This conversation touches on the creative process of two of film’s greatest names while working together on the film Memoria, an intimate collaboration founded on their long friendship.
For the world-renowned Thai artist and film director, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the topics of dreams and death are essential to his filmography. His style raises big questions about time and our relationship with the spiritual world.
Winner of the Cannes Palme d'Or in 2012 for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Weerasethakul returned to the main competition years later with Memoria, his first film shot outside of Thailand, which received the Jury Prize (ex-aequo).
The Scottish artist, actress, and producer Tilda Swinton began her career performing and collaborating with experimental filmmaker Derek Jarman. She has worked with directors such as Jim Jarmusch, Wes Anderson, Luca Guadagnino, the Coen brothers, and Joanna Hogg. Her performances have been characterized by the subtlety of her gestures and her magnetic presence. In 2007 she won the Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for the movie Michael Clayton.
She has combined her acting in major Hollywood productions with a wide range of characters created by contemporary filmmakers such as Bong Joon-ho, Pedro Almodóvar, Lynne Ramsay, and, more recently, Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Swinton and Weerasethakul reunited in Colombia for Memoria’s release and talked about the importance of understanding that you’re not in control and how cinema is an attempt to put what’s inside one’s head onscreen, something they achieved through sound.
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