previous Lives

Winner at the Cannes Film Festival

I think I am going to move into the TIFF.Bell Lightbox. It is the greatest addition to our city. It is the official home of the International Film Festival but so much more. It was exciting to see how the population has embraced this exciting complex. Families were attending special events for children. The gallery was busy. The cafes were crowded. There are 5 auditoriums showing films 365 days a year .Each auditorium is furnished in elegant comfortable style. The lobbies are spacious and beautifully outfitted. The building has just opened and this was my second visit.

The first film I saw today was an old silent Buster Keaton film Sherlock 2. There were 6 musicians led by Fern Lindzon playing the score especially written by Fern for this production. It was outstanding. That performance was actually free. It is a must to look up the complete schedule for all that is happening here.

We stepped out of auditorium 3 to enter a larger facility auditorium 2. It is all very plush. and the seats are spacious and comfortable. The spacing of the sears is most appreciated. There is actually leg room.

I wanted to see Uncle Boonmee because it won the best prize at the recent Cannes Film Festival and there has been a lot of discussion about the film. Apparently Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the writer and director, was also surprised by the win.

The film is weird, spiritual and fantasy like. I can’t say I even understood it all. I was attending with my family and they were as perplexed as I was.

The film felt like a folk tale. There was symbolism. There was fantasy. There was imagery. The problem was in trying to understand the meaning.

A young man is obviously ill with kidney failure. He is attended by a young man who comes and changes the bandages and the medicine. He is also attended by several family members. His past dead lover comes and sits by his side. He asks her how he will find her once he is dead. She tells him that heaven is overrated and there actually is nothing there. We also see weird animals coming and going.

Are we to imagine that we are inside his head and he sees these images? Is some of this stream of consciousness?

At one point we are told a fable about a princess. She is carried on a bench by 8 men and followed by a group of helpers. She looks in the water and sees her reflection. She is not an attractive woman but for a minute she sees a young pretty girl. Was this an illusion? She talks to a fish and at one point the fish interacts with her. It certainly looked to me as if the fish was sexually interacting with the princess. What was that all about and what did that have to do with the dying man? Perhaps it was a dream.

When death becomes inevitable he is taken into the depths of a cave system. He tells his family that the cave is like a womb. It was actually very beautifully portrayed.

I suppose all the vignettes represented his confused mind and going and coming into a conscious state.

At times the cinematography was magnificent. I also enjoyed seeing the scenes of the people living in the village. The sparsely furnished homes were interesting. The beds were all covered with mosquito nets. They were constantly swatting bugs. In one scene the woman of the house kept stepping on bugs on the floor. It was an unusual film experience.

When the sick man actually dies there is a Buddhist ceremony. It was colorful and actually the only bright colors in the film.