Cannes film festival: Apichatpong Weerasethakul wins Palme d'Or | Film | The Guardian Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives Cannes film festival: Apichatpong Weerasethakul wins Palme d'Or Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is first Asian Palme d'Or win since 1997 Sunday 23 May 2010 14.28 EDT First published on Sunday 23 May 2010 14.28 EDT Close This article is 6 years old Asian cinema tonight emerged as the surprise winner of this year's Cannes film festival when a lyrically beautiful and often surreal Thai movie took the Palme d'Or. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives , directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, already had the best title of the 19 films in competition. Tonight jury chairman Tim Burton named it best film, seeing off films from an impressive roster of film makers that included Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Abbas Kiarostami.

It is the first Asian Palme d'Or winner since Kiarostami shared it with Japanese film maker Shohei Imamura in 1997. And it came after the veteran South Korean director Hong Sangsoo on Saturday won the prestigious Un Certain Regard sidebar prize for Hahaha. The Asian clean sweep took most Cannes watchers by surprise. Just as surprising was that there were no prizes at all for Loach and Leigh. Burton said deciding the Palme d'Or had felt like an easy choice. The jury saw the film early and it stayed in their heads throughout the festival, he said. "The world is getting smaller and more westernised, more Hollywood-ised and this is a film where I felt I was watching from another country.

It was using fantasy elements but in a way I'd never seen before so I just felt it was like a beautiful, strange dream." Accepting the award, Weerasethakul – the first Thai winner of the Palme d'Or – said: "I would like to thank all the spirits and all the ghosts in Thailand who made it possible for me to be here." The grand prix prize – effectively the runner-up – went to Xavier Beauvois' Of Men and Gods, his surprisingly gripping dramatisation of a true story: the 1996 deaths of French Cistercian monks kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists. There was little surprise that Juliette Binoche was named best actress for her role as the enigmatically named She in Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy. By general consent it was a stunning performance, although she told journalists this week that one of the trickiest parts of the role had been filming on Tuscan cobbles wearing heels. The best actor prize was shared by Spaniard Javier Bardem for his memorable portrayal of an underworld businessman dying of cancer in Alejandro González Iñárritu Biutiful; and Italian Elio Germano for Daniele Luchetti's Our Life.

Other awards given out at the ceremony included the jury prize to Chad film maker Mahamat-Saleh Haroun and his third film, A Screaming Man. US actor Kirsten Dunst presented the best director prize to Mathieu Amalric for On Tour. The Frenchman is better known as an actor – the Bond villain in Quantum of Solace, for example, or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – and On Tour, about Parisien burlesque performers, is his fourth film. South Korea's Lee Chang-dong won best screenplay for Poetry. There was only one US movie in this year's competition – Doug Liman's Iraq drama Fair Game – but there was plenty of Hollywood glamour out of competition. Russell Crowe was in town for Robin Hood, Woody Allen for You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger and Michael Douglas for Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps. And there was, bien sûr, as much red carpet glitz as usual. Cannes is still the only place on earth that a smiling Cheryl Cole – wearing a thigh tattoo revealing Versace frock — would ever be seen walking the red carpet for a controversial drama addressing French atrocities against Algerians.

Tonight's awards ceremony, hosted by Kristin Scott Thomas, came after a Cannes festival that has been judged by most observers as lacking wow factor. There has been hardly any shock and few surprises. Perhaps the downbeat feel is appropriate given the story which was never very far away from the Croisette this year: the continued detention of one of the competition judges, the Iranian director Jafar Panahi. He has been in jail since 1 March, allegedly because he was planning a film around the disputed elections of last year. It emerged over the course of the festival that Panahi has begun a hunger strike, demanding the right to see his family and access to a lawyer. Panahi's communiqué was posted on and makes for chilling reading. He writes: "Finally, I swear upon what I believe in, the cinema: I will not cease my hunger strike until my wishes are satisfied. "My final wish is that my remains be returned to my family, so that they may bury me in the place they choose." Yesterday there were more optimistic signs.

A letter from Iran's ministry of culture and guidance to Cannes president Gilles Jacob said "legal procedures in his case have been almost completed and there is much hope that he will be released soon." Given the Panahi situation, it seems almost appropriate that this year's festival has been quite downbeat with films mining the darker seams of the human condition. After watching eight mostly bleak short films competing for a separate sidebar prize one first-time American journalist was heard asking: "Is Cannes always this depressing?" Certainly in the main competition, from the Hungarian Frankenstein movie to a mindlessly violent Yakuza movie there has been a fair amount of bleakness. It was also a year in which Cannes selectors failed to include in the main contest a single film made by a woman. There were 19 films, by 19 men. The festival did, though, close with The Tree, a French-Australian film by Julie Bertuccelli starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, a well-received movie considerably better than some of the films screened in the competition. Among the other awards Frenchman Serge Avedikian won the short film competition for Barking Island.

This week, Jason Solomons catches up with the Thai director who won this year's Palme d'Or at Cannes, and the film-makers behind a new Rolling Stones documentary. Plus, Xan Brooks joins Jason to review Sex and the City 2 Published: 27 May 2010 Apichatpong Weerasethakul Wins Palme d’Or at Cannes - The New York Times The New York Times Movies |Thai Filmmaker Wins Palme d’Or at Cannes Search Continue reading the main story Photo Apichatpong Weerasethakul, center, winner of the Palme d’Or, with Tim Burton, far right. Juliette Binoche, far left, and Javier Bardem, second from right, won acting prizes at Cannes. Credit Eric Gaillard/Reuters CANNES, France — On Sunday evening the 63rd Cannes Film Festival came to a shocking, exhilarating close with the Palme d’Or going to “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” from the Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul .

Surely the only Palme winner to feature sex between a princess and a thrashing catfish, “Boonmee” is a fantastical tale about a dying man whose past lives — and ghostly relatives — enraptured some critics while turning others off. The speculation that it might appeal to the jury president, Tim Burton, along with some of his more discerning fellow jury members, proved true. On accepting the award Mr. Weerasethakul (who goes by Joe) said in English that “this is like another world for me,” and noted that “Uncle Boonmee” is the first Thai film to win the Palme. “I would really like to kiss all of you,” he said to the jury, telling Mr. Burton that he liked his hairstyle. Mr. Weerasethakul thanked “all the spirits and ghosts in Thailand,” who made it “possible for me to be here.” The Grand Prix, effectively second place, went to Xavier Beauvois’s “Of Gods and Men,” a quiet, touching French drama, loosely based on actual events, about Cistercian monks imperiled by Muslim fundamentalists as civil war begins sweeping across Algeria in the 1990s.

The Jury Prize went to “A Screaming Man,” another film set against civil war, this one directed by the Chadian-born director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun. The prize for best director, presented by Kirsten Dunst (who was here with her own film, which played out of the official selection), went to the French actor Mathieu Amalric, who looked a touch surprised to be called onstage. He won for “Tournée” ( “On Tour” ), about a promoter taking an American neo-burlesque troupe around France. Mr. Amalric invited his bodacious, gorgeously gaudy stars to join him onstage. Continue reading the main story Best screenplay went to the South Korean Lee Chang-dong for “Poetry,” a beautifully directed, emotionally wrenching drama about a grandmother who discovers that her only grandson has been party to a horrific crime. Mr. Lee, speaking in English, acknowledged his powerhouse female star, Yun Jung-hee, who gave one of the most memorable performances of the festival. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The best actress prize, however, seemed destined for Juliette Binoche, the star of Abbas Kiarostami’s “Certified Copy.” This is Mr.

Kiarostami’s first though probably not last film made outside Iran. “What a joy, what a joy, what a joy to work with you, Abbas,” Ms. Binoche said, on accepting her award. Shortly thereafter Ms. Binoche held up a sign with the name Jafar Panahi spelled out in capital letters. Mr. Panahi, a Cannes veteran, had been invited to serve on the competition jury, but is in an Iranian jail for his political views. Ms. Binoche said that she hoped he would be at Cannes next year. Her sign remained on the podium, facing the cameras, for much of the rest of the ceremony. The award for best male performance was shared by Javier Bardem and Elio Germano. Mr. Germano’s surprising win was for his performance as a besieged construction worker in Daniele Luchetti’s “Our Life,” an Italian film without much critical support. Mr. Bardem won for his deeply felt turn in “Biutiful,” Alejandro González Iñárritu art-house ready descent into the lower depths. “Bonsoir, merci beaucoup,” Mr.

Bardem said, before switching to English and going on to praise his director and acknowledge his companion, Penélope Cruz. Ms. Cruz, seated in the theater, promptly began to cry. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy In “Biutiful” Mr. Bardem plays a penny-ante hustler, Uxbal, who exploits illegal immigrants in Barcelona and who is ill and rearing his two children alone. Uxbal is flawed, yet Mr. González Iñárritu lavishes enough attention on the character that it’s clear he’s not truly villainous. Unlike Mr. González Iñárritu’s earlier films, like “Babel,” this new one unfolds linearly, though it does open and close with variations on the same scenes, a literalization of the circle of life. The film’s money shot is a close-up of an African woman’s hand peeling a bandage off the face of a Spanish child, which assures us everything will turn out fine.

Yet even as it feeds the art houses along with the red-carpet monster (or tries to), Cannes continues to make room for films that fall outside the commercial mainstream. The greatest proof of this is unequivocally “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” the single most adventurous film in the competition. It opens with a mysterious and lovely scene of a buffalo shaking loose its tether and roaming deep into the forest, an image that might be from one of Uncle Boonmee’s past lives. It is also a metaphor for how to watch Mr. Weerasethakul’s films: You need to shake loose all your preconceived ideas about how and why movies make meaning and just plunge in. On Saturday the Certain Regard prize went to “Ha Ha Ha,” a wistful, intricately structured comedy from the South Korean director Hong Sang-soo. In a festival that tends to be crammed with films that skew toward the grave — religious fundamentalism was a recurrent theme — the humor in “Ha Ha Ha” was also a relief.

The on-screen death count at Cannes tends to be high and this year the blood flowed, squirted and sprayed in films like Olivier Assayas’s “Carlos,” a portrait of the terrorist and mercenary Carlos the Jackal, which surely would have won a major award if it had been shown in competition. Although the Certain Regard films are not part of the main competition, this section has consistently become a showcase for some of the strongest, most innovative and daring work at Cannes. Such was the case this year with a largely well-received slate that also included Manoel de Oliveira’s “Strange Case of Angelica”; Jia Zhang-ke’s “I Wish I Knew”; Jean-Luc Godard’s “Film Socialism”; and Cristi Puiu’s “Aurora.” The Certain Regard jury prize went to Daniel and Diego Vega’s “October.” (Mr. Panahi won the same award in 2003 for “Crimson Gold.” ) At the Saturday afternoon awards ceremony for the Certain Regard, the leader of the jury, the French director Claire Denis, expressed particular appreciation for Mr. Oliveira’s film, saying that it had cast a bright light over the entire festival.

Three actresses from the Argentine title “The Lips,” directed by Ivan Fund and Santiago Loza, won a performance prize. Rounding out the awards the Caméra d’Or, the prize for first feature, was awarded to “Año Bisiesto” by Michael Rowe. The Palme d’Or for best short film, presented by the weird duo of jury members Atom Egoyan and Michelle Rodriguez (who name-dropped “Avatar” ), was awarded to “Chienne d’Histoire” (“Barking Island”), directed by Serge Avédikian. In Director’s Fortnight, one of the parallel sections at Cannes, top honors went to “Lily Sometimes,” “Le Quattro Volte” and “Illegal.” In Critics’ Week, another parallel section, the grand prize went to “Armadillo.” The independent Ecumenical Jury gave its highest award to “Of Gods and Men,” and commendations to “Poetry” and Mike Leigh’s “Another Year.” The critics’ group, Fipresci, divided the love between “Tournée,” “Pal Adrienn” and “Todos Vós Sodes Capitáns” (“You Are All Captains”).

A version of this article appears in print on May 24, 2010, on Page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: Thai Filmmaker Wins Palme d’Or at Cannes. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Thai Movie 'Uncle Boonmee' Wins Cannes Top Prize - The 63rd Cannes Film Festival - TIME The 63rd Cannes Film Festival Thai Me Up: Uncle Boonmee Wins at Cannes By Mary Corliss and Richard CorlissSunday, May 23, 2010 Vincent Kessler / Reuters Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul attends a photocall after winning the Palme d'Or award for the film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives during the award ceremony of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival May 23, 2010. The ghosts and jungle spirits must have been smiling down on Apichatpong Weerasethakul. At Sunday night's closing ceremony the Thai director's magical-surrealism entry Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives took the Palme d'Or of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival.

The jury  headed by U.S. director Tim Burton and including actors Benicio Del Toro and Kate Beckinsale  gave its top prize to this story of an old man suffering from kidney failure who prepares to die and encounters his dead wife, his missing son (who's been transformed into a laser-eyed monkey ghost) and a princess who has sex with a catfish. It was that kind of year at Cannes: films of subpar quality, with a prize selection as weird and confounding as the movies.

The big prizes, at a glance: Palme d'Or: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Thailand, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul Grand Prix: Of Gods and Men, France, directed by Olivier Beauvois Jury Prize: A Screaming Man, Chad, directed by Mahamet-Saleh Haroun Best Actor (tie): Javier Bardem in Biutiful, Spain, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Elio Germano, Our Life, Italy, directed by Dante Luchetti Best Actress: Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy, Italy, directed by Abbas Kiarostami Best Director: Mathieu Amalric, On Tour, France Best Screenplay: Lee Chang Dong, Poetry, South Korea The Grand Prix, or second place, went to Of Gods and Men, a luminous tale of faith and heroism among Cistercian monks threatened by Algerian terrorists.

Chadian director Mahamet-Saleh Haroun won third place, the Jury Prize, for A Screaming Man, about a 50-something pool attendant who loses his job to his son during a civil war, and then hands his son over to the army to fight the rebels. Lee Chang Dong took Best Screenplay for Poetry, in which an elderly woman in the early stages of Alzheimer's must rights the wrongs committed by her teenage grandson. It was one of many parent-child films in the competition; as Burton said Sunday, "Cannes this year was showing family films  not of the Disney variety." (See photos from Cannes.) The Best Actor award was shared by front-runner Javier Bardem in Biutiful and out-of-nowhere Elio Germano in Our Life. One film was an official favorite from a lauded director (Alejandro González Iñárritu, of Amores Perros and Babel renown), the other a widely reviled social comedy thought to be unworthy of the competition. Yet the actors were playing essentially the same role: a likable fellow, riddled with crises, who works as a middleman for undocumented aliens and tries to raise his children on his own.

Juliette Binoche, the smiling figure on this year's Cannes poster, was named Best Actress for Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy. In this made-in-Italy conundrum about a man and a woman who pretend to be  or may already be  husband and wife, Binoche's performance was strained, agitated and way too aggressive. In other words, it is exactly the kind of bad work actors are often rewarded for. The Best Director prize, which typically goes not to the director of the top film but to a distant runner-up, was taken by Mathieu Amalric, the French actor (he played the villain in the last Bond film, Quantum of Solace, and the motionless hero of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), for the road movie On Tour. A fitful tale of a down-and-out entrepreneur (Amalric) bringing a team of exotic dancers from America to the French sticks, the movie was the first film shown in competition and was quickly forgotten  by everyone but the jury.

Accepting his award, Amalric summoned onstage the strippers who played strippers in his film and happily told them, "I didn't know I was a director!" Neither did we, and we saw the movie. Most Cannes regulars thought that this year's slate of competing movies was weak, in part because some highly regarded entries  the terrorist biopic Carlos, the South African drama Life, Above All, Romania's Tuesday After Christmas and Charles Ferguson's financial-meltdown documentary Inside Job  were not eligible for the jury's prizes. Among some acclaimed movies that were eligible but won nothing were Another Year, a middling drama from Mike Leigh (Palme d'Or winner for Secrets & Lies in 1996), and The Housemaid, a zesty South Korean thriller about a scheming bourgeois family and their working-class victim. Both films are likely to be released in the U.S., where the audience can decide whether these pictures were robbed. The brightest spotlight shone on Apichatpong, who had been proclaiming his solidarity with Thai Red Shirt protesters while in Cannes. Tonight, though, he was understandably exuberant. "I would like to kiss the jury," he said. "All of you, especially Mr.

Burton  I really like your hairstyle." (Burton's coif is a wild tangle, rather like the Uncle Boonmee movie.) Apichatpong's past films include such mysterioso titles as Ghost of Asia, Phantoms of Nabua and The Adventure of Iron Pussy. His work has been caviar to high-minded critics but dog food to international audiences. Uncle Boonmee is certainly his most accessible picture, but we'd be surprised if it stands more than a ghost's chance of connecting with moviegoers beyond the Croisette. So another Cannes  a so-so Cannes this year  ends. The glamorati will return to their watering holes, the critics to their rat holes, exhausted from the 12-day binge and eager to return in 2011. As we say hopefully at the end of each Festival, A l'année prochaine: Same time next year.

'Uncle Boonmee' Wins Palme d'Or ‘Uncle Boonmee’ Wins Palme d’Or Thai film takes top prize; Javier Bardem, Juliette Binoche and Elio Germano win acting awards Steve Pond | May 23, 2010 @ 11:08 AM The Cannes Film Festival jury, after a year widely viewed as lackluster, has chosen one of its least conventional films as its winner: "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives." Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s film (photo below), a mystical and experimental tale of an old man on his deathbed, was awarded the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or. While the film had not garnered the early buzz of Mike Leigh ‘s "Another Year" or Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ‘s "Biutiful," it was in many ways the best-reviewed film of the festival, and picked up strong support since its mid-week screening. The victory is the first for a film from Thailand.

The runner-up award, the Grand Prize, went to "Des Hommes et des Dieux" ("Of Gods and Men"), from French director Oliver Beauvois. The Jury Award, essentially a third-place honor, was given to the African film Un Homme qui Crie" ("A Screaming Man"). Mathieu Amalric , better known as an actor than director, was named the festival’s best director for "Tournee." The Best Actress award went to the face of this year’s Cannes poster, Juliette Binoche , for "Certified Copy." Best Actor was a tie between the favorite, Javier Bardem for "Biutiful," and the dark-horse candidate, Elio Germano for "La Nostra Vita." “Another Year,” which was at one point considered a strong candidate for the Palme d’Or, and for an actress award for Lesley Manville , was shut out. “Biutiful,” for which Bardem shared the actor award, was another presumed Palme d’Or frontrunner – but in typical Cannes fashion, the jury did not award more than one prize to any film.

“Uncle Boonmee,” in many ways the most experimental and unconventional film in the main competition, is the final installment in a multi-media project by Weerasethakul, which included the video project “Phantoms of Nabua” and the short film “A Letter to Uncle Boonmee.” Javier Bardem ” style=”margin: 15px; height: 322px; width: 225px; float: right;” />In Slant magazine, Matt Noller wrote, “’Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives’ is not just the best film of the festival; it makes everything else in competition — even the good stuff — look slapdash, lazy, hollow.” Weerasethakul has two previous victories at Cannes: he won the Un Certain Regard prize in 2002 for "Sud sanaeha," and the Jury Prize two years later for "Sud pralad" ("Tropical Malady"). The full list of awards is below.

The awards were chosen by a nine-person jury headed by director Tim Burton — who, when asked afterwards what he thought about being the jury president, replied, "I’ve never been the president of anything before." Other members were actresses Kate Beckinsale and Giovanna Mezzogiorno, actor Benicio del Toro , composer Alexandre Desplat, directors Shekhar Kapur and Victor Erice, cinematographer Alberto Barbera, and author, screenwriter and director Emmanuel Carrere. Jury deliberations reportedly took place in a lavish villa in the hills overlooking Cannes. The jurors chose from 19 films that were part of the official competition. Many of Cannes’ most high-profile films, from the five-and-half hour drama “Carlos” to Woody Allen ’s “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” to the Hollywood studio productions “Robin Hood” and “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” screened out of competition and were not eligible for awards. The only American film in the competition was Doug Liman ’s “Fair Game,” his story of the Valerie Plame affair with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn .

Juliette Binoche ” style=”margin: 15px; height: 320px; width: 210px; float: left;” />Also competing: former Palme d’Or winner Ken Loach ’s Iraq drama “Route Irish”; the big-budget but critically-panned Russian epic “Burnt by the Sun 2”; and the controversial “Outside the Law,” which drew more than 1,000 protesters to Cannes streets for its depiction of French involvement in the Algerian war of independence. Of the films in competition, “Another Year” and “Of Gods and Men” landed distribution deals with Sony Pictures Classics. IFC Films acquired U.S. rights to “Certified Copy” and “The Princess of Montpensier,” as well as several films not in competition. “Biutiful” has yet to secure an American distributor. The Weinstein Company was rumored to be interested, but Harvey Weinstein told the L.A. Times’ Pete Hammond that his company would not be acquiring the film.

The 2010 lineup was considered particularly uninspiring when compared to the 2009 slate, which included “Inglourious Basterds,” “Bright Star,” “A Prophet,” “The White Ribbon,” “Broken Embraces,” Vincere,” “Fish Tank” and the fest’s cause celebre, “Antichrist.” The Palme d’Or is seldom a path to success in the U.S. market, although several winners (including “The Pianist,” “Secrets and Lies,” “Pulp Fiction” and “The Piano”) have gone on to Oscar nominations for Best Picture. Of recent winners, the top grosser was Michael Moore ’s documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which was a rare unanimous selection in 2004 and went on to make $120 million at the U.S. boxoffice and another $100 million worldwide.

Since then, the Palme d’Or winners have been Luc and Jean-Pierre’ Dardenne’s “L’enfant,” Loach’s “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” Cristian Mungiu ’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” Laurent Cantet’s “The Class” and Michael Haneke ’s “The White Ribbon.” The last two received Oscar nominations in the Best Foreign-Language Film category. The awards: Palme d’Or: "Lung Boonmee Raluek Chat" ("Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives"), dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul Grand Prix: "Des Hommes et des Dieux" (Of Gods and Men," dir. Olivier Beauvois Prix du Jury (Jury Prize): "Un Homme qui Crie" ("A Screaming Man") Prix de la Mise en Scene (Best Director): Mathieu Amalric , "Tournee" ("On Tour") Prix du Scenario (Best Screenplay): Lee Chang-dong, "Poetry" Camera d’Or (Best First Feature): "Ano Biestro," dir.

Michael Rowe Prix d’interpretation masculine (Best Actor): (tie) Javier Bardem , "Biutiful," and Elio Germano, "La Nostra Vita" Prix d’interpretation feminine (Best Actress): Juliette Binoche , "Certified Copy" Palme d’Or (short film): "Chienne d’Histoire" (Photos of Bardem and Binoche by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives ( 2010 ) Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (original title) Not Rated | From $3.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC On his deathbed, Uncle Boonmee recalls his many past lives.

Director: Phra Sripariyattiweti (inspired by the book of), Apichatpong Weerasethakul Stars: Famous Directors: From Sundance to Prominence From Christopher Nolan to Quentin Tarantino and every Coen brother in between, many of today's most popular directors got their start at the Sundance Film Festival . Here's a list of some of the biggest names to go from Sundance to Hollywood prominence. See the new trailer for Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s upcoming film ‘Cemetery of Splendour’ 29 July 2015 7:12 AM, -08:00 | SoundOnSight a list of 30 titles created 16 Jun 2015 a list of 43 titles created 13 Jan 2016 a list of 23 titles created 11 months ago a list of 28 titles created 10 months ago a list of 48 titles created 7 months ago Title: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) 6.6/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. 9 wins & 19 nominations. See more awards » Videos A romance between a soldier and a country boy, wrapped around a Thai folk-tale involving a shaman with shape-shifting abilities. Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul Story about director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's parents who were both doctors, and director's memories about growing up in the hospital environment. Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul A group of soldiers in a small town on the Mekong River in northern Thailand are struck with a bizarre sleeping illness. Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul The story of a love affair that begins during a picnic on the Thai-Burmese border. Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul This film is an experimental mix of documentary and fiction. The film crew travels from the Thai countryside to Bangkok, asking the people they encounter along the way to continue a story ...

See full summary » Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul An innocent young man witnesses violence breaks out after an isolated village is inflamed by the arrival of a circus and its peculiar attractions, a giant whale and a mysterious man named "The Prince". Directors: Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky Stars: Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz, Hanna Schygulla From dawn to dusk, a few hours in the shadowy life of a mystic man named Monsieur Oscar. Director: Leos Carax A rural farmer is forced to confront the mortality of his faithful horse. Directors: Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky Stars: János Derzsi, Erika Bók, Mihály Kormos A woman assists her friend in arranging an illegal abortion in 1980s Romania. Director: Cristian Mungiu In Tuscany to promote his latest book, a middle-aged British writer meets a French woman who leads him to the village of Lucignano. While there, a chance question reveals something deeper. Director: Abbas Kiarostami Each member of a middle class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.

Director: Edward Yang Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible? Director: Michael Haneke Edit Storyline Suffering from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave - the birthplace of his first life. Written by Lament 1 September 2010 (France) See more » Also Known As: Amcam önceki hayatlarini hatirliyor See more » Box Office $23,540 (USA) (4 March 2011) Gross: Did You Know? Trivia Selected as the Thai submission to the Academy Awards Foreign Language Film category though it didn't make the final five. See more » Goofs The first time a ghost appears, during dinner, the nephew passes the ghost a glass of water.

You can see the ghost image superimposed over the nephew's arm when he places the glass of water on the table. See more » Connections Written, Produced, and Vocals by Jettamon Malayota (as Jettamont Malayoda) Mixed Down and Mastered by Penguin Villa and Vannareut Pongprayoon at Smallroom Publishing Rights and Copyright: Smallroom Co., Ltd. Light on story, high on contemplative surrealism. 23 November 2014 | by garcalej (Tallahassee, Fl) – See all my reviews I'll be frank. Whether or not you enjoy this movie will depend largely on whether or not you are a die hard film buff or a casual movie goer looking for a story. If you are the later, then aside from the eerie sight of the red eyed Monkey Spirits, you will come away disappointed. That said, there is much in Uncle Boonmee to like, but like the Buddhist aesthetic the film is steeped in, you have to be ready for it. Because this is one film that demands a lot of patience of the viewer.

Set in rural Isan Province, Thailand, the story follows the last days of a well to-do farmer, the titular Boonmee, who is dying of a terminal illness. Like all dying men, Boonmee can't help but wax philosophic, both on the nature of death itself and on his own past mistakes, and one night while eating with his family is suddenly and abruptly joined by two spirits, the first of his dead wife, Huay, the second that of his missing son, Boonsong, who has inexplicably been transformed into a black monkey. Anyone even remotely familiar with the prior work of Director Weerasethakul (try saying that with a mouthful of marbles), particularly Tropical Malady, will know that such surrealism is a common theme in his films, with its signature mix of traditional Thai Buddhism and animist lore. As in Tropical Malady, the day belongs to the living and the mundane, but night brings on ghosts, animal spirits, the shades of ancestors, and the inner musings and anxieties of Weerasethakul's characters.

The film itself feels much like a Buddhist temple; with its long uninterrupted and unadorned shots, and its devotion to capturing trivial moments, it is not so much a vehicle for storytelling as contemplation. The last film to be shot with celluloid as opposed to digital, it is the director's self-admitted funerary ode to a dying medium. 3 of 3 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes "Uncle Boonmee" wins Cannes Palme d'Or | Festivals & Awards | Roger Ebert "Uncle Boonmee" wins Cannes Palme d'Or by Roger Ebert Tweet CANNES, France (AP) – The hypnotic Thai film " Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives " has won the top honor at the Cannes Film Festival. The film directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul traces the dreamlike final days of a man dying of kidney failure as the ghost of his dead wife returns to tend him, and his long-lost son comes home in the form of a jungle spirit. Academy Award winners Juliette Binoche and Javier Bardem earned festival acting prizes.

Binoche won for the cryptic love story " Certified Copy ." Bardem won for " Biutiful ," a grim portrait of a dying father, sharing the best-actor prize with Elio Germano for "Our Life," an Italian drama of a widowed father with three sons. Awards presented Sunday at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, chosen by a jury headed by U.S.

director Tim Burton : - Palme d'Or (Golden Palm): "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand) - Jury Prize: "A Screaming Man" by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad) - Best Director: Mathieu Amalric for "On Tour" (France) - Best Actor: Javier Bardem, "Biutiful" (Mexico) and Elio Germano, "La Nostra Vita" (Italy) - Best Actress: Juliette Binoche, "Certified Copy" (Iran) - Best Screenplay: Lee Chang-Dong, " Poetry " (Korea) - Camera d'Or (first-time director): "Ano Bisiesto" by Michael Rowe (Mexico) - Best short film: "Chienne d'Histoire," by Serge Avedikian (France) 'Boonmee' wins the Palme d'Or - latimes 'Boonmee' wins the Palme d'Or The Grand Prix, the festival's runner-up award, goes to 'Of God and Men.' May 24, 2010 |Kenneth Turan |

 Film Critic CANNES, FRANCE — It was a great night for a guy named Joe, as Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives," a film as wonderfully eccentric as it sounds, won the Palme d'Or at the 63rd Festival des Cannes.

Thai director Weerasethakul, who tells people to call him Joe because of the difficulty Westerners have pronouncing his name, has made a one-of-a-kind dreamy ghost story about a man who is on speaking terms with all manner of supernatural beings. "This is like another world for me. This is surreal," the director said on accepting the prize at the Palais des Festivals on Sunday night. After telling jury president Tim Burton, "I really like your hairstyle," he thanked "all the spirits and all the ghosts in Thailand. They made it possible for me to be here." Then Weerasethakul thanked his parents for taking him to "a little cinema in our town 30 years ago. I didn't understand anything about film, and with this award I think I know a little more, but still it remains a mystery.

This mystery keeps us coming back here to share our world." <script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\""></script>");document.close();})();' frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="649" height="160"> The Grand Prix, the festival's runner-up award, went to "Of God and Men," directed by France's Xavier Beauvois, who did 2005's "Le Petit Lieutenant." This film is a powerful adventure of the spirit that shows how dramatic moral choices can be. Based on the real story of a Cistercian monks in a monastery in the mountains of Algeria who had to decide whether to abandon their vocation after threats from Islamic fundamentalists, "Of God and Men" is always involving and unexpectedly thought-provoking. The best actress prize went to French star Juliette Binoche for "Certified Copy." Binoche is charming in this otherwise tedious film set in Tuscany by Iranian art-house icon Abbas Kiarostami, the equivalent of watching a 1930s romantic comedy improbably directed by the philosopher Immanuel Kant.

The Cannes jury split the best actor award between Italy's Elio Germano, who plays a grieving husband in "Our Life," and Javier Bardem, star of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Biutiful." Blessed with one of the most soulful faces in contemporary cinema, Bardem is easily the best thing in this epic of miserabilism, playing a petty criminal single father trying to hold his life together after a cancer diagnosis. Bardem movingly closed his thank-yous by saluting actress Penelope Cruz as "mi amiga, mi companera, mi amor." The festival's jury prize went to "A Screaming Man," directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, and the first film ever in the competition from Chad. A melancholy, unassuming effort with a strong cumulative impact, it explores the interplay between a father and son during a civil war in Chad. Politics came up elsewhere in the closing ceremony, as several speakers mentioned Jafar Panahi, the excellent Iranian director who is now on a hunger strike in an Iranian prison and whose name card was placed on an empty chair onstage as the symbolic 10th juror.

The best screenplay prize went to South Korean filmmaker and former fiction writer Lee Chang-dong for "Poetry," a contemplative, novelistic film about a grandmother's discovery of poetry at a critical stage of her life. The Camera d'Or for best first feature went to Michael Rowe for "Leap Year." Unaccountably winning the best director award was popular French actor Mathieu Amalric for his "On Tour." Cloying and indulgent, it follows a group of American New Burlesque performers and their French producer (played by the director) as they make a desultory tour of France. Criminally left out entirely was Mike Leigh's masterful critical favorite "Another Year." Starring Leigh veterans Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen and Lesley Manville (in a performance that should have won the actress award) as a happily married couple and their discontented friend, the film presents life through four seasons as dramatized by the hand of a master, going as thrillingly deep into character as only Leigh films can.

<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\""></script>");document.close();})();' frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="649" height="110"> Another thoughtful film neglected was France's "The Princess of Montpensier." An especially convincing physical re-creation of the violent world of 16th century France by Bertrand Tavernier, this intelligent historical epic combines the qualities of Eric Rohmer with those of Ridley Scott. One area where Cannes 2010 really shone was documentaries, from high-profile ones such as "Inside Job," Charles Ferguson's expert analysis of the recent world financial meltdown, to others that were a bit under the radar, such as the joyously improbably "Benda Bilili!," which details the five-year journey from poverty to a triumphant European tour of a band composed of some of the most destitute inhabitants of Kinshasa, Congo. Also one of the festival's real areas of strength is Cannes Classics, where restored versions of great movies and film history docs (such as "Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff") get the attention they deserve.

The highlight this year was a digital restoration of Luchino Visconti's three-hour version of "The Leopard," with costars Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon in attendance. "The Leopard's" story of the last hurrah of an Italian prince, an epic in every sense of the word, reminded viewers, albeit unintentionally, that this kind of intelligent, magisterial filmmaking is edging toward extinction as well. kenneth.turan @latimes.com

Question: """Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives"", which won the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, was made where?"
Answer: Thailand