Cemetery of Splendor

 

Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Cemetery of Splendor should, over time, solidify his reputation as a modern master. Weerasethakul's style is of the slow cinema of modernists who question modernity such as Bresson, Bela Tarr, Carlos Reygadas, and Hsiao-Hsien Hou. Weerasethakul eschews camera movement. He favors takes that linger long and lovingly on its subjects. His films move away from urban Thailand into the lush countryside where nature, not man, is predominant. There, his films' subjects are often recovering from some malady, as if modern industrial life itself is the cause of what ails us.

Indeed, Cemetery of Splendor is set at a rural hospital where a group of narcoleptic soldiers slumber away despite the ministrations of the staff. They are hooked up to some new machines that are reportedly used on American soldiers in Afghanistan, but modern technology seems to be of no avail here. Seemingly unending construction is occurring near the hospital for a fiber optic cable installation. It seems intrusive. Two workers at the hospital seem to have more success with folk treatments: Itt. who has psychic powers, and Jett, an older woman with a lame leg who concocts traditional unguents. Their slight progress is halted by a visit from two young ladies who say they are the spirits of two princesses enshrined at the local temple. They report that the soldiers from the hospital will never get better because spirits from the past who died tragically and are buried underneath the hospital are preying upon the soldiers like succubae. As in the horror genre, the sins of the past are manifest in the present.

Cemetery of Splendor is suffused with tropical languor. The pacing is slow, often somnambulant. Fixed shots are held for lengthy periods of time, often to show the changing effects of natural and unnatural lighting. What drama there is is not highlighted by music or camera movement, but through dialogue, touch, and gesture. If there is a "message" in Weerasethakul's work it is that we can only find salvation by being in touch with the rhythms of nature and our fellow creatures. The climax of the film, such as it is, has Itt rubbing unguent on Jett's damaged leg, eventually pressing the healing balm into the cracks of Jett's wounds with her mouth and tongue. The dispassionate tone emphasizes that this is an act of tender mercy, a loving touch and not a bizarre sexual come on. Agape not eros. There is a transgressive tone here, much as Dave Hickey finds in Caravaggio and Mapplethorpe in his provocative The Invisible Dragon, but it is not chafing against sexual mores. rather, Weerasethakul is reacting against a modern culture that has literally lost touch. (9/16/16)