Tilda Swinton as Jessica Holland in “Memoria.” Credit: Memoria images courtesy of Neon.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s acclaimed film “Memoria” will make a rare appearance at the Wexner Center for the Arts, screening on Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
“Memoria,” described by the Wexner Center as “sense altering and disorienting,” stars Tilda Swinton as a Scottish woman living in Colombia who goes on a journey through Bogotá to find the source and meaning of a loud noise that wakes her up. Chris Stults, an associate curator of film and video for the Wexner Center, said the film came to be after Tilda Swinton watched Weerasethakul’s earlier work and reached out to collaborate.
Stults said Weerasethakul, who’s feature film “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” won the Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, is one of the most influential voices of the past 20 years in terms of international cinema.
“His films have a tone and a spell that they cast over audiences, and seeing them in a cinema with an audience under great conditions can be such a transporting experience,” Stults said. “Rather than feeling resolved or certain, they just create a mood of mystery that you want to sit with.”
Weerasethakul has a relationship with the Wexner Center dating back to 2004 when he was an emerging filmmaker, Stults said. The Wexner Center also gave him the 2004-05 Wexner Center Residency Award in Media Arts.
Weerasethakul plans to keep “Memoria” away from streaming services or home video, as its distributors view it as an art installation traveling across the country, Stults said,
“Seeing it in a cinema is really the only way to see it,” Stults said. “There’s one 35 mm print of the film in the country, and we have that.”
Dave Filipi, director of the film and video of the Wexner Center, said one of the Wexner Center’s main goals is to preserve the cinema experience in the age of streaming.
“There needs to be somewhere in any city where people can go and see films the way they’re meant to be seen,” Filipi said. “That’s kind of the easiest way to say what we’re trying to do.”
Filipi said the experience of Weerasethakul’s films is more important than the plot, which is why it matters how a person views the film.
“Wonderful sound, great picture and seeing it with an audience, that’s one of the reasons why we are so excited to show ‘Memoria,’” Filipi said. “It is this unique film, and people are going to be able to see it in ideal circumstances.”
Stults said the screening of “Memoria” will be preceded by a short film that Weerasethakul made in 2020 along with 19 other filmmakers as part of a Wexner Center Cinetracts project.
“It’s just a small little two-minute portrait of his life at the start of the pandemic,” Stults said. “It kind of sets the mood nicely, like an appetizer for ‘Memoria.’”
“Memoria” is one of the 175 film events the Wexner Center hosts on average annually, Filipi said.
Filipi said the Wexner Center is committed to providing a setting where film, like “Memoria,” can be viewed without any distractions.
“Filmmakers didn’t intend their work to be seen that way,” Filipi said. “We’re shortchanging the artist if we don’t factor that into the way we present their work.”
