Memoria

So, this film is artistic AF. It has all of what most people who enjoy film dont like ( including myself) but it is an spiritual retreat. So i would suggest that you get a nice wine, sit comfortable in front of a big screen with good sound and enjoy a very slow visual artistic film. That in general. I also recommend to watch it alone, i think it is a very private film, and you will enjoy better when you can fully inmerse.

The director challenges the viewer the whole first part of the film, but preparing you for the next. Needs to bring you heart rate very low, and you will feel how time stops at some point. You will forget about outside world in the second part. Its not a film to entertaind, its more like a trip to the jungle , find a shaman, try ayahuasca and come back to normal life. Seems surreal, makes you wonder... Personally i was not prepared properly to watch this film, but i enjoyed it because i am also a photographer so i was enjoying every static frame. There is craft on this film, technically stunning.

This movie is very hard to watch and requires much patience. If you can connect with the movie, it will make it easier to watch. There are very long and still sequences. From the beginning to the end of the film, confusion prevails. We cant really understand what is happening. Nothing is clear. And the movie does not give us many answers. This is a "feel" movie. If you cant connect with the characters or the storyline it will be a disappointing experience for you.

This movie is only for the eyes of a few people. To those eyes, it offers many answers, inspiration, and a lot of insight - to the latter it will look like total rubbish. I understand and respect this. However, this movie was fascinating for me. It requires a great amount of patience and total attention - and a base knowledge of buddhism helps a lot with many symbols scattered around the movie. It is something that needs you to focus with an open mind - because it has nothing to do with a story, a plot, it rather gives you the chance to observe a very subtle reality often ignored. Not with a storyline, but a chain of circumstances which may look meaningless or unimportant if you don't look close enough. Sounds were used brilliantly, and the whole movie made me feel there was nothing decorative, all scenes, and little things, and pauses were there only because they were absolutely necessary to deliver the message. It was more like a meditation. This one provided me so many unexpected answers and spiritual inspiration, and I'm sure I'll be thinking about it and 'feeling' it for a while.

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...

"Enjoy the silence" a title card states as Apichatpong Weerasethakul invites the viewer to experience MEMORIA; And, an experience it truly is as Weerasethakul's metaphysical film infuses the viewer with natural sights and sounds. That opening acts almost as an overture, as the Director's personal sketches are superimposed over still photographs from the production of the film - all 'scored' to absolute silence.

MEMORIA's protagonist is Jessica (Tilda Swinton) who awakes one morning to a mysterious sonic bang. Jessica is a botanist living in Columbia who is visiting her sister in Bogota. The bang continues to haunt Jessica as she goes about her daily life. Slowly, she feels that her mind is slipping - is she imaging the sounds? People she believes she has met don't seem to exist. On a drive back to her home in Medellin, she meets (or does she?) a man named Hernan (Elkin Diaz) and they spend a long afternoon together.

Weerasethakul's film doesn't have a formal plot. Swinton is so attuned to her filmmaker's methods that she inhabits rather than acts. The Director's method is to utilize only the most minimal of editing with extended takes. Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom exquisitely captures the crucial mood and beauty of the natural world on 35mm film. The sonic bangs seem ever more loud because the sound design accentuates an organic soundscape; even the human voices are seemingly mixed below normal levels.

"Sometimes there's no escape except in dreams" reads another title card after the 'overture'. The classical definition of "Memoria" can be very loosely translated as "Memory", but its true meaning is much deeper. It describes a way in which the human mind stores and utilizes those thoughts and senses. The sonic bangs can be seen as a way of triggering Jessica's states of consciousness. Her own Memoria.

MEMORIA isn't a film for general audiences. Indeed, it's release is a never-ending world tour with the Producers claiming it shall never be sold for home viewing - streaming or physical media. It's very much a communal experience in a theater. The aural and visual tour de force to be savored not only by the individual -- but, by the audience in toto.